Falklands crisis
The Falklands Crisis from 1769 to 1771 was a conflict between Spain and Great Britain over the Falkland Islands that almost led to war between the two states.
prehistory
The Falkland Islands, which had been discovered by English sailors as early as the end of the 16th century, were claimed by Spain as part of their Latin American colonial empire, but remained uninhabited until the middle of the 18th century. After the end of the Seven Years' War , the French settlement of Port Louis was built in 1764 on East Falkland . Two years later, the English naval officer John Byron founded the Port Egmont settlement on the West Falkland . This led to a dispute with Spain, which declared the entire archipelago to be part of the General Capitol of Buenos Aires on October 4, 1766 . In 1767 the Spaniards acquired the French settlement and renamed it Puerto Soledad , but as both sides wanted to avoid war , a compromise was reached, also at the insistence of the French Foreign Minister Choiseul , after the British and Spaniards settled on the almost uninhabited archipelago had gone the way.
Conflict between Spanish and British forces in the archipelago
However, this compromise did not resolve the dispute over the archipelago, it only postponed it. In November 1769, the Spanish ship San Felipe under captain Angel Santos met the British sloop Tamar between the West and East Falklands . Their commander Anthony Hunt invited Santos to join him on board, where he briefly detained him before he released him with the request to leave the Falkland Islands with his ship. Thereupon the Spaniards sent captain Mario Plata to the British, who now demanded from Hunt that all British had to leave the Falkland Islands within six months. Hunt refused to leave the islands, referring in turn to the discovery of the islands by the English. On the contrary, he threatened to open fire on the Spanish ship if it continued its exploratory voyages. At another meeting with the Spaniards, Hunt reaffirmed his intention not to leave the islands.
Francisco Bucarelli , the governor of La Plata, then sent Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Rubalanca with three ships to the Falkland Islands. Rubalanca first called at Puerto Soledad before setting off with two ships for Port Egmont. There he found on February 17, 1770 that his troops were inferior to the British troops there and withdrew. Captain Hunt then set out for Great Britain with the Tamar to bring in more reinforcements and left Commander George Farmer with the Sloop Favorite . Rubalanca had returned to Buenos Aires , whereupon the Spanish governor sent General Juan Ignacio de Madariaga with four frigates and two briggs and a total of 1,400 men to the Falkland Islands. The Spaniards reached West Falkland on June 4th, and after a brief, symbolic exchange of fire, this superior force was able to conquer Port Egmont on June 6th, 1770. Madariaga destroyed the British fortifications and ultimately called on the British to leave the islands. However, so that the news of this attack could first be brought to Europe by the Spaniards, he dismantled the oar of the Favorite and set out for Spain on June 30, 1770.
Diplomatic dispute in Europe
On August 20, 1770, Ferrero Fieschi , the Spanish ambassador in London, informed the Secretary of State for the southern Department , Lord Weymouth , of General Madariaga's dispatch. The Spaniards wanted to avoid a conflict and described the expedition as an arbitrary act of the governor of Buenos Aires. Lord Weymouth decided to take advantage of this opportunity for his own career. Since Lord North and the other Secretary of State, Lord Rochford , were not in London, he took the initiative and demanded the evacuation of the Falkland Islands by the Spaniards. Given Britain's maritime superiority, Weymouth believed it could force Spain into war or surrender. The Spanish wanted to give in at first, but when General Madariaga himself arrived in Spain and reported his success, the government decided to defend this success.
Two weeks later, Commander Farmer arrived in Great Britain with the favorite . Public opinion and opposition under Earl Chatham called for redress or the retaking of the Falkland Islands. When Lord Weymouth found out about this, he mobilized large parts of the Royal Navy without consulting the other members of the government and took a bellicose attitude towards the government in Madrid. After exchanging several diplomatic notes, which remained unsuccessful, a war with Spain over the Falkland Islands had become probable at the end of 1770, with both governments assuming that France would support the allied Spain. Spain alone was clearly inferior to Great Britain, but the French King Louis XV. In contrast to his minister, César Gabriel de Choiseul-Praslin, shy away from a new war because of the insignificant islands and dismissed his minister on December 24.
The British King George III. was ready to take a firm stand, but not to go to war with Spain. After getting an overview of Weymouth's activities, he sought a peaceful settlement with Spain in agreement with the majority of the government. He assured French diplomats that Britain wanted to avoid war and on December 7, 1770, Weymouth was forced to resign. His successor, Lord Rochford, and Prime Minister Lord North threatened the Spanish in January 1771 with the withdrawal of their ambassador from Madrid. Spain then agreed to an agreement on January 21, 1771, after which Great Britain got Port Egmont back with all weapons and artillery, but ultimately the question of whether the Falkland Islands belonged to it was not finally resolved.
consequences
On September 15, 1771, a British flotilla took over Port Egmont again. The British withdrew from the Falkland Islands as early as 1774. However, they did not give up their claim to the archipelago and after the end of Spanish colonial rule in South America, they permanently occupied the Falkland Islands from 1832.
literature
- Peter Burley: Fighting For The Falklands in 1770 . In: History Today, 32 (1982)
- Roberto C. Laver: The Falklands / Malvinas case. Breaking the deadlock in the Anglo-Argentine sovereignty Dispute . Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague 2001. ISBN 90-411-1534-X
- Geoffrey W. Rice: British Foreign Policy and the Falkland Islands Crisis of 1770-71 . In: The International History Review 32 (2010), pp. 273-305
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ JK Laughton: Farmer, George (1732-1779). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004