Photo by Andres Senaruzza
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas conflict. The war, although short-lived, continues to weigh heavily on the Argentine conscience. However, the dispute over the islands did not begin in 1982. The territory has been a source of bitter tension since its first sighting by Europeans 500 years ago. Argentina and Britain are not the only ones to lay claim, the Spanish, the French and even the US have all attempted to take the islands for their own ends at some time or other.
So aside from the jingoistic proclamations of both sides, what is the true story behind the islands? Who discovered the archipelago and who settled there? Unfortunately these questions are so charged with political implications now that it is often difficult to gain an accurate picture of the Falklands/Malvinas past.
Origin of the name
The name in English, ‘Falklands’ originates from the British landing in 1690 by Captain John Strong. Strong named the channel between the two islands ‘The Falkand Sound’ after a leading British naval official Anthony Cary, the fifth viscount of Falkand. The name was later used to describe the whole group of islands.
The Spanish name ‘Malvinas’ is a derivative of its French name les Malouines. The island was christened by the French explorer and commander Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1764 in reference to the French port of Saint Malo, where Bougainville and his expedition departed from.
First Sightings and Landings
There is considerable debate about who first discovered the islands and who landed first. Given that accounts of the islands’ discovery are so key to both Argentina’s and the UK’s claims to sovereignty of the islands (as well as Spanish and French previously) it is difficult to gain a clear picture.
Photo by Andres Senaruzza
Argentine versions claim that the Portuguese cartographer Esteban Gómez, who deserted the famous Spanish-funded Magdellen expedition in 1520, sighted what he called the ‘Islas de Sansón y de los Patos’ (Islands of Samson and the Ducks).
The first undisputed sighting was made by the Dutch sailor Sebald de Weert in 1600, although it took almost another century for anyone to land on the islands.
In 1690, John Strong and his British crew became the first people documented to land on the islands.
Despite this, the first settlement was established by the French navigator, Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1764. The Frenchman established a stronghold named Port Saint Louis on the eastern island, claiming it in the name of the French crown much to the annoyance of France’s allies the Spanish. The following year, the British set up a colony on the western island called Port Egmont.
Under Spanish Control
A year later, Bougainville sold the colony to the Spanish Throne and Port Louis was renamed Puerto Soledad. A Spanish governor was sent and in 1770 Spain sent 1,400 troops from Buenos Aires with the aim of ejecting the British colony. After intense negotiations that almost led to Britain and Spain going to war, the British were allowed to stay at Egmont. However, the British decided to leave four years later ostensibly for economic reasons.
Argentina gets involved
After Argentina’s declaration of independence from Spain in 1816, the Buenos Aires government officially proclaimed its right to sovereignty. The islands were initially used by the Argentines as a penal colony, but by 1828 there was an established settlement involved in sealing, fishing and other trade.
However in 1826, the US and Argentina seriously fell out over fishing rights. The Argentine governor seized three US seal hunting ships caught poaching and sailed one to Buenos Aires as a trophy. In retribution the US warship Levington landed and destroyed the Puerto Soledad leaving only escaped prisoners and pirates. In 1832 Argentina sent a replacement governor to restore order but the population quickly rebelled and kill him.
Photo by Andres Senaruzza
British take control
Fearing that the US would claim the islands for themselves, the British sent a force to reinvade the islands. On 2nd January 1833, the Royal Navy warships Clio and Tyne under Captain Onslow arrived and forced the Argentine commander Esteban José Francisco Mestivier and the other settlers to leave.
The Argentine government protested strongly against the invasion but the British claimed their right to sovereignty due to the negotiations that had been made with the Spanish in 1771.
Once under British control, an extended plan of colonisation began with the establishment of Port Stanley in 1845.
Over the next century Argentina became increasingly assertive in its claims for the island, culminating in the United Nations passing Resolution 2065, which called on both nations to find a peaceful solution to the problem.
The islands remained under the UK’s rule.
1982
By 1982, the military junta that had taken control of Argentina in 1976 was facing serious economic problems with inflation spiralling to 600%. Anxious to detract attention from the growing crisis, the incumbent military leaders elected to invade the islands Argentina had claimed as theirs for the last 150 years. Under the codename ‘Operación Rosario’, on April 2nd 1982, an Argentine force invaded the islands renaming Port Stanley ‘Puerto Argentino’ and unleashing a wave of nationalist sentiment.
Photo by Andres Senaruzza
However the euphoria was short-lived, the British sent a large expeditionary force to retake the territory. After a short but bloody air, naval and eventual land war the Argentine forces surrendered on 14th June.
In total 649 Argentine and 258 British servicemen lost their lives. The defeat destroyed the military’s already fragile credibility thus cementing its fate. In 1983 it was overthrown and democratic elections reintroduced.
Argentina continues to lay claim to the islands, although they presently still remain under British control.
For a more concise history of the Falkland Islands may I sugest that you download, and read a publication called:
“Getting it right: the real history of the Falklands/Malvinas”
authored by Graham Pascoe and Peter Pepper.
English Language: http://www.falklandshistory.org/
Spanish PDF: http://www.falklandshistory.org/spanish4.pdf
This site is for all who are interested in the history of the Argentine claim over the Falkland Islands. The information it contains is taken from the original historical documents concerned.
If no “hard” evidence exists, then no entry was included in this history by the authors.
Best regards from the Falkland Islands
well;
it seems that the powers of Europe and the USA had robbed most of the world countries the opportunity to become auto sufficient and world power. one thing is to win by pulse and merits and another thing is to destroy govenrments (Latin America) using lias, puppets,
military puppets and abusing of the under developed nations
JUST LIKE A ADULT TAKES AWAY A CANDY TO A MINOR AND THE ADULT
SAYS “WELL KID I WILL MAKE YOU FREE BY TAKING AWAY YOUR GOD GIVING RIGHT TO SUCESS OK?? BE HAPPY LITTLE BOY!!
MAY THE GOD OF IRSAEL YAHWEH BE MERCIFUL WITH ALL OF YOU.
FOR STILLING PROGRESS TO THE SMALL COUTRIES OF THE WORLD
REPENT BIG 8!!!!!!
Ferdinand Magellan (or, rather, one of his captains, Esteban Gómez) may well have sighted the Falklands during his circumnavigation in 1520 but there was certainly no ‘occupation’. They were possibly sighted 16 years earlier by a Frenchman, Binot Paulmier de Gonneville, and there were numerous sighting of islands that may have been the Falklands in subsequent years by sailors of various nationalities. None of these ever set foot on the islands, however.
The first (possible) instance of a Spaniard actually landing on the islands didn’t occur until 1540, when Ferdinand Camargo sheltered in islands that MAY possibly have been the Falklands. An Englishman, John Davis, also sheltered there in 1592 while part of the second expedition of Sir Thomas Cavendish. In 1675, Anthony de la Roché (an Englishman) formally discovered South Georgia. Then in 1690 came Captain Strong’s landing, which was the first recording landing on the Falkland Islands.
They were not named the Îles Malouines until 1764, when the Comte de Bougainville claimed them in the name of King Louis XV of France and established a settlement of around 150 Frenchmen, called Port St Louis. However, as it excited the jealousy of both Great Britain and Spain, King Louis ordered it dismantled. The colony was subsequently sold to King Charles III of Spain and formally placed in the possession of Don Felipe Ruiz Puente, first Governor of the Malvinas. Don Felipe evacuated the French and re-named Port St Louis as ‘Puerto Soledad’.
In 1765, Capt John Byron (grandfather of the poet Lord Byron) of HMS Dolphin claimed Saunders Island, near West Falkland, for Britain and eventually claimed all the islands in the name of King George III (Captain Byron was unaware of the French settlement in East Falkland).
Once the Spanish had purchased Port Soledad, they set about driving the British out and in 1770, the Spanish Governor of Buenos Aires despatched a fleet under Don Juan de Madariaga to capture Port Egmont and expel the British. This precipitated the Falklands Crisis. Suffice to say, the government of Lord North began preparing for war, assembling a mighty fleet under Admiral Lord Hawke, and Madrid quickly capitulated. Angry representations were made by the British Secretary of State, Viscount Weymouth, at the court of King Charles III for the instant restoration of the colonists to Port Egmont, and for reparation of the insult offered to the dignity of His Britannic Majesty King George III, by the forcible removal of His subjects. On this occasion, Lord Weymouth refused point blank to discuss any matter relating to sovereignty and, accordingly, the Spanish Ambassador to the Court of St James’s, the Prince de Maserano, publicly disavowed, in the name of King Charles, the actions of the Governor of Buenos Aires.
The British withdrew from the islands for economic reasons in 1774, leaving behind a plaque claiming ownership. The Spanish reoccupied the islands during the Anglo-Spanish War but as they too were progressively losing control of their colonies, Spanish troops departed from Port Soledad in 1806 when the Governor, Juan Crisostomo Martinez, was recalled by Madrid. He also left behind a plaque claiming sovereignty, so the UK is not alone in this practice!
The remaining Spanish settlers were withdrawn in 1811 by the last Spanish Viceroy, Francisco de Elío. In 1816, the United Provinces of the River Plate declared independence from Spain and later became Argentina (recognised by my government in 1825).
The infamous Colonel Jewett, commander of the frigate ‘Heroína’, which visited the Falklands in 1820 and raised the first Argentine flag. He was an American, who served in the US Navy in the War of 1812 against Great Britain, when he acted as a ‘privateer’. After that, he flogged his services to the newly-independent United Provinces, who availed themselves of his skills as a corsair against the Spanish and commissioned him to re-take the Falklands. By the time he arrived at Port Soledad (later re-named ‘Puerto Luis’) and after an attempted mutiny on board, 80 of his 200-strong crew were either sick or dead. When he arrived, he found some fifty sealing ships of both British and American nationality. Colonel Jewett therefore made a pact with the British explorer Capt James Weddell.
The testimony of Captain Weddell casts serious doubts over whether Colonel Jewett was acting in the interests of the United Provinces. The fact that he approached Captain Weddell so cordially suggested to the Captain that Colonel Jewett’s primary motive was secure an exclusive claim to the wreck of the French ship ‘Uranie’ that had a few months previously foundered at the entrance of Berkeley Sound.
Colonel Jewett later left the Falkland Islands, taking the American schooner Rampart as a prize and was relieved of his command by Buenos Aires. He never established a working Argentine colony at Port Luis and, indeed, later entered the services of the Brazilian Navy, and saw action fighting against Argentine forces.
The United Provinces of Río de la Plata appointed Luis Vernet as Governor of Port Luis in 1829. The British Consul, Sir Woodbine Parish, formally protested the appointment, at which Sr. Vernet was quick to stress to the British that his interests were purely commercial. Many of the settlers he took with him were in fact British and before leaving he once again sought permission first from Sir Woodbine and, after receiving the Consul’s consent, agreed to provide regular reports and expressed the desire for British protection for his settlement should they decide to re-establish their presence in the islands. All the way through his association with the Falklands, Sr. Vernet was keen to deal with the British. He fell foul of the Americans, however, under the circumstances you describe, which ended with the USS Lexington destroying Port Luis. After this Buenos Aires attempted to despatch a second governor, Major Mestivier, who was murdered by the survivors on arrival.
It was the British who regained control of the islands in 1833 and have been in control ever since.
The summary made by Enlightment has a few dubious points, but it’s most-visible defect is that it lacks facts that support the Argentine case.
On the other hand, the pdf recommended by Taff Davies is a calamity. It’s authors are not historians or legal specialists. One of them is the former co-editor of a newsletter defined in as “staunchly pro-British”. The text is propaganda containing lots of claims that do not correspond with proper sources, out-of-context citations (Palmerston’s response to Moreno, Napp’s map) and absurd omissions everywhere. I’m almost certain there’s even a forged map.
Something doesn’t sound right from the title itself, “Getting it Right”. That pretentiousness, also in Taff’s claim that ‘If no “hard” evidence exists, then no entry was included in this history by the authors’ is not what one would expect from a quality piece.
For a summary of this period of Falklands/Malvinas history, with links to scholarly and historical material, I suggest:
http://stampcol.blogspot.com/2012/04/falklands-or-malvinas-louis-vernets.html
http://stampcol.blogspot.com/2013/04/history-of-falkland-malvinas-islands-1833.html
Sorry, the link for the “staunchly pro-British” quote didn’t appear. It’s http://www.pressreference.com/Co-Fa/Falkland-Islands.html .