I got a postcard from the Falkland Islands yesterday. Port Stanley in fact, capital of that far flung bastion of British culture. My sister was there on November 11, Remembrance Day which is quite important on the Falkland Islands as anyone with a minuscule knowledge of world history of the early 1980’s would know.
Port Stanley, being the administrative capital of the islands was of course the target and subsequent base for the Argentinian military after they invaded and captured the islands in late April 1982.
In an era when large scale conventional warfare seemed to be a dying art, Argentina’s actions in the South Atlantic at the time were probably one of the biggest misjudgments of the late twentieth century. A misjudgment a thousand Argentinian soldiers, sailors and airman and a couple of hundred similar British servicemen paid for with their lives.
Argentina has long claimed the Falklands or Malvinas as they call them. Being only a short flying distance from the mainland it has been the cause of envy for many in the Latin-American country and covetous eyes have looked across the ocean towards that left over monument of British imperial power and were willing to believe the community on the Falkland Islands was nothing more than the discarded detrius of a once great, now denuded empire.
Argentina is of course a basket case in economic terms and many of their governments have used the issue of the Falkland Islands to cover their own shortcomings, causing locals to avert their eyes from more pressing domestic issues and vent their rage on those “gringos” occupying the national soil of Argentina, those interlopers from Britain.
It is my understanding that Argentinians are taught from an early age that the Malvinas belong to their country and are withheld from their rightful owners by the British who occupy them illegally, infesting the sacred ground with all the cultural improprieties of that fading imperial power. You know, democracy, healthcare, civil rights, all those things that dictators and thugs who pretend to be statesman find abhorrent.
I have searched and researched the history of the Falkland Islands and nowhere can I find a series of physical events that would justify the Argentinian claim to those South Atlantic rocks. Their insistence on Argentinian sovereignty is based on very tenuous claims indeed.
The fact is that the British, after some to and fro from the contemporary world powers of the time over several decades, occupied the islands, implanted a colony which has grown to be the Falkland Islands community of today. They are British to all intents and purposes and want to stay that way. Possession is nine tenths of the law so they say and it is never more so than on the Falkland Islands.
In 1982 the ruling junta, that is the military government of Argentina, a junta being government by two or three persons, effectively a dictatorship in multiple, decided to launch an invasion of the Falklands to deceive their own people and create a wave of nationalism which would consolidate their power base.
The invasion was successful, the token force of Royal marines stationed in Port Stanley unable to apply a satisfactory defence due to their small numbers and the Argentinian flag finally flew over Port Stanley, much to the consternation of the islanders, the British government and much of the world in general.
Argentinian confidence was due to a belief, subsequently proven to be misguided, that the British military, in the midst of defence cuts could not and would not be able to sail to the South Atlantic and retake the islands by force.
The British government had in fact been exploring options to lease the islands back to Argentina in a prelude to handing over sovereignty sometime in the future, the cost of maintaining this throwback to grander days a responsibility they could do without in tight economic times.
The invasion of British territory was a slap in the face the UK government could not let pass and one must think that General Galtieri, the President of Argentina and his cohorts had skipped English history at school because they certainly misjudged their opponents. Few nations in history have pushed the British around.
And so ensued a nasty little war in which British sovereignty of the islands was restored and the government of Argentina was humiliated and fell from office. The islands remain British to this day with a much grander garrison to defend it than was apparent in 1982.
To rub salt into the Argentinian wounds, billions of dollars worth of oil and gas deposits have been detected under the islands which now pays it’s own way and it appears, despite occasional defiance from Argentina and sabre-rattling from some sympathetic neighbours, the Falkland Islands will now and forever be British.
And so it was with some glee I received my post card from Port Stanley.
My sister was there on a trip to view the wildlife which I understand was awe inspiring. But the Falkland Islands have a history all of it’s own. A history that will be remembered any time the Falkand Islands is mentioned. A history that may yet cause problems into the future.
Have a nice day.
Port Stanley, being the administrative capital of the islands was of course the target and subsequent base for the Argentinian military after they invaded and captured the islands in late April 1982.
In an era when large scale conventional warfare seemed to be a dying art, Argentina’s actions in the South Atlantic at the time were probably one of the biggest misjudgments of the late twentieth century. A misjudgment a thousand Argentinian soldiers, sailors and airman and a couple of hundred similar British servicemen paid for with their lives.
Argentina has long claimed the Falklands or Malvinas as they call them. Being only a short flying distance from the mainland it has been the cause of envy for many in the Latin-American country and covetous eyes have looked across the ocean towards that left over monument of British imperial power and were willing to believe the community on the Falkland Islands was nothing more than the discarded detrius of a once great, now denuded empire.
Argentina is of course a basket case in economic terms and many of their governments have used the issue of the Falkland Islands to cover their own shortcomings, causing locals to avert their eyes from more pressing domestic issues and vent their rage on those “gringos” occupying the national soil of Argentina, those interlopers from Britain.
It is my understanding that Argentinians are taught from an early age that the Malvinas belong to their country and are withheld from their rightful owners by the British who occupy them illegally, infesting the sacred ground with all the cultural improprieties of that fading imperial power. You know, democracy, healthcare, civil rights, all those things that dictators and thugs who pretend to be statesman find abhorrent.
I have searched and researched the history of the Falkland Islands and nowhere can I find a series of physical events that would justify the Argentinian claim to those South Atlantic rocks. Their insistence on Argentinian sovereignty is based on very tenuous claims indeed.
The fact is that the British, after some to and fro from the contemporary world powers of the time over several decades, occupied the islands, implanted a colony which has grown to be the Falkland Islands community of today. They are British to all intents and purposes and want to stay that way. Possession is nine tenths of the law so they say and it is never more so than on the Falkland Islands.
In 1982 the ruling junta, that is the military government of Argentina, a junta being government by two or three persons, effectively a dictatorship in multiple, decided to launch an invasion of the Falklands to deceive their own people and create a wave of nationalism which would consolidate their power base.
The invasion was successful, the token force of Royal marines stationed in Port Stanley unable to apply a satisfactory defence due to their small numbers and the Argentinian flag finally flew over Port Stanley, much to the consternation of the islanders, the British government and much of the world in general.
Argentinian confidence was due to a belief, subsequently proven to be misguided, that the British military, in the midst of defence cuts could not and would not be able to sail to the South Atlantic and retake the islands by force.
The British government had in fact been exploring options to lease the islands back to Argentina in a prelude to handing over sovereignty sometime in the future, the cost of maintaining this throwback to grander days a responsibility they could do without in tight economic times.
The invasion of British territory was a slap in the face the UK government could not let pass and one must think that General Galtieri, the President of Argentina and his cohorts had skipped English history at school because they certainly misjudged their opponents. Few nations in history have pushed the British around.
And so ensued a nasty little war in which British sovereignty of the islands was restored and the government of Argentina was humiliated and fell from office. The islands remain British to this day with a much grander garrison to defend it than was apparent in 1982.
To rub salt into the Argentinian wounds, billions of dollars worth of oil and gas deposits have been detected under the islands which now pays it’s own way and it appears, despite occasional defiance from Argentina and sabre-rattling from some sympathetic neighbours, the Falkland Islands will now and forever be British.
And so it was with some glee I received my post card from Port Stanley.
My sister was there on a trip to view the wildlife which I understand was awe inspiring. But the Falkland Islands have a history all of it’s own. A history that will be remembered any time the Falkand Islands is mentioned. A history that may yet cause problems into the future.
Have a nice day.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 