Esteban Gómez from the ship San Antonio of the Magellan expedition sighted the islands while returning to Spain in 1522. The first English sighting was by John Davis in 1592. In 1690 the British, led by Captain Strong, made the first landing on the islands. Louis-Antoine de Bougainvillea established the first permanent settlement on East Falkland in 1764. The next year the British settled on West Falkland. When the Spanish bought out the French in 1767 they claimed the whole archipelago. The British made their own claim, and in 1770 reestablished their outpost on West Falkland. The British remained in control of the islands until 1982. Argentina claimed the islands as theirs beginning in 1920.
On April 2, 1982 Argentinean troops landed on the Falkland Islands. A month and a half later, June 20 Argentina agreed to "an unnegotiated cease fire," and left the islands.
In 1964 Argentina issued a set of stamps marking the 60th anniversary of its claim to Antarctic territory, and renewing its claim to South Georgia, South Orkney, and the South Sandwich Islands.
In 1987 Argentina issued a stamp bearing a Spanish map of the Islas Malvinas administered by Jacinto de Altolaguirre, governor of the Islas Malvinas from 1754-1787 for the King of Spain.
Argentina issued this stamp in 1976, still asserting it claim to the islands. The frigate "Heroina" pictured on the stamp was captained by David Jewet, a British subject who took possession of the islands for Argentina in 1820.
The pair of stamps commemorates 153rd anniversary of the "Creation of the Political and Military Command District of the Malvinas Islands," June 1829. The map identifies the Malvinas, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands as Argentine. Luis Venet was the first commander of the Malvinas Political and Military Command District.
This is the same map as 1365, but with a flag rather than a slogan in the middle.
On both of the above stamps (issued in 1982 and 1983) Cape Horn island was labeled as Argentinian, and the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva at the eastern entrance to the Beagle Channel are shaded like Argentina, which almost caused Argentina and Chile to go to war in 1978. The dispute was resolved with the "Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1984."
In 1952 the Falkland Islands included a map stamp in a set of 14 stamps. It has been suggested that there is an error on the stamp; that what appears to be 6° of longitude should be 60° or 61°. However, a close examination of the stamp shows that the longitude is, in fact, 61°, with the "1" directly in line with the meridian line.
Though the subject of the stamp is International Communications rather than the border dispute, an implicit territorial claim is being made by issuing a map stamp.
In 1981 the Falkland Islands issued a set of six stamps showing maps of the Falkland Islands from 18th century. They appear here in chronological order of their publication.
This map is adapted from A Chart of the extreme Part of South America in which are contain'd the Islands discover'd by the Ships of St. Malo since 1700 the Western Part whereof is Still unknown....Taken from a Draught in Monsr. Frezier's Voyage to ye Sea, first published in 1716. The chart was used as an inset on Emanuel Bowen's A New and Accurate Map of Chili, Terra Magellanica, terra del Fuego, etc., London, 1747.
Louis Antoine de Bougainville took possession of the islands in 1764, and established a French colony at Port St. Louis. Jacque Nicolas Bellin used survey information to draft a map, Carte des Isles Malouines ou Islaes Nouvelles que les Anglois nomen aujourd'hui Isles de Falkland, which was published in Bellin's Petit Atlas Maritime in 1764.
T. Boutflower published a map in 1766. in which the British and French changed their islands.
Philip de Pretot's Carte des Malouines nommees par les Anglois Isles Falkland appeared in Louis Antoine de Bougainville's Voyage autour du Monde, published in 1771.
The map is based on A Chart of Hawkin's Maidenland discouvered by Sr. Richard Hawkins in 1574 and Falkland sound so called by Capn. John Strong of the Farewell of London who sailed through it in 1689, which appeared in Hawksworth's An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the Order of his present Majesty for making Discouveries in the southern Hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Cartaret and Captain Cook, published in 1773.
The English established a colony on the west island in 1765. In 1766 Captain McBride prepared a chart based on his surveys of the islands. The map identified as Captain McBride's Survey 1766. It was published by Bowles and Carver in 1779 as New One Sheet Draught of Falklands Islands.
Based on an article by Walter Klinefelter printed in
The Carto-Philatelist, 37(1992)7-8