The Falklands / Malvinas

Three settlements, one eviction

The English captain John Strong made the first recorded landing in 1690 and named the sound between the two main islands after Viscount Falkland.^[4] The French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville founded the first settlement, on East Falkland, in 1764 and called the islands the Malovines, after Saint-Malo; that is where the Spanish name Malvinas comes from.^[4][1]

Britain settled West Falkland in 1765. Spain, which had bought out the French settlement, drove the British off in 1770, and after a threat of war their outpost was restored in 1771. Britain withdrew in 1774 to save money, without giving up its claim, and Spain kept a settlement on East Falkland until 1811.^[4]

In 1820 the government in Buenos Aires, independent from Spain since 1816, proclaimed sovereignty over the islands. In 1831 a US warship destroyed the Argentine settlement after US sealing ships were seized. In early 1833 a British force expelled the few remaining Argentine officials without firing a shot, and Argentina has protested ever since.^[4]

Two arguments

The question reached the UN’s decolonisation committee in 1964.^[4] Argentina bases its claim on succession from Spain, on the islands’ closeness to South America, and on the need to end a colonial situation. Britain points to its “open, continuous, effective possession, occupation, and administration” since 1833 and to the islanders’ right to self-determination, and argues that imposing Argentine rule against their wishes would itself be colonial.^[4]

In resolution 2065 of 1965 the UN General Assembly noted the dispute and invited both governments to negotiate a peaceful solution, bearing in mind “the interests of the population”.^[5][4]

“Invites the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to proceed without delay with the negotiations … with a view to finding a peaceful solution to the problem”^[5]

The 1982 war

Talks were still going on in early 1982 when Argentina’s military junta, led by General Leopoldo Galtieri, gave up on them and invaded on 2 April. Britannica says the decision was chiefly political: the junta, criticised over the economy and human rights, expected recovering the islands to unite the country behind it.^[3][4]

British forces retook the islands, and Argentine forces at Stanley surrendered on 14 June, ten weeks after the invasion.^[3][4] The war killed 649 Argentine troops, 255 British service members and three islanders; about half of Argentina’s dead were lost when the cruiser General Belgrano was sunk.^[2][3]

Since the war

Britain and Argentina restored full diplomatic relations in 1990, but sovereignty is still disputed.^[4] A 2009 constitution gave the islands more self-government and reserved their right to decide their own status.^[4] In a referendum on 10–11 March 2013, with turnout above 90%, only 3 of 1,517 voters chose to change the islands’ status.^[1]

The claim is written into Argentina’s constitution. In September 2026 President Javier Milei announced tougher sanctions on companies developing the Sea Lion offshore oil field, about 220 km north of the islands, which Argentina calls an illegal use of resources in its waters. He also welcomed US President Donald Trump’s remark that the US reviews “every position”, since the US had long stayed neutral on sovereignty.^[2]