The Falkland War began when Argentina invaded and occupied the UK's Falkland islands April 2nd 1982. The following day Argentina invaded the UK's South Georgia, the Sandwich islands. Argentina had disputed the UK's sovereignty over the islands and made a bold attempt to capture them. The islands are located in the South Atlantic Ocean with Argentina being the closest country to them. Argentina miscalculated that the UK would not send a military task force so far from home to retake the islands. Margaret Thatcher, the UK's Prime Minister, wasted little time in organizing a Naval task force to reclaim the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days with Argentina surrendering 14 June 1982. The Falkland islands have been under British rule since 1841 and are predominately British settlers. Argentina calls the Falkland islands the Malvinas islands and claim that they had inherited them from Spain in the 1800s. The conflict which was never a declared war, was waged only in the disputed islands. The conflict had a negative backlash against the military government of Argentina, which was overthrown shortly afterwards.

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