Description
Book SynopsisSalvaging Empire probes the historical roots and current predicaments of a twenty-first century settler colony seeking to control an uncertain future through resource management and environmental science. Four decades after a violent 1982 war between the United Kingdom and Argentina reestablished British authority over the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas in Spanish), a commercial fishing boom and offshore oil discoveries have intensified the sovereignty dispute over the South Atlantic archipelago. Scholarly literature on the South Atlantic focuses primarily on military history of the 1982 conflict. However, contested claims over natural resources have now made this disputed territory a critical site for examining the wider relationship between imperial sovereignty and environmental governance. James J. A. Blair argues that by claiming self-determination and consenting to British sovereignty, the Falkland Islanders have crafted a settler colonial protectorate to e
Table of Contents
Introduction
Dispossession
1. Settler Safe Zone or Colonial Staging Ground?
2. Company Islands
3. Imperial Diaspora
Wreckage
4. Does the Sea Lion Roar?
5. Grounding Offshore Oil
Survival
6. The Geopolitics of Marine Ecology
7. Colonizing with Natives
Conclusion: Unsettled Claims
