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Originally Posted by Catfish
Well to be blunt, sailing to a remote island and 'convinving' the population they now belong to a foreign nation (a term they do not even understand) at the other end of the world makes it the "property", of said nation ? (valid for all 'colonies', of course).
I think this concept looks a bit antiquated, by today's standards
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Which population was that? The French who established the first village in 1764 or the British who created the second in 1766? The Spanish who took over the French claim that same year? The Germans who settled in 1826, long after the British and Spanish both abandoned their colonies? The Americans who forced the Germans out in 1831? No, they then left themselves, and never made a claim.
The Argentinians formed their first garrison that year, but were forced out by the the British in 1832. I'm not sure why, but the British have been in charge since then, and the dispute continues. Therefore I would contest your claim of "convincing" the population.
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Mr. Spee had seen the british ships laying in the harbour, but for whatever reason he decided not to attack them, as long as they were obviously coaling.
His error' was to misjudge the later position when they had left the harbour. There even were efforts to inform him via some small boats, since some of the inhabitants back then were not "for" the british, so to speak. But Spee or the lookouts did not react when they saw small boats coming towards them, and steamed away.
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I'd like to see your source for that. Count von Spee's plan was to raid Port Stanley for coal, a plan opposed by the captain of his second Armored Cruiser, Gneisenau. Spee sent Gneisenau ahead to scout, and when he saw tripod masts that could only belong to British battlecruisers, and his ship was straddled by a salvo from the battlship HMS Canopus, the German squadron ran for their lives.
Had Spee avoided the islands altogether he likely would have coaled at New York while the British were looking for him in the Pacific. Had he attacked the British squadron he might have won, because they were all refueling and therefor powered down and unable to operate their turrets. He had no way of knowing that running was the worst of his options.
Source:
Graf Spee's Raiders, by Keith Yates.
http://www.amazon.com/Graf-Spees-Rai.../dp/1557509778