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发表于 2010-1-22 09:26:56
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1771年01月22日: The Falkland Islands were ceded to Britain by Spain.
Map of Falkland Islands
Brief History of Falkland Islands
It is hotly debated as to who was the first person to spot the Falkland Islands. The English, Spanish and Dutch all claim to have sighted the islands, but these sightings were usually as a warning to others. Their rocky nature seemed as if they might catch the unwary sailor by surprise and throw his vessel in the harsh seas onto their craggy shoreline.
The first person to land on the islands appears to have been Captain Strong. He had been intending to sail to Chile via the Cape in 1690 but strong winds and storms drove him back to the islands. He found a welcome bay between the two islands and stopped to resupply his ship. He was surprised at the quality of anchorages and made the first survey of the Sound between the East and West islands. He named this sound after Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland (1659?694), who as Commissioner of the Admiralty had financed his expedition, and who was later to become the First Lord of the Admiralty.
The Spanish, French and British all felt that these islands might make a fine staging post for the notoriously treacherous stretch around the Cape Horn. The British had seemed to cede control of all South American colonies to the Spanish by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The Falkland Islands should have been included in this Treaty and yet it did not stop the French and the British from restating their own claims later in the Century. The French were the first to do so when the French explorer De Bougainville claimed the islands on behalf of Louis XV. They built a small settlement and a fort North of present day Port Stanley. They called their settlement Port Louis and they eked out a living as best they could before waiting for supplies the following year.
The British, possibly in response to the French plans, sent their own expedition to the islands under Commodore John Byron. He claimed the islands on the basis of prior discovery. He actually landed on the West Island at a point he named Port Egmont. He raised a Union Jack and planted a small vegetable garden to help resupply Royal Naval ships and sailed on. The following year, Captain McBride was sent to reestablish Byron's Port Egmont settlement and build a fort there. He was also given orders to clear the islands of any other nationals. he was to find a colony of some 250 settlers at Port Louis. This was far more substantial than he was expecting to find and way beyond his military capacity.
Technically, the British and French were both in defiance of the Treaty of Utrecht. However, the French were decidedly more friendly with the Spanish than the British were. The French negotiated to cede their claim to the Spanish (in return for a substantial compensation package for de Bougainville.) A ceremony was held at Port Louis in 1767 and a new Spanish governor was appointed - a certain Don Felipe Ruiz Puente. The colony was to be renamed Puerto Soledad.
It was actually the Spanish who took the initiative when in 1769 they sent Francisco Bucarelli with five ships and 1400 men to eject the British from their settlement, with force if necessary. The British commander, Captain Farmer, duly left the islands and landed back in Britain, much to the embarrassment of the Lord North Government. War was threatened between the two countries and much bellicosity was sounded. However, a diplomatic solution of a sort was found when the British were to be allowed to return to Port Egmont 'to restore the King's honour' - although it seemed as if it would be for a temporary period only. The Spanish still claimed full sovereignty over the islands.
Three years later, the British did formally leave the islands and they passed into the Spanish Empire for the next forty years. This arrangement was formally recognised by the British in the 1790 Nootka Sound Convention by which Britain formally rejected any colonial ambitions in 'South America and the islands adjacent'.
The Spanish claim on the islands would falter with the South American Wars for Independence at the start of the nineteenth century. The Spanish removed their formal representative and settlers from the island from 1810 and completed it by 1811. The islands were left to their fate for the next decade as sealing and whaling ships might call in from time to time to take advantage of the harbour and fresh water. It was not to be until 1820 that the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata would send a frigate to the islands to reassert control to themselves as the legacy of post-colonial Spanish claims to authority. Buenos Aires would appoint their first governor in 1823 who tried to limit the whole scale slaughter of seals which were in danger of being made extinct on the islands. A penal colony was also established on the island.
It was actually to be the Americans who would challenge this Argentinian claim to the islands. The governor arrested the captain of an American ship who he claimed was illegally sealing on the islands. The Americans had a warship in the area, USS Lexington, and it was despatched to secure the return of all American property - including the sealskins. The captain of the ship opened fire on Puerto Soledad, blew up their guns and arrested many of the inhabitants. He claimed that the islands belonged to no country therefore the Americans could not be prevented from whaling or sealing there. The Argentinians despatched a second governor whilst attempting to reassert his authority - unfortunately, he was murdered by the few settlers who had escaped the wrath of the Americans.
The British were to take advantage of this challenge to Argentinian authority. They despatched HMS Tyne and Clio under the command of Captain Onslow. He had been instructed to take and hold the islands for British. He encountered an Argentinian frigate attempting to hunt down the murderers of their governor. Onslow used his ships to order the Argentine frigate to lower its flag and leave the islands. The outgunned Argentine ship duly departed and Onslow claimed the islands on behalf of Britain.
The islands were not too prove as strategically important as they had initially been planned for. With the advent of steam power, ships could travel further and faster without the need for so many stops. The poor quality land and poor weather meant that food and victuals would not be forthcoming in any significant quantities. The islands did play a briefly strategic role in World War One and again in World War Two. In 1914, the Royal Navy would intercept the German Fleet returning from the Pacific off the Falkland Islands. Similarly, in the Second World War, a British flotilla would use the islands as a base to hound the German pocket battleship the Graf Spee which was finally scuttled at Montevideo.
The islands were briefly occupied by the Argentinians in 1982. This lead to Conflict between the two nations.
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