Argentina and the United Kingdom have argued over which country the Falklands Islands belongs to since the 1800s. In the 1760s and 1770s, the British set up a town at Port Egmont, which nearly led to a war with Spain who had a town at Port Louis. Then Argentina became a separate country from Spain in 1817 and set up a colony on the islands (which they call "Malvinas") in 1820. An American warship later destroyed this town, and the British took the islands again in 1833.