pretty shaky. The heart of their dispute lies in a tiny archipelago, some 300 miles from

the coast of Argentina, called the Falkland Islands. Their struggle stems from the question

of who actually owns the islands. So what’s the whole story? Why do the UK and Argentina

hate each other?

Well, the history is a little complicated. But simply put, the first person to actually

claim the Islands was an English sailor named John Strong in 1690. While both Spain and

France made various claims on the Islands, the British ultimately maintained their jurisdiction.

Argentina didn’t become a part of the equation until 1820 when an American mercenary landed

on the Falkland Islands and declared them for what is now Argentina. About 9 years later,

Argentina gave the islands away as payment for a debt, a move that prompted the UK to

send a ship in 1833 to reestablish the British flag. It was met with little resistance, as

the Argentine commander was heavily outnumbered.

For nearly the next 150 years, the British controlled the Islands while Argentina continued

to dispute their sovereignty. After increasing tensions between the two countries, as well

as an economic collapse and military regime change in Argentina, the Argentine military

invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982. They assumed the British would not respond with

force. They were wrong. Within weeks, the British mounted an assault to retake the Islands,

while most of the European Community backed the UK and imposed sanctions on Argentina.

After three months of intense fighting, the British reconquered the Falkland Islands,

and expelled all Argentine forces from the area.

In the years following, the British ramped up their military presence on the islands,

granted all residents full British Citizenship, and gave the Islands full self-governance

as a British dependency. But in 2006, Argentina began claiming sovereignty again in an attempt

to secure fishing and petroleum rights. In 2009, Argentina made a territory claim to

the UN concerning an area including the Falklands, which the UK denied as being legitimate. The

following year, in 2010, Argentina demanded that any ships that wanted to go to the Falkland

Islands would have to seek a permit from the Argentine government. Both the British and

Falklands government ignored this demand. Finally, in 2013, Falkland Islanders voted

in a referendum on whether the territory would stay British. With nearly every single Island

resident voting to remain a British territory, it would seem that the question of sovereignty

was solved. But in response, the Argentine government said that the referendum had quote

“no value”, since the population of the Islands was “implanted” by the British.

Despite some pretty good reasons as to why the UK should hold dominion over the Islands,

Argentina has argued that because the islands are closer to them than to Britain, Argentina

should have control over them. This argument has widely been called ridiculous.

To learn more about tense relations between other countries, check out our playlist now,

including this one on why Venezuela Hates the United States. Thanks for watching TestTube,

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