With a convincing 99.8% of the vote, citizens of the Falkland Islands voted last week to remain a territory of the United Kingdom, rejecting a proposal to join Argentina.
The Falkland Islands are a series of islands (approximately 750, including the two largest inhabit islands, East and West Falkland) that lies several hundred miles east of the eastern Argentinian coast of South America. The Islands boast a population of nearly 3000. They were discovered, uninhabited, by European explorers in the 16th century and a permanent British settlement was established in 1840. The UK has held control of the islands since that point.
However, they have not held them without trouble. Argentina has persistently claimed the islands to be their own, citing their proximity to the Argentinian coast line and an early claim of the islands by the Spanish Empire, which Argentina says was transferred to them upon their independence. These tensions reached a tipping point in 1982, resulting in the Falklands War. Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands that year, a move the saw condemnation from most of the western world (most of South America, conversely, supported the Argentinians). Argentina held the islands for two months before surrendering to a British military squadron that had landed to retake the island.
Argentina has also made appeals to the UN for control of the islands, but given the overwhelming desire of the island’s denizens to remain part of the British Empire, all such appeals have been rejected.