FALKLAND ISLANDS The Falkland Islands are a British Overseas Territory. They have a large degree of internal self-government, with the United Kingdom taking responsibility for their defence and foreign affairs. The archipelago lies in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf with the principal islands about 500 km east of the Patagonian coast at a latitude of about 52°S. The archipelago has an area of 12,173km² and comprises East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands. Their capital is Stanley, on East Falkland. The history of the Falkland Islands goes back at least 500 years, with active exploration and colonisation only taking place in the 18th century. The Falklands’ discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans is a circuitous tale. There have been French, British, Spanish and Argentine settlements during its history, and while Britain re-established its rule in 1833, the islands continue to be claimed by Argentina, which refers to them as Islas Malvinas. Argentina invaded the islands in 1982, resulting in the two-month-long undeclared Falklands War between both countries. It resulted in the surrender of all Argentine forces and the return of the islands to British administration. The population consists mostly of native Falkland Islanders, the vast majority of British descent, and numbering about 2,840. Other ethnicities include French,GibraltarianandScandinavian. Immigrationfrom the United Kingdom, Saint Helena and Chile has helped to keep the population buoyant. The predominant and official language is English and under the British Nationality Act of 1983, Falkland Islanders are legally British citizens. The islands border the sub-Antarctic and temperate maritime climatic zones, withbothmajor islandshaving mountain ranges reaching 700m. They are home to large bird populations, although many no longer breed on the main islands because of the effects of introduced species. Major economic activities include fishing, tourism and sheep farming, with an emphasis on high-quality wool exports. Although oil exploration has been licensed by the Falkland Islands government, it remains controversial because of maritime disputes with Argentina.
SOUTH GEORGIA South Georgia is a real wildlife sanctuary and is home to over 400,000 birds, seals and other amazing creatures. It has been a BritishOverseasTerritory in theSouthernAtlanticOceansince 1775. It is by far the largest island in the territory, measuring 167.4 km long. Once a prominent whaling base during the 19th century until whaling ended in the 1960s, today the only remnants of this era are museums andwell preserved buildings. The Island of South Georgia is thought to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant, leading to it being labelled Roche Island on a number of earlymaps. It was also sighted on 28 June or 29 June 1756 by a commercial Spanish ship named León operating out of Saint-Malo. Captain James Cook circumnavigated South Georgia in 1775 and made the first landing. He claimed it for Great Britain and named it the‘IsleofGeorgia’ inhonourofKingGeorgeIII.Britisharrangements for the island’s government were first established under the 1843 British Letters Patent. A German expedition for the First International Polar Year was permitteda stationat Royal Bayon the southeast sideof the island in 1882-83. These scientists observed the transit of Venus and recordedwaves produced by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Throughout the 19th century, South Georgia was a sealers’ base. In the 20th century they were joined by whalers until whaling ended in the 1960s. Carl Anton Larsen of Norway established the first land-basedwhaling station and first permanent habitation in 1904 at Grytviken. The station operated through his Argentine Fishing Company until 1965. Volunteers from among the Norwegian whalers helped protect SouthGeorgianandAntarcticwatersagainstGermanraidersduring theSecondWorldWar, using two4-inch shoreguns that still canbe seen at Cumberland Bay and Stromness Bay. The Royal Navy also deployedanarmedmerchant vessel topatrol thewaters.Thebase at King Edward Point was later expanded as a research facility in 1949-1950 by the British Antarctic Survey. The abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbour on South Georgia was the starting point for the Falklands War on 19 March 1982, when a group of Argentinians posing as scrap metal merchants occupied it. On 3 April the Argentine troops attacked and occupied Grytviken. Among their commanding officers was Alfredo Astiz, a Navy captain who years later was convicted of felonies committed during the Dirty War in Argentina. British forces recaptured the island on 25 April inOperation Paraquet. In 1985, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands were removed from Falkland Islands dependency, becoming a separate territory. The King Edward Point base, a small military garrison, transferred to civilian use in 2001, and is nowoperated by the British Antarctic Survey.
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