Background to the Falklands War
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The Falklands consist of two main and many smaller islands in the South Atlantic Ocean east of Argentina. Ownership of the group had long been disputed. The Falklands were probably first discovered in the 1520s by the Spanish. The first British claim dates from 1592. In 1690, the British named them after the Treasurer of the Navy, Viscount Falkland. On 5 April 1764, France established a settlement on East Falkland and claimed the islands, which the Spanish offered to buy as they were concerned about disrupting the balance of power in the region. In 1765, the British established a settlement on Saunders Island, and in 1767 France transferred its settlement to Spain. In 1770, the Spanish captured the British settlement, but in 1771 it was handed back. In 1774 and 1806-11, respectively, the British and Spanish left the islands, each maintaining a claim over them. It is in this general period that the confusion lies.
Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816 and thus control over the Falklands (Islas Malvinas). In 1829, Argentina established Luis Maria Vernet as the first governor of the islands. Finally, in 1833 the British occupied the islands by force and ejected its inhabitants to the Argentine mainland. (For more details on the origin of the dispute see History of the Falkland Islands.)
With the late 20th century absorption of the British Colonial Office into the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, successive British governments had come to see the dispute with Argentina as a minor problem from which they would have been happy to relieve themselves. Despite their government's neglect, the 1,800 or so inhabitants of British origin steadfastly refused to become part of Argentina, citing Article 73 of the United Nations charter to support their position. In 1965, under UN Resolution 2065, Britain and Argentina started negotiations on the islands' future, but seventeen years later little had changed. While the idea of a 'leaseback' of the islands was proposed, under which Britain would cede sovereignty to Argentina after fifty years, nothing materialised.
Argentina was going through a devastating economic crisis. There was also massive social unrest against the Military Junta which had murdered thousands of Argentines for political opposition to the unelected Junta. Between 1976 and 1983—under military rule—in the middle of the "Dirty War", supposedly waged against communism, thousands of people, most of them dissidents and innocent civilians unconnected with terrorism, were arrested and then vanished without trace. Many of these people simply 'disappeared'. Death squads struck with impunity, terrorizing working class union members and anyone opposed to the corruption which infested the country's higher ranks.
The oppression of the Argentine people continued under a succession of dictators from General Jorge Videla to General Roberto Viola and then General Leopoldo Galtieri for a short while. Before he started the Falklands War, Galtieri was subject to growing opposition from the people. The actual dictatorship of General Galtieri lasted only eighteen months but he was a key player in the slaughter and oppression of his own people for years previous. Throughout 1981, Argentina saw inflation climb to over 600%, GDP went down 11.4%, manufacturing output down 22.9% and real wages by 19.2%. The Unions were gaining more support for a general strike every day and the popular opposition to the Junta was growing rapidly.
Critics of the invasion by Argentina claim that the Junta sought to use the patriotism of war to quell unrest in the working classes, hoping that whilst engulfed in a patriotic fervour, the Argentines would forget about the crisis, and the crimes of their military. Likewise, critics of the British government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher claim that she sought to use the war to bolster her flagging popularity—another "splendid little war." The Royal Navy maintained a military presence in the area in the form of a small group of forty Royal Marines known as Naval Party 8901, and HMS Endurance, an aging patrol vessel which was on the verge of decommissioning.
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| Falklands War |  |
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|---|---|---|
| Military forces | Argentine ground forces | British ground forces | Argentine air forces | British air forces | Argentine naval forces | British naval forces | ||
| Timeline | Background | Invasion | Falklands War | ||
| Battles | Goose Green | Mount Harriet | Two Sisters | Mount Longdon | Mount Tumbledown | Wireless Ridge | ||
| Operations | Algeciras | Canbelow | Corporate | Black Buck | Keyhole | Paraquat | Purple Warrior | Azul (also Rosario) | Sutton | ||
