In message <[email protected]> Charles Ellson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:44:08 -0400, katy <[email protected]> > wrote: > > >Don Aitken wrote: [snip] > >> > >> This was the high period of Britiah "informal empire" in South America > >> - the theoretically independent countries of the region did what the > >> Britiah told them. > >> > > > >Os this when the Brits acquired the Falkland Islands, then? > > > British settlers had been there since about 1765, following closely > after French settlers. There was also Spanish involvement and an > amount of mainly non-hostile passing of the islands between the three > countries. The Republic of Buenos Aires tried to claim the islands in > 1820 (with the US also sticking their oar in) as they had never been > formally colonised by the UK but withdrew their claim and the islands > were made a formal colony in 1833. Argentina never possessed the > islands until the unsuccessful war in 1982. Some of the > passing-the-parcel is described in:- > http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/scotia/gooant/gooant070703.htm The US 'sticking their oar in' actually refers to the fact that the Buenos Aires had used the islands as a prison camp which detoriorated into a pirate's nest that preyed on passing shipping. The Americans sent the USS Constitution down to clear them out, hanging the ring-leaders and transporting the remainder back to the main-land. -- Graeme Wall My genealogy website <www.greywall.demon.co.uk/genealogy>

On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:19:45 +0100, Graeme Wall <[email protected]> wrote: >In message <[email protected]> > Charles Ellson <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:44:08 -0400, katy <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> >Don Aitken wrote: >[snip] >> >> >> >> This was the high period of Britiah "informal empire" in South America >> >> - the theoretically independent countries of the region did what the >> >> Britiah told them. >> >> >> > >> >Os this when the Brits acquired the Falkland Islands, then? >> > >> British settlers had been there since about 1765, following closely >> after French settlers. There was also Spanish involvement and an >> amount of mainly non-hostile passing of the islands between the three >> countries. The Republic of Buenos Aires tried to claim the islands in >> 1820 (with the US also sticking their oar in) as they had never been >> formally colonised by the UK but withdrew their claim and the islands >> were made a formal colony in 1833. Argentina never possessed the >> islands until the unsuccessful war in 1982. Some of the >> passing-the-parcel is described in:- >> http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/scotia/gooant/gooant070703.htm > >The US 'sticking their oar in' actually refers to the fact that the Buenos >Aires had used the islands as a prison camp which detoriorated into a >pirate's nest that preyed on passing shipping. The Americans sent the USS >Constitution down to clear them out, hanging the ring-leaders and >transporting the remainder back to the main-land. > Is that an unmentioned part of the 1831 incident described in the strath.ac.uk article or something separate ?