The Falkland War

Question 1

Long-Term Causes: (Legacy of Colonialism)

Answer 1

• Dispute over the islands had lasted 150+ years
• Argentina claimed the islands in 1820, but Britain had occupied the islands since 1833 (had a community of 1,800 by 1885)
• 1965, after debates, the UN passed Resolution 2065 request negotiation over the islands between Argentina and Britain (these were ongoing in Feb 1982)
• Falkland Islanders wanted to be British

Question 2

Short-Term Causes: Economic

Answer 2

• Argentina had serious economic problems:
  
  • Cuts in public spending (did not work)
  • Attempted to restore the private sector (did not work)
  • Attempt to redress these made matters worse
• Britain:
  
  • Experiencing the worst rioting in the 20th Century
  • Unemployment reached 3 million
• Argued that both needed a foreign distraction

Question 3

Short-Term Causes: Political

Answer 3

• Argentina:
  
  • General Galtieri came to power in a military coup (Dec 1981) following the ‘dirty war’ and military juntas
  • Oppressive leadership (‘fascist style dictatorship’)
  • Needed political stability
• Britain:
  
  • Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979 (was one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers yet and lacked authority over her party)
  • Foreign officer had been reducing investment into the islands.
• Falkland Islands:
  
  • Islanders wanted to be British
  • Coalite (the company who had control over the Falkland Islands company) resisted a handover

Question 4

Immediate Causes: Military

Answer 4

• Argentina:
  
  • Navy (who had backed the coup) wanted an invasion
• Brtain:
  
  • Sir Henry Leach (representative of Britain’s Navy) claimed it was possible to recapture the islands

Question 5

Immediate Causes: Invasion and Response

Answer 5

• 2 April 1982, Argentina attacked Stanley
• 5 April, Carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible with 5 destroyers, 11 Frigates and 3 Nuclear Subs leave the UK
• 28 April, Britain establishes a Total Exclusion Zone (370km around the islands)

Question 6

Immediate Causes: Failure of Diplomacy

Answer 6

• Argentina only wanted sovereignty of the islands (claimed invasion was decolonization)
• Britain:
  
  • Isolated Argentina with UN resolution 502 (called for Argentina to withdraw)
  • 3 April, had France stop exporting weaponry to Argentina (Exocet missiles, Super Entard Aircraft)
  • Gained US support
    -“Naked aggression by anyone shouldn’t be allowed to pay”
• US + UN intervention failed as they could not send a peacekeeping force

Question 7

Course of War: Plans/Advantages

Answer 7

• Argentina:
  
  • Planned to cripple British forces before they reached the shore
  • Had shorter supply/communication lines
  • 13,000 troops
• Britain:
  
  • The Advance Force (Led by Comander Woodward) would gain air + sea superiority
  • They would then launch an amphibious assualt

Question 8

Course of War: War in the Air

Answer 8

• Britain had 34 Sea Harriers:
  
  • Were not combat tested
  • Carried sidewinder missile
  • Could takeoff + land vertically
• Argentina had 134 combat aircraft
• 1 May, Fight begins, 4 Argentine aircraft were shotdown
• Electronic warfare, Sea Harriers, surface to air missiles and Anti-Aircraft artillery destroyed half of Argentina’s planes

Question 9

Course of War: War at Sea

Answer 9

• 1 May, British forces were 160km NE of the Islands. North of them was Argentinian ARA Veinticinco de Mayo and to the South was ARA General Belgrano (was being tracked by nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror)
• 2 May, Belgrano was torpedoed by HMS Conqueror. Ordered by Thatcher due to fears of the Belgrano becoming untrackable. Resulted in 368 being killed and the rest of the Argentian fleet fleeing
• 4 May, HMS Sheffield was sunk by an exocet missile due to a failure of technology as HMS Glasgow could not warn HMS Sheffield who was communicating with London. 20 sailors were killed.