Falklands Crisis (1770)

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The Falkland Crisis of 1770 was a diplomatic standoff between Britain and Spain over possession of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. These events were nearly the cause of a war between France, Spain and Britain - the countries poised to dispatch armed fleets to contest the barren but strategically important sovereignty.

Contents

[edit] Background

English sailors first caught sight of the Falklands in the late sixteenth century. In the following century the government was to make a half-hearted claim, though under the Treaty of Tordesillas they fell within the Spanish orbit. It was only in 1748, with the report of Admiral Lord Anson, that London began to give the matter its serious attention, sounding out the Spanish on the question of sovereignty. This only had the effect of drawing up the battle lines, though the matter was put to one side for the time being. An uncertain equilibrium might have remained but for the unexpected intervention of a third party, France.

After the conclusion of the Seven Years War, the French were eager to improve their position in the South Atlantic. Louis de Bougainville landed in the Falklands, establishing a base at Port Louis. At the same time, the one unbeknown to the other, the British under John Byron made their own landing at Port Egmont in the west. Responding to Spanish objections, the French handed over Port Louis to their closest ally, though neither party was as yet aware of the proximity of the British, until a chance sighting of some ships in December 1769.

[edit] Crisis

In June 1770, the Spanish governor of Buenos Aires sent five frigates to Port Egmont, landing some 1600 marines. The small British force present promptly surrendered. When Parliament assembled in November, the MPs, outraged by this insult to national honour, demanded action from the Pitt government. The Foreign Office "began to mobilise for a potential war".[1]

Amid this flurry of threats and counter-threats, the Spanish attempted to strengthen their position by winning the support of France, invoking the Pacte de Famille between the two Bourbon crowns. For a time it looked as if all three countries were about to go to war, especially as the Duc de Choiseul, the French minister of war and foreign affairs, was in a militant mood. But Louis XV took fright, telling his cousin Charles III that "My minister wishes for war, but I do not."[2] Choiseul was dismissed from office, and without French support the Spanish were obliged to seek a compromise with the British.

In January 1771, the British were allowed to restore the base at Port Egmont, although the whole question of sovereignty was simply sidestepped, a source of future trouble. An appropriate verdict on the little fracas was passed by Samuel Johnson in his pamphlet Thoughts on the late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Island, looking at the British problem in holding such remote islands against a hostile mainland, "...a colony that could never become independent, for it could never be able to maintain itself."

[edit] See also

[edit] References

General
  • Goebel, Julius. The Struggle for the Falkland Islands: A Study in Legal and Diplomatic History. Oxford University Press, 1927.
  • Laver, Roberto C. The Falklands/Malvinas Case. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2001. ISBN 904111534X.
Inline
  1. ^ Quoted from: Roger, Nicholas. Crowds, Culture, and Politics in Georgian Britain. Oxford University Press, 1998. Page 103.
  2. ^ Green, Walford Davis. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and the Growth and Division of the British Empire, 1708-1778. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1906. Page 328.