ABSTRACT

The first serious landfalls in the area occurred in 1706 and 1707 by vessels from St. Malo, although as early as 1690 an English privateer named Strong had made a casual landing and named the islands the Falklands. This period saw the beginnings of a dynastic struggle between France and Spain, as well as conflicts, in which England too was involved, concerning commerce, and particularly relating to the assiento, the right to participate in the slave trade. Regardless of any claim based on prior discovery, it seems to be agreed that earliest settlement of the Falklands dates from the eighteenth century. The territory included the republics of Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay, as well as Argentina, and any one of these might have had as good a claim as the government of Buenos Ayres to succeed to the Spanish title in the Falklands.