Falkland Islands

Benjamin Kirkland is a fan-made character for Axis Powers: Hetalia and represents the Falkland Islands (フォークランド諸島), an archipelago located in the South Atlantic Ocean. He's one of United Kingdom's children (a British Overseas Territory) and is claimed by Argentina as his brother. Basically, Falklands isn't very known except for the war between UK and Argentina over him in 1982 and the neverending claims from the Latin American country.

Name
Benjamin, pronounced BEN-jə-min (English), ben-zha-MEN (French), BEN-yah-meen (German), comes from the Hebrew name בִּנְיָמִין (Binyamin) which means "son of the south"; meaning that fits the character since the Falkland Islands are an archipelago located on the South Atlantic Ocean. Falklands, of course, have the same surname as his 'father' Arthur Kirkland.

While the human name never changes (though Argentina probably wants his name to be Benjamín Hernández, because of his cousins), not everyone calls him "Falkland Islands". Portugal, Italy, Spain and all the South American countries know him as "Islas Malvinas", except the Chileans living with him. France (including French Guiana) and some other Francophone countries call him "Îles Malouines", but support British protection and sovereignty. The rest of the countries use his English name that is also the official name.

Personally, Benjamin prefers being called "Falklands" or "Falkland Islands" and considers the name "Malvinas" a bit offensive not only because using it means the person supports Argentina's claim, but also because it's a female name. Although, he is a bit, if not quite fairly fine being called "Malouines" because he was first raised by the French.

Appearance
Falklands, despite being almost 500 years old, looks like a 17-18 years old boy. His blonde hair is short and a bit curly. His eyes are teal. Ben has an ahoge, a little floating curl that represents Weddell Island, the third biggest island of the archipelago, it isn't an e-zone but tickles when touched. As some of the nations who had lived with UK, he has thick black eyebrows. Ben is 5'10" tall and has a quite athletic build, this is probably because he works with the sheep, spends hours gardening some days and also cuts peat from time to time. Despite this, he's not very strong and is really bad at sports.

He usually wears jeans, a hoodie (or a turtleneck sweater) and black military boots. While being outside he wears a beanie to keep his hair from getting messy.

Personality and likings


Benjamin's seen as a polite and friendly boy, kind and slightly shy with strangers but very open and outgoing with his closest friends and relatives. As a good UK child, he can be sarcastic, grumpy and strict sometimes, but most of the time he'll be funny and nice. Sometimes, he talks with the penguins, sheep or any other animal at his home but of course the animals don't understand a shit of what he says. He has a ram named Howard (after Port Howard, the largest settlement in the West).

He likes knitting/crocheting, gardening, also fishing, reading, and watching wildlife. But that's only for his spare time, Benji likes to have his work done as soon as possible so he can spend the day having fun. Despite this, he sometimes have 'laziness-attacks' like everyone else.



Another of Falkie's hobbies is cooking. Lamb and seafood recipes are his favourites, though he also likes baking cakes and biscuits. Diddledee berry jam and Teaberry vodka are his specialties. In the past, he used to make pavlova with penguin eggs and also a few recipes with sheep brains, but using penguin eggs is now fobidden and brains aren't very recommended to eat. He prefers British dishes, but also likes Frech, Polish and Latinamerican ones.

Benji plays some sports like football, rugby, golf and cricket, he's really bad (especially at football) but has decided to improve his skills at least on cricket (he still sucks then). Other of his pastimes are horse back riding, camping and hiking.

His favourite colour is teal, he doesn't have a favourite season, likes drinking wine or beer, enjoys going to the beach to watch the birds and sheep shearing seasons.

History
Some people say that the first who saw Falklands was Holland in the year 1600, while others say it was Spain in 1520 and the rest say it was the UK in 1592. But little they all know, it was actually Frenchman Binot Poulmier de Gonneville, who sighted the islands for France in 1504. Whoever it was, the first who claimed Benji as his child was France in 1764 but the next year, the UK, without knowing France had been with the little island, claimed himself as his dad too. Ten years passed until Spain told France that 'Malouines' was his, according to the Treaty of Tordesillas. Antonio paid him some pounds to leave the kid under his guardianship and named him Malvinas (he probably thought Ben was a girl :P). As the Hispanic nation saw the UK was there too, he attacked and expelled him from the islands. Feeling his honour poked, the UK has got prepared for war. Spain thought he had France's support, but Louis XV wasn't in the mood for war. Finally at his request, Spain and theUK decided to 'share' Falklands as their child.

In 1776, the UK, busy with the American Revolutionary War, decided to leave Falklands alone but he told him that he'd come back. Until 1811, Spain became the only father taking care of Benji since he was part of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata.

Argentina, after declaring its independence, decided to take care of Falklands who was left alone, but he only did for 10 years until Britain came back saying he wanted to retake his place as 'father'.

During WWI, Falklands became Arthur's helper, repairing the damaged ships. In 1914, Germany tried to attack Port Stanley but failed since the UK beat him up in the Battle of Falkland Islands. In 1939 (WWII), Falklands serviced ships which took part in the Battle of the River Plate.

After the war and with the creation of the United Nations, Falkland's headaches started. Argentina kept claiming him as his brother almost every year and in every meeting. There were many attempts to find a solution to this problem between the two nations, but they failed. Argentina keeps insisting even when Falklands himself said he wanted to remain British.

The dispute continued until 1982 when Argentina's boss, thinking the UK wouldn't care about Falklands (and wanting something to distract people from all the bad things he was doing), sent Argentina to kidnap him. But he was wrong and Arthur was ready to get the kid back and the Falklands War was about to start. America tried to stop both nations, but was unsuccessful. The UK had France, America and Chile (under Pinochet) on his side while Argentina counted only with Peru and Venezuela's help (though France sold barely some equipment to him). After two months of fighting, Argentina had to surrender.

Home
Falklands' house is small, quiet and safe. It has green roof and white walls. Ben lives with his sibling South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. Probably the most eye-catching feature of his house the front garden that has tall stalks of lupine, also lobelia, phlox, cornflowers, Iceland poppies and, of course, lawn gnomes. The climate there is a bit cold, windy, rainy and you can expect snow at almost any time of the year, but doesn't snow very often.

United Kingdom (Arthur Kirkland)
He's Falklands dad. Benjamin lived with him the major part of his life and has got almost all his habits, though he's a lot more friendly and calm. Before the Falklands War UK had neglected him a bit but after it he took good care of Ben; being now responsible of his defense and Foreign Affairs.

Argentina
He claims Falklands as his brother and will always do. Whenever he can, Arge tries to convince Benjamin to live with him making him feel uneasy. Falklands thinks he's obsessed and also deaf, because no matter how many times he says he wants to be British, Argentina will keep insisting. Benji doesn't have any problem with being his friend and maybe having him visiting his house once in a while, but seems like the Latin American Nation can't help harassing him.

South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (Rachel Kirkland)
Falklands is SGSSI's big brother and the responsible of taking care of her (his boss is the Governor of the Falkland Islands and Commissioner of SGSSI) since she's too small to do it by herself (being they have 30 permanent residents).

Chile
Falklands has a kind of good relationship with Chile. The Latin American nation exports to FK a lot of things that go from vegetables and dairy products to building materials. FK feels very comfortable at Chile's place and likes shopping there because everything is cheaper! Sometimes he'd like to visit him more often, but as he has to pass by Argentina's house, he can't. Some decades passed and Chile decided to change sides, which disappoints Benji in shame.

Antarctica
The part of the British Antarctic Territory known as Graham Land situated in the Antarctic Peninsula was until 1962 a Falkland Islands dependency along with the South Orkneys and South Shetland Islands (Falklands took care of Antarctica's peninsula hurr-hurr)

New Zealand and Australia
They're, like all the Commonwealth nations, Benjamin's brothers. Is said that Falklands has a slightly similar accent with these two countries. The mid-morning break known as 'smoko' is an habit Benji got from his Oceanic brothers. They're also related because of the sheep, Falklands usually imports stuff (semen) from NZ and participates on the sheep shearing championships and related events.

Spain (Antonio Fernández Carriedo)
Falklands were once Antonio's child and learnt his language, actually he uses it when talking about horses (breeds and gear). Spain likes Falklands squid.

France (Francis Bonnefoy)
Benji had a brief relationship with France. He considers him the first dad he had, but this isn't something really very important to him. Actually, he gets slightly nervous whenever the French is near. But he is quite special to him. Ben sometimes calls him a 'frog' if he's really pissed off.

Trivia

 * There're about 700,000 sheep on the islands.
 * Stanley, Falklands' capital, is considered the remotest capital in the world.
 * Only 406 of the 778 islands of the archipelago have names. 508 of them are less than 5 hectares in size.
 * The Falkland Islands have 13 endemic plants found nowhere else in the world.
 * The islands took their name from "Falkland Sound", the channel between the two main islands which was named after Admiralty Commissioner Sir Anthony Carry MP, the 5th Viscount of Falkland by John Strong.
 * The highest point on the Falkland Islands is Mount Usborne, East Falkland, at 705m (2,312 ft), followed by Mount Adan, West Falkland, at 700m (2,290 ft).
 * The Falkland Islands contain the best examples in the world of rivers of stone, known as ‘stone-runs’.
 * There are no native reptiles or amphibians on the islands.
 * During prehistoric times, the Falkland Islands were connected to South Africa. They have rotated 180 degrees and crossed the Atlantic to their current position.
 * The Falkland Islands are as far south as London is north – located at 51 degrees 30 minutes S.
 * The oldest recorded Southern Giant Petrel was found in the Falklands in 2002, aged over 50 years old.
 * Most fruits, vegetables and beer in Falklands come from Chile.
 * No Argentinian map from between 1850 and 1884 actually shows the islands as part of Argentina.
 * There are no native species of trees on the archipelago.
 * The pale maiden is Falkland Islands' national flower.