Argentine irredentism is the idea of Argentina's sovereignty over the British Overseas Territories of the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = , song = , image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg , map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oce ...

, along with the dispute with

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

over the

Southern Patagonian Ice Field The Southern Patagonian Ice Field ( es, Hielo Continental or '), located at the Southern Patagonic Andes between Chile and Argentina, is the world's second largest contiguous extrapolar ice field. It is the bigger of two remnant parts of the P ...

and disputes with both over the region designated as

Argentine Antarctica Argentine Antarctica ( es, Antártida Argentina or Sector Antártico Argentino) is an area of Antarctica claimed by Argentina as part of its national territory. It consists of the Antarctic Peninsula and a triangular section extending to the ...

Neighbour countries

The territory of modern Argentina was once part of a Spanish viceroyalty, the

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ( es, Virreinato del Río de la Plata or es, Virreinato de las Provincias del Río de la Plata) meaning "River of the Silver", also called " Viceroyalty of the River Plate" in some scholarly writings, i ...

, whose administrative capital was in Buenos Aires. The Argentine War of Independence broke the ties to Spain, creating a new independent state, but started as well a process of

balkanization Balkanization is the fragmentation of a larger region or state into smaller regions or states, which may be hostile or uncooperative with one another. It is usually caused by differences of ethnicity, culture, and religion and some other factor ...

, as the administrative dependencies of the viceroyalty had weak links with each other and support to Spanish Monarchy was still strong in

Upper Peru Upper Peru (; ) is a name for the land that was governed by the Real Audiencia of Charcas. The name originated in Buenos Aires towards the end of the 18th century after the Audiencia of Charcas was transferred from the Viceroyalty of Peru to t ...

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Argentine province of the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the 7th most-populous city in Argentina. The city serves as the cultural and economic ce ...

and scattered areas elsewhere. Once the wars of independence and the civil wars ended, the territory of the Spanish viceroyalty was occupied by four independent countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. Revisionist historian Vicente Quesada began the

territorial nationalism Territorial nationalism describes a form of nationalism based on the belief that all inhabitants of a particular territory should share a common national identity, regardless of their ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural and other differences. ...

in Argentina, envisioning the territory of the Spanish Viceroyalty as a sort of "Great Argentina", the national limits the country should have had, which fell into Balkanization by a mixture of foreign interventions by Britain and Brazil, the apathy of the

Unitarian Party Unitarianists or Unitarians (in Spanish, ''Unitarios'') were the proponents of the concept of a unitary state (centralized government) in Buenos Aires during the civil wars that shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in ...

, and poor Argentine diplomacy. This view, disdainful of the neighbour countries, was crafted in the 1880s decade, influenced by the Argentine territorial expansion caused by the

Conquest of the desert The Conquest of the Desert ( es, Conquista del desierto) was an Argentine military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s with the intention of establishing dominance over the Patagonian Desert, inhabited primar ...

and by the Great European immigration wave to Argentina. According to Quesada, Juan Manuel de Rosas and Bartolomé Mitre would have led policies attempting to revert the balkanization, at least partially. However, there is no documented interest of Rosas in the annexation of Bolivia, or just the Tarija province, maintaining the apathy of

Bernardino Rivadavia Bernardino de la Trinidad González Rivadavia (May 20, 1780 – September 2, 1845) was the first President of Argentina, then called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, from February 8, 1826 to June 27, 1827. He was educated at t ...

over it. According to the mainstream Uruguayan historiography, the main goal of Rosas during the war with Uruguay was to destroy the economic power of Montevideo, a rival port of Buenos Aires since colonial times.Cavalieri, p. 21. Paraguay stayed neutral during the Argentine Civil Wars during Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia's rule, not allowing even the political asylum of the Unitarians; Rosas stayed in good terms with Paraguay for this. When

Carlos Antonio López Carlos Antonio López Ynsfrán (November 4, 1792 – September 10, 1862) served as leader of Paraguay from 1841 to 1862. Early life López was born at Manorá (Asunción) on November 4, 1792, as one of eight children. He graduated from Real C ...

proclaimed the independence of Paraguay in 1842, Rosas did not take a defined position towards it (he did not accept nor reject it) but sold weapons to López and did not take any military action against Paraguay, in order to maintain him in a neutral position in the civil wars.

Falkland Islands

It considers the archipelago part of the Tierra del Fuego Province, along with South Georgia and the

South Sandwich Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = , song = , image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg , map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oce ...

. The Argentine claim is included in the transitional provisions of the

Constitution of Argentina The Constitution of the Argentine Nation ( es, Constitución de la Nación Argentina) is the basic governing document of Argentina, and the primary source of existing law in Argentina. Its first version was written in 1853 by a constitutional ...

as amended in 1994: In June 2009, the Argentine government said it intended to regain sovereignty over the Falkland Islands by peaceful means.

Southern Patagonian Ice Field

of the Chile–Argentina border, between Mount Fitzroy and

Cerro Murallón Cerro Murallón is a glacier mountain of the Andes, in Patagonia, located on the eastern edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field , southwest of Lake Viedma, at the border between Chile and Argentina. On the Argentine side, the hill has been ...

, remain undefined, on the extrapolar ice field of Southern Patagonia. This desolate uninhabitable region is the last remaining border dispute between Chile and Argentina, outside of Antarctica. On 1 August 1991 the governments of Chile and Argentina had agreed on a borderline, but it was never ratified by the Argentine parliament due to its supposed favoring of Chile. The Argentine Parliament believed the border needed to be pushed farther west to encompass a larger part of the ice field as it provides a large deposit of fresh water, but the Chilean government felt it was already pushed too far west thinning their already thin strip of land in the region. The dispute would come up for demarcation again in 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2009; however no official boundary has ever been reached.

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