Why Britain Cares So Much About the Falklands

0:00 These are islands, and that's about as far as one can

0:04 go into the matter before one side perceives bias towards the other.

0:08 The very act of naming this archipelago implies an opinion.

0:12 To Britain, they're the Faullands.

0:14 To Argentina, they're the Malvenus, and to both, they're theirs.

0:19 Four decades ago, the two countries fought

0:21 a bloody 10-week war over the islands,

0:24 including direct conflict between their air, sea, and ground forces.

0:28 This remains exceptional.

0:30 These are large westernized economies.

0:32 They share plenty of allies.

0:34 They're just not the kind of countries that fight

0:36 full-scale wars against each other in recent times.

0:39 In fact, by most measures, there has not been any conflict of this scale

0:43 between two economies so equally large since then.

0:46 Today, the facts and emotions that led to this have hardly changed.

0:50 And Britain, in particular,

0:52 is readier than ever for conflict to break out again.

0:56 They won the war and therefore the Faulland

0:58 Islands operates as a British overseas territory.

1:00 Its permanent population is said to be 3,662,

1:04 but that official census statistic excludes the 1

1:07 to2,000 people that regularly rotate through here, RAF Mount Pleasant.

1:12 This base is the nexus of the UK's Faulland's defense infrastructure.

1:16 The southern half of South America is

1:18 not a region with much geostrategic relevance.

1:21 That's perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that the US,

1:23 the most militarized country in the world,

1:25 does not have a major base in the region.

1:27 Besides the war over these islands, little conflict has occurred here recently.

1:31 It's quite literally one of the most peaceful areas of the world,

1:34 indicating that the UK's presence is essentially entirely

1:37 for the purposes of defending the Faullands themselves.

1:40 For every two to three permanent residents of the islands,

1:43 there's one person there on military payroll.

1:46 Each year, the UK spends about $115 million on this military posture,

1:51 breaking down to a perperson cost of about $31,000.

1:56 And despite being located in one of the most far-flung corners of the world,

1:59 RAF Mount Pleasant is one of the UK's most capable overseas bases.

2:03 It's permanently home to a Voyager KC2 aerial refueling aircraft,

2:07 an A400M Atlas C1 transport aircraft, and four Typhoon Trunch One fighter jets.

2:12 Two of those fighter jets are kept in perpetual quick reaction alert status,

2:16 which is perhaps the greatest demonstration

2:18 of the UK's commitment to these islands.

2:21 Quick reaction alert status means that these fighter jets are always fueled up,

2:25 loaded with weapons with pilots sitting beside,

2:28 ready to be airborne within 15 minutes.

2:31 Keeping jets in QR status is enormously resource inensive,

2:34 requiring continuous staffing by mechanics,

2:37 ground crew, armament technicians, and more.

2:39 And RAF Mount Pleasant is one of only three UK bases kept in permanent 247 QRA

2:45 status with the only other two in the UK

2:47 mainland as part of its NATO obligations.

2:49 Other non-mainland bases do go into QR

2:52 status in response to escalating tensions or threats,

2:54 but no other base is permanently kept in QR.

2:58 Despite this, these jets are almost never deployed.

3:01 According to a recent Foye disclosure, between 2017 and 2019,

3:05 there were only three QRA launches from RAF Mount Pleasant total.

3:09 One of which in response to a civilian aircraft,

3:11 the other two in response to Argentinian

3:13 military aircraft approaching but not entering Faulland's airspace.

3:17 In fact, as far as the public knows,

3:19 since the war, Argentinian aircraft have never violated Faulland's airspace,

3:23 although the UK would argue that that's perhaps thanks

3:26 to the deterrence that the quick reaction alert capability provides.

3:29 But that's far from the end of the Faulland's defense infrastructure.

3:33 This is a Skyaber air defense system.

3:35 It's the country's newest and most capable, and they only have six.

3:40 One of them is permanently in the Faullands.

3:43 This is HMS 4th.

3:44 It was built at a cost of $150 million as one

3:47 of eight ships of its class for the Royal Navy,

3:49 and it's also permanently deployed to the waters in and around the Faullands.

3:53 And this is RAF Ascension Island,

3:56 an entirely different UK base almost entirely justified by the Faullands.

4:00 Ascension is part of a different British overseas territory.

4:03 And while the vast majority of the military

4:05 presence on the island is actually American,

4:07 supporting signals, intelligence, GPS, ground stations,

4:09 missile tracking, and other capabilities,

4:11 the British military presence revolves around the airfield,

4:14 acting as a midpoint between the Faullands and the mainland.

4:17 RAF Mount Pleasant is about a 15-hour flight from Britain.

4:20 And while some aircraft can make such distance non-stop,

4:23 doing so would typically require carrying limited payload.

4:26 It's hard enough already to maintain supply lines

4:28 for a conflict 8,000 mi from the mainland.

4:31 Military logisticians actually study the Faulland's

4:33 war due to their anomalous success at that, but doing so with limited

4:37 payload capacity would hamstring them yet further.

4:39 So, the UK considers it crucial to have a refueling stop on the way.

4:42 In the event of a conflict,

4:44 there's no guarantee that the West African or South American countries

4:47 on the way would allow the UK to operate a staging point.

4:50 So, the fact that ascension is British

4:51 is strategically crucial for a potential conflict,

4:54 just as it was during the Faulland's war in the 80s.

4:57 That's why there's always a small detachment

5:00 of British troops on ascension to maintain the facility.

5:03 And it does serve a continuous practical

5:05 purpose to refuel the military's regular airbridge flights.

5:08 These act as the primary physical link between the mainland and the Faullands.

5:11 twice weekly charter flights carrying troops, cargo,

5:14 and members of the public who pay the subsidized 800 pound fair.

5:17 It's difficult to fully quantify the UK's military devotion

5:20 to the Faullands since beyond the direct operational costs,

5:24 there's endless indirect and infrastructure costs

5:26 that could be attributed to defense.

5:28 In some ways, it's tough to justify

5:30 as Argentina hardly has any serious offensive posture.

5:34 Since the war, the state

5:36 of the Argentinian armed forces has dramatically declined.

5:39 While it's in a phase of rebuilding, some analyst reports in recent years have

5:43 concluded that Argentina might have had as few

5:45 as zero operationally ready fighter jets as it

5:48 suffered through high inflation and a debt crisis.

5:50 But what the country does not have in military capability,

5:53 it makes up for in rhetoric.

5:56 Argentina does not just simply insist that the Malvenus Islands are theirs.

6:00 They assure that in every possible scenario,

6:02 they act as the Malvenus are theirs in every way but practice.

6:06 National law 26.651, 651, for example,

6:09 mandates that textbooks, government publications,

6:12 essentially any government organization must use a variation

6:15 of this map displaying the disputed territories to scale.

6:18 One official approved variation published

6:21 by the Argentinian National Geographic Institute is

6:23 even oriented south up in a way that centers the Malvinus Islands.

6:27 A different variation of this biccontinental map is

6:30 also included on the back of Argentinian passports.

6:32 While an outline of the Malvenas by themselves is

6:34 included on the back of Argentinian national identity cards,

6:38 an Argentinian is almost certainly more likely to identify

6:41 the Malvenus on a map than a Britain.

6:43 What Argentina's maps also show is that the Malvenas

6:46 are administratively part of the Tiar del Fuego,

6:49 Antarctica, and the South Atlantic Islands province.

6:52 This makes them, from Argentina's point of view,

6:54 wholeheartedly integrated into the nation.

6:57 They're not an overseas territory.

6:58 They're not under some more autonomous administrative status.

7:01 They're part of a province.

7:03 And an Argentinian province is more or less

7:05 the same jurisdictional status as an American state,

7:07 and therefore more integrated into the mainland

7:10 than an overseas territory is to Britain.

7:12 But depending on who you ask,

7:14 Tier Deluego is either the largest or smallest Argentinian province.

7:18 The mainland portion is undisputed.

7:20 Argentina's claim to a slice of Antarctica

7:22 is administratively lumped into the province.

7:24 And not only does this claim overlap with those of the UK and Chile,

7:28 but territorial claims to Antarctica at all have little international

7:31 recognition and have never been formally recognized in international law.

7:35 Included in this Antarctic claim is the South Orcne and Shetland Islands,

7:39 which are also included in Britain's disputed Antarctic claim.

7:42 But the UK has a slightly more robust claim

7:45 to the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,

7:47 which sit further north and operate as another overseas territory.

7:51 Unlike the Faullands, they have no permanent population.

7:53 But like the Faullands, they also fall into Argentina's claimed Tiod Deluego,

7:57 Antarctica, and the South Atlantic Islands province.

8:00 Now, as the province closest to and encompassing the Malvinus Islands,

8:04 Tiod Fuego acts as the symbolic home of Malvenus advocacy.

8:08 The provincial governor effectively acts as the symbolic

8:11 voice of the Malvvenas and therefore the strength

8:13 of one's advocacy for Argentina's claim ends up

8:16 a centrally important issue in campaigns for the position.

8:19 The current governor Gustavo Ma built his track record of Malvina's

8:23 advocacy while mayor of Rio Grande getting involved in vigils,

8:26 building monuments, establishing veteran centers.

8:29 Now in the governor position, he acts as one of the loudest,

8:32 most hardline voices in asserting Argentina's claim.

8:35 Here he posted about his displeasure at the UK appointing a former executive

8:38 from an oil company that operated

8:40 the Malvinus waters as an ambassador to Argentina.

8:42 Here he described a visit by the UK's

8:44 ambassador to Chile to the islands as provocative.

8:47 And here he did the same with former British Prime Minister David Cameron,

8:50 declaring him persona Nongrada in the province.

8:53 And the province's Malvinus advocacy goes beyond just words and into action.

8:57 At times they've banned ships flying

8:58 the British flag from docking at their ports

9:00 and even blocked cruise ships from visiting

9:02 if they included the Malvenus on their itinerary.

9:05 They also approved this provincial flag

9:07 where this part represents Tier Del Fuego.

9:09 The white part represents the Albatross and the five

9:11 stars represent the disputed islands including the Malvenas.

9:14 They declared a song called the March of the Balvenas

9:16 as the official anthem of the entire province, even though the song only focuses

9:20 on the oppression of British rule of the Faullands,

9:22 mandating that it's performed alongside

9:24 the national anthem at all official events.

9:27 One of the lines of that song translates to, "No land is more wanted than

9:31 the fatherland as a whole." This snippet is

9:33 printed on the entire country's 50 peso note,

9:36 whose design fully focuses on the Malvvenas.

9:40 In addition to a map of the islands

9:42 and another instance of the biccontinental map,

9:44 the flip side of the note includes a depiction of a gaucho,

9:47 essentially a cowboy by the name of Antonio Rivero.

9:51 Who he was and what he did is one of the greatest

9:53 instances of divergent interpretations of history between Argentina and Britain.

9:58 Leading up to his era,

9:59 the British were the first of the two to start a settlement on the Faullands.

10:03 It was called Port Eggmont, but it was abandoned just years later as the country

10:07 faced economic pressure in part due to the American Revolution.

10:10 As they departed, the British left a plaque asserting their territorial claim.

10:14 Three decades later, after a moment of Spanish control, the islands lay empty,

10:18 and Argentina was now independent of its colonial masters.

10:21 The new country believed it had rights to the Malvinus,

10:24 largely based on it being the successor to the Spanish

10:26 territory that itself purported to include the islands.

10:29 The Spanish claim was based on a combination of first discovery,

10:32 although that's disputed,

10:33 and broad territorial divisions between the Spanish and Portuguese empires.

10:37 Regardless, by this time,

10:38 Argentina was fully aware the islands existed and believed they were theirs.

10:43 The exact details of what happened next are also at times disputed,

10:46 but more or less an Argentinian privateeer ended up in the Maldinas,

10:50 either by order or by chance,

10:52 and issued some sort of formal declaration of the country's claim.

10:56 This forms part of Argentina's modern-day claim since

10:59 the islands were otherwise uninhabited at the time

11:01 and many scholars find a mere plaque

11:03 a dubious assertion of sovereignty by the British.

11:06 What Argentina did not do, however, was set up a formal civilian settlement.

11:11 Rather, they permitted various attempts by business people

11:14 to set up privately funded commercial ventures on the islands,

11:17 mostly focused on rounding up the feral cattle.

11:20 The first successful venture came 6 years later, led by Louis Verete.

11:24 Renee did not have strong allegiances to any particular nation.

11:28 He was born in Germany but lived in Argentina prior to this mission.

11:31 Aware of the territorial ambiguity,

11:33 he had gained approval from both Argentina and Britain to go to the islands

11:37 and reportedly indicated to the British that he

11:39 would welcome an assertion of sovereignty by them.

11:41 But despite this, Argentina named him governor of the islands,

11:44 likely to assert their sovereignty

11:46 through demonstrating a formal government presence.

11:49 As part of his venture, Verete brought along Argentinian gaucho Antonio Rivero,

11:53 the figure from the 50 peso note.

11:56 Rivero continued to work the cattle after

11:58 Verete left and appointed an agent, Matthew Brisbane,

12:01 and the business continued to operate after British forces

12:03 came and reasserted their control of the islands in 1833.

12:07 But here's where history really diverges.

12:10 In Argentina, particularly in the era leading up to the war,

12:13 the story of Gaer Rivera was one of a rebel patriot.

12:17 They say that following the British invasion,

12:19 he gathered a group of his fellow gauchos and rebelled against the oppressors,

12:23 killing five, seizing control of the island's main building,

12:26 tearing down the British flag,

12:27 and replacing it with a makeshift Argentinian one.

12:29 He was then arrested by British authorities as they

12:32 recaptured the islands months later, brought to Britain.

12:34 But even the British courts didn't recognize their authority over the islands,

12:37 believing them to be outside their jurisdiction,

12:39 and therefore they deported Gaer Rivero to Brazil, a free man.

12:44 Most formal historians, even in Argentina,

12:46 now recognize that that story is more legend than legitimate.

12:50 Their consensus is that Rivero and his fellow

12:53 rebels were not motivated by patriotism.

12:55 Rather, they were just disgruntled employees.

12:58 Their new boss was paying them in devalued

13:00 promisary notes that the local shop no longer accepted.

13:03 They were prevented from returning to Buenoseres.

13:05 Their workload was becoming unreasonable.

13:07 They were just mad at their boss.

13:08 So, they murdered him,

13:09 the shopkeeper that refused their notes, and their allies.

13:12 As for the legal side, well,

13:14 it's true that the rebels were released by the British judicial system,

13:17 but it wasn't that the courts didn't

13:19 believe Britain held control of the Faullands.

13:21 Rather, it was that the courts

13:22 in England didn't have jurisdiction of the Faullands.

13:25 In the British legal system,

13:27 colonies had their own semi-autonomous government with a local judicial system.

13:31 But that hadn't yet been set up in the islands.

13:33 After all, it hadn't even been a year since they reasserted their sovereignty.

13:37 Lacking jurisdiction,

13:38 the courts therefore determined that they couldn't hold the trial.

13:42 In the century that followed,

13:43 the British maintained control of the Faullands and grew the population

13:46 from dozens to hundreds to thousands

13:48 of predominantly ethnically British settlers.

13:51 And while the two sides never relinquished their claims,

13:54 tensions remained relatively low.

13:56 Each side occasionally offered the other opportunity to negotiate,

13:59 but they never came to terms and hardly any real action occurred.

14:03 But in the aftermath of World War II, there was a global push for deolonization,

14:07 leading to Britain relinquishing much of its overseas territory.

14:10 and Argentina seemed to perceive this as an opportunity.

14:13 Rhetoric and pressure ramped up and during the 1970s,

14:16 the two sides entered into more regular,

14:18 more serious negotiations to attempt to rectify their differences.

14:22 While there were plenty of ideas thrown around,

14:24 the most momentum centered around a concept mimicking that of Hong Kong,

14:28 a formal transfer of sovereignty to Argentina

14:30 alongside a 99-year lease deal back to Britain.

14:33 The thought was that this would give generations

14:35 of notice to the islanders to calibrate their lives accordingly.

14:38 Britain appeared open to this as there was

14:40 a growing consensus that the Faulland's dispute was a nuisance.

14:44 While they were confident in their position,

14:46 the practical diplomatic and economic negatives outweighed

14:48 the benefits of continued control of the islands.

14:51 Argentina, meanwhile, was taken over by a military dictatorship in 1976,

14:56 and these new leaders started to form

14:58 a partially correct but ultimately catastrophic opinion.

15:02 Britain really did not care about the Faullands.

15:06 To test their theory, they sent a small squad to the island of Thu

15:09 in the also disputed South Sandwich Islands and they set up a base.

15:13 It took months for Britain to even realize what they'd done.

15:16 Essentially, from the British point of view,

15:18 an invasion of their sovereign territory, but Britain hardly responded.

15:22 They lodged diplomatic protests,

15:23 but for the most part left the Argentinian base alone.

15:27 Another signal came from a series of defense

15:29 cuts made by the Thatcher government in 1981.

15:32 They decided to decommission the HMS Endurance,

15:35 the only Royal Navy vessel dedicated

15:37 to South Atlantic patrol and therefore Faulland's defense.

15:40 This acted as another signal of British apathy to the Argentinians,

15:44 and they therefore concluded that Britain likely

15:46 would not resist an Argentinian military invasion.

15:49 It just wasn't worth it.

15:51 This, of course, was wrong.

15:54 Argentina successfully invaded and occupied the islands on April 2nd,

15:58 1982 after brief resistance by the limited British military presence.

16:02 In the weeks that followed, change came quick.

16:05 They set up a rudimentary government, painted over signs with new Spanish names,

16:09 mandated drivers to switch to right side driving, deported influential critics,

16:13 and generally treated the islanders more as prisoners than civilians.

16:18 Over in London, the Thatcher government quickly

16:20 ordered Royal Navy ships to sail south.

16:22 Then through time, this armada grew to over

16:25 100 vessels carrying tens of thousands of personnel.

16:29 About 6 weeks after Argentina's landing,

16:31 British troops set foot on the Faullands again,

16:33 and what followed was three and a half bloody weeks of battle.

16:37 Almost a thousand troops died, predominantly from the losing Argentinian side.

16:42 Back in Britain, Argentina's invasion led

16:44 to the opposite of what the country hoped.

16:47 In the years leading up to it,

16:48 few Britons knew much of anything about the islands.

16:50 Those that did were aware of them dispassionately.

16:54 They were just one of many far-flung colonial relics.

16:57 But immediately after the invasion,

16:59 there was overwhelming public and government support for military action.

17:03 In fact, the support was so great

17:05 that it transformed Margaret Thatcher's political prospects.

17:08 Prior to the war, her approval rating dipped below 30%,

17:12 but after its success, it climbed into positive territory above 50%.

17:17 There's every chance she would not have been

17:18 reelected in 1983 without this upswell in support.

17:21 And without that, it's hard to believe

17:23 she would have been elected again in 1987.

17:25 So that's to say, without Argentina's invasion,

17:28 Thatcher would hardly have been able to build

17:30 the divisive and massively influential legacy that she did.

17:34 It's at times hard to understand why Britain cares so much about the Faullands.

17:39 There's not much strategic value.

17:41 After all, they themselves are the source of much of the conflict in the region.

17:45 There's also not a ton of economic value.

17:48 While there is some oil, so far it's only been drilled

17:51 in an exploratory manner rather than fully commercial.

17:54 Part of the feelings could stem from Britain's

17:56 identity as the former foremost global power.

18:00 The British Empire was the largest in the history of the world,

18:04 encompassing a full quarter of the global population.

18:08 That age is long gone.

18:10 Through decolonization,

18:12 it steadily lost the vast majority of overseas territory.

18:15 Largely since, in almost every case,

18:17 there was a local population who had the right to self-determination,

18:20 and most determined that they did not want to be British.

18:24 The Faullands were different.

18:26 There wasn't an indigenous population that was displaced,

18:28 oppressed, or destroyed.

18:30 They were just empty islands, and the society that grew was largely

18:34 of ethnically British people who always identified as British.

18:38 Therefore, the strength of Britain's claim to the Faullands was and remains

18:42 far stronger than that to much of the rest of the empire,

18:46 even if it's not 100% airtight.

18:48 Faulland Islanders did vote on the issue in 2013,

18:51 and 99.8% elected to remain British.

18:54 So, at least under the principle of self-determination, the claim is strong.

19:00 Still to this day, the remnants of the British Empire continue to erode.

19:04 As recently as May 2025, it shrunk yet further with the transfer

19:08 of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Maitius.

19:11 The legacy here was different.

19:12 There was a similarly messy legal claim to the territory,

19:15 but international pressure was much more significant since the UK did displace

19:20 thousands of islanders to build a joint military facility with the US.

19:23 So, the fact that with the Faullands,

19:25 Britain believes it has full unambiguous rights perhaps strengthens

19:28 their resolve to hold on as they're simultaneously pressured elsewhere.

19:33 But of course, as the history leading up to the war proves,

19:36 Britain didn't always care about the Faullands the way they do today.

19:40 What changed is that British soldiers spilled blood over the islands.

19:43 Families lost their fathers and brothers and sons,

19:46 and the war was recent enough that the holes in those families still loom large.

19:52 To soften their stance on the Faullands would

19:53 be to diminish the sacrifice of these soldiers.

19:56 to a British politician.

19:58 Therefore, there's plenty of disincentive

20:00 to softening their stance on the Faullands.

20:03 Across the political spectrum, from labor to libdem to conservative,

20:07 there's striking consensus on the issue,

20:09 even if there's very much not with other

20:11 territorial issues relating to Britain's colonial legacy.

20:14 So, Argentina's mistake perhaps was the invasion.

20:18 Without it, there's every chance they

20:20 would have reached a diplomatic compromise.

20:22 But now, there's little international pressure for the countries to negotiate.

20:25 And beyond the hundreds of millions

20:27 of dollars in spending to support the islands,

20:29 there's little incentive for Britain to change their stance.

20:32 In Argentina, current willingness to press the issue appears relatively low,

20:36 but that could change at any moment.

20:39 The truth on both sides is that the average Argentinian

20:42 or Britain doesn't really care that much about the islands,

20:46 but they can be made to care.

20:48 The islands have always proved a useful

20:50 tool to drum up powerful nationalist sentiments.

20:52 So whenever that next proves useful for politicians on either side,

20:56 that's when the islands will gain relevancy once again.

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