A Story of Two Isles - the Falklands - part 12 - Introduction to the Falklands War

Welcome to the 12th part! Here starts the true tale of the war of the Falklands. I recommend however that you first read the previous parts of the saga if you haven´t already:

Part 1: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles
Part 2: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-part-2
Part 3: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-3
Part 4: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-4-the-rebellion
Part 5: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-5-british-expansionism-before-the-war
Part 6: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-6-battle-of-the-falklands-world-war-1
Part 7: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-7-world-war-2
Part 8: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-8-united-nations-first-claims
Part 9: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-9-a-rogue-flight
Part 10: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-10-a-hijacked-airliner
Part 11: https://steemit.com/history/@wolfenlord/a-story-of-two-isles-the-falklands-part-11-un-resolutions-more-incidents-and-a-war-brewing

      At the start of the 80´s, both Argentina and England were in crisis. Argentina was under a millitary rule, with profoundly antipopular economic policies. Being in a transition phase from one system to another, Argentina was bleeding out economically with a 90% annual inflation, and the fact that all popular protests were suppresed by force, making use of state terrorism. That is a story for another time, and here I am only going to do a brief summary, but basically the vast majority of public opposers and dissidents of the government, no matter how radical or moderate they were, ended up being "indoctrinated" at best, and kidnapped , tortured and murdered without trial by government agents in the worst case. It was the dirtiest time in Argentina´s history because on the other side there were also real guerrillas, assassinating military and government officials with improvised homemade bombs and commiting many other acts of internal terrorism. What I want to make clear is that it was not a fight between good and evil, but rather that the whole society fell face first into the mud and resorted to elements that were not ethical at all to do politics.

They were the least popular government of all times, and in the midst of an economic crisis, they needed ONE good news to be able to sustain their power (even though it was not an elected government), and in 1982, they believed they had just what they needed...

      The idea was simple: to retake the Falkland Islands, Argentinian by geographical right, but invaded and held(and pay attention because it was not a colonization, since in 1833 there was already an Argentine colony there, read the previous parts if it was not clear) by the British. There were also other issues that led to the use of force, such as that in international law it is interpreted that any country has the right to consider as part of its territory what it can effectively occupy for 150 years. In 1983 it would have been 150 years, and with an England gaining more time than ever and clinging to that territory after having discovered oil and making excuse after excuse in the negotiations, it was already clear that it would be impossible to recover them through diplomatic means.
      Another factor that contributed to the war, actually worked contrary to what the Argentine military high command believed. Since 1980, England had entered a deep economic recession, and in the midst of a country plagued by strikes, businesses closing, marches and riots against the government in the streets, Margaret Thatcher assumed. The Argentine military thought that, with all the British budget cuts, the British were not going to travel 13,000 kilometers to defend a small piece of land they had never wanted too much in the first place, even with the oil business involved. What they did not see is that Margaret Thatcher also needed a victory to distract the British people from all the serious internal problems that they were going through and to consolidate her position as the defender of the Empire.
      On April 2nd, 1982, an Argentine landing in the Falkland Islands was going to set in motion a war that would end up being important both for Argentina and for England.
      This is the story of that war, and since steemit is a different network, and after investigating the matter for several weeks now, I will make a different presentation of everything you have probably seen about it in the rest of the internet. What will differentiate it?, you would ask. Not only I am going to relate the facts, but I am also going to demolish certain myths and preconceived notions, since both countries after the war incurred in propaganda storytelling by relating it according to their convenience. I am going to let the reader judge both the true and the false things that were said around the world, both by Argentines and Englishmen. And beyond who I think is the true owner of the territory, I will honor the fighters of both sides by telling stories of courage and honor, for both sides. This x-ray of the conflict will totally change their vision of it, that's for sure.
This story is only just beggining, we actually start it on the next part of the saga... keep reading.