Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: Were there inhabitants on the Falkland Islands when they were discovered?
The islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans. 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 Argentina with five ships and 1400 soldiers forcing the British to leave Port Egmont. Britain and Spain almost went to war over the islands, but the British government decided that it should withdraw its presence from many overseas settlements in 1774. Spain, which had a garrison at Puerto Soledad on East Falklands, administered the garrison from Montevideo until 1811 when it was compelled to withdraw by pressures resulting from the Peninsular War. In 1833, the British returned to the Falkland Islands. Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April 1982. The British responded with an expeditionary force that forced the Argentines to surrender.
The Falklands Expedition occurred in late 1831 when the United States Navy warship USS "Lexington" was dispatched to investigate the plunder of two whalers at the small Argentine colony of Puerto Soledad. American forces discovered that the settlers were suffering from famine so they were evacuated in the "Lexington" to the mainland. The Argentine colony was then abandoned which left the islands unsettled and open for British acquisition. Historically, the Argentine government has disputed the rights to the islands with the United Kingdom and it culminated in the Falklands War of 1982.
When organising his notes on the last stage of the "Beagle" expedition, Darwin wrote of his growing suspicions that the differences between the various Galápagos Islands mockingbirds and tortoises, as well as the possible dissimilarity of West Falkland and East Falkland Islands wolves, were but variants that differed depending on which island they came from:
The route by which the Falkland Islands wolf was established in the islands was unknown for a long time, as the islands have never been connected to the mainland and there are no other native land mammals. No other oceanic island as remote as the Falklands has a native canid; the island fox of California in the US and Darwin's fox of Chile both inhabit islands much closer to a continent.
When Charles Darwin visited the islands in 1833 he found the species present in both West and East Falkland and tame. However, at the time of his visit the animal was already very rare on East Falkland, and even on West Falkland its numbers were declining rapidly. By 1865, it was no longer found on the eastern part of East Falkland. He predicted that the animal would join the dodo among the extinct within "a very few years." It was hunted for its valuable fur, and the settlers, regarding the wolf as a threat to their sheep, poisoned it. However, the belief that Falkland Islands wolf was a threat to sheep was probably due to the sheep mistaking the Falkland Islands wolves for dogs (especially at night), and, in terror, the sheep ran into bogs and swamps, where they became lost. There were no forests for the animal to hide in, and it had no fear of man; it was possible to lure the animal with a chunk of meat held in one hand, and kill it with a knife or stick held in the other. However, it would defend itself occasionally if it needed to, as Admiral George Grey noted when they landed on West Falkland at Port Edgar on 17 December 1836:
Spain made claims that the Falkland Islands were held under provisions in the 1713 which settled the limits of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. However, the treaty only promised to restore the territories in the Americas held prior to the War of the Spanish Succession. The Falkland Islands was not held at the time, and were not mentioned in the treaty. When Spain discovered the British and French colonies on the Islands, a diplomatic row broke out among the claimants. In 1766, Spain and France, who were allies at the time, agreed that France would hand over Port Saint Louis, and Spain would repay the cost of the settlement. France insisted that Spain maintain the colony in Port Louis and thus prevent Britain from claiming the title to the Islands and Spain agreed. Spain and Great Britain enjoyed uneasy relations at the time, and no corresponding agreement was reached.
The Falklands remained uninhabited until the 1764 establishment of Port Louis on East Falkland by French captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville, and the 1766 foundation of Port Egmont on Saunders Island by British captain John MacBride.[upper-alpha 3] Whether or not the settlements were aware of each other's existence is debated by historians.[25] In 1766, France surrendered its claim on the Falklands to Spain, which renamed the French colony Puerto Soledad the following year.[26] Problems began when Spain discovered and captured Port Egmont in 1770. War was narrowly avoided by its restitution to Britain in 1771.[27]
The geological history of the Falkland Islands began during the Precambrian era more than 1000 million years ago, when Proterozoic granites and gneisses were laid down in Gondwana. These rocks became part of the Cape Meredith/ formation and outcrop at the Cape. During the Siluro-Devonian era, these rocks were overlain with quartzose and subarkosic sandstones with some siltstone and mudstone, rocks that are particularly erosion- and weather-resistant, giving these parts of the islands a rugged landscape and coastline.
Tectonic forces continued to form the region: a mountain chain formed, part of which now creates Wickham Heights on East Falkland Island and extends westwards through West Falkland into the Jason Islands. A basin developed and was filled with land-based, or terrigenous, sediments. These layers of sand and mud filled the basin as it sank and as they hardened they produced the rocks of the sedimentary Lafonia Group of the Falklands. These rocks are similar to those in southern Africa's Karoo basin.
Falklands culture is based on the cultural traditions of its British settlers. It has also been influenced by Hispanic South America.[135] Falklanders still use some terms and place names from the former Gaucho inhabitants.[142] The Falklands' predominant and official language is English, with the foremost dialect being British English; nonetheless, inhabitants also speak Spanish and other languages.[135] According to naturalist Will Wagstaff, "the Falkland Islands are a very social place, and stopping for a chat is a way of life".[142]
As part of the agreement, islanders had to travel via Argentina and were forced to carry Argentine Identity Cards issued in Buenos Aires. The Tarjeta Provisoria or "white card" as they were known were hated by the islanders, who felt they were a de facto Argentine passport, since only islanders were required to use them and not other temporary residents of the islands. Tensions were raised further with the agreement that male Falkland Islanders would not have to undertake conscription into the Argentine Army, since this carried the implication that Falkland Islanders were Argentine citizens.
The post was created in 1985 when South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands was split from the Falkland Islands Dependencies to create a new overseas territory. As the territory has no native inhabitants, and the only population is the visiting military garrisons, and scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, there was no appointment of a governor. Instead the post of Commissioner was created, the normal practice for uninhabited territory. The post was to be held by the current Governor of the Falkland Islands, as that is the nearest inhabited overseas territory to SGSSI, and the presence of the Royal Navy in the South Atlantic allows the Commissioner to be transported to the territory relatively quickly if necessary.
Following the abandonment of the archipelago by the Spanish authorities in 1811, the only inhabitants of the islands were people who in their various capacities travelled back and forth, carried out a variety of commercial and shipping activities, sought refuge there, and through various efforts attempted to colonize the islands. Most numerous by far among them were the English and American sealers who had pursued their industry on the Falklands at least since the 1770s, as pointed out by US Secretary of State Edward Livingston. The average number of English and American sealing vessels operating in the area is estimated between 40 and 50 meaning that several hundred to 1,000 sealers were involved.
While Amerindians from Patagonia could have visited the Falklands,[1] [2] the islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans.[3] Recent discoveries of arrowheads in Lafonia (on the southern half of East Falkland) as well as the remains of a wooden canoe provide evidence that the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego may have made the journey to the islands. It is not known if these are evidence of one-way journeys, but there is no known evidence of pre-Columbian buildings or structures. However, it is not certain that the discovery predates arrival of Europeans. A Patagonian Missionary Society mission station was founded on Keppel Island (off the west coast of West Falkland) in 1856. Yahgan Indians were at this station from 1856 to 1898 so this may be the source of the artifacts that have been found.
Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS) is an airline based at Port Stanley Airport, Falkland Islands. It operates unscheduled passenger services throughout the Falkland Islands. It also undertakes aerial surveillance of the exclusive economic zone surrounding the islands.
Civil air services in the Falkland Islands began in 1948 when the Falkland Islands government purchased two Auster Mark V light aircraft to improve communications with, and to provide air ambulance services for, outlying communities on the Islands to compensate for the poor road networks on the Islands. The first operational flight was on 24 December 1948, when one of the Austers was used to fly a girl suffering from Peritonitis from North Arm settlement to Port Stanley for hospital treatment. The two Austers were supplemented by a third Auster and a Noorduyn Norseman, both configured as floatplanes in 1950. By 1951, the service began to be referred to as the "Falklands Islands Government Air Service" or FIGAS. Duties included air ambulance, carrying mail, carrying Government officials and fare-paying passengers and freight.
The population (3,398 inhabitants in 2016)[6] primarily consists of native-born Falkland Islanders, the majority of British descent. Other ethnicities include French, Gibraltarian and Scandinavian. Immigration from the United Kingdom, the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, and Chile has reversed a population decline. The predominant (and official) language is English. Under the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983, Falkland Islanders are British citizens.
Although the first telephone lines were installed by the Falkland Islands Company in the 1880s, the Falkland Islands Government was slow to embrace telephony. It was not until 1897 that a telephone line was installed between Cape Pembroke lighthouse and the police station. The islands isolation was broken in 1911 when Guglielmo Marconi installed a wireless telegraphy station that enabled telegrams to be sent to mainland Uruguay.[42]
Before the current Falkland Islands Constitution came into force on 1 January 2009, Falkland Islands Status was defined by the 1985 Constitution, under which a person was eligible for Falkland Islands Status if they were:
The Falkland Islands, a cluster of 780 islands off the eastern coast of Argentina, had no indigenous population when the British arrived to explore the islands in 1690. Continuous settlement dates only to 1833, when British forces removed 26 Argentinian soldiers from the islands and claimed the islands for the British. In 1845, the Capital city of Stanley, located on East Falkland, was established. Argentina also has a claim to the islands, and in 1982, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands. The British moved to defend the British control of the Islands, with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher calling the Islanders "of British tradition and stock". In under three months, nearly a thousand people were killed, and over 2,000 were injured. British-Argentinian tension regarding claim to the Islands still exists, but as over 98% of Islanders voted to remain under British sovereignty in the last election, the identity of the island overall is overwhelmingly British. This history has implications for the linguistic features of Falkland Islands English, which is similar to British English but distinct in some vocabulary and phonology.
The main settlements in the islands are at Stanley which as of 2012 had a population of 2,121, and RAF Mount Pleasant, which in 2006 had a population of about 1,700. A further 351 people lived in ""Camp" (outside Stanley) − just over half in East Falkland, a third in West Falkland and the remainder on outlying islands. The principal settlements on East Falkland (excluding Stanley and Mount Pleasant) are at Darwin and Goose Green, on West Falkland at Port Howard and Fox Bay and on the islands, the Pebble Island Settlement. At the time of the Falklands War, the settlements in "Camp" were connected by tracks that were often impassable in wet weather, but by 2007 the Falkland Islands had a road network of , with further roads planned for construction to link all occupied mainland settlements by 2013.
The Falkland Islands, off the south coast of Argentina, were simultaneously claimed for Louis XV of France, in 1764, and George III of the United Kingdom, in 1765, though the French colony was ceded to Charles III of Spain in 1767. By 1833, however, the islands were under full British control. The South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands were discovered by Captain James Cook for George III in January 1775, and from 1843 were governed by the British Crown-in-Council through the Falkland Islands, an arrangement that stood until the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands were incorporated as a distinct British overseas territory in 1985. The monarch is represented in these regions by Nigel Phillips, who is both the Governor of the Falkland Islands and the Commissioner for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
In 2015, the university opened to the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands. The academic program was translated into English, language courses were designed and a system of special scholarship was established. Thus, National University of the Patagonia San Juan Bosco became the first Argentine university to extend their academic offer to Falkland Islanders.
Although Fuegians from Patagonia may have visited the Falkland Islands in prehistoric times,[17] the islands were uninhabited when Europeans first discovered them.[18] Claims of discovery date back to the 16th century, but no consensus exists on whether early explorers discovered the Falklands or other islands in the South Atlantic.[19][20][upper-alpha 2] The first recorded landing on the islands is attributed to English captain John Strong, who, en route to Peru's and Chile's littoral in 1690, discovered the Falkland Sound and noted the islands' water and game.[22]
The Falkland Islands have been claimed and occupied by several nations throughout its history, who generally used their national flags on the islands. It wasn't until 1876 that the islands were given a flag of their own, which consisted of a Blue Ensign defaced with the seal of the islands - an image of HMS "Hebe" (which brought many of the early British settlers to the islands, including Richard Moody, in the 1840s) in Falkland Sound, overlooked by a bullock (representing wild cattle which once roamed the islands). A new coat-of-arms for the islands was introduced on 16 October 1925, consisting of the "Desire" (which was captained by John Davis who is reputed to have discovered the islands in 1592) and a sea lion in a shield surrounded by the motto of the islands, "Desire the Right". This coat-of-arms later replaced the image of the bullock and ship on the flag.
The Argentine Republic claims the Falkland Islands (known in Spanish as "Islas Malvinas") to be part of its territory. This claim is disputed by the Falkland Islanders and the United Kingdom. In 1982 the islands were invaded and occupied by the Argentine military junta, starting the Falklands War. The islands were subsequently liberated by British forces just 74 days after the start of the war, which led to the collapse of the military dictatorship in Argentina.
The Falkland Islands remained a self-governing British overseas territory, but shortly after the war the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983 granted the Islanders British citizenship (replacing British Dependent Territories citizenship), strengthening the link between the Islanders and the UK. The economy also benefited indirectly from UK military investment and directly from development of fisheries. The future of the Falkland Islanders' link to the UK has been more certain as a result of the war, and the Islands' government remains committed to self-determination and British sovereignty. The only civilian deaths during the war were three women who were killed when a Royal Navy shell hit the house they were sheltering in during a bombardment of military targets inside Stanley itself.