Falklands War

The Falklands War was a ten-week conflict in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls the Islas Malvinas, and the dependencies of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It began with an Argentine invasion on 2 April and ended with the Argentine surrender at Stanley on 14 June. About 649 Argentine and 255 British service personnel and three islanders were killed. The defeat helped bring down Argentina's military government, while in Britain it strengthened the position of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Argentina has long claimed the islands as its own territory, while Britain had held them as a Crown colony since 1841, and the small population, mostly descended from British settlers, wished to remain British. From 1965 the United Nations urged the two countries to settle the question. Talks over the following years, including a British proposal for a leaseback arrangement in 1980, made no progress, as the islanders opposed any transfer and Argentina would not compromise on sovereignty.

From 1976 Argentina was ruled by a military junta, which by the early 1980s faced economic crisis and growing unrest over its repression during the so-called Dirty War. In December 1981 a new junta under General Leopoldo Galtieri took power, and the navy chief, Admiral Jorge Anaya, pressed for seizing the islands, expecting that Britain would not fight. After a dispute over Argentine scrap-metal workers raising their flag on South Georgia in March 1982, the invasion was brought forward. On 2 April Argentine forces landed near Stanley; the small garrison of Royal Marines resisted briefly before the governor surrendered. South Georgia was taken the next day.

The United Kingdom assembled a naval task force, which began sailing south on 5 April. On 3 April the UN Security Council passed Resolution 502, demanding an Argentine withdrawal. The American Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, shuttled between London and Buenos Aires in search of a compromise but failed, and on 30 April the United States declared its support for Britain. Meanwhile Argentina reinforced the islands to around 13,000 troops, many of them young conscripts. British forces recaptured South Georgia on 25 April.

On 2 May the British submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, with the loss of 323 lives, just outside the British exclusion zone. The sinking remains controversial, although the cruiser's captain later said his ship had been manoeuvring and was under orders to attack British vessels. After it, the Argentine surface fleet stayed in port. Two days later an Exocet missile fired by an Argentine aircraft crippled the destroyer HMS Sheffield, the first Royal Navy ship lost in action since the Second World War. Argentine pilots went on to sink several more British ships.

On 21 May about 4,000 British troops landed at San Carlos Water on East Falkland, under repeated air attack. On 28 May paratroopers took Goose Green after a hard fight, and British units then crossed the island towards Stanley. On 8 June Argentine aircraft struck two landing ships near Fitzroy, killing 48 British servicemen. In a series of night battles from 11 to 14 June, British forces captured the hills around Stanley, and on 14 June General Mario Menéndez surrendered the garrison. The South Sandwich Islands were retaken on 20 June.

In Argentina the defeat provoked large protests against the junta and hastened its fall; in 1983 the country held its first free general election since 1973. In Britain, the Conservative government was re-elected with a larger majority in 1983. Diplomatic relations were restored in 1989, but Argentina still claims the islands, which remain a self-governing British Overseas Territory.

Our 1985 map shows the islands as a British territory three years after the war, off the coast of Argentina.