Falkland Islands – Home to Penguins, Sheep, and a Few People
Today we feature the Falkland Islands, the British Territory three hundred miles east of the tip of South America. We land in Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, located on east-most point of East Falkland. You see, the Falklands are actually two larger Islands, East and West Falkland, and then seven hundred seventy-six smaller islands. The total population of the Falklands is only thirty-five hundred with some twenty-five hundred of those living in the capital of Stanley.
The islands have quite the checkered past when it comes to governance. France established a colony on the islands in 1764. In 1765, a British captain claimed the islands for Britain. In early 1770 a Spanish commander arrived from Buenos Aires and forced the British to leave. Then Britain and Spain almost went to war over the islands, but the British government in 1772 was
withdrawing from many overseas settlements including the Falklands. Spain administered the islands from Montevideo until 1811, but then Argentina declared independence and the Spanish had to withdraw from the Falklands. In 1833, the British returned to the Falkland Islands, but the Argentines still laid claim to them – after all, they had declared independence from Spain, so just because Sp