Was the Falklands a war or a conflict?

Answer 1

The Falklands War or Crisis (called Guerra del las Malvinas in Argentina) was a short and decisive conflict in which the British Armed Forces restored British control to the Falkland Islanders after they were occupied by the forces of Argentina. It began on Friday, 2 April 1982 and lasted ten (10) weeks.

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about 300 miles (260 nmi; 480 km) from the coast of mainland South America, 700 miles (610 nmi; 1,100 km) from mainland Antarctica, and 3,800 miles (3,300 nmi; 6,100 km) from Africa.

Answer 2

In 1982 Argentina invaded the Falklands islands, which they call the Malvinas.

They over powered the small British garrison and established control of the islands.

However, the British quickly mobilised a taskforce of about 120 ships, including a nuclear submarine, 2 aircraft carriers, dozens of escort ships and even a few requisitioned civilian ocean liners carrying ground forces.

The task force succeded in expelling the invaders from the islands in just over 2 months, speed was of the essence, due to the upcoming storm season.

Although the Arentine military had a strength in numbers, they were far behind the British in quality. Their aircraft was mainly outdated American, French and even British planes that had been sold on once they became obsolete.

The sinking of the ARA Belgrano, itself an old American ww2 ship (serving in the pacific under the name USS Phoenix, nearly 40 years before), caused the loss of over 300 lives and had severe pschycological effects that forced the Argentine Navy to return to port, leaving the ground troops without Naval support.

The ground troops of the Argentine Army were of varying quality, but for the most part were conscripts. The Army kept some of it's best troops on the Chilean border. They also faced a well trained force of professional soldiers which included Royal marine commandos, paratroops and in some cases even the SAS.

The conflict ended on June 14 with the surrnder at Port Stanley.

Although it gets called a war, war was never declared officially. So the correcct term would be the Falklands conflict, but no one ever calls it that.

Answer 3

I would define it as a war, but in general terms it was also a conflict because a war is only one type of conflict. It was one of many conflicts during the Cold War which was not caused by the Cold War.

Answer 4

Argentine troops invaded and occupied the islands and British troops then expelled them.