Why does Britain own the Falklands islands? The dispute that sparked a war with Argentina
The US is reportedly considering reviewing Britain’s claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands; This is a move proposed as a punitive measure for a perceived lack of support for Donald Trump’s Iran policy.
The leaked memo underscores the tense relationship between Britain and the Trump administration, including the option of reconsidering US diplomatic support for long-standing European “imperial possessions” such as the Falkland Islands.
The Foreign Office website acknowledges that the islands are administered by the United Kingdom but remain claimed by Argentina, whose libertarian president Javier Milei is known to be an ally of Donald Trump.
This latest dispute comes 44 years after Argentina seized control of the Falkland Islands from Britain, which plunged the United Kingdom into an armed conflict that would prove to be one of the defining events of the 1980s for both countries.
The disputed territories off the coast of Southern Patagonia had been part of the British Empire since 1833, but the Latin American nation had long bitterly felt that the “Malvinas Islands” were illegally occupied and truly belonged to Buenos Aires.
In the early 1980s, Argentina was ruled by a widely unpopular military junta under General Leopoldo Galtieri and was subsequently facing civil unrest over the country’s deteriorating economy.
He needed an easy victory to regain popular favor; a populist gesture to appease the public and unite the nation.
He found this when reclaiming the rocky, windswept Falklands, which were then used mostly for sheep farming or occasional military training exercises.
Admiral Jorge Anaya led the invasion, believing that Britain was unlikely to respond militarily. Defense Secretary John Nott announced plans to withdraw HMS Endurance from the area a year ago; At this point, it was Britain’s only naval presence in the south Atlantic due to Cold War commitments elsewhere.
Following a preliminary provocation on 19 March 1982, when a group of Argentine sailors raised their national flag on South Georgia Island, commandos entered the islands in a surprise attack on 2 April, easily overwhelming the small garrison of 80 Royal Marines stationed there in just three hours and forcing their surrender.
In response, prime minister Margaret Thatcher formed a war cabinet and a task force duly set out from Southampton on 5 April after Argentina ignored a United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution ordering its immediate withdrawal.
This “private navy” included the SS Canberra and Queen Elizabeth II. It was hastily assembled, with Elizabeth requested to transport troops alongside the aircraft carriers HMS Invincible and Hermes and the nuclear submarine Conqueror. Soldiers have since recalled that in the rush to set sail the wrong equipment was stowed on the wrong ships, but the fleet still put up an impressive display of naval power.
At home, tabloid newspapers helped whip up national excitement and a mood of “British Rule” chauvinism.
When the task force met with RAF commanders on Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic, the complexity of the upcoming operation became clear. In addition to the difficult terrain and turbulent weather conditions of the Falkland Islands, the Argentine Air Force was greatly outnumbered by the British Harriers.
Britain’s first offensive, Operation Paraquet, saw SAS troops quickly retake South Georgia on 21 April. The Argentinian submarine Santa Fe was engaged and disabled four days later.
A jubilant Thatcher appeared alongside Mr Nott on the steps of Downing Street to announce the victory, telling the world: “Rejoice at this news and congratulate our forces and the Marines.”
Air operations followed on 1 May. Black Buck One raids by Vulcan bombers blew up the runway at a major airfield outside Stanley (the capital of the Falklands) and prevented Argentina from grounding its Mirage III jets; This was an encouraging sign for the British troops about to enter the fray.
As the war in the air intensified with Argentine planes pinning on the mainland, Fatih committed one of the most controversial actions of the conflict by sinking the light cruiser General Belgrano on 2 May. The attack killed 323 sailors, left 700 others needing rescue from freezing waves, and effectively ended Argentina’s maritime threat.
Argentina claimed the warship was returning to its home port, prompting international condemnation and accusations that its sinking constituted a war crime. Sun gleefully published the words “Gotcha” as a banner headline on its front page. Thatcher’s popularity grew rapidly, but she is known to have lost her temper over the issue in an interview on the BBC. nationwide During the 1983 election campaign, voter Diana Gould grilled him about whether the doomed Argentinian ship had actually fled the scene.
The fateful sinking was avenged two days later when HMS Sheffield was set on fire by an Exocet missile attack. Twenty crew members died and 24 were injured. The horrific burns suffered by many were caused by cost-cutting initiatives that resulted in service personnel wearing flammable polyester uniforms.
When the ship finally sank on 10 May it represented Britain’s first naval loss since the Second World War; This made viewers watching the events unfold on the nightly news realize the seriousness of the effort.
Britain would lose other ships, most notably HMS Ardent and Antilope, MC Atlantic Conveyor and HMS Coventry, but victory was slowly but surely becoming inevitable.
Ashore, troops captured Pebble Island and San Carlos, where 4,000 troops were landed in the bay known as “Bomb Alley” to secure the beachhead under heavy fog on 22 May; This was a significant tactical victory that enabled the commandos to advance to Darwin and Goose Green before reaching their final destination, Port Stanley.
The Battle of Goose Green, which took place overnight after sunset on 27 May, killed 17 British soldiers, including the commander, Lieutenant Colonel H Jones, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. On the Argentinian side, 47 people died and 961 people were taken prisoner. Conditions were difficult for the paratroopers crouching in the tall grass; ammunition was scarce and there was no covering fire from HMS Arrow due to the gun jamming.
Corporal Stuart Russell of the Second Battalion of the Parachute Regiment recalled rescuing local Falklanders from imprisonment in the town’s civic center that morning:
“By then I couldn’t stop thinking, you know, why are we here, fighting over this godforsaken country? Until we released the civilians in the town hall in Goose Green and saw how appreciative and appreciative they were, they were speaking with a Cornish or West Country accent and we realized, well, these are British and they want to be British, and as long as they want to be British, it’s up to us to help protect them.”
While the Welsh and Scots Guards and the Gurkhas fought at Bluff Cove, special forces secured Mount Kent. It was here that Simon Weston, who would become one of the most famous faces of the war, suffered disfiguring burns that covered 46 per cent of his body when Argentine Skyhawks bombed RAF Sir Galahad on 8 June. Weston was just one of 150 Welsh Guardsmen injured that day.
Stanley finally fell on 14 June, and hostilities were declared officially over with the surrender of the South Sandwich Islands on 20 June.
In total, the Falklands War lasted 10 weeks and 255 British, 649 Argentinians and three native Falklanders were killed.
In the aftermath, Thatcher’s Conservatives entered the 1983 general election with an increasing majority, while the defeat of the Argentine government led to rebellions and the eventual collapse of the junta. His big move backfired spectacularly.
Britons had watched the battle unfold on television in unprecedented detail, and many felt a renewed sense of national pride in what they saw, treating the returning ships to a hero’s welcome in Portsmouth.
But this will be followed by deeper reflections on Britain’s place in the post-colonial world.
Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges memorably dismissed the conflict as “two bald men fighting over a comb,” but one of the most sensitive responses came from Elvis Costello.
His best-known song, “Shipbuilding”, in Robert Wyatt’s version, reflected the tragic irony of the war that revived the port industry of once-prosperous port cities; they were the same ships they produced only to send local youths to war.
No such reservation was observed Sun. The Rupert Murdoch-owned red-shirt had thoroughly enjoyed the conflict, adorning girls in Union Jack bikinis and selling T-shirts with the headline “Make Your Junta” to effectively crowdfund the purchase of a Sidewinder missile that would be used to kill enemy soldiers on behalf of the RAF.
This newspaper’s xenophobic hatred of the “Argies” was revived following England’s exit from the France ’98 World Cup, where Argentina captain Diego Simeone was accused of faking an injury after being kicked in the shin by David Beckham; This led to Beckham’s ignominious sending-off and England’s inevitable defeat on penalties.
Tensions around the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands continue today, despite Britain and Argentina agreeing to cooperate in commercializing the chain’s oil, gas and shipping interests.
Previous Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was outspoken about her country’s claims to the territory, even though the islands’ 3,000-strong population voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory in a 2013 referendum.
The UN ruled in 2016 that the islands were in Argentinian waters, and the country has since warned Britain against carrying out “illegitimate” military exercises in the area that still remains its territory; This appears to have dashed hopes that new president Mauricio Macri would become an easier ally in the region.
