Falkland Islands Falklands from Spain when it achieved independence in 1816, and that, in 1833, the UK expelled Argentine authorities and settlers from the islands with a threat of "greater force" and, afterwards, barred Argentines from resettling the islands. In 2009, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, had a meeting with the Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and said that there would be no further talks over the sovereignty of the Falklands. In March 2013, the Falkland Islands held a referendum on its political status: 99.8% of voters favoured remaining a British overseas territory. Argentina does not recognise the Falkland Islanders
Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (1833) on the grounds of prior discovery. The next year Captain John MacBride established a British settlement at Port Egmont. The British presence in the west continued, until interrupted by Spain (who had acquired the French colony), during the Falkland Crisis from 10 July 1770 to 22 January 1771. Economic pressures led Britain to unilaterally withdraw from many overseas settlements in 1774. On 20 May 1776 the British forces under the command of Lieutenant Clayton formally took their leave of Port Egmont, leaving a plaque asserting Britain's continuing sovereignty over the islands. The Falkland Islands remained an important outpost for whalers