ORIGIN OF THE SOVEREIGNTY DISPUTE

[monira khatun]

On June 10, 1829, the Argentine government issued a decree establishing the Political and Military Command of the Malvinas Islands. After remaining silent for more than half a century, during which Spanish and Argentine administrations had succeeded one another without opposition in the Malvinas Islands, the United Kingdom protested the decree in November 1829, amid a renewed interest in its strategic position in the South Atlantic.

At the end of 1831, a United States warship razed Puerto Soledad in special lead retaliation for the capture of American seal-trapping vessels found by Argentine authorities to be violating fishing laws. The Argentine government immediately began seeking redress from the United States and simultaneously sent a Navy schooner to restore order disrupted by the incursion of the American vessel.



Once order had been restored to Puerto Soledad, a British Royal Navy corvette, supported by another warship nearby, threatened to use superior force and demanded the surrender of the port. Following the expulsion of the Argentine authorities and settlers, the British government assigned a naval officer to remain on the islands in 1834, and only in 1841 did it decide to "colonize" the Falklands, appointing a "governor."
The 1833 act of force, carried out in peacetime, without any prior communication or declaration from a government friendly to the Argentine Republic, was immediately rejected and protested. On January 16, 1833, the Argentine government requested an explanation from the British Chargé d'Affaires, who was unaware of the actions of his country's ships. On January 22, the Minister of Foreign Affairs presented a protest to the British official, which was repeatedly renewed and expanded by the Argentine representative in London. The Argentine representations met with negative responses from the British government.