| |
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Falkland Islands
|
|
|
Group of islands in the south Atlantic, forming a British colony some 400km/250m east of the southern tip of Argentina. The history of settlement and of territorial claims is of immense complexity. The English were the first to land, but the French were the first to establish a colony (1764). The French sold the islands in 1766 to the Spanish (by whom they were known as the Islas Malvinas), and the Spanish lost them in 1820 to their newly independent colonists in Argentina. Meanwhile the British had maintained a fort on one of the smaller islands (from 1765) while laying claim to the whole. In 1833 they expelled the Argentinians, established a new capital at Stanley on East Falkland and brought in British settlers as cattle and sheep farmers.
|
|
|
|
|
The Argentinian claim led eventually to a United Nations demand in 1966 for negotiations. These had made little progress when the Argentinian occupation of the islands in 1982 provoked the *Falklands War. The British victory was followed by a massively expensive build-up of a resident garrison to establish what became known as Fortress Falklands.
The previous Falkland Islands Dependencies are now administered separately as *South Georgia and the *British Antarctic Territory.
|
|
|
|