Falkland Islands

Benjamin Kirkland is a fan-made character for Axis Powers: Hetalia representing The Falkland Islands (Japanese: フォークランド諸島 - Fōkurando shotō), one of The United Kingdom 's child (or little brother) and claimed by Argentina as little brother.

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 quite well 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, not everyone calls him "Falkland Islands". Spain and all the South American countries know him as "Islas Malvinas", except Chile. France calls him "Îles Malouines". 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" slightly offensive not only because of all the disputes between Argentina and UK but also because it's a female name.

Appearance
Falklands, despite being almost 500 years old, looks like a 17 years old boy. His hair is short, a bit curly and blonde while his eyes are aqua green. As some of the nations who had lived with UK, he has thick black eyebrows. His ahoge, a little floating curl, represents Weddell, the third biggest island of the archipelago; the curl on the left side of his face represents Falkland Sound. None of them are an e-zone, but Weddell tickles when touched. Ben has an slightly athletic build and is 5'10" tall. He isn't very strong but can lift an average sheep if needed because he's used to work with them.

He usually wears a pair of jeans, a teal turtle-neck sweater knitted by himself and black military boots. While being outside he wears a green beanie to keep his hair from getting messy. Other of his outfits consists in a dark grey shirt, a teal knit vest, grey jeans and sneakers in the same tone as the vest.

Personality
Benjamin's seen as a polite and friendly boy, kind and slightly shy with strangers but very open 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 very sweet and friendly. Like his siblings South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Benji leads a quite solitary existence. He talks with the penguins, sheep or any other animal at his home, but this doesn't mean he's crazy! He just find in them great listeners.

He likes knitting, gardening, also fishing, reading, and watching wildlife. But that's only for his spare time, Benji is a responsible guy and likes to have his work well done as soon as possible so he can spend the day having fun. Despite this, he sometimes have 'laziness-attacks' like everyone else. Falkie also enjoys cooking and he'll usually offer some tea and any kind of home-made biscuits or cakes to the people who visit him. And the answer is yes: he likes British dishes a lot, but also Polish and Latin American ones. Benji plays some sports like football, rugby, golf and cricket, he's quite bad (specially at football) but decided to improve his skills at least on cricket. Other of his pastimes are horse back riding, camping and hiking.

History
Some people say that the first who saw Falklands was Holland in the year 1600, others say it was Spain in 1520 and the rest say it was UK in 1592. Benjamin himself doesn't remember who was it, but he sometimes talks about someone from the North-West who visited him when the wind was calm.

The first who claimed himself as Benji's 'big brother' (or father) was France in 1764 but a year later UK, without knowing France had been with the little island, claimed himself as his big bro too. Ten years passed until Spain told France that 'Malouines' was his according to the Treaty of Todesillas. Antonio paid him a fair amount of pounds to leave the islands under his guardianship and named them Malvinas. As the Hispanic nation saw UK was there too, he attacked and expelled him from the islands. Feeling his honour poked, UK's got prepared for war. Spain thought he had France's support, but Louis_XV wasn't in the mood for war. Finally Spain and UK decided to 'share' Falklands as their 'little brother' (son).

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

Argentina, after becoming an independent nation, 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 'big brother'.

During WWI, Falklands became Arthur's helper, taking care of the injured men and helping to repair the ships. In 1914, Germany tried to attack Port Stanley but failed since 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 little brother and Britain did the same. There were many attempts to find a solution to this problem between the two nations, but they could never agree, not even when Falklands himself said he wanted to remain British.

The dispute continued until 1982 when Argentina's boss, thinking UK wouldn't care about Falklands, sent Argentina to kidnap him. But he was wrong and Arthur was ready to get the kid back. Falklands War was about to start, America tried to stop both nations but were unsuccessful. UK had France, America and Chile on his side while Argentina counted only with Peru and Venezuela's help. After two months of fighting, Argentina had to surrender.

Home
His home is small, quiet and safe. Ben lives with his siblings South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia. 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, many 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.

Relations
United Kingdom He's Falklands big brother (father). Benjamin lived with the major part of his life and has taken almost all his habits, though he's a lot more friendly and calm. Before the Falklands War UK had neglected him but after it he took good care of Ben; being now responsible of his defense and Foreign Affairs. Sometimes Ben wishes Arthur would listen to him.

Argentina
He claims Falklands as his little brother and will always do, whenever he can 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. Actually Benji doesn't have any problem with being his friend and having him visiting his house, but seems like the Latin American Nation can't help harassing him.

South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
Falklands is SG and SSI big brother and the responsible of taking care of them (his boss is the Governor of the Falkland Islands and Commissioner of SG and SSI) since they're too small to do it by themselves (Georgia has no more than 5 permanent inhabitants and Sandwich is uninhabited).

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. [ Basically FK took care of Antarctica's peninsula *snickers* ]

New Zealand and Australia
They're Benjamin's half-brothers. Is said that Falklands has a slightly similar accent with these two Oceanic countries. They're also related because of the sheep, Falklands usually imports stuff (like semen) and participates on the sheep shearing championships and related events.

Spain
Even when their relationship is over and they don't have interest in each other anymore, Falklands were once Antonio's little brother (son) and learnt his language. Actually he uses it when talking about horses (breeds and gear). Spain likes Falklands squid.

France
Benji had a brief relationship with France. He considers him the first big brother (father) he had. Actually he gets slightly nervous wherever the French is near. Ben sometimes he calls him 'frog'.

Russia
In 2008, Russia was interested on Falklands because of his oil. He was also one of the nations who first saw Ben's brother South Sandwich Islands.

Nordics
Scandinavian countries used to fish, whale and hunt seals at Benjamin's place. Actually they like to visit the Islands as tourists.