The Postage Stamp War For The Falkland Islands

I think this may have been posted before, but since it's a current news story I thought some might still be interesting reading:

http://en.mercopress.com/2013/02/18...land-islands

Good article, wt1.

Thanks for sharing. I see they also worked the Canada XMAS 1898 debate into the article

K.

Interesting article wt1

Canada and Argentina were certainly not the only countries in the world to cause controversy over map displacements. Some stamps caused hot wars, let alone stamp wars.

I tend to stay the heck out of politics with stamps.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu, I agree but politics can provide interesting postal history !!

Whenever the economy gets bad, the Agentinian leaders bring up the Falklands/Malvinas to distract the voters from the economy.

Here is a better picture of the Argentina stamp and a recent stamp still claiming the MALVINAS ISLANDS .

It was Argentina's 1st in 1822, with the UK taking over in 1833.

Actually the British landed there in 1690 first. 1822 was a re-establishment of rule.

Apparently, the Portuguese were the 1st in 1522 to arrive in the Falklands, their maps published before Magellan's fleet returned. Also Magellan never mentions them in the voyage.
Englishman John Davis landed there in 1592, two years later Richard Hawkins arrived calling the Islands "Hawkins Maidenland". In 1600 Dutchman, Sebald de Weert, arrived naming them Sebald Is.
Next visit was John Strong in 1690.
No settlements were established until the French colony of Port St. Louis in 1764 renamed to Iles Malouines.
The following year John Byron, unaware of the French colony on the Est Island, visited the West Island and his visited lead to the establishment of Port Egmont.
In 1766 Spain evoked their rights in the Falklands requested the French to leave and after some compensation to the French then Spain took control of Port St. Louis in 1767, calling it Puerto Soledad. The Spanish from Buenos Aires forced the British out of Port Egmont in 1770 almost coming to wwar with the UK. In 1771 British once again assumed control in Port Egmont.
In 1776 the British abandoned the islands the troops needed in America & Napoleonic Wars.
It was still used as a commercial base for British sealing interests. In 1780 Spanish would destroy the remnants of the British colony taking complete control of all the Falklands. Spain abandoned the islands in 1811 during the Wars of Independence in it's other colonies. Commercial sealing continued by British & American Sealers during this period.
An American Privateer license to the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, now Argentina, in 1820 raised that nations flag on the islands. The British would retake the Islands without a fight because of their overwhelming forces in 1833 remaining British since. Alias for the War we know of!

All right, now we got us a debate!

Interesting warrehouse

I agree with you too philb, politics do make interesting postal history.

I am sure that this will be a political hotspot for some years to come. The British have already said, "If it's worth spilling blood over, then it's worth holding." (Not my words)

Chimo

Bujutsu

Whenever the Argentine economy goes sour, like most of the past 10+ years, the political bigwigs start whining again about the Falklands to take citizens' minds off the bigwigs' mis-management of the economy.

I was hiking in the Argentine Andes back in early 2002 when the economy collapsed. Vendors in & around the mountain camp, where my group was staying, stopped taking their own currency for transactions. They took only US dollars or British pounds; Euros were too new at the time and they definitely did not want German marks.

Thanks! Bujutsu. There are a number of nations that can lay some claim on the Falkland Islands.

I'd say from my readings that The British have the best claim, Spain, then Argentina followed by France.
Sorry to my Argentine friends out there!
The settlements during the 1820's were made up not so much of Argentinians citizens but mostly German immigrants. Only the leaders and few troops were from Rio de la Platas, Argentina! There may have been a small number of citizens. If anyone comes abound different information, we can compare notes! Take Care!

I see you have researched the subject Warrehouse
I didn't mean to imply that the British were first there but that that was the accepted date when they were there first.

Here is a link to a PDF for anyone interested - http://falklandstimeline.files.word...ears-pdf.pdf

I was at Stampex yesterday where Stefan Heijtz was signing copies of his Specialised Stamp Catalogue of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies.
A very interesting topic.

Nice book warrehouse. Looks interesting. Wow, are books ever expensive though. I have a small library on the marial arts. They helped with philosophy etc in classes with my students.

Peace



Chimo

Bujutsu

Anthony - do you know if he has a new edition of his catalog? (I'm guessing that might be why he was there signing)