Why do the falkland islands belong to britain

Vernet made the first of several approaches to Britain then to re-assert its sovereignty over the Islands. Earlier he had got the British Consul in Buenos Aires to countersign his land grants. Supporting Britain, the US questioned the claim that all Spanish possessions had been transferred to the Government of Buenos Aires and confirmed its use of the Falklands as a fishing base for over 50 years. The US declared that Spain had exercised no sovereignty over several coasts to which Buenos Aires claimed to be heir, including Patagonia.

Buenos Aires appointed an interim Commander to the Islands, Commander Mestivier, who arrived in October with a tiny garrison and some convicts. The remains of the garrison from Buenos Aires left peacefully. Since this time, British administration has remained unbroken apart from a ten week Argentine occupation in Argentine and British Governments were called upon to negotiate a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute, bringing the issue to international attention formally for the first time.

Argentine troops occupied the Islands for ten weeks before being defeated by the British. The Argentines surrendered on 14 June, now known as Liberation Day. A vast doctrine of ever-evolving international law swirls around such claims. The rights of conquest of terra nullius — empty lands — was widely acknowledged, as was administrative subjugation via settlement and the imposition of order, neither acceptable since the League of Nations and, later, the UN tried to create globally enforcible rules.

As Spain's empire crumbled under the pressure of Napoleon's occupation and the march of liberal ideas — encouraged by Britain and the US in Latin America — the Spanish governor withdraw from the Falklands in The entire colony left in , leaving their own version of the British plaque which they had carted off to Buenos Aires the Brits would take it back.

Whalers, mostly from Canada and the US, would use the island's rudimentary harbours unimpeded until Louis Vernet obtained the permission of the newly independent government in Buenos Aires to re-establish a settlement in , to the immediate consternation of the British, who had emerged from the long Napoleonic wars in as the world's hegemonic power, its navy master of the seas.

But it was Vernet's high-handed seizure of a US whaler, the Harriet, which he arrested and took off to Buenos Aires for infringing his rights as governor, that ushered in the British occupation that continues to this day. Under the newly assertive presidency of Andrew Jackson , the US dispatched a warship, the Lexington, which accused Vernet of piracy and destroyed his settlement.

When the British returned in and finally established a formal colony in , the US supported London. That would later change, but not yet. The islands became a coaling station for the navy, the scene in of a revenge battle which destroyed the remnants of the German Pacific squadron as it tried to get home to its North Sea base.

The population grew steadily to a peak of 2, in and then declined slowly to the 1, who were there when the Argentininian forces landed in April Kelp, oil and greater British attention has since pushed it up to over 3, and helped ignite renewed Argentininian concern. Argentina argues that the British abandoned the islands in the s, never actually occupied East Falkland — site of the modern capital, Port Stanley — and did not return for 60 years.

Ministers claim their own rights of succession as the heirs of Spain's empire, bolstered by the French concession in The ancient doctrine of mare clausum by which states control the seas that protect their own borders and trade has its modern echoes, as evident the dispute between Beijing and its less powerful neighbours who each claim islands in the South China Sea. Some key dates in the history of the Falklands:.

They are driven off by the Spanish in but return in , only to withdraw again in Argentina continually protests against British occupation. Falklands government. Falklands wildlife conservation. The Falkland Islands have been the centre of territorial disputes between Great Britain and Argentina ever since, which in culminated in the two-month Falkland war.

The short, yet bloody, conflict cost , predominantly Argentinian, lives. Since then, British soldiers have been stationed on the islands. So far, Argentina has not been willing to accept the referendum result. However, the Falkland Islands should not merely be known as a political sticking point, but also as a paradise of nature.

The magnificent natural habitat of the Islands was used by none other than naturalist Charles Darwin, who, in the 19th century, conducted two investigations into his evolutionary studies there. Colonies of South-American sea lion, fur seal, and southern elephant seal breed on its coasts.

But the greatest colony of animals on the islands are five different types of penguins that make up a total of multiple millions of animals. The best time to visit the Falkland Islands is during the Antarctic summer, between December and February. If you want to have the magical experience of lying at the beach surrounded by penguins, it is best to wait until March, when the penguins leave the beaches to undertake the long journeys to their breeding grounds across the sea.