Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Under the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) and an earlier Bull Inter-Caetera (1493),
Spain claimed title to all territory west of a line extending from the Arctic to the Antarc-
tic. On the eve of their respective independence, Argentina and Chile believed that they
inherited those territorial rights to the same areas of the Spanish Empire. As with their con-
tinental territories, a major question confronting these newly created post-colonial states
was where their mutual boundary might lie stretching from the northern Andes to the South
Pole.
Argentine and Chilean national histories are taken up with the demarcation of an interna-
tional boundary and the resolution of disputed territories in the Andean borderlands. Both
states extend their national territories southwards, and in the case of Argentina, the so-
called 'Conquest of the Desert' in the 1880s decimated indigenous peoples. By the turn
of the 19th century, negotiations were ongoing over the extreme south such as Tierra del
Fuego and the Beagle Channel into Drake's Passage, where the mutual boundary was fuzzy
but it would extend to the South Pole. These claims to a southerly frontier were open-
ended, vaguely defined, and implicit but not insignificant. Argentina was the first country
in the world to maintain a permanent presence in the Argentine Antarctic sector.
Audaciously, at least to South Americans, the UK issued a defined claim to the Antarctic
in 1908 via Letters Patent. Revised again in 1917, the British claim to the Falkland Islands
Dependencies (FID) extended the South Atlantic Empire southwards following the annex-
ation of the Falkland Islands in the 1830s. Spurred on by whaling and further acts of dis-
covery and exploration, the British established a series of legal, political, and scientific
mechanisms and procedures designed to consolidate imperial control. Leopold Amery, who
served as Colonial Secretary from 1924 to 1929 and advocated British imperial authority
throughout his long career, was at the forefront of endeavours to extend British control over
the whole of the Antarctic, even if it was only partially mapped and explored. Invoking
'environmental authority', British officials opined that the UK was uniquely blessed with
scientific and administrative skills necessary to manage a challenging piece of real$
Pursuing this 'selfless' policy, British officials encouraged New Zealand to assume admin-
istration of the Ross Dependency in 1923, and Australia to lay claim to an enormous sector
called the Australian Antarctic Territory. South Africa was approached as well, but declined
to actively help the Antarctic turn pink on British imperial maps. In response to British
imperial manoeuvrings, France announced that it would claim another part of the Antarc-
tic, on the basis of past acts of exploration and discovery, especially by the 19th-century
explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville. In 1924, the French territory of Adélie Land was estab-
lished, and extended sector-like towards the South Pole. Significantly, the French claim
was later recognized by Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Amery's master plan for total
