The Falkland Islands ( Falkland Islands in English, Spanish Islas Malvinas in ) are an archipelago of the South Atlantic located at 480 km of the coasts of the Argentine and at 940 km of the north of the the Antarctic. They form a British Territoire of overseas ( Overseas Territory off the Falkland Islands ). They are asserted by the Argentine and were the stake of a military confrontation - the Guerre of the Falklands - between the 2 countries in 1982. The archipelago is composed of two principal islands West Falkland and East Falkland, separated by a broad channel, the Détroit of Falkland ( Falkland Sound ) and more than 750 islands and small islands. The surface of the archipelago is of 12.173 km ² (surface equivalent to that of Northern Ireland) for a population of approximately 3.000 inhabitants including the 2/3 resident one in the Capitale Port Stanley.

Name

The islands are called in English Falkland Islands . This name dates from the forwarding carried out by John Strong in 1690, who named the islands according to his lord, Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland (a small town of the south-east of Scotland in the Fife). The Spaniards named the archipelago Islas Malvinas , derived from the French name Falkland Islands , given in 1764 by Louis Antoine de Bougainville, according to the sailors and fishermen of Saint-Malo, first known colonists of these islands.

Designation ISO is: " Falkland Islands (Malvinas) ". The Argentinian ones claim like international denomination the name of Malvinas.

Had with the dissension on sovereignty on the archipelago, the use of many Spanish names is regarded as aggressive on the archipelago, particularly those which are associated with the invasion of the Argentinas troops of 1982. The British general Sir Jeremy Moore did not authorize the use of Islas Malvinas in the document of rendering of Argentinian, regarding it as a name of propaganda.

The Falkland Islands have as a code SF, according to the Liste of the prefixes of codes ICAO of the airports.

History

The islands were seen by a Spanish forwarding in 1520. It then did not have indigenous population but recent discoveries of points of flêches and remainder of canoé let think that they were probably visited by the Amerindians Yagan of the Ground of Fire. The islands were occupied by sailors of Saint-Malo in 1763, who were expelled by the Spaniards in 1766. They remained almost uninhabited before the Argentine does not install a penal settlement in there 1820. The the United Kingdom conquered them in 1833 but Argentina maintained the principle of its sovereignty. A naval battle, the Battle of Falklands, took place with broad archipelago during the First World War, the December 8th 1914.

After tensions with Great Britain and a dictatorial mode with the barks, Argentina invades the islands in April 1982, but was driven out by it less than 3 months later by the British response at the conclusion of the Guerre of the Falklands.

Policy

The executive power is exerted by the governor, in the name of the sovereign. Defense, and all the external activities, are ensured by the United Kingdom. There exists a constitution, promulgated in 1985, envisaging eight legislative advisers elected for four years: five representative Port Stanley and three for the Camp (name of the remainder of the archipelago except Stanley Port)

Geography

The islands are located at 1  483 km of the South American continent. There exist two principal islands, Falkland Eastern (Soledad) and Falkland Western (Gran Malvina or Large Inhabitant of Saint Malo), and 200 small islands or small islands. The unit represents a surface of 12  173 km ².

The South Georgia and the Sandwich islands of the South are under the same jurisdiction as the Falkland Islands.

Economy

The main activities are fishing and agriculture. There would exist substantial but still unexploited raw material reserves.

The breeding of sheep remains the main activity of the island (in 2002, one counted 583.000 sheep on the archipelago) bringing an important source of revenue with the wool export of high-quality towards Great Britain. But the efforts of diversification begun into 1984 have since fact of the fishing the independent source of incomes of the Falklands and license also the development of tourism.

The government sells licenses of fishing with the foreign ships, paying more than 40 million books per annum of incomes, and there exists also a local fishing. More than 75% of the catches are Calmar, mainly exported towards Spain. Tourism also strongly progressed, with more than 30.000 visitors in 2001. The islands became a regular port of the steamers in the market growing of southern cruisings. It includes/understands visits of the island, of its wildlife mainly Manchot S, marine Oiseaux, Otarie S and sea lions, battle fields of the war of the Falklands, golf, fishing and plunged on wrecks.

An agreement was reached with the Argentinian ones for the offshore oil rig exploitation of the resources of which important crude oil reserves, but the climatic conditions of the southern seas make that this exploitation will be difficult, although economically viable and the persistent dissensions on the sovereignty of the archipelago block this development. The defense of the archipelago is ensured by Great Britain and the military expenditure on the archipelago contributes to the local economy. The islands are self-sufficing except for their defense; exports bring back more 125  million books per annum.

The largest company of the island is the Falkland Islands Company (FIC), a public company dimensioned on the London Stock Exchange. It is responsible for the major economic activity of the archipelago, although its farms were sold in 1991 with the Government of the Falkland Islands. The FIC operates now in the trade with Stanley and the port services and the activities of maritime transport.

The currency used is the Book of Falkland, which with the same parity as the Pound sterling. The tickets and coins of pounds sterling circulate and are exchanged on the archipelago with the local currency. The Falklands also strike their own coins and emit their own stamps, constituting a small source of revenue additional.

Population

The population was 2.478 (2006), primarily of European origin (British and Scandinavian), but one also counts a small Chilean minority. Two thirds of them live in the capital: Port Stanley; the others live in what is called the Camp (the 12.173 km ² of the archipelago, except Port-Stanley).

The inhabitants of the Falklands are called the Kelpers (of English kelp (Varech), very abundant around the island) but the inhabitants name the Islanders finding the name pejorative Kelper.

Apostolic prefecture

• apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands

Fauna

Among the birds nicheurs in particular the major Puffin ( Puffinus climbed ) meets on the Island Kidney which reproduce only on this site and three islands of the Archipel Tristan da Cunha.

See too

External bonds

• Official sites:
• Gate of the Falkland Islands
• Government of the Falkland Islands

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