East Falkland

East Falkland, also known as Isla Soledad, is the larger of the two main islands in the South Atlantic archipelago. Its deeply indented coast contains sheltered sounds and harbours, while peat and grassland cover much of the interior. The islands lie east of Patagonia, exposed to the winds and seas of the southern Atlantic Ocean.

In 1764 Louis-Antoine de Bougainville founded Port Louis on Berkeley Sound. France transferred the settlement to Spain in 1767, and it became Puerto Soledad, the centre of Spanish administration in the archipelago. Spain withdrew its garrison in 1811. A settlement under Luis Vernet followed in the 1820s, before British forces took control in 1833. The successive settlements made the islands the subject of competing claims in the South Atlantic.

The later city of Stanley lies here.