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Some destinations reward travelers for making the effort to reach them; for the Falklands, the effort is part of the reward. Scattered across the South Atlantic some 400 miles (650 kilometers) from the southeastern tip of Argentina, this windswept British Overseas Territory of more than 740 islands and islets feels genuinely removed from the rest of the world. Its population numbers only around 3,600, leaving vast stretches of coast, moorland and pasture almost entirely to sheep, seabirds and some of the planet's most spectacular concentrations of marine wildlife.
For many visitors, that wildlife is reason enough to make the journey. Around a million penguins breed here during the Southern Hemisphere summer, joined by black-browed albatrosses, elephant seals and sea lions. But the Falklands are more than an open-air wildlife reserve. British traditions survive in an improbable South Atlantic setting, remote farms preserve a distinctive island way of life, and there´s also some history to be experienced including reminders of shipwrecks, Antarctic exploration, and the 1982 Falklands War.
And about that war... A little bit of - slightly convoluted - history is called for. In 1765, Commodore John Byron reached Saunders Island in West Falkland, apparently unaware that the French had founded Port Louis on East Falkland the year before. Byron formally claimed West Falkland and the neighboring islands for King George III, largely on the basis of earlier British discovery/exploration, and Britain established Port Egmont there in 1766. In 1767, Spain acquired the French settlement and administered the islands from until 1811, though while Britain maintained and later revived its own sovereignty claim. Then in 1816 Argentina comes into the picture, when after gaining independence it asserted Spain´s former colonial claim, and eventually established a small settlement in the 1820s. Britain reasserted control in 1833 and permanent British settlement followed, forming the basis of today's Falkland Islands community.
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