Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
tempt to stimulate further interest. Later, he even posited the idea of setting off nuclear
explosions to melt the ice and reveal all those would-be minerals - a form of nuclear en-
gineering. However, US reluctance to make a claim was critical in shaping the future polit-
ics of the Antarctic, and for the intervening years added extra uncertainty for the claimant
club's membership. Their reaction was to devise new roles and rules in order to fix, map,
and record their presence - a new round of 'sovereignty games' was unleashed on the
Antarctic.
Sovereignty games and the Antarctic Problem
In 1943-4, in the midst of the Second World War, British troops and scientists were dis-
patched to the Antarctic, in a secret naval operation called Operation Tabarin. Named after
a Parisian nightclub, and backed by Prime Minister Churchill, the aim was straightforward.
British personnel were expected to strengthen Britain's title to the territory in question,
and this meant establishing a permanent foothold. Bases were created, flags were raised,
plaques were secured, post offices established, theodolites were readied, and signposts em-
bossed with 'crown lands' were planted. Britain was getting serious - pressing surveys into
action and busily issuing postage stamps. It was going to be a policy of
terra nostra
rather
than
mare nostrum
.
In 1951, a British civil servant, Bill Hunter Christie, published an insightful topic called
The Antarctic Problem
. From his vantage point of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires,
Hunter Christie was well placed to record the growing agitation surrounding the overlap-
ping claims of Argentina, Chile, and the United Kingdom. Coincidentally, this Antarctic
agitation sat uneasily with a growing British dependence on Argentine meat supplies in a
post-war period of rationing. UK economic interests in Argentina were also under scrutiny
by nationalist governments in Argentina, especially under the leadership of Juan Domingo
Perón.
All three countries were entrenching their Antarctic claims within public culture by com-
memorating, educating, drawing, and studying the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding is-
lands. In Argentina and Chile, a new generation of citizens was weaned on new geography
textbooks detailing how Antarctic territories were geographically and geologically connec-
ted to South America. Just as the 19th century witnessed patriotic forms of education in
South America, post-war Argentines and Chileans were learning that their countries did
not stop at the southern point of the South American continent. In contrast, a generation of
British school children (as a special treat) got to see John Mills star as Robert Falcon Scott
in Ealing Studios'
Scott of the Antarctic
(1948) in the cinema. In their varying ways, chil-
