"Claims to maintain colonial control": what led to the Falklands War between Argentina and Great Britain

On April 2, 1982, an armed confrontation began between Argentina and Great Britain, known as the Falklands War.

The Argentine authorities, having failed to obtain diplomatic concessions from official London in the dispute over the status of the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, tried to establish control over them by military means.

However, despite some successes at the initial stage of the operation, the Argentine troops could not achieve victory.

The conflict led to a change of power in Argentina and the strengthening of the position of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the UK.

The Falkland Islands remained under the control of official London.

The origins of the controversy over the Falklands go back to the colonial era.

Formally, it is believed that the archipelago was discovered in 1690 by the British navigator John Strong, who named it after his boss, the head of the Royal Navy Treasury, Anthony Carey, Viscount Falkland.

However, as experts recall, Europeans knew about the islands much earlier - they were plotted on sea charts as early as the 16th century.

However, until the second half of the XVIII century, the archipelago remained uninhabited.

Only in 1764, the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville founded the settlement of Port Saint-Louis on the island of East Falkland and gave the archipelago its name - the Malvinas Islands.

However, a year later, the English captain John Byron landed on another island of the archipelago and, unaware of the presence of the French, declared it a possession of Great Britain.

A year later, the British founded their settlement on the archipelago - Port Egmont.

In the same 1766, Spain acquired the rights to the islands from the French.

In 1774 (some sources indicate 1776), amid the difficulties that arose for the British Empire due to the War of Independence in North America, the British left the archipelago, but left a commemorative plaque there about its belonging to the British crown.

The Spaniards removed the tablet, and destroyed the buildings of Port Egmont.

In 1790, representatives of London and Madrid signed a convention under which Spain guaranteed Great Britain freedom of navigation in the South Seas, and the British undertook not to establish any settlements on the western and eastern coasts of South America and nearby islands.

At the beginning of the 19th century, South America was engulfed in a war for the independence of the Spanish colonies from the Madrid crown.

In 1816, the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata declared their independence, which included the territory of modern Argentina.

Inheriting the territorial rights of Spain, the liberated colony extended its sovereignty to the Falkland Islands.

At the same time, recognizing the independence of the former Spanish colonies, Great Britain did not initially declare claims to the archipelago.

In 1826, a constitution was adopted in the former United Provinces, according to which the new state became known as the Argentine Republic.

“Taking advantage of the weakness of a young independent state, the British colonialists seized the Falkland Islands in 1833 and after some time established their permanent presence on them,” Yan Burlyai, professor at Moscow State Linguistic University, Russian Ambassador to Argentina in 1993-1996, said in a conversation with RT .

• Falkland Islands

• Gettyimages.ru

Argentina, weakened by the civil war, tried to regain the islands through diplomacy, but the United Kingdom simply ignored its claims.

In 1884, Buenos Aires proposed to resolve the problem of the archipelago's ownership in international arbitration, but in London they announced that the issue was closed.

According to St Petersburg University professor Natalya Eremina, the discussion of the Falklands problem intensified after the end of World War II, when many British colonies were engulfed in national liberation movements.

In 1965, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in which it called for an end to any form of colonialism in the Falkland Islands and to determine the future of the archipelago in negotiations between Great Britain and Argentina, taking into account the interests of the local population.

The British government discussed various formats for resolving the Falklands problem, including the recognition of Argentine sovereignty over the islands in exchange for their long-term lease by official London, but these plans did not find support either in Parliament or among the British settlers on the archipelago itself.

The interest of the British in the Falkland Islands grew even more after large oil deposits were discovered on the shelf in the archipelago.

Falklands War

In Argentina in the early 1980s, a military junta was in power, oriented in foreign policy to the United States and carrying out economic reforms on American recommendations.

However, the result of its activities was a severe economic and socio-political crisis.

“Representatives of the junta wanted to raise the spirit of the population and increase their popularity by solving the old territorial problem by force,” said Zbigniew Ivanovsky, head of the Center for Political Studies of the ILA RAS, in an interview with RT.

On March 19, 1982, several dozen Argentine workers landed on the uninhabited island of South Georgia, administered from the Falkland capital, Port Stanley.

Their formal goal was to dismantle the old whaling station, but at the same time, the Argentine flag appeared on the island.

British soldiers tried to expel the Argentines.

Then on April 2, 1982, Argentine troops landed directly on the Falkland Islands.

Historians most often consider this day to be the date of the start of the Falklands War.

A company of British marines stationed on the islands almost immediately ceased resistance on the orders of the governor.

The British authorities severed diplomatic relations with Argentina and sent a squadron of forty ships, including two aircraft carriers, to the South Atlantic.

The Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom announced a blockade of the archipelago and the establishment of a 200-mile zone around it, upon entering which any Argentine ship was subject to destruction.

On April 25, the British landed on the island of South Georgia and captured the local Argentine garrison.

• Fighting in the Falkland Islands

• Gettyimages.ru

The US authorities tried to reconcile the parties to the conflict, as they had friendly relations with both the UK and Argentina.

However, when it was not possible to get the withdrawal of troops from the South American state, Washington supported London by providing it with satellite intelligence data and the resources of the base on Ascension Island, a number of historians note.

On May 2, a British submarine attacked and sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano outside the 200-mile zone, on board which 386 people died.

On the same day, Argentine aircraft sank the British destroyer Sheffield.

On May 21, 1982, British troops landed in the Falkland Islands.

About 22,000 British troops took part in the operation.

Two days later they captured the towns of Port Darwin and Goose Green.

• Gun in the Falkland Islands

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The Argentines tried to resist: on May 30, their aircraft damaged one of the British aircraft carriers, but this no longer had any effect on the overall course of hostilities.

On June 12, 1982, British troops surrounded Port Stanley.

Two days later, the parties agreed to a ceasefire, and on June 15 the Argentine garrison capitulated, but the Argentine authorities did not give up their claims to the archipelago.

“The British have regained their de facto control over the Falkland Islands by force,” said Jan Burlyai.

The defeat of Argentina in the war led to the final disappointment of the population in the junta and to a change of power in the country.

In the UK, by contrast, this conflict contributed to the consolidation of society around the government of Margaret Thatcher, despite the unpopular economic measures introduced by him.

From an international legal point of view, the situation around the status of the archipelago is confusing, says Zbigniew Ivanowski.

“Argentina has a historical right to the archipelago, since it was created on the basis of Spanish possessions, which included the islands.

However, this right conflicts with the right to self-determination, since most of the modern local population are descendants of English settlers who want to remain part of the UK.

The situation is also complicated by offshore oil reserves, which makes the islands even more attractive in the eyes of both sides.

As a result, the conflict remains in limbo, ”the expert emphasized.

• Minefields in the Falkland Islands

• Gettyimages.ru

According to Jan Burlyay, the problem of the status of the Falkland Islands can be solved only through negotiations between London and Buenos Aires.

“We can see claims to maintain British colonial control over the overseas territories.

The problems could be resolved in a constructive manner through negotiations, but London does not want to go to them, ”summed up Burlyai.