Falkland orientale
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2008-06-24T14:23:57Z
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[[Image:Falkland Islands - East Falkland.PNG|thumb|300px|L'archipel des Malouines avec Falkland orientale en rouge]]
[[Image:Johnsonsharbour.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Johnson's Harbour]]
La '''Falkland orientale''' (en [[anglais]] ''East Falkland'', en [[espagnol]] ''Isla Soledad'') est la plus grande des [[îles Malouines]] (''Falkland Islands''), archipel britannique de l'Atlantique Sud, avec une superficie de 6.605 km{{2}} [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578569/Falkland_Islands.html]. La population est d'environ 1900 habitants, représentant une large majorité de la population totale de l'archipel, la plupart résidant dans la moitié nord de l'île et dans la seule ville de l'archipel, [[Port Stanley]] dont elle est la capitale. La moitié sud, reliée au nord par un [[isthme]] étroit, est connue sous le nom de Lafonia.
==Géographie==
[[Image:Gypsy-Cove.jpg|thumb|275px|Gypsy Cove, East Falkland]]
Le point le plus haut de l'île est le mont Usborne, 705m, dans les Wickham Heights et est également le plus haut point de l'archipel. La plupart de l'île est cependant de faible altitude, légèrement vallonné, formant des tourbières et des pâturages. Géologiquement, l'ile est principalement constituée de [[Grès (géologie)|grès]], avec du [[quartzite]] et de l'[[ardoise]], et le sol est souvent pauvre et acide.
L'île est coupée par deux profonds [[fjord]]s, le Choiseul Sound et le Brenton Loch se prolongeant par le Grantham Sound qui laisse la partie nord et [[Lafonia]] dans le sud juste reliés par isthme de 3 km de large. Le littoral de l'île est assez découpé avec de nombreuses petites baies et pointes.
Le nord de l'île est formé de collines et est traversé par une chaine un peu escarpé, les Wickham Heights, courant d'est en ouest et s'élevant par endroit à plus de 650 mètres. Le reste de l'île est principalement composé de terre vallonnées, un mixte de pâturages et de morasses, avec plusieurs petits étangs d'eau douce peu profonds et de petits torrents dans les vallées. Deux petites anses étroites, Berkeley Sound et Port William, pénètre assez profondémment à l'intérieur de l'extrémité nord-est de l'île
Les autres paysages se composent de pierriers couverts de [[sansevieria]], de [[lande]]s et de [[tourbière]]s. Gypsy Cove, une petite baie, est considérée comme l'un des plus beaux endroits de l'île.
==Population et infrastructure==
[[Image:Christchurch-Cathedral.jpg|right|200px|thumb|La cathédrale Christchurch à Stanley]]
East Falkland abrite la capitale de l'île Port Stanley qui est son principal port.
Port Louis, ancien siège du gouvernement, à la pointe du Berkeley Sound, mais dont le mouillage fut considéré comme trop exposé fut abandonné et en 1844, des bâtiments publics furent construit aux abords d'une anse plus protégée qui deviendra Port Stanley.
On retrouve d'autres hameaux sur l'île : Port Louis, Darwin, Port San Carlos, San Carlos, Salvador, Johnson's Harbour, Fitzroy, Mare Harbour et Goose Green.
L'île possède également deux aérodromes avec piste en dur, l'aéroport de Port Stanley et la base [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] de Mount Pleasant. Un phare se dresse au cap Pembroke près de port Stanley. L'île possède aussi la majeure partie du faible réseau routier de l'archipel.
==Économie==
[[Image:East-Falkland.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Maison à East Falkland]]
Les principales activités de l'île sont la pêche, l'élevage du mouton, l'administration et le tourisme. De l'avoine est cultivée mais en raison de la forte humidité et de l'acidité du sol, les terres sont principalement utilisées pour le pâturage.
Comme Stanley est la capitale et l'unique ville et que East Falkland est la plus peuplée des îles, elle joue un rôle économique moteur pour l'archipel. Plusieurs bateaux de croisières y font escale. La base de la [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] de Mount Pleasant, où quelques centaines de militaires britanniques sont stationnés, contribue aussi de manière importante à l'activité de l'île dont la population est de moins de 2000 individus.
De petits élevage de chevaux et de bétail existent et quelques sondages et explorations récents suggèrent une possible exploitation minière de l'île.
==Faune et flore==
En raison d'une plus grande activité humaine, East Falkland est l'île ayant connu le plus de problèmes de protection et de conservation d'espèces florales et animales. Le [[Loup des Falkland|warrah'']], une variété locale de loup ou de renard, en fut une des premières victimes. Cette espèce décrite par [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] dans son ''[[le Voyage du Beagle|Voyage du Beagle]]'' a disparu de l'île puis de l'archipel en 1876 (seule espèce de canidé à disparaitre lors des temps historiques) :
:''"The only quadruped native to the island is a large wolf-like fox (Canis antarcticus), which is common to both East and [[West Falkland]]. I have no doubt it is a peculiar species... Their numbers have rapidly decreased; they are already banished from that half of the island which lies to the eastward of the neck of land between St. Salvador Bay and Berkeley Sound. Within a very few years after these islands shall have become regularly settled, in all probability this fox will be classed with the [[Raphus cucullatus|dodo]], as an animal which has perished from the face of the earth.''"
Des rats sont arrivés avec l'homme sur l'archipel mais malgré cela, l'île est resté un grand havre pour la faune d'oiseaux marins dont une grande variété de [[manchot]]s .
Des [[Guanaco]] furent introduits, mais sans succès, en 1862 à East Falkland, au sud du Mt Pleasant où le Prince Alfred les chassa en 1871 [http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16712001]. Ils ont depuis disparu de l'île mais subsistent encore sur [[Staats Island]]
[[Charles Darwin]] observa la vie sauvage de l'île lors du passage du ''[[HMS Beagle]]''.
==Histoire==
{{à compléter}}
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Although there is possible evidence of [[Fuegians|Yahgan]] ([[Patagonia]]n native) landings, such as the [[warrah]], the first accepted settlement was during the 18th century when East Falkland was settled by the French, with [[Louis de Bougainville]] establishing [[Port Louis, Falkland Islands|Port Louis]] on [[Berkeley Sound]] in 1764. The French settlement included a number of [[Breton people|Bretons]], and the islands became known as "Îles Malouines" (the islands of [[St Malo]]), later hispanicised as "Islas Malvinas". For years, Port Louis was the main settlement, not only on East Falkland, but the entire archipelago and a subject of controversy.
On 6 November 1820, Colonel David [[Jewett]], an American privateer employed as captain by a Buenos Aires businessman Patrick Lynch who had obtained a corsair license for his frigate ''Heroina'' from the Buenos Aires Supreme Director Jose Rondeau, raised the flag of the [[United Provinces of the River Plate]] at Port Louis, and claimed possession of the entire archipelaho in the name of the United Provinces of the South (which later became the United Provinces of The River Plate and ultimately Argentina). In 1823, Argentina granted fishing rights to Jorge Pacheco and [[Luis Vernet]], who finally succeeded on establishing a permanent settlement at Port Louis (Puerto Soledad) three years later. "Puerto Soledad" as it was renamed became a [[penal colony]], seal hunting base and small fishing port. Vernet later seized the American ship, Harriet, for breaking the restrictions on seal hunting. Property on board the ship was seized and the captain was returned to Buenos Aires to stand trial. Vernet also returned for the trial. The American Consul in Argentina protested the actions by Vernet, stating that the United States did not recognise Argentine sovereignty in the Falklands.
Therefore, the consul dispatched the USS Lexington warship to the Puerto Soledad to retake the confiscated property, as well as the "Superior" and "Breakwater" which had also been seized. As a result, the [[USS Lexington (1825)|USS Lexington]] destroyed Puerto Soledad/Port Louis in [[1832]], an act which was later condoned by the American ambassador in Buenos Aires, who declared the [[Falkland Islands]] free from any power.
These events provided the spur for Britain to finally and permanently return to the islands, (''See [[1833 invasion of the Falkland Islands]]''), removing [[Argentina|Argentine]] settlers on [[3 January]] [[1833]]. "Puerto Soledad" reverted to "Port Louis", and was refounded as a naval garrison and civilian settlement.
Shortly after this, the [[second voyage of HMS Beagle]] surveyed the island. The names of two settlements on East Falkland, [[Darwin, Falkland Islands|Darwin]] and [[Fitzroy, Falkland Islands|Fitzroy]], commemorate [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Robert FitzRoy]] respectively. On the [[15 March]] [[1833]], an unimpressed Darwin commented that
:''After the possession of these miserable islands had been contested by France, Spain, and England, they were left uninhabited. The government of Buenos Aires then sold them to a private individual, but likewise used them, as old Spain had done before, for a penal settlement. England claimed her right and seized them. The Englishman who was left in charge of the flag was consequently murdered. A British officer was next sent, unsupported by any power: and when we arrived, we found him in charge of a population, of which rather more than half were runaway rebels and murderers.'' (''[[The Voyage of the Beagle]]''.)
The majority of this "rebellious" population would have lived on East Falkland.
In 1836, the island was surveyed by Admiral George Grey, and further in 1837 by Lowcay. Admiral George Grey, conducting the geographic survey in November 1836 had the following to say about their first view of East Falkland -
:''We anchored a little after sunset off a creek called '[[Johnson's Harbour]]'. The day having been cloudy with occasional showers, these islands at all times dreary enough, looked particularly so on our first view of them, the shores of [[Berkeley Sound|sound]], steep, with bare hills intersected with ravines rising from them, these hills without a tree and the clouds hanging low, gave them exactly the appearance of the [[Cheviots]] or a [[Scotland|Scotch]] moor on a winter's day and considering we were in the May of these latitudes, the first impression of the climate was not favourable, the weather however, was not called, the thermometer was 63 degrees which is [[Howick, Northumberland|Howick]] mid-summer temperature.''
In 1845 Mr Samuel Fisher Lafone, a wealthy cattle and hide merchant from [[Montevideo]] on the [[River Plate]], obtained from the British government a grant of the southern portion of the East Falkland, which was a peninsula 600,000 acres in extent, and possession of all the wild cattle on East Falkland for a period of six years, for a payment of £10,000 down, and £20,000 in ten years from January 1, 1852. In 1851 Mr Lafone's interest in [[Lafonia]], as the peninsula came to be called, was purchased for £30,000 by the [[Falkland Islands Company]], which had been incorporated by charter in the same year. Lafone himself never visited the islands. The remnants of this endeavour are the ruins at [[Hope Place]] and the stone corral at Darwin.
In 1859, [[Darwin, Falkland Islands|Darwin]] was founded.
Although used for [[sheep farming]] since the early [[nineteenth century]], East Falkland was dominated by cattle farming until the 1850s.
In 1925 the [[Bodie Suspension Bridge]] was built across a creek in Lafonia, and is said to be the southernmost in the world, and is still in pedestrian use today.
===1982 invasion and Falklands War===
[[Image:Falkland Islands topographic map-en.svg|thumb|250px|Map of the Falkland Islands]]
In April, 1982, East Falkland was [[1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands|invaded by Argentina]], which had never given up its claim. Governor Sir Rex Hunt was informed by the British Government of a possible Argentine invasion on Wednesday [[March 31]]. The Governor summoned the two senior [[Royal Marines]] officers of Naval Party 8901 to Government House in Stanley to discuss the options for defending the Falklands. Major [[Mike Norman]] RM was given overall command of the Marines due to his seniority, while Major [[Gary Noott]] RM became the military advisor to Governor Hunt. The total strength was 68 Marines and 11 sailors, which was greater than would normally have been available because the garrison was in the process of changing over. But their numbers were reinforced by 25 [[Falkland Islands Defence Force]] (FIDF) members. Their commanding officer, Major Phil Sommers, tasked the volunteer militiamen with guarding such key points as the [[telephone exchange]], the [[radio station]] and the [[power station]]. Skipper Jack Solis, onboard the civilian coastal ship ''Forrest'' operated his boat as an improvised radar screen station off Stanley.
East Falkland was also the location of the bulk of the action in the [[Falklands War]], partly because most of the population lived there. As a result, a number of parts of the [[Camp (Falkland Islands)|"Camp"]] in East Falkland are still heavily mined. Areas that saw intensive action included [[Goose Green]], [[San Carlos]], [[Mount Longdon]] and the Two Sisters ridge.
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==Situation actuelle==
Suivant la [[guerre des Malouines]], les Britanniques ont considérablement renforcé leur présence militaire à East Falkland et ont grandement amélioré les infrastructures à Port Stanley et aux environs, goudronnant ainsi de nombreuse routes. La population a augmenté, principalement à cause du développement de Stanley, mais a décliné au ''Camp'', nom donné aux Fakland (probablement de l'espagnol ''campo'', la campagne) pour désigner le reste de l'île et de l'archipel, hors Stanley. La plupart des améliorations de l'infrastructure ont eu lieu sur East Falkland.
==Références==
* {{1911}}
* Southby-Tailyour, Ewen - ''Falkland Island Shores''
<references/>
==Liens externes==
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/HTJ.htm British Triumph on East Falkland] {{en}}
* [http://www.cybamuse.com/antarctica/falklands.htm Photos d'East Falkland]
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[[Catégorie:Île des Malouines]]
[[Catégorie:Île de l'océan Atlantique Sud]]
[[da:East Falkland]]
[[de:Ostfalkland]]
[[en:East Falkland]]
[[es:Isla Soledad]]
[[fi:Itä-Falkland]]
[[gl:Illa Soidade]]
[[he:אי פוקלנד המזרחי]]
[[hu:Kelet-Falkland]]
[[ja:東フォークランド島]]
[[lt:Rytų Folklandas]]
[[nl:Oost-Falkland]]
[[pl:Falkland Wschodni]]