Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands war.

The Falklands war and Margaret Thatcher

Before the war Margaret Thatcher had been in alot of trouble. Her own party members began to dislike her more and more and there were even ongoing bets on how long she would survive in the parliament.

In 1982 a war between Argentina and Great Britain broke out, the conflict was over the small Falkland Islands that are located right outside the Argentinian coast. On the 2:nd of April Argentinian troops occupied the Islands which resulted in thatcher sending a big naval force to defend the Falklanders. 72 days later, the Argentinians resigned after loosing 649 men on the Falklandian beaches. That may not sound much, but compared to the 255 brittish casualties it is kind of a big number. Thatcher was acclaimed as a great leader since she had won the war for the brittish empire and that she did it big, with the so small losses compared to the argentinian ones. As you may now understand, the Falkland war was a really lucky war for her. Now Thatcher looked like a hero, a real leader of the Brittish empire.

But, she was not good to everyone. She was a good leader for the brittish people, but she was a real devil for the Argentinians. Some started to question her leadership in the war in the end of April, on the 2nd of may she replied to this when she sent the nuclear submarine HMS Conquerer to the Falklands with the order to sink an Argentinian cruiser. It completed its mission and the tragedy ended with over 400 Argentinian sailors lost their lives in the sinking.

But she gambled a lot when she sent such a great force to the Falklands. If the Argentinians, who had a great advantage because of the location of the islands, would have won over the brittish force, the britts would not only have lost a lot of money, but would also look weak in the eyes of other countries. If this defeat would have occurred, Margaret would surely had been fired and kicked out of the parliament immediately.

The Falkland war a really lucky coincidence for Margaret. She managed to win both the islands and the brittish people back, but as with all great leaders, she had a backside. For the Argentinians, Margaret and the war will never be forgotten...

Sources:

• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/200775/Falkland-Islands-War
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9980046/Margaret-Thatcher-and-the-Falklands-War-doubts-and-fears-in-a-far-off-conflict-that-changed-Britain.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War
  
  
  
  By: Mattias, Pontus, Tim and Theo
  PDPA