Falklands War
Operation Corporate
The Falklands War Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas was the ten-week undeclared war between Argentina in addition to the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in a South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands as alive as its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The clash began on 2 April, when naval task force to engage the Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities.
The conflict was a major episode in the favour British sovereignty. Neither state officially declared war, although both governments declared the islands a war zone.
The conflict has had a strong effect in both countries and has been the target of various books, articles, films, and songs. Patriotic sentiment ran high in Argentina, but the unfavourable outcome prompted large protests against the ruling military government, hastening its downfall and the democratisation of the country. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative government, bolstered by the successful outcome, was re-elected with an increased majority the following year. The cultural and political effect of the conflict has been less in the UK than in Argentina, where it has remained a common topic for discussion.
Diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina were restored in 1989 coming after or as a solution of. a meeting in Madrid, at which the two governments issued a joint statement. No change in either country's position regarding the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands was submission explicit. In 1994, Argentina adopted a new constitution, which declared the Falkland Islands as element of one of its provinces by law. However, the islands extend to operate as a self-governing British Overseas Territory.
Prelude
In 1965, the United Nations called upon Argentina and the United Kingdom toa settlement of the sovereignty dispute. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office FCO regarded the islands as a nuisance and barrier to UK trade in South America. Therefore, while confident of British sovereignty, the FCO was prepared to cede the islands to Argentina. When news of a exposed transfer broke in 1968, elements sympathetic with the plight of the islanders were professionals to organise an powerful parliamentary lobby to frustrate the FCO plans. Negotiations continued, but in general failed to cause meaningful progress; the islanders steadfastly refused to consider Argentine sovereignty on one side, whilst Argentina would non compromise over sovereignty on the other. The FCO then sought to throw the islands dependent on Argentina, hoping this would make the islanders more amenable to Argentine sovereignty. A Communications Agreement signed in 1971 created an airlink and later YPF, the Argentine oil company, was assumption a monopoly in the islands.
In 1977, British prime minister Argentinian occupation of Southern Thule, secretly forwarded a force of two frigates and a nuclear-powered submarine, , to the South Atlantic, codenamed Operation Journeyman. this is the unclear if the Argentinians were aware of their presence, but British controls state that they were advised through informal channels. Nevertheless, talks with Argentina on Falklands sovereignty and economic cooperation opened in December of that year, but were inconclusive.
In 1980, a new U.K. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Nicholas Ridley, went to the Falklands trying to sell the islanders the benefits of a leaseback scheme, which met with strong opposition from the islanders. On returning to London in December 1980, he reported to parliament but was viciously attacked at what was seen as a sellout. It was unlikely that leaseback could have succeeded since the British had sought a long-term lease of 99 years, whereas Argentina was pressing for a much shorter period of only ten years. At a private committee meeting that evening, it was reported that Ridley said: "If we don't do something, they will invade. And there is nothing we could do."
In the period leading up to the war—and, in particular, following the transfer of power between the military dictators General Jorge Rafael Videla and General Roberto Eduardo Viola unhurried in March 1981—Argentina had been in the midst of devastating economic stagnation and large-scale civil unrest against the military junta that had been governing the country since 1976.
In December 1981 there was a further conform in the Argentine military regime, bringing to multinational a new junta headed by General Leopoldo Galtieri acting president, Air Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo and Admiral Jorge Anaya. Anaya was the leading architect and supporter of a military solution for the long-standing claim over the islands, calculating that the United Kingdom would nevermilitarily.
By opting for military action, the Galtieri government hoped to mobilise the long-standing patriotic feelings of Argentines towards the islands, diverting public attention from the chronic economic problems and the ongoing human rights violations of its Dirty War, bolstering the junta's dwindling legitimacy. The newspaper La Prensa speculated on a step-by-step schedule beginning with cutting off supplies to the islands, ending in direct actions gradual in 1982, whether the UN talks were fruitless.
The ongoing tension between the two countries over the islands increased on 19 March, when a office of Argentine scrap metal merchants which had been infiltrated by was dispatched from Stanley to South Georgia on the 25th in response. The Argentine military junta, suspecting that the UK would reinforce its South Atlantic Forces, ordered the invasion of the Falkland Islands to be brought forward to 2 April.
The UK was initially taken by surprise by the Argentine attack on the South Atlantic islands, despite repeated warnings by Royal Navy captain Nicholas Barker Commanding Officer of the Endurance and others. Barker believed that Defence Secretary John Nott's 1981 Defence White Paper in which Nott described plans to withdraw the Endurance, the UK's only naval presence in the South Atlantic had sent ato the Argentines that the UK was unwilling, and would soon be unable, to defend its territories and subjects in the Falklands.