The Falkland Islands (pronounced /ˈfɔːklənd/; Spanish: Islas Malvinas) are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about 300 mi (480 km) from the coast of mainland South America, 700 mi (1,100 km) from mainland Antarctica, and 3,800 mi (6,100 km) from Africa. The two main islands are East Falkland and West Falkland, and there are 776 smaller islands. The islands are a self-governing Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. Stanley, on East Falkland, is the capital.

Ever since the re-establishment of British rule in 1833 Argentina has claimed sovereignty. In pursuit of this claim, which is rejected by the islanders, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982. This precipitated the two-month-long undeclared Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom and resulted in the defeat and withdrawal of the Argentine forces.

Since the war, there has been strong economic growth in both fisheries and tourism, as well as increased speculation on the amount of oil in the area.

Name

The English name for the islands, the "Falkland Islands", derives from the English mariner John Strong, who in 1690 named the channel between the two main islands "Falkland Sound" after his patron, Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland and this name was later extended to the island group. The Spanish name, Islas Malvinas, is derived from the French name, "Îles Malouines", named by Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1764 after the first known settlers, mariners and fishermen from the Breton port of Saint-Malo in France. The ISO designation is "Falkland Islands (Malvinas)".

As a result of the continuing sovereignty dispute, the use of many Spanish names is considered offensive in the Falkland Islands, particularly those associated with the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands. General Sir Jeremy Moore would not allow the use of Islas Malvinas in the surrender document, dismissing it as a propaganda term.

History

The islands were uninhabited when they were first discovered by European explorers but there is evidence that Patagonian Indians may have reached the Falklands in canoes. Artifacts including arrowheads and the remains of a canoe have been found on the islands. There is also the presence of the Falkland Island fox, or Warrah (now extinct) but they may have reached the islands via a land bridge when the sea level was much lower during the last ice age. A group of islands in Falkland Island region appeared on maps from the early 16th century, suggesting either Ferdinand Magellan or another expedition of the 1500s may have sighted them.

Amerigo Vespucci may have sighted the islands in 1502, but he did not name them. In 1519 or 1520, Esteban Gómez, a captain in Magellan’s expedition, encountered several islands. Members of his crew called them "Islas de Sansón y de los Patos" ("Islands of Samson and the Ducks"). These islands were probably the Jason Islands, northwest of West Falkland, but the names "Islas de Sansón" (or "San Antón," "San Son," and "Ascensión") were used for the Falklands on Spanish maps during this period. Piri Reis, a Turkish admiral of the period who drew remarkably accurate maps, also showed islands on his maps that may well have been the Falkland Islands.

There is some dispute as to the first European explorer to sight the islands. The islands appear on numerous Spanish and other maps beginning in the 1520s. The English explorer, John Davis, commander of the Desire, one of the ships belonging to Thomas Cavendish's second expedition to the New World, is recorded as having visited the islands in 1592. He was separated from Cavendish off the coast of what is now southern Argentina by a severe storm and discovered the islands. For a while the islands were known as "Davis Land".  In 1594, the English commander Richard Hawkins, visited the islands. Combining his own name with that of Queen Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen", he gave the islands the name of "Hawkins' Maidenland." Many give the credit to the Dutchman Sebald de Weert, a Dutch sailor, who discovered the islands in 1600.

In January 1690, English sailor John Strong, captain of the Welfare, was heading for Puerto Deseado (now in Argentina); but driven off course by contrary winds, he reached the Sebald Islands instead and landed at Bold Cove. He sailed between the two principal islands and called the passage "Falkland Channel" (now Falkland Sound), after Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland, who as Commissioner of the Admiralty had financed the expedition (Cary later became First Lord of the Admiralty). The island group later took its English name from this body of water. Since their discovery, the Falkland Islands have had a complex history. France, Britain, Spain, and Argentina have all claimed possession at some time, and have established and abandoned settlements on the islands.

The Falklands Crisis of 1770 was nearly the cause of a war between a Franco-Spanish Alliance and Britain. Argentina took over and continued the Spanish government's claim after its declaration of independence in 1816 and the independence war in 1817. The American sloop USS Lexington destroyed the Argentine settlement at Port Louis on 28 December 1831 and the United Kingdom returned to the islands in 1833. Argentina has continued to claim sovereignty over the islands, and in 1982 a military junta used the dispute as a pretext to invade and briefly occupy the islands. A United Kingdom task force defeated the occupying troops and returned the islands to British control in the two-month-long Falklands War.

The first settlement on the Falkland Islands was in 1764. It was called Port St. Louis and was founded by the French navigator and military commander Louis Antoine de Bougainville on Berkeley Sound, in present-day Port Louis, East Falkland.

In January 1765, the British captain John Byron, unaware of the French presence, explored and claimed Saunders Island, at the western end of the group, where he named the harbour of Port Egmont. He sailed near other islands, which he also claimed for King George III. A British settlement was built at Port Egmont in 1766. Also in 1766, Spain acquired the French colony, and after assuming effective control in 1767, placed the islands under a governor subordinate to the Buenos Aires colonial administration. Spain attacked Port Egmont, ending the British presence there in 1770. The expulsion of the British settlement brought the two countries to the brink of war, but a peace treaty allowed the British to return to Port Egmont in 1771 with neither side relinquishing sovereignty.

As a result of economic pressures resulting from the forthcoming American Revolutionary War, the United Kingdom decided to withdraw unilaterally from many of her overseas settlements, including Port Egmont, in 1774. Upon her withdrawal in 1776 the UK left behind a plaque asserting her claims. From 1776 until 1811 Spain maintained a settlement administered from Buenos Aires as part of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata. On leaving in 1811, Spain also left behind a plaque asserting her claims.

On 6 November 1820, Colonel David Jewett raised the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate (Argentina) at Port Louis. Jewett was an American sailor and privateer in the employment of Buenos Aires businessman Patrick Lynch to captain his ship, the frigate Heroína (Lynch had obtained a corsair licence from the Buenos Aires Supreme Director Jose Rondeau). Jewett had put into the islands the previous month, following a disastrous eight month voyage with most of his crew disabled by scurvy and disease. After resting in the islands and repairing his ship he returned to Buenos Aires.

In 1828 the Argentines founded a settlement and a penal colony. United States warships destroyed this settlement in 1831 after the Argentine governor of the islands Luis Vernet seized US seal hunting ships during a dispute over fishing rights. Escaped prisoners and pirates were left behind. In November 1832, Argentina sent another governor who was killed in a mutiny.

In January 1833, British forces returned and informed the Argentine commander that they intended to reassert British sovereignty. The existing settlers were allowed to remain, with an Irish member of Vernet's settlement, William Dickson, appointed as the Islands' governor. Vernet's deputy, Matthew Brisbane, returned later that year and was informed that the British had no objections to the continuation of Vernet's business ventures provided there was no interference with British control.

The Royal Navy built a base at Stanley, and the islands became a strategic point for navigation around Cape Horn. A World War I naval battle, the Battle of Falkland Islands, took place in December 1914, with a British victory over the Germans. During World War II, Stanley served as a Royal Navy station and serviced ships which took part in the Battle of the River Plate.

Sovereignty over the islands again became an issue in the latter half of the 20th century. Argentina, in the pursuit of its claim to the islands, saw the creation of the United Nations as an opportunity to present its case before the rest of the world. In 1945, upon signing the UN Charter, Argentina stated that it reserved its right to sovereignty of the islands, as well as its right to recover them. The United Kingdom responded in turn by stating that, as an essential precondition for the fulfilment of UN Resolution 1514 (XV) regarding the de-colonisation of all territories still under foreign occupation, the Falklanders first had to vote for the British withdrawal at a referendum to be held on the issue.

Talks between British and Argentine foreign missions took place in the 1960s, but failed to come to any meaningful conclusion. A major sticking point in all the negotiations was that the two thousand inhabitants of mainly British descent preferred that the islands remain British territory.