Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located 480 km from the coast of Argentina. They consist of two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, together with 776 smaller islands. The islands are a self-governing Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom, but have been the subject of a claim to sovereignty by Argentina since the re-establishment of British rule in 1833.

The Falkland Islands have had a complex history since their discovery, with France, Britain, Spain, and Argentina all claiming possession, and establishing as well as abandoning settlements on the islands. The Falklands Crisis of 1770 was nearly the cause of a war between a Franco-Spanish Alliance and Britain. The Spanish government's claim was continued by Argentina after the latter's independence in 1816 and the independence war in 1817. The United Kingdom returned to the islands in 1833 following the destruction of the Argentine settlement at Puerto Luis by the American sloop USS Lexington (28 December 1831). Argentina has continued to claim sovereignty over the islands, and the dispute was used by the military junta as a pretext to invade and briefly occupy the islands before being defeated in the two-month-long Falklands War in 1982 by a United Kingdom task force which returned the islands to British control. Since the war there has been strong economic growth in both fisheries and tourism. The inhabitants of the islands are full British citizens (since a 1983 Act) and under Argentine Law are eligible for Argentine citizenship. Many trace their origins on the islands to early 19th-century Scottish immigration. The islands' residents reject the Argentine sovereignty claim.