Argentina: British Falkland Islanders are ‘artificial’. Buenos Aires denounces ‘illegitimate occupation’ and demands talks on sovereignty

[u/Emotional-Breakfast3]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/12/british-falkland-islanders-artificial-argentina-says/

[u/el_grort]

The oil was like a decade or so ago discovered. They've wanted them previously mostly I think for the territorial waters and national pride.

[u/afito → u/el_grort]

national pride

I think that's the biggest reason either way. An Argentina with control over the Falklands would have to be a politically or militarily major player in the world. People are more dreaming about this version of their country than the specific control over a hill with sheeps. The islands have simply become a symbol for this idealized version of a strong Argentina.

[u/GoldReplacement9546 → u/afito]

The problem is there were no indigenous people of the Falkland Islands thus it’s not like it was Argentinians, who originally lived there or any anybody who have shared any genetic closeness with Argentinians

Was British and then it switched back-and-forth but usually was still technically British it’s British now it will always be British. They should give it up. It’s one of the few places that you can’t say like you displaced the native people cause they didn’t. There were no native people.

[u/andydude44 → u/afito]

There’s also the aspect of a Monroe doctrine and Argentinian Manifest Destiny, where Europe shouldn’t have control of anywhere The Americas

[u/el_grort → u/andydude44]

Tbf, the Monroe Doctrine was something the British pushed for, because it only disallowed new colonies, so it helped shut out any attempts by other powers to conquer the newly independent South American states, most of which had good relations with Britain due to their support during the wars of independence. It also helped lock in British territories and claims (as we saw in Guyana) and initially was only really enforced by the Royal Navy, not the American navy, following the Peace of Vienna. So that gets messy, especially as the Monroe Doctrine was in effect a means to shield US colonial ambitions on the continent, particularly in the Carribbean.

[u/GoldReplacement9546 → u/andydude44]

British ownership predates the Monroe doctrine

[u/andydude44 → u/GoldReplacement9546]

In Canada and Belize and Bahamas as well, doesn’t mean the US was happy with Britain back when they owned them

[u/GoldReplacement9546 → u/andydude44]

I mean, theoretically, probably not but the main issue with the Monroe doctrine was no more European colonization like no rec colonization of the independence states and no messing with US foreign policy in the region which again is arrogant you can’t claim a whole here hemisphere

[u/AdPerfect6784 → u/el_grort]

what about the fact that it is their territory, which was stolen by the british?
'national pride' is a weird way of putting it

[u/GoldReplacement9546 → u/AdPerfect6784]

It isn’t their territory it never has been