A tour of the Falkland Islands and the remains of the 1982 war there

The Falkland Islands (Malvinas, in Spanish) are a British colony in the South Atlantic Ocean, claimed by Argentina.

When the Falklands were Spanish and the British were expelled from those islands
An interesting report on the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom

The Falkland Islands were included in the territories that corresponded to Spain in the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. The islands were accidentally discovered by the Spanish navigator Alonso de Camargo in 1540, but the first to establish a permanent settlement there was the French explorer and military man Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1763. France sold the islands to Spain in 1766, and the Spanish occupation began the following year.

British attempts to seize the islands led to the Battle of the Falklands in 1770, in which the Spanish expelled the British. After Spain abandoned them in 1811, Argentina took possession of the islands in 1820, but the British seized them in 1833. This remote archipelago continued to be claimed by Argentina, a claim that led to an armed conflict in April 1982, when Argentina invaded the Falklands, leading to a war that ended in June of that year with a British victory.

A few weeks ago, a Colombian YouTuber, Planeta Juan, published a couple of videos of a visit to these islands that have gone viral. In the first of these videos, he addresses the harsh life in the Falklands, a territory with strong winds and where the average temperature in the southern hemisphere summer is below 14ºC, dropping to 4ºC in winter (the videos are in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

The second video shows some vestiges of the 1982 war. In addition, the Colombian YouTuber visits two war cemeteries containing the remains of those who fell in that conflict, one British and one Argentine:

You can see some screenshots from the video here. Today, the Falklands have fewer than 4,000 inhabitants. There are typical elements of British culture, such as this classic red telephone booth. In the video, you can also see a double-decker bus like the ones that travel around London.

A former Argentine Army Panhard AML tankette, preserved in his garden by one of the islands' residents. In the video, you can also see an old Argentine Land Rover and the remains of a downed helicopter.

San Carlos Cemetery, also known as Playa Azul Military Cemetery, contains the remains of 14 British servicemen who fell in the Falklands War of 1982, the year in which this burial site was built. The British lost 255 lives and 775 were wounded in that war.

The Darwin Cemetery. It contains the remains of 237 of the 649 Argentine soldiers who fell in the Falklands War. It was built in 2004 and includes an image of the Virgin of Luján, patron saint of Argentina. Unfortunately, this cemetery suffers frequent acts of vandalism by the inhabitants of the islands. The author of the video briefly raised the Argentine flag here, which you can see in the image at the top of this post. He then left it there, along with other mementos next to the large white cross that symbolizes all the Argentines who fell in that war.