in 1520seeking a passage to the Pacific Ocean, the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. Esteban Gómez, their discoverer, was the first to name them, baptizing them with the name of the ship he commanded, San Anton. Later it would receive different names such as San Carlos Islands and even Duck Islands, the East Falkland or Soledad Islands and West Falkland or Great Malvina, Sebaldina Islands, Maluinas and finally Malvinas. In this article we are going to know what can be called the last war between two Western countries, the reason the falklandsislands that since their discovery have changed names and owners too many times.
The Falklands War | History
The Malvinas archipelago is made up of two large islands called Great Malvina and Soledad, in addition to about 200 islets of smaller dimensions. Geographically they are islands where hills abound but due to their cold, wet and windy climate, they lack trees.
The first maps where the Islands are included date back to 1502, when Américo Vespucio spotted the archipelago. Being the first specific and detailed map of the archipelago the one made in 1520, when Esteban Gómez named them.
Due to disputes over the territories discovered between Portugal and Spain, in 1494 through the Treaty of Tordesillas, Pope Alexander VI through bulls, established the Spanish and Portuguese possessions in America. Although many of the territories were not yet discovered, he established a transversal line from where the jurisdiction of each country of the discovered territories and for future discoveries was distributed. When the Malvinas were discovered, it was included within Spanish jurisdiction.
In 1690 the English J. Strongsailing through the strait that separates the two large islands, named it falklands, in honor of an English viscount. In 1764, they were french settlers those who settled in the islands, changing their name again and calling them Saint Malo. The French settled in the Easternmost Isles, while English settlers occupied the Western Isles.
in 1770Spain bought the easternmost islands, in the hands of the French, and expelled English settlers from the eastern islandssince the treaty of Tordesillas, marked the islands as Spanish territory.
in 1820, Argentina claimed sovereignty over the Islands, after gaining independence from Spain, understanding that the jurisdiction of the archipelago belonged to them. But in 1833, Great Britain decided to take control of the islands, declaring it a colony of the United Kingdom in 1892.
In 1960, the UN, invited all colonial countries to reach an agreement and put an end to colonialism, returning the occupied territories to their rightful owners. Great Britain promised to leave the Falklandsbut of course, he did not say when.
After 149 years of English usurpation, with a UN resolution that obliges Great Britain to decolonize the Islands, together with a lack of interest on the part of the British government in enforcing the UN resolution. On April 2, 1982, Argentine troops occupy the islands.
Given the proximity to former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plataand the presence of fishermen and whalers Argentines At the beginning of the 19th century, Argentina never stopped claiming its Rights over the archipelago.
The Falklands War | war conflict
1982, this year will be associated forever in the memory of Argentines with the Malvinas War. In Argentina, the year had already started with a disconcerting act: a gigantic roast to which they attended 13,000 peoplewhich was chaired by General Galtieri, leader of the military dictatorship that usurped Argentine democracy from 1976a campaign-flavored roast.
In that framework, the april 2the country is moved to wake up to the news that Argentine troops had landed at Port Stanley (renamed Argentine Port), capital of the Falkland Islands. The troops managed to occupy the city, with only one casualty, that of the chief of the landing, Captain Peter Giacchino.
The day after the Argentine landing in Falklandsthe British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcherannounced the dispatch of a fleet (the «Task Force«) to recover the islands if diplomatic attempts failed. The Security Council of the UN, demanded the withdrawal of Argentine troops. United Nations Y USA intervened as “mediators” but were unable to prevent the armed conflict (despite the fact that their ties clearly tied them to England).
great britaina imposed a naval blockade and an exclusion zone over the region in conflict, and at the end of April it attacked Argentine positions in the georgian islands. In the FalklandsThe fighting began in May, when three British landing attempts were repulsed.
At the end of May, the British finally landed in Port San Carlosand in June the fighting took place 20 km from Argentine Port.
That same month, the pope John Paul II traveled to Argentina and made a fervent appeal in favor of the peace. A few days later, on June 14, 1982, after bloody combat, the General Menendezwho was in charge of the archipelago, and the Major Jeremy Moorehead of the British force, agreed to the Argentine surrenderrestoring British administration over the Falklands archipelago.
The Falklands War hard 74 days and caused the death of some 1,200 Argentines and of 255 British. But the conflict also had political consequences, especially in Argentina.
The failure in war, the specialty of the military, marked the total defeat of the Military Processwhose government had already socially, culturally and economically liquidated the Argentina.
After making a particularly insane speech hinting that the war would continue, Galtieri has no choice but to resignation. After arduous deliberations, the commanders-in-chief appoint as president the General Reynolds Bignonewho would be in charge of the difficult liquidation of the process. The exit to the democracy I already had a date, October 1983.
Since then, policies towards Falkland Islands were always reduced, as in 1982, to use them as an evocative symbol of supposed patriotisman instrument used by all the governments of the day to earn more popularity among the Argentines.
Just as Great Britain never did, Argentina was also not really interested in the islands and their inhabitants (who, strictly speaking, always wanted to be English, even when they despised them by denying them full citizenship). The Falkland Islands always were, and ARE used as a political resource in the internal battles of each country between conservatives and liberals, official and opposition, dictatorship and democracy.
In schools and through numerous cultural, ideological and political resources, governments keep alive the myth of the Falklandsto use it when they need it, provoking in Argentineans an automatic, reactionary attitude, but little reflexive in the face of an episode in history that only the people begin and end up suffering from.
The Falklands War | Current situation
The problem of sovereignty of the Falklandsas is the case with other places under British domination, such as Gibraltar, resurfaces with some regularity and covers the front pages of the international press for a time, only to later doze off again.
Certainly, the relationship between Great Britain and Argentina hardened since the end of this confrontation. In 1983, Great Britain restored to the inhabitants of the Malvinas the British citizenship with all its privileges and obligationssince previously they carried a special type of citizenship as people of a dependent territory of Great Britain, but they did not have full citizenship.
The British government’s refusal to make any concessions, both before, during and after the war, further strained relations between the two countries, on the one hand the humiliation of the defeat and on the other hand, from the British, the military supremacy of the war gave them more arrogance and a certain contempt for the Argentine country.
Likewise, the commercial and economic relations between the two countries did not improve either. In previous years, certain measures had been stopped due to the risk of provoking the wrath of Argentina but, after the defeat of the latter in the war, this ghost was conjured, introducing measures of economic liberation and self-government that greatly improved the life of the inhabitants of this island.
In the post war years, Argentina has continued to demand the restitution of the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands and the resumption of negotiations in relation to said matter. However, the United Kingdom always refused, supported by the vast majority of the population of the Falklands.
Thus, for example, in an unofficial survey carried out just four years after the end of the war, it was found that more than 95% of the island’s inhabitants preferred to continue under British sovereignty, while another survey sponsored by the Argentine authorities, carried out some years later, indicated that more than 85% still preferred it. Thus, during the following decades, despite the growing Argentine proteststhe Malvinas issue was not the object of negotiations or official debates.
The Falklands took center stage again in 2012, when the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War was celebrated. The Argentine government began to investigate and make use of the waters that were under the sovereignty of the Malvinas in search of oil, saying in the face of any complaint that they were their property, at the same time that they boycotted the presence of ships with the flag of the Malvinas. Malvinas and also refused to receive their products.
Faced with protests from Great Britain over this treatment, Argentina began an aggressive campaign for the right to decide to whom the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands belonged, and obtained the support of many of its allies in Latin America. Likewise, this campaign presented the domination of Great Britain over the Malvinas as a example of european imperialism and of the superiority that, according to them, the Europeans exhibited in front of the American countries.
Faced with pressure from both the Argentine campaign and various organizations of international weight, it was decided that a binding referendum to decide the sovereignty of the Falklands at the beginning of the year 2013.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, said publicly that he would respect the result of that referendum, whatever it was, and that the Falklands inhabitants had every right to decide their fate. That would also nip in the bud any speculation that the Falklands were forcibly under British rule and that its inhabitants felt totally British by nature, culture and status.
But, for its part, the Argentine government indicated that, regardless of what came out of the referendum, they would not stop claiming the sovereignty of the Malvinas as their own. None…