El Barbudo wrote:
I don't think she would see it as having any bearing on Argentina's claim.
That is already being said. The claim is territorial and has nothing to do with who lives there. Not sure how the work that one out given Argentina is a product of Spanish colonisation itself and Spain agreed to Britain's prior claim on the Islands in 1771.
The history is quite interesting.
In 1820 a Colonel Jewitt who was basically a privateer claim the Islands on behalf of The United Provinces of the River Plate but it is thought he was acting off his own bat for his own motives and The United Provinces of the River Plate never actually laid claims to the islands as a result of his visit and where seemingly unaware of this.
(The United Provinces of the River Plate which is basically the southern part of Argentina today but back then wasn't part of what was the new country of Argentina.)
Around 1824 a colony was set up by Luis Vernet who had also come from The United Provinces of the River Plate Vernet was aware of the Britain's claims and asked Britain's permission via its consulate in Buenos Aires to go there. He set up a colony which is the main basis for Argentina's claim today. In 1829 The United Provinces of the River Plate declared him military commandant and this got Britain's back up and protests were made back in Buenos Aires.
Britain went back in 1833 in an expidition led by a Captain Onslow and a bloke called Brisbane. They told administration to leave and to take the flag of The United Provinces of the River Plate down. Which is what happened. Argentina contends Britain booted the Argentine colonists off the island but apparently that didn't happen and the settlement remained. What did happen later was some bloke called Rivero and his gang killed some five of the colonists including Brisbane due to disputes over pay and conditions. In 1834 he was captured and sent for trial in London but got off because of typical British quirkiness that it was basically the wrong court to try him him (The Crown Court's never had jurisdiction over colonies). Rivero is considered a folk hero in Argentina for rebelling against the British but he actually rebelled against the colony set up by Vernet. Vernet's colony never recovered from the set back and basically failed and from then on it was the British who began to set up military outposts and so on.
Argentina as such didn't exist at the time and the current Argentinian constitution only came into force in 1853 minus Buenos Aries and the south which left the confederation of states that was supposed to make up Argentina. Argentina more or less as we know it today only came into being in 1861 when Buenos Aries rejoined the confederation.
