Wars of Principle in the Falklands and Malvinas Although the age of imperialism has slowly, but inexorably, been consigned to history books, with the great British, Spanish and Portuguese empires that once dominated the globe now largely defunct after the revolutionary spirit swept through colonies from America to Argentina, vestiges of this age-old system still remain to this day. Despite withdrawing from the vast majority of its former colonies after successful campaigns for independence were waged, the United Kingdom has strived to maintain a semblance of its former power by maintaining control over small areas of land within the nations it previously ruled over. Hong Kong in China, Gibraltar in the Iberian Peninsula, and a half dozen Caribbean islands from Bermuda to Turks and Caicos, the custom of leaving behind British territories in the wake of widespread independence movements was instituted to ensure that the United Kingdom's dogged pursuit of its centuries-old imperialistic ambitions was not undertaken in vain. In the case of British engagement with Argentina, which began, like so many similar conflicts between European nations and the natives of the newly discovered American continent1, with the United Kingdom's claim of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in 1833, a series of geopolitical maneuvers and cultural upheavals resulted in the outbreak of open warfare in 1982. In order to establish a clear case of justification for the United Kingdom's...

Alberto R. Coll and Anthony C. Arend, The Falkands War: Lessons for Strategy, Diplomacy, and International Law, (Boston: G. Allen & Unwin, 1985). 65-67.
military conflict to decide control of an island chain located thousands of miles away from its own shores, it is necessary to begin by developing a clear understanding of the political and cultural shifts which transpired in the almost 150 years between those climactic events.

With the spirit of revolution sweeping the world in the wake of the United States' decisive war for independence, Argentina waged its own rebellion in 1810, and declared independence from Spanish imperial rule in 1816. As is typically the case when a nation unshackles itself from imperial authority, the world at large was hesitant in accepting Argentina's territorial claims as an independent nation, and while its political autonomy was recognized by the British monarchy, its possession of highly prized areas of land -- the Falkland Islands included -- was willfully ignored2. At that point, the Falkland Islands were held under the tenuous authority exerted by a patchwork of settlements, with the Argentinians, British, French and Spanish all maintaining a strategic presence, and a period of uncertainty reigned for nearly two decades, until the United Kingdom established a permanent military garrison and accompanying settlement in 1833. This event provided…