Conclusion
On June 14th, after several weeks of fighting, the Argentine garrison at Port Stanley surrendered to the Royal Marines, effectively ending the conflict. Britain had lost five ships and 256 lives in the fight to regain the Falklands, and Argentina lost its only cruiser, a sizable portion of its air force and 750 lives.
In Argentina, defeat in the Falklands meant that a long-brewing war with Chile was avoided. Further, Argentina returned to a democratic government in the 1983 general election, the first free general election since 1973. It also had a major social impact, destroying the military's image as the "moral reserve of the nation" that they had maintained through most of the 20th century.
In the UK, Thatcher’s popularity soared after the conflict, and her Conservative Party won a landslide victory in 1983 parliamentary elections. Additionally, most of the provisions of the 1981 Defence Review (which, if implemented, would have gutted the UK armed forces to such an extend that a future Falklands-style campaign would have been plainly impossible) were reversed, and several new reform and weapon system acquisition programs were launched. Some of them would bear fruit in time for the UK's contribution to the Gulf War.
In the immediate aftermath of the conflict, the British government embarked on a long-term policy of providing the islands with a viable military garrison, known informally as "Fortress Falklands". Initially, an aircraft carrier was kept in the area until the runway at Port Stanley could be improved to take conventional RAF fighters. A permanent military complex with a runway designed to take long-haul airliners was constructed in the south of East Falkland, RAF Mount Pleasant, which opened in 1985; an associated deep-water port at Mare Harbour was also constructed.
Perhaps some patches of rock are worth fighting for, even dying for.
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"Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities: war. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him, and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out... and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands, and works for the universal brotherhood of man...
...with his mouth."
-Mark Twain