Background:
The Falkland Islands were first seen by Davis
? in 1592, and Sir [Richard Hawkins]
? sailed along their north shore in 1594. In 1598, [Sebald de Weert]
?, a Dutchman, visted them and called them the Sebald Islands, a name which they bore on some Dutch maps into the 19th century. Captain Strong sailed through between the two principal islands in 1690, and called the passage Falkland Sound, and from this the island group afterwards took its English name. In 1763 the islands were taken possesion of by the French, who established a colony at [Port Louis]
? on Berkely Sound; they were however expelled by the Spaniards in 1767 or 1768. In 1761, Commander Byron
? took possession on the part of
England on the ground of prior discovery, and his doing so was nearly the cause of a war between England and
Spain, both countries having armed fleets to contest the barren sovereignty. In 1771, however, Spain yielded the islands to
Great Britain by convention. As they had not been actually colonised by England, the republic of Buenos Aires (
Argentina) claimed the group in 1820, and formed a settlement at Port Louis which promised to be fairly successful, but owing to some misunderstanding with the Americans it was destroyed by the latter in 1831. After all these vicissitudes, the English flag was once more hoisted at Port Louis in 1833 with the establishment of a naval garrison there.
Falklands War - Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April 1982. The British responded with an expeditionary force that landed seven weeks later and after fierce fighting forced Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982.
Early history added from the ninth edition of an encyclopedia (1879)
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