ABSTRACT
The British takeover of the Malvinas coincided with the rise to power of the Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas. Rosas had been elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 for a three-year term. Rosas mentioned the need to recover the Malvinas in his annual messages to the legislature, but nothing came of them. In 1835 the provincial legislature reelected him governor, this time with complete dictatorial powers. Because attempts to establish a national government had failed, the provincial governments were satisfied to give Rosas the power to conduct foreign military affairs for the whole nation, called the Argentine Confederation. The California gold rush of 1849 brought US and other vessels to the islands for supplies and repairs on the long voyage around Cape Horn. Everything might have continued as before had it not been for the unsound fiscal policies of the Argentine government under Miguel Juarez Celman.
