Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute Sovereignty over the Falkland Islands () is disputed by Argentina and the United Kingdom. The British claim to sovereignty dates from 1690, and the United Kingdom has exercised "de facto" sovereignty over the archipelago almost continuously since 1833. Argentina has long disputed this claim, having been in control of the islands for a few years prior to 1833. The dispute escalated in 1982, when Argentina invaded the islands, precipitating the Falklands War. Contemporary Falkland Islanders overwhelmingly prefer to remain British. They gained full British citizenship with the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983, after British victory
Falkland Islands departure for his ships and colonists). The port, located in the Brittany region of western France, was in turn named after St. Malo (or Maclou), the Christian evangelist who founded the city. At the twentieth session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Fourth Committee determined that, in all languages other than Spanish, all UN documentation would designate the territory as "Falkland Islands (Malvinas)". In Spanish, the territory was designated as "Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands)". The nomenclature used by the United Nations for statistical processing purposes is "Falkland Islands (Malvinas)". Although Fuegians from Patagonia may have visited the Falkland Islands