The Falkland Islands/Malvinas: The Conquest for Empire in the South Atlantic

This study examines the struggle for control of the Falkland Islands since the 18th-century. It explains the Argentine government's far-sighted development of the islands in the early 19th-century; assesses the heavy-handed intervention of the Americans; and explores Britain's reassertion of dominion. The author considers the theory that British colonization was a means of maintaining an empire of trade and commerce, and maritime pre-eminence. This account draws on hitherto unresearched documents relating to international maritime endeavours, and aims to give a balanced treatment of the claims of the British and Argentine governments to sovereignity over the islands - known both as the Falklands or Malvinas. The author's previous publications include "The Royal Navy and the Northwest Coast of North America" (1971) and "Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America" (1980).