Iakovos Alhadeff: The Role of France During the Falklands War between England and Argentina in 1982

A very nice map from Stratfor, about the remainings of the British Empire at the South Atlantic Ocean. These are small islands, almost inhabited, which give the English and their allies the opportunity of having some military presence at the South Atlantic Ocean. They also give the English a claim on future oil and natural gas discoveries, and also ownership of a part of Antarctica, which is the only unexplored continent on earth.

I guess the most important British islands are the Falklands. The British control the Falklands since 1833, but the Argentineans never dropped their claims over the Falklands. In 1982 the Argentineans invaded the islands and the Argentinean-English War broke out, with the British regaining control of the islands in the end.

Map 1 British Territories in the South Atlantic Ocean

France

played a very important role in this war, since it was with the French Exocet missiles that the Argentineans managed to destroy Sheffield, a British destroyer, and also Atlantic Conveyor, a British commercial ship that was requisitioned by the British Navy during the Falklands War.

As you can read at the following BBC article, titled “How France helped both sides in the Falklands War”, March 2012, France’s official position was to support

England

during the war. However the French ambassador in England was calling an imperialist the then Prime Minister of

England

Margaret Thatcher. At the same time a French technical team was in

Argentina

helping the Argentinean army.

It must be mentioned that the special relationship between England and the United States in North Atlantic annoyed the French. The “special” relationship was one of the main reasons that the national socialist leader of France, Charles de Gaulle, withdrew

France

from NATO in 1966. De Gaulle wanted

France

to have better relationships with the Soviets, in order for the Soviets to support the French in their disputes with the British.

With the help of Argentina, and maybe Brazil, France could become more assertive in the South Atlantic Ocean. However France had to officially support England, because France has many small islands around the globe too, as you can see at the following map from Wikipedia’s “Overseas departments and territories of

France

”.

Map 2 French Oversees Territories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_departments_and_territories_of_France#/media/File:Outre-mer_en.png

Therefore it was not in the French interests to challenge the British ownership of the Falklands. But maybe it was in the French interests for

England

to lose the war.

Map 3 North and South Atlantic Ocean

At the following Wikipedia map you can see the French claims over Antarctica (blue color). Moreover France has military bases or military presence in many countries at the western coasts of Africa i.e. Gabon, Guinea, Cameroon,

Senegal

Map 4 Territorial Claims Over Antarctica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Antarctica_territorial_claims.png

Most African countries were French or British colonies at the beginning of the 20^th century. France was controlling West Africa (red color) and Britain was controlling East Africa (blue color), as you can see at the following map.

Map 5 French and British Colonies in Africa