The
Falklands War , also known as the
Falklands Conflict,
Falklands Crisis, and the
Guerra del Atlántico Sur (Spanish for "
South Atlantic War"), was a ten-week war between
Argentina and the
United Kingdom over two
British overseas territories in the South Atlantic: the
Falkland Islands and
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It began on Friday, 2 April 1982, when
Argentina invaded and
occupied the Falkland Islands (and,
the following day, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) in an attempt to establish
the sovereignty it had claimed over them. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval
task force to engage the
Argentine Navy and
Air Force before making an
amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities.