The Falklands War

The inhabitants of The Falklands were (and still are) mostly Brits. Their ancestors were settlers from England, USA, Australia and New Zealand. The Falkland Islands became one of Britain’s crown colonies. In 1981 the Falkland Islands were named as a British-Dependent Territory.

On April 2^nd 1982 Argentina invaded the Islands and claimed control of them. They wanted their old territory back, the one Britain stole from them. But the Islands have always been fought over, by Argentina, Britain, France and Spain throughout the history. Since 1833 the Brits have lived there. Therefore the need of keeping the Islands was huge. They wanted to protect their people. In 1982 Argentina had had enough and claimed sovereignty.
The war lasted for two months- ending on June 14^th. By then 258 Brits and 649 Argentineans had lost their lives. The Brits spent a lot of money to win this war- and at the end they did. The Islands continued to remain under British control. But, Argentina will today not let go of the Islands.

The people in the UK thought the war was completely unnecessary, maybe not to protect the British inhabitants, but to spend a lot of money. Back home the unemployment rate was high. Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister at that time. Her economic policy was reduced state intervention, free markets and entrepreneurialism. This of course, caused unemployment. Only the strongest survived. They were indignant and didn’t support her decisions.

Margaret Thatcher’s resignation as Prime Minister was in 1990, after a reign of eleven years. Her policy was to save the British economy. When she resigned the country was in deep economically problems, because of her free marked.