I.

Introduction

Falkland Islands or Islas Malvinas, island group, British dependency, in the South Atlantic Ocean, east of the Strait of Magellan and north-east of the southern tip of South America. The approximately 200 islands are divided into two main groups on the east and west by the narrow Falkland Sound. The Falkland Islands have a total area of about 12,173 sq km (4,700 sq mi). The two largest islands are East Falkland Island, with an area of 6,760 sq km (2,610 sq mi), and West Falkland Island, with an area of 5,413 sq km (2,090 sq mi), including, in both cases, adjacent small islands.

The Falkland Islands (formerly known as the Falkland Islands and Dependencies) constitute a self-governing British dependency. Until 1985, South Georgia (3,755 sq km/1,450 sq mi), an island some 1,290 km (800 mi) south-east of the Falkland Islands, and the South Sandwich Islands (337 sq km/130 sq mi), about 750 km (470 mi) south-east of South Georgia, were governed as dependencies of the Falklands. Under a new constitution, however, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands became a separate British dependency.