Why an EU document mentioning the 'Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands' is a big deal
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Tuesday, August 22, 2023
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It is not a binding document but the decision to refer to the islands by their Spanish as well as their British name is deeply significant.
Key Points:
- It is not a binding document but the decision to refer to the islands by their Spanish as well as their British name is deeply significant.
- It happened despite reported efforts by UK foreign secretary James Cleverly to have the islands kept out of the summit declaration altogether and has left the UK angry.
- One EU official was quoted as saying: “The UK is not part of the EU.
- If they were in the EU perhaps they would have pushed back against it.”
How the archipelago got its names
- With the advent of the European age of discovery in the 1500s, territorial naming – or renaming – became central to colonial practices.
- It was a means, as British writer James Hamilton-Paterson has put it, of taking ideological control of territory.
- From the 16th century on, various names for the archipelago – the Sebalds, New Islands, Hawkins Maiden Land –- were used interchangeably, each relating to different European expeditions.
- Other names –- Falkland Islands; les Îles Malouines –- only later gained traction via their presence on maps, highlighting the strategic importance of cartography.
Beyond geography
- In his landmark 1993 book, Culture and Imperialism, literary scholar Edward Said writes:
Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. - That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.
- Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography.
- That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.