Argentines vacillated between admiration and disillusionment as they assessed the legacy of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, a country with which they share a complex history marred by a brutal territorial war waged under their watch.

The government in Buenos Aires reacted quickly to the news of the monarch’s passing, assuring the British people that they share their sadness at this “painful moment”.

The Argentine press expressed their open devotion, declaring the queen a “symbol of the 20th century” and describing her as someone “we knew better than our own aunts”.

But on the streets, praise for the Queen’s performance has been marred by lingering hurt over the 1982 war over the Falkland Islands, which both countries claim as their own.

“I wish the Queen would have given us the islands back before she died,” housewife Maria Lujan Rodriguez, 51, told AFP in Buenos Aires.

Celia Carlen, 88, was among those who laid flowers for a “very sensible, even-tempered” monarch at the British embassy in the capital.

The islands, yes. “I think you should give them back to us. But I separate the two things,” Carlen said.

During the war, which lasted 74 days and left more than 900 dead – 649 Argentine and 255 British soldiers, as well as three residents of the island – Elizabeth was the target of much poison, with many saying she was wrongly addressed.

Back then, football fans – a sport adopted from Britain to almost become a religion in Argentina – sang songs they dubbed “the dumbest queen”.

Argentinian political scientist Rosendo Fraga stressed that the war was a political decision by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government.

The monarchy has no executive or decision-making powers, but the Queen’s public profile made her an easy target for public abuse.

Mirtha Legrand, a 95-year-old TV presenter and celebrity who is just 10 months younger than the Queen, summed up Argentina’s ambivalence.

“It’s very painful. I’ve followed her since she was crowned at 25,” Legrand said. “She was a great queen, but I can’t forget that she reigned during the Falklands War. I can not forget it. It was a very sad moment for everyone.”

Two nations share a long history with many ups and downs.

Two deadly British invasions of Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807 were followed by a period of economic investment, with British money plowing into agriculture, energy and Latin America’s largest railway network.

Then the war struck again.

Argentina sent soldiers to lay claim to the Falkland Islands off the Patagonian coast, which angered Thatcher.

With the Queen’s approval, the Prime Minister sent nearly 30,000 troops halfway around the world to retake the islands Argentina has claimed since 1833 and dubbed the “Malvinas.”

The then 22-year-old Prince Andrew, the Queen’s own son, was part of the mission as a helicopter pilot.

Britain emerged victorious, but the campaign left a deep wound, although diplomatic and economic relations have since recovered.

The Argentina-based Center for Falklands War Veterans said in a statement Elizabeth II “embodied the suffering of the peoples subjected throughout her reign to an archaic system of colonial and economic domination.”

In April this year, at a commemoration ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the war, President Alberto Fernandez affirmed: “The Falkland Islands were, are and will be Argentina.”

A poll last year showed that more than 81 percent of Argentines support claims for sovereignty over the islands.

But in a 2013 referendum among Falkland Islanders, 97 percent voted to remain in the British Empire, prompting the Queen to declare it an overseas territory.

She stirred anger in Buenos Aires by telling Parliament at the time that Britain “will ensure the security, good governance and development of overseas territories, including by protecting the right of Falkland Islanders to determine their political future”.

One of the monarch’s final acts in May this year was the proclamation of the settlement of Port Stanley (called Puerto Argentino by Argentina) as the islands’ official “capital”.

“This exposes the colonial character of the illegal and illegitimate occupation of our islands,” the Argentine government shot back.

For retired teacher Elizabeth Farinez, 67, there was “a somewhat conflicted relationship with English people, but we have to acknowledge that she (Elizabeth) was quite a lady.

“We should say: ‘Bravo Lilibet, you have done very well, for seventy years you have governed England very well’.”