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The Falkland Islands (/ ˈ f ɔː (l) k l ə n d, ˈ f ɒ l k-/ FAW(L)K-lənd, FOLK-; [6] Spanish: Islas Malvinas [ˈislas malˈβinas]), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf.
The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) became a parliamentary representative dependency, whose members are democratically elected; while the governor, as head of government and representative of the monarch, is purely a figurehead without executive powers. Effectively, the Falkland Islands are self-governing, with the exception of foreign policy.
Falkland Islanders. Falkland Islanders (also called Kelpers [1] or Falklanders) derive from various origins.Earliest among these are the numerically small but internationally diverse early 19th century inhabitants of the Falkland Islands, comprising and descended in part from settlers brought by Luis Vernet, and English and American sealers; South American gauchos who settled in the 1840s and ...
A map of the Falkland Islands West Falkland from near Keppel Island Johnson's Harbour settlement, East Falkland. Spheniscus magellanicus on Carcass Island. The Neck on Saunders Island. Eudyptes chrysocome on New Island. Stanley Harbour, Stanley with mountains in the distance.
About 70 percent are of British descent, primarily as a result of Scottish and Welsh settlement to the islands. [16] The native-born inhabitants call themselves "Islanders"; the term "Kelpers", from the kelp which grows profusely around the islands, is still used in the Islands. People from the United Kingdom who have obtained Falkland Island ...
In 1985, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ceased to be administered as a Falkland Islands Dependency and became a separate territory. The King Edward Point base, which had become a small military garrison after the Falklands War, returned to civilian use in 2001 and is now operated by the British Antarctic Survey.
The Falkland Islands are located in the South Atlantic Ocean between 51°S and 53°S on a projection of the Patagonian Shelf, part of the South American continental shelf.In ancient geological time this shelf was part of Gondwana, and around 400 million years ago split from what is now Africa and drifted westwards from it.
Port Egmont on the island was the site of the first British settlement, established in 1765.. Unaware of the French presence at Port Louis, in January 1765, British captain John Byron explored and claimed Saunders Island, at the western end of the Falkland Islands, where he named the harbour of Port Egmont, and sailed near other islands, which he also claimed for King George III.