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The Falklands Crisis of 1770 was a diplomatic standoff between
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
and
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
over possession 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 ...
in the South Atlantic Ocean. These events were nearly the cause of a war between Britain and Spain – backed by France – and all three countries were poised to dispatch armed fleets to defend the rival claims to
sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
of the barren but strategically important islands. Ultimately, a lack of French support however deprived Spain of any help, and faced with the Royal Navy alone they backed down and opened talks. The British thus had managed to gain a diplomatic victory, and reached an inconclusive compromise with Spain in which both nations maintained their settlements but neither relinquished its claim of sovereignty over the islands.


Background

Several British and Spanish historians maintain that their own explorers discovered the islands, leading to claims from both sides on the grounds of prior discovery. In January 1690, English sailor John Strong, captain of the ''Welfare'', sailed between the two principal islands and called the passage "Falkland Channel" (now
Falkland Sound The Falkland Sound ( es, Estrecho de San Carlos) is a sea strait in the Falkland Islands. Running southwest-northeast, it separates West and East Falkland. Name The sound was named by John Strong in 1690 for Viscount Falkland, the name only l ...
), after Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland. The island group later took its English name from this body of water. Early sightings of "Pepys' Island" were later determined to be a mis-mapped part of the Falklands group, which were still occasionally referred to as the Pepysian Islands. During the 17th century, the English government was to make a claim, but it was only in 1748 – with the report of Admiral Lord Anson – that London began to give the matter its serious attention. Spanish objections to a planned British expedition had the effect of drawing up the battle lines and the matter was put to one side for the time being. An uncertain equilibrium might have remained, but for the unexpected intervention of a third party: France. After the conclusion of the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...
, the French were eager to improve their position in the South Atlantic. Louis de Bougainville had, at his own expense, settled a party of Arcadians at Berkeley Sound on East Falkland in February 1764 (now
Port Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's e ...
), returning with more colonists and supplies in 1765. In January 1765, unbeknown to the French, the British, under John Byron, surveyed and claimed the Falklands, and decided that
Port Egmont Port Egmont (Spanish: ''Puerto de la Cruzada''; French: ''Poil de la Croisade'') was the first British settlement in the Falkland Islands, on Saunders Island off West Falkland, and is named after the Earl of Egmont. Toponym The original name ...
on the western island was the best site for a base. Britain's Cabinet, acting on a July 1765 report by Lord Egmont, immediately following Byron's report reaching him in June via the storeship ''Florida'', decided to establish a base at Port Egmont and dispatched Captain John McBride and a company of marines in October 1765. Responding to Spanish pressure on learning of Bougainville's settlement, the French reluctantly handed over Port Louis to their closest ally on 1 April 1767, and it was renamed
Puerto Soledad Puerto Soledad (''Puerto de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad'', en, Port Solitude) was a Spanish military outpost and penal colony on the Falkland Islands, situated at an inner cove of Berkeley Sound (french: ,Dom Pernety, Antoine-Joseph. ''Journ ...
. In June, Byron's return alerted Spain to Britain's various activities in the South Atlantic. Extensive negotiations, demands, and counter-claims ensued between Spain's ambassador Masserano and Britain's new (July 1766) government's Southern Secretary of State, the Earl of Shelburne, which dragged on for some years without progress, beyond clear communication by Britain that it regarded Spain's old rights by Papal Bull ''(all of the South Atlantic and all of the Pacific Ocean through to the Philippines)'' as defunct. As Shelburne recorded one response to Masserano in his notes:
The right of Navigation was so indisputably of our side that I could not consent to talk seriously upon it. That if the Spaniards talking of their possessions included the A erican& S
uth UTH or Uth may refer to: Universities * University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston * University of Texas at Houston (School of Public Health, Medical School, Dental Branch, ...) * University of Thessaly, Greek University * Universidad Tec ...
Seas, and that our navigating there gave occasion to them to Suspect a War, I had no hesitation to say that I would advise one if they insisted on reviving such a vague & strange pretension, long since wore out, as the exclusive right of those Seas.


Crisis

In June 1770, the Spanish governor of
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, Francisco de Paula Bucareli y Ursua, sent five frigates under General Juan Ignacio de Madariaga to Port Egmont. On 4 June, a Spanish frigate anchored in the harbour; she was presently followed by four others, containing some 1400 marines. The small British force was under the command of Commander George Farmer. Madariaga wrote to Farmer on 10 June that having with him fourteen hundred troops and a train of artillery, he was in a position to compel the English to quit, if they hesitated any longer. Farmer replied that he should defend himself to the best of his power; but when the Spaniards landed, after firing his guns, Farmer capitulated on terms, an inventory of the stores being taken, and the British were permitted to return to their country in the ''Favourite''.


Response

When Parliament assembled in November, the MPs, outraged by this insult to national honour, demanded action from the North government. Many were angered by what they saw as Britain's failure to prevent France from annexing Corsica in 1768 and feared a similar situation occurring in the Falklands. The Foreign Office "began to mobilise for a potential war". Amid this flurry of threats and counter-threats, the Spanish attempted to strengthen their position by winning the support of France, invoking the Pacte de Famille between the two Bourbon crowns. For a time it looked as if all three countries were about to go to war, especially as the Duc de Choiseul, the French minister of war and foreign affairs, was in a militant mood (he had advised the Spanish government at the beginning of 1767 that France would not be ready for naval war before 1770). But
Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...
took fright, telling his cousin
Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person t ...
that "My minister wishes for war, but I do not." Choiseul was dismissed from office, retiring to his estates. Without French support Charles and his government were forced to back down and Louis even pressed Charles to make concessions to the British.


Compromise

The crisis was resolved when Lord North, now Britain's Prime Minister, secretly offered to abandon Port Egmont if Spain first restored it. This was satisfactory; both were done: On 22 January 1771, the Prince of
Masserano Masserano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northeast of Biella. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,315 and an area of .All demographi ...
(ambassador of the Spanish Court) delivered a declaration, in which the King of Spain "disavows the violent enterprise of Bucareli," and promises "to restore the port and fort called Egmont, with all the artillery and stores, according to the inventory." The agreement also stated: "this engagement to restore port Egmont cannot, nor ought, in any wise, to affect the question of the prior right of sovereignty of the Malouine, otherwise called Falkland's islands." This concession was accepted by the Earl of Rochford, who declared that he was authorised "to offer, in his majesty's name, to the King of Great Britain, a satisfaction for the injury done him, by dispossessing him of port Egmont;" and, having signed a declaration, expressing that Spain "disavows the expedition against port Egmont, and engages to restore it, in the state in which it stood before the 10th of June, 1770, his Britannick majesty will look upon the said declaration, together with the full performance of the engagement on the part of his catholick majesty, as a satisfaction for the injury done to the crown of Great Britain."


Aftermath

The British reestablished their base at Port Egmont when Captain John Stott with the ships , HMS ''Hound'' and HMS ''Florida'' arrived. The port became an important stop for ships going around
Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...
but was abandoned in 1774 during the reorganisation forced by the approaching
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. Although the question of sovereignty was sidestepped, it would become a source of future trouble. Samuel Johnson described the implications of the crisis in his pamphlet "Thoughts on the late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands", looking at the British problem in holding such remote islands against a hostile mainland: "a colony that could never become independent, for it could never be able to maintain itself." For the British the crisis was a victory of diplomacy—a successful naval mobilisation which they were well prepared to mobilize, unlike France or Spain, and they used the situation to apply the greatest possible diplomatic leverage over both nations. As a result, the crisis greatly strengthened the position of the British Prime Minister
Lord North Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (13 April 17325 August 1792), better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was 12th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most o ...
, and fostered a belief during the American War of Independence that France would not dare to intervene in British colonial affairs. Conversely, the crisis was a humiliation for both France and Spain. For France in particular, it effectively ended the career of Choiseul, and would hold no subsequent position in the French government. However, Vergennes soon rose to power and held similar views to Choiseul on the necessity on reversing Britain's gains in the Seven Years War to restore the Balance of Power, setting the scene for a future role of
France in the American Revolutionary War French involvement in the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783 began in 1776 when the Kingdom of France secretly shipped supplies to the Continental Army of the Thirteen Colonies when it was established in June 1775. France was a long-term ...
. Twenty years later in a similar situation Spain asked for French support in the
Nootka Crisis The Nootka Crisis, also known as the Spanish Armament, was an international incident and political dispute between the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation, the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the fledgling United States of America triggered b ...
(present day
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
). This would also end up in favour of the British after another successful mobilisation of their navy and French refusal for support, leading to Spain again backing down.


See also

*
Antonio de Vea expedition The Antonio de Vea expedition of 1675–1676 was a Spanish naval expedition to the fjords and channels of Patagonia aimed to find whether rival colonial powers—specifically, the English—were active in the region. While this was not the first ...
* Coastal defence of colonial Chile *
History of the Falkland Islands The history of the Falkland Islands ( es, Islas Malvinas) goes back at least five hundred years, with active exploration and colonisation only taking place in the 18th century. Nonetheless, the Falkland Islands have been a matter of controversy ...
*
Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands (1833) In December 1832, two naval vessels were sent by the United Kingdom to re-assert British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands ( es, Islas Malvinas), after the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata (part of which later became Argentina) ign ...
*
Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands Sovereignty over the Falkland Islands ( es, Islas Malvinas) is disputed by Argentina and the United Kingdom. The British claim to sovereignty dates from 1690, when they made the first recorded landing on the islands, and the United Kingdom has exe ...
* Timeline of the history of the Falkland Islands


References


Citations


General and cited sources

* * Goebel, Julius. ''The Struggle for the Falkland Islands: A Study in Legal and Diplomatic History''. Oxford University Press, 1927. * * * Laver, Roberto C
''The Falklands/Malvinas Case''
Martinus Nijhoff, 2001. . * * . * * * {{Falkland Islands topics 1770 in Great Britain 1770 in international relations 1770 in the British Empire 1770 in the Falkland Islands 1770 in the Spanish Empire 18th century in the Falkland Islands Conflicts in 1770 History of the Falkland Islands Military history of Spain