Why were the Falkland Islands so important for England that it went to war with Argentina?
Leaving out the long history of who owned the Islands when and at what time, it is a matter of historical fact that Argentina claimed it for its own when it gained independence from Spain in 1816. Then in 1833, the British took the Islands by force and sent the Argentineans packing home. This, as you can imagine, caused a lot of issues between the two countries in the 20th century. The British would have been quite happy to rid themselves of this headache, had it not been the many people of British decent who lived there and had no desire to be part of Argentina. The Juna that had taken over Argentina 1982 and proceeded to run the country in the ground. Many people believe (and I agree) that the Juna decided to start the war as a way to get the people to forget about their trouble and become patriotic about the war. Foolish dictators! The British never really believed that Argentina would invade the Islands and the Governor of the Islands was more then just a little surprised at the bu
