Qualla: Capture of Port Egmont https://qualla.com/capture-of-port-egmont en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:39:57 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/v/7/capture-of-port-egmont-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Capture of Port Egmont https://qualla.com/capture-of-port-egmont Capture of Port Egmont: Introduction https://qualla.com/capture-of-port-egmont/ Photo credit Alejo Berlinguero, Public domain. On 10 June 1770, a tiny British garrison at the western edge of the Falkland Islands looked out at five Spanish warships and 1,400 soldiers, and did the only sensible thing. They fired their guns once, for honour, and then they surrendered. Not a single man died. Yet this bloodless little capitulation on a windswept, almost worthless shore brought Britain, Spain and France to the very brink of war, set the philosopher Samuel Johnson to writing, and planted a grievance that still echoes through the South Atlantic two and a half centuries later.

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Image: Alejo Berlinguero | Public domain

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/v/7/capture-of-port-egmont-wp/4wv7-capture-of-port-egmont-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Capture of Port Egmont: A Quarrel Over Empty Ground https://qualla.com/capture-of-port-egmont/ Photo credit Apcbg, Public domain. Britain had built its settlement at Port Egmont, on Saunders Island, in 1765. Spain, which claimed the whole region, regarded the British as squatters on Spanish soil; the British returned the compliment, insisting the islands were theirs. For years the two sides traded sharply w...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/v/7/capture-of-port-egmont-wp/4wv7-capture-of-port-egmont-a-quarrel-over-empty-ground.mp3 0:06 2 full Capture of Port Egmont: Five Ships and a Token Shot https://qualla.com/capture-of-port-egmont/ Photo credit Apcbg, Public domain. Francisco Bucareli, the Spanish governor in Buenos Aires, dispatched a squadron under General Juan Ignacio de Madariaga. Four frigates and a xebec carried 1,400 soldiers and a siege train across the South Atlantic to Port Egmont. The British defenders had a wooden blockhouse and ...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/v/7/capture-of-port-egmont-wp/4wv7-capture-of-port-egmont-five-ships-and-a-token-shot.mp3 0:06 3 full Capture of Port Egmont: The World Holds Its Breath https://qualla.com/capture-of-port-egmont/ Photo credit Apcbg, Public domain. When word reached London, the insult, more than the ground, set off a public outcry. The British demanded that Spain restore Port Egmont and make amends. Spain stalled, trying to turn the argument toward the deeper question of who actually owned the islands; the secretary of stat...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/v/7/capture-of-port-egmont-wp/4wv7-capture-of-port-egmont-the-world-holds-its-breath.mp3 0:06 4 full Capture of Port Egmont: The Long Shadow https://qualla.com/capture-of-port-egmont/ Photo credit Apcbg, Public domain. Samuel Johnson, asked to defend the government's restraint, wrote a famous pamphlet questioning whether such far-flung rocks were worth any blood at all, calling Port Egmont "a colony that could never become independent, for it could never be able to maintain itself." The peace h...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/4/w/v/7/capture-of-port-egmont-wp/4wv7-capture-of-port-egmont-the-long-shadow.mp3 0:06 5 full