Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are located of the south eastern coast of Argentina.  There has been a major issue in dispute over ownership of the Falkland Islands between Argentina and Britain.  The first landing on the islands was in 1690 when the French, Spanish, and British were colonizing South America.  In 1820, when Argentina claimed independence they also claimed sovereignty of and founded a settlement on the Falkland Islands.  In 1833, the British claimed sovereignty of the island and expelled all Argentina settlers.  The fight over the islands went back and forth as to who the islands should belong to.  The struggle only intensified in 1965, when the United Nations said that the issue was a colonial problem that needed to be negotiated by Argentina and Britain.  For years the two countries went back and forth trying to solve the issue, but could not agree on who should have sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.  Things got really bad on April 2nd, 1982, when Argentine troops went onto the islands.  Britain’s military tried to force the Argentine troops out, but they would not leave.  For two months they fought, but Argentina surrendered on June 14th, 1982.  The battle caused the deaths of 255 British soldiers and 655 Argentine soldiers.  The two countries acted cordially in affairs after the fight, but the disagreements continued.  Issues escalated again in 2009, when Argentina requested to talk about sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, but Britain refused to talk about the issue.  Argentina also tried to pass a law claiming the islands, but Britain rejected that, too.  There was always an issue of fishing rights, but in 2010, when Britain started exploring for oil, anger rose.  The problem was that Britain was searching for oil in the waters around the Falkland Islands.  In response to the British, Argentina made new rules that required all ships passing through to the Falkland Islands to have a permit.  At this point, tensions are high.  Now that there is potentially 60 billion barrels of oil under the ocean floor, both countries are hoping to exploit this resource.  At this point in time, the Falkland Islands are a British territory.  The population is about 2,500 and the main export is fish.  The tourist industry to the island is small, but the interesting wildlife of penguins and sheep draws tourists in.