Territorial claims in Antarctica
Seven sovereign states – Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom – have made eight territorial claims in Antarctica.
The capitulación (governorship) granted to the conquistador Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz in 1539 by the King of Spain, Charles V, explicitly included all lands south of the Straits of Magellan, (Terra Australis, and Tierra del Fuego and by extension potentially the entire continent of Antarctica) and to the East and West the borders were the ones specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas and Zaragoza respectively, thus creating the Governorate of Terra Australis.
Spain's sovereignty claim over parts of Antarctica was, according to Chile and Argentina, internationally recognized with the Inter caetera bull of 1493 and the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494.
[7] It was the ambition of Leopold Amery, then Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the United Kingdom incorporate the entire continent into the Empire.
In a memorandum to the governors-general for Australia and New Zealand, he wrote that 'with the exception of Chile and Argentina and some barren islands belonging to France... it is desirable that the whole of the Antarctic should ultimately be included in the British Empire.'
The basis for the claim to Adélie Land by France depended on the discovery of the coastline in 1840 by the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, who named it after his wife, Adèle.
[12] The British eventually decided to recognize this claim, and the border between Adélie Land and the Australian Antarctic Territory was fixed definitively in 1938.
The whale-ship owner Lars Christensen financed several expeditions to the Antarctic with the view to claiming land for Norway and to establishing stations on Norwegian territory to gain better privileges.
[25] In early 1906, the Chilean government granted permits to private business ventures to settle the lands beyond the South Shetland islands, with the goal of establishing a permanent presence in the region and improving Chile's control of the area.
Bruce offered to transfer the station and instruments for the sum of 5,000 pesos, on the condition that the government committed itself to the continuation of the scientific mission.
[26] The Envoy at the British Legation in Argentina, William Haggard,[27] also sent a note to the Argentine Foreign Minister, José A. Terry, ratifying the terms of Bruce's proposition.
Although these talks were unsuccessful, Argentina attempted to unilaterally establish its sovereignty with the erection of markers, national flags and other symbols.
[28] Chile's government didn't completely reject Argentina's protest and negotiations ensued between both countries through most of 1906 and 1907, trying to define the borders of their respective Antarctic claims.
A suitable cover story was the need to deny use of the area to the Kriegsmarine, which was known to use remote islands as rendezvous points and as shelters for commerce raiders, U-boats and supply ships.
Also, in 1941, there existed a fear that Japan might attempt to seize the Falkland Islands, either as a base or to hand them over to Argentina, thus gaining political advantage for the Axis and denying their use to the United Kingdom.
The expedition was led by Lieutenant James Marr and left the Falkland Islands in two ships, HMS William Scoresby (a minesweeping trawler) and Fitzroy, on 29 January 1944.
Symbols of British sovereignty, including post offices, signposts and plaques were also constructed and postage stamps were issued.
1952), who fired a machine gun over the heads of a British Antarctic Survey team unloading supplies from the John Biscoe.
The United States Antarctic Service Expedition, from 1939 to 1941, was sponsored by the government with additional support from donations and gifts by private citizens, corporations and institutions.
Operation Highjump, from 1946 to 1947 was organised by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd Jr. and included 4,700 men, 13 ships, and multiple aircraft.
The primary mission of Operation Highjump was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV,[35] for the purpose of training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions and amplifying existing stores of knowledge of hydrographic, geographic, geological, meteorological and electromagnetic propagation conditions in the area.
The mission was also aimed at consolidating and extending United States sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent, although this was publicly denied as a goal even before the expedition ended.
[36] Negotiations towards the establishment of an international condominium over the continent first began in 1948, involving the 8 claimant countries: United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, US, France, Norway, Chile and Argentina.
The ship Commandant Charcot of the French Navy spent nine months of 1949/50 at the coast of Adélie Land, performing ionospheric soundings.
Peru made a reservation of its territory rights under the principle of Antarctic defrontation (in Spanish) and due to influence on its climate, ecology and marine biology, adducing, in addition, geological continuity and historical links.
[42] Uruguayan adhesion to the Antarctic Treaty System includes a declaration that it reserves its rights in Antarctica in accordance with international law.
Due to the possibility of access to the South Pole through the Makran Sea and the lack of any land between Iran's eastern coast and Antarctica, the Iranian sector with an approximate length of 3,000 km and width of 405 km and an approximate area of 200 to 250 thousand square kilometers would conflict with Australia's claims and would include Mawson Station.
Brazil maintains the Comandante Ferraz (the Brazilian Antarctic Base) and has proposed a theory to delimit territories using meridians, which would give it and other countries a claim.
