''This was my proposal for the "History of the Claims" section of "[[Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands]]", which I have now incorporated into the text of that article. It is kept for archival only.''

==History of the claims==

{{seealso|History of the Falkland Islands}}

{{seealso|1833 invasion of the Falkland Islands}}

===French Claims===

France was the first country to establish [[de facto]] control in the Falkland Islands, with the foundation of [[Port Louis, Falkland Islands|Port Louis]] in [[East Falkland]], in 1764. The French colony consisted of a small fort and some settlements with a population of around 250. The Islands were named in French after the Breton port of [[St. Malo]] as the ''Îles Malouines''. In 1766, France agreed to leave the islands to Spain, with Spain reimbursing the cost of the settlement.<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history2.html</ref>

===British Claims===

[[Image:LocationFalklandIslands.png|thumb|250px|Location of the Falkland Islands]]

The British first landed on the Falklands in 1690, when [[Captain]] [[John Strong]] sailed through Falkland Sound, naming this passage of water after [[Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland]], the First Lord of the [[Admiralty]] at that time. The British were keen to settle the islands, as they had the potential to be a strategic naval base for passage around [[Cape Horn]].<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history1.html</ref> In 1765, Captain [[John Byron]] landed on [[Saunders Island (Falkland Islands)|Saunders Island]]. He then explored other islands' coasts and claimed the group for Britain. The following year, Captain John McBride returned to [[Port Egmont]], on Saunders, to construct a fort. The British later discovered the French colony at Port Louis, and the first sovereignty dispute began.<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history2.html</ref>

The British colony was expelled by the Spanish in 1770, only to return in 1771 following British threats of war over the islands. The Falklands were a useful base for [[pirate]] and [[privateer]] raids on Spanish ships, as well as a useful staging post for British ships intending to round Cape Horn. However, in 1774, the British abandoned their settlement, leaving behind a plaque asserting British sovereignty over the islands.<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history2.html</ref>

On [[2 January]] [[1833]], Captain James Onslow, of the brig-sloop HMS Clio, arrived at the Spanish settlement at Puerto Soledad to request that the Argentine flag be replaced with the British one, and for the Argentine administration to leave the islands. While Argentine Lt. Col. José María Pinedo, commander of the Argentine schooner ''Sarandí'', wanted to resist, his numerical disadvantage was obvious, particularly as a large number of his crew were British mercenaries who were unwilling to fight their own countrymen. Such a situation was not unusual in the newly independent states in Latin America, where land forces were strong, but navies were frequently quite undermanned. As such he protested verbally, but departed without a fight on [[5 January]]. The colony was set up and the islands continued under a British presence until the [[Falklands War]].

[[Image:Flag of the Falkland Islands.svg|thumb|200px|The United Kingdom designated the [[Flag of the Falkland Islands]] in 1948, following the traditional [[Blue ensign]] design for British colonies.]]

After their return in 1833, the British began moves to begin a full fledged colony on the islands, through the settlers remaining in Puerto Soledad after Vernet's departure. A colonial administration was formed in 1842. This was expanded in 1908, when the UK unilaterally declared sovereignty over Antarctic territory south of the Falklands, including [[South Georgia]], the [[South Sandwich Islands]], and the [[South Orkney Islands]], grouping them into the Falkland Islands Dependencies.

Following the introduction of the [[Antarctic Treaty System]] in 1959 the Falkland Island Dependencies were reduced to include South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Territory south of the 60th parallel was formed into a new dependency, the [[British Antarctic Territory]] which overlaps claims by Argentina ([[Argentine Antarctica]]) and [[Chile]] ([[Antártica Chilena Province]]).

Argentina has never recognised British sovereignty, and formally protested when the Falkland Islands dependencies were established. Argentina also began to claim all other British held islands in the South Atlantic, following the creation of the Falkland Islands Dependency. However, as the United Kingdom was a leading superpower at the time, it was inconceivable for the Argentines to successfully take the islands by military force. The UK had substantial naval power in the South Atlantic with a naval base in [[Stanley, Falkland Islands|Stanley]], and also at [[Simonstown]] in [[South Africa]].

===Spanish Claims===

Spain claimed the Falkland Islands under provisions in the 1713 [[Treaty of Utrecht]] which settled the limits of the [[Spanish Empire]] in the [[Americas]], which included the Falkland Islands. When Spain discovered the British and French colonies on the Islands, a diplomatic row broke out between the claimants. In 1766, Spain and France, who were allies at the time, agreed that France would hand over Port Louis, and Spain would repay the cost of the settlement. However Spain and Great Britain, although not at war, could not be described as allies, and no such agreement was reached.<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history2.html</ref>

The Spanish took control of Port Louis and renamed it Puerto Soledad in 1767. In 1770, a Spanish expedition expelled the British colony on Saunders and Spain briefly assumed total control of the Islands. The British returned in 1771, leaving Spain in total control in 1774. From 1774 to 1811, the islands were ruled from [[Buenos Aires]] as part of the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]]. The Spanish governor was withdrawn in 1806, and the islands abandoned by the Spanish settlers by a 8 January 1811 decree of the Governor of Montevideo, with a plaque asserting Spanish sovereignty left behind. <ref>Hoffman, Fritz L., and Hoffman, Olga Mingo. (1984). ''Sovereignty in Dispute: The Falklands/Malvinas, 1493-1982'' Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, Inc. ISBN 0-86531-605-8: 65</ref><ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history2.html</ref>

In 1790 a dispute between the Spanish and the British on the North West coast of [[North America]] led to the [[Nootka Convention]]s, in which the claims to territories in the North West of North America were settled. The Conventions included provisions recognising that the coasts and islands of South America colonised by Spain at the time were Spanish, and that areas south of the southernmost settlements were off limits to both countries, provided (in a secret article) that no third party settled there either. The conventions were cancelled in 1795, and revived in 1814. Spain abandoned their settlement in 1811, leaving a plaque asserting sovereignty, in the period between the abandonment and revival of the conventions.

====Argentine Claims====

[[Image:LuisVernet.gif|150px|thumb|Luis Vernet]]

Argentina [[Argentine Declaration of Independence|declared its independence]] from Spain in 1816, although this was not then recognised by any of the major powers.

The new nation was formed from former provinces of the [[Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata]] and as such claimed sovereignty over the Falklands - however this claim was not asserted until 1820, when the hired American frigate ''[[Heroina]]'', captained by Daniel Jewitt, was sent to the islands to take possession of them and notify whaling vessels in the area of the Argentine claim.<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history2.html</ref>

In 1823 the Argentines granted land on [[East Falkland]] to [[Louis Vernet]], who travelled to begin farming in 1824. The first attempt failed almost as soon as it landed, and the second attempt, in 1826, sanctioned by the British (and delayed until Winter by a Brazillian blockade), arrived, but was not successful in farming. In 1828 Vernet was granted all of East Falkland including all its resources, and exempted him from taxation if a colony could be established within three years. He took settlers, including British Captain Matthew Brisbane, and before leaving was given permission from the British Consulate in Buenos Aires. The British asked for a report for the British government on the islands, and Vernet asked for British protection should they return. <ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history3.html</ref>

On Vernet's return, Puerto Soledad was renamed Port Louis. Vernet was appointed governor in 1829, an action to which the British objected as it was an attempt by the Argentine government to foster its political and economic ties to the islands. One of Vernet's first acts was to curb [[seal hunting]] on the Islands to conserve the dwindling seal population. In response the British [[Consul (representative)|consul]] in [[Buenos Aires]] protested the move and restated the UK's claim. The first islanders were born during this period (including Malvina María Vernet y Saez, Vernet's daughter)<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history3.html</ref>.

Vernet later seized the [[United States|American]] ship, ''Harriet'', for breaking his restrictions on seal hunting. Property on board the ship was seized and the captain was returned to [[Buenos Aires]] to stand trial. The American Consul in Argentina protested against the actions by Vernet, stating that the [[United States]] did not recognise Argentine sovereignty in the Falklands. The consul dispatched a warship, [[USS Lexington (1825)|USS ''Lexington'']], to Port Louis to retake the confiscated property.

While by 1831 the colony was successful enough to be advertising for new colonists. However, the ''Lexington'''s report suggests that the conditions on the islands were quite miserable. The captain of the ''Lexington'' destroyed the Argentine settlement at Port Louis.<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history3.html</ref> On leaving, the captain declared the islands to be ''res nullius'' (free of all government) and returned to [[Montevideo]]. Governor Vernet returned to Buenos Aires after the attack but appointed an interim governor, Esteban José Francisco Mestivier, who arrived with his family to Puerto Soledad on the schooner ''Sarandí'' in October 1832<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history3.html</ref>.

After this the ''Sarandí'', commanded by captain José María Pinedo, went to patrol the surrounding seas. But as they returned to Puerto Soledad on [[29 December]] [[1832]], they found the colony in uproar. In Pinedo's absence there had been a mutiny led by a man named Gomila; Mestivier had been murdered and his wife raped. The captain of the French vessel ''Jean Jacques'' had meanwhile provided assistance disarming and incarcerating the mutineers. Pinedo dispatched the mutineers to Buenos Aires with the British schooner ''Rapid''. Gomila himself would be condemned to exile, while six other mutineers were executed.

On [[2 January]] [[1833]], Captain John Onslow arrived and delivered a written request that Pinedo lower the Argentine flag in favour of the British one, and that the Argentine administration leave the islands. Pinedo asked if there had been a war declared between Argentina and Great Britain, and Onslow replied there was none. Nonetheless, Pinedo, heavily outmanned and outgunned, chose to leave the islands under protest. The Argentines also claim that the population of the Puerto Soledad was expelled at the same time, though sources from time appear to dispute this, suggesting that the colonists were encouraged to remain under Vernet's deputy, Matthew Brisbane<ref>http://www.falklands.info/history/history3.html</ref>.

Pinedo faced military trial and was suspended for four months and transferred to the land army, until he was called back to the navy in 1845. An open conflict with France and Great Britain, including a long Anglo-French blockade on Buenos Aires, prevented the Argentines from sending any expeditions to the islands, but they never renounced their claim to sovereignty.