Abstract
Throughout the Falklands conflict, Chile played the role of a mysterious third participant whose presence was more felt than seen. During the war, the Chilean Falklands factor weighed more heavily in Argentine military strategy than is generally known. Conversely, within the British government, the Chilean connection was considered ‘the most sensitive subject of the war’.1 For these reasons, a good deal of speculation still remains about Chile’s role in the Falklands War. However, the latter was only one expression of Argentina’s territorial expansionism. Argentinian frustration over the failure to seize the Chilean Beagle Channel Islands was an important element in the decision to invade the British Falkland Islands and their Dependencies. Like the Beagle Channel dispute, this aggression was part of a premeditated plan to secure foreign strategic outposts in the South Atlantic and South Pacific areas. Territorial claims were disguised under a game theory of sovereignty whereby any claimed territory would become an imaginary ‘Argentinian sovereign territory’. The Falklands adventure led the Argentine dictatorship to develop a two-front military strategy out of fear of a Chilean military attack — despite Chile’s hasty and unnecessary proclamation of neutrality in the conflict.
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Notes
Colonel Romulo Felix Menéndez, Las Conquistas Territoriales Argentinas (Buenos Aires: Circulo Militar, 1982) p. 11.
General Osiris G. Villeagas, El Conflicto con Chile en la Región Austral (Buenos Aires: Editorial Pleamar, 1978, Anexo 1, Argentina [Lageografia en retroceso]).
Jaime Eyzaguirre, La Soberania de Chile en las Tierras Australes (Santiago: Zig-Zag, 1958), Article 3 of the Treaty, p. 47.
Jaime Eyzaguirre, La Frontera Hislórica Chileno-Argenlina (Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1962) p. 24.
Oscar Espinosa-Moraga, El Destino de Chile (1541–1984) (Santiago: Esparza, 1984) p. 119.
Francisco A. Encina, Historia de Chile (Santiago: Vea, 1989) Vol. 50, p. 62.
J.K. Bluntschli, Theory of the State (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1885) p. 229.
Michael Akehurst, A Modern Introduction to International Law (London: Unwin Hyman, 1987) p. 15.
Virginia Gamba-Stonehouse, Strategy in the Southern Oceans (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989) p. 101.
Colonel Sir Thomas H. Holdich, The Countries of the King’s Award (London: Hurst and Blackett, Limited, 1904) p. 176.
O.R. Cardoso, R. Kirschbaum and E. van der Kooy, Malvinas: La Trama Secreta, (Buenos Aires: Sundamericana/Planeta, 1983) pp. 364–5.
John Smith, 74 Days: An Islander’s Diary of the Falklands Occupation (London: Century Publishing, 1984) p. 251.
Rear-Admiral (R) Francisco Ghisolfo Araya, Origen y Desarrollo del Diferendo Limitrofe Austral (Santiago: Instituto de Investigaciones del Patrimonio Territorial de Chile, Universidad de Santiago, 1983) p. 35.
AgustinOyarzún Lemonnier, Guerra en las Falklands (Santiago: Editorial Cumbres. 1983) p. 378.
Carlos M. Goni Garrido, Crónica del Conflicto Chileno Argentino (Santiago: Ediar Editores, 1984) p. 176.
Ewen Southby-Tailyour, Falkland Islands Shores (London: Conway Maritime Press 1985) p. 1.
A.W. Singham and Shirley Hune, Non-Alignment in an Age of Alignments (London: Zed Books Ltd., 1986) p. 241.
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© 1992 Alex Danchev
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Sanfuentes, F. (1992). The Chilean Falklands Factor. In: Danchev, A. (eds) International Perspectives on the Falklands Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21932-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21932-2_4
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