# Canonical recap data for Falkland Islands War (1982)
# Source: https://recap.at/1982/falkland-islands-war
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: falkland-islands-war
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1982/falkland-islands-war"
title: Falkland Islands War
subtitle: Argentina's invasion of the British Falkland Islands sparked a ten-week conflict that reshaped geopolitics in the South Atlantic and tested Cold War alignments.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1982-04-02
endDate: 1982-06-14
datePrecision: day
year: 1982
decade: 1980
country:
name: United Kingdom
slug: united-kingdom
summaryShort: "The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began on 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and "
summaryLong: "The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began on 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, followed by the invasion of South Georgia the next day. 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 an Argentine surrender on 14 June, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and 3 Falkland Islanders were killed during the hostilities."
lede: Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands on April 2, 1982, triggering a 10-week war with the United Kingdom over control of the remote South Atlantic territory. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched a naval task force 8,000 miles to retake the islands, a gamble that cost over 900 lives but restored British sovereignty and reshaped Thatcher's political standing.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/HMS_Broadsword_and_Hermes%2C_1982_%28IWM%29.jpg/1280px-HMS_Broadsword_and_Hermes%2C_1982_%28IWM%29.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Falklands War"
importance: 82
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts: []
timeline: []
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War"
  title: Falkland Islands War
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
categories:
- war
metaDescription: Argentina's 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands sparked a brutal 10-week war with Britain. Thatcher sent a task force to retake the territory.
wikidataQid: Q48249
taxonomy:
domain: military
eventTypes:
- war
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- transformation
impactRadius: regional
velocity: gradual
predictability: forecastable
intentionality: coordinated
domainCoupling: multi_domain
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260605092019/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-05
  label: Falkland Islands War
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War"
