The Convention of Settlement
was an international agreement between
Britain and Argentina. By ratifying it in 1850, Argentina accepted that the Falklands were
legitimately British and no longer regarded them as Argentine territory.
The result was a disappearance of all tension between Britain and Argentina, and the Falklands began to develop.
From the 1850s onwards some ten countries even opened consulates in Stanley,
which reflected the fact that the dispute had ended:
Belgium, Chile, Denmark, France, Italy,
Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United States and Uruguay.
Norway and Chile opened their consulates in 1877 and both remained open for about a century (Chile’s till 1975, Norway’s till 1982).
Though opening a consulate does not necessarily indicate strict de jure recognition of sovereignty,
it certainly implies de facto recognition of it – the
governments concerned did not think there was a problem any more.
So there was extensive international acceptance of Britain’s sovereignty in the islands.
© 2010 Graham Pascoe & Peter Pepper
Location: Stanley,Falkland Islands
Photographer: Norman Clark
