C.J.Woolf wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 2:24 pm
So Las Malvinas are both South Armorica and Little Little Britain!
Not to mention Falkland itself is a town in Scotland (singular) which has a 16th century renaissance palace that was used by the Kings of Scotland and was one of the favorite palaces of Mary Queen of Scots. It also had a viscounty. When John Strong was shipwrecked he thought there was just one island now known as West Falkland. When it was realised there were more they were pluralised - this happened in the Pacific too, the Gilberts or Cooks for example. He named it after the Viscount of Falkland. It is unclear what 'falk' means but one etymology ironically traces it to the Scottish Gaelic 'falc' which means heavy rain.
starjots wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:25 am
In a strange twist of fate, in WW2 the German ship named after the German commander in the WW1 battle (who was killed) was involved in another sea battle off the coast of Argentina and later scuttled.
Scuttled after trying to hide in Uruguay until they had no choice as the time to remain in neutral ports was running out and the British government put maximum pressure on Uruguay to clear them out - effective given Uruguay's economy at the time was heavily based on exporting canned beef to the UK. To the pount British soldiers nicknamed tanks in WW1 fray bentos over a brand of said beef that was made in a Uruguayan town of the same name.
There are a lot of film reels about this as is was a rare good news story in the early years of the war.
C.J.Woolf wrote: ↑Wed Jun 30, 2021 1:52 pm
The Wikipedia article on the Falkland Islands / Islas Malvinas is quite a story. Every settlement (French, Spanish, British, and Argentinian) was ultimately abandoned before the British returned to the islands with sheep in the mid-1800s and made a proper economy. I had thought the British mainly valued the Falklands as a coaling station, but Wikipedia doesn't mention it.
Only during certain parts of WW1 when German commerce raiders in the Pacific were a threat.
For most of its history it was mainly associated with whaling. As anyone who has read
Moby Dick knows sperm whale oil or spermaceti is found on an organ on the head of sperm whales. This was extremely important for 19th century houses as the main fuel for lamps that gave a higher quality light that smoky tallow candles. This was before the discovery of petroleum in Pennslyvania and Baku in the Russian empire towards the end of the 19th century that cut off the demand, though the Falklands still subsisted on demand for whale bones for corsets from whaling until that went too with the invention of the modern bra and the whaling population either returned to Britain or started to sheep farming like the rest of the island.
I have often heard it said their modern strategic interest likes in offshore oil, which is possible but speculative as there has never been proof of economically viable reserves. I should think they have far more strategic value related to their proximity to Antartica and territorial claims there that could become a live issue when the Antartic treaty of 1961 expires in 2041 and territory and resource claims on the continent are fair game again. (Ironically the US has never made a formal claim to Marie Byrd Land, despite FDR starting the process but I wonder if that will change after 2041.)