The Falklands War: History as Myth and Metaphor

Abstract

For well over a hundred years the attitude of the British government and people towards the Falkland Islands ranged between ambivalence and indifference. Argentina was never allowed to press home its claims to sovereignty but this did not mean that Britain’s representatives ever felt complete confidence in the justice of their position. There was even less conviction about the desirability of retaining control of a place at once bleak, remote, sparsely populated and expensive to administer. Concern for the Falklanders themselves was undermined increasingly by a suspicion that their bloodymindedness alone was preventing an amicable transfer of power to Argentina. All this changed on 2 April 1982 with the successful storming of the British Royal Marine garrison at Port Stanley by Argentinian troops.’