Stanley, Falkland Islands
For a historian, the British settlement on the Falkland Islands is relatively recent in origin, in the period that historians call modern times. Hence the surprise to find the local guides using a dating system that constantly references times BC. It transpires that BC refers to Before the Conflict, that transformative event in the island community’s recent history. Thirty years ago, almost to the month, on 2 April 1982 Argentina invaded this British dependency with lasting consequences for regional and international politics. Mrs. Thatcher, the British Prime Minister who determined to resist the invaders by assembling a massive Task Force that sailed the length of the Atlantic Ocean, achieved a massive boost to her domestic popularity and soon fashioned herself into the “Iron Lady,” punching above her weight on the international stage.
Success in the war was far from inevitable, the naval task force was constantly vulnerable to air and missile attack and the U.S. government, was equivocal in its support; the President of Argentina, the bibulous General Galtiieri, was a key U.S. ally in its on-going wars in Central America. President Reagan was eventually persuaded to support the British and joined in the imposition of economic sanctions on Argentina and supplied vital intelligence, fuel, and missiles. A lasting friendship between Reagan and Thatcher ensued that was to preside over the period when communism collapsed in Europe.
The Conflict, as the war in which some 900 lives were lost is known locally, transformed the Falklands. An exclusion zone was created around the archipelago that was subsequently turned into a highly successful and sustainable fishery, so that the island community of just a few thousand inhabitants now nets tens of millions of pounds in revenues from fishing licenses. There is even talk of offshore oil, although to date no commercially viable reserves have been discovered. The education and health care systems compare favorably with those of the mother country and SUVs are much in evidence. Before the Conflict (BC) the islands were inhabited by increasingly impoverished sheep farmers, living on a monotonous diet of mutton and heating their homes with peat fires.
Our day visit to Stanley enabled us to experience life on either side of the BC divide. A “city tour” of Stanley showed us the smartened-up homesteads of the capital city along with a chance to browse the local shops and visit the delightful museum and Anglican cathedral and war memorials. Afternoon visits to a working sheep farm and a hydroponic nursery that supplies visiting cruise ships provided much interest as did the tour out to Gypsy Cove where there were good sightings of both steamer ducks and magellanic penguins.
