Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 26.4
Argentina-Chile boundary in the southern Andes
(Resolved by British arbitration, 1902, 1966 and 1994.)
westwards to the Chilean coast. In some areas, the
watershed was far to the east of the highest peaks; thus
Chile favoured a watershed boundary and Argentina the
highest peaks (Figure 26.6). The parties asked the British
monarch to arbitrate in 1896, and after exhaustive field
surveys a compromise line was proposed by a British
commission in 1902, which largely avoids the watershed
or the highest peaks. Argentina gained 15,450 square
miles and Chile 20,850 square miles of formerly disputed
territory. Ambiguities were subsequently revealed in two
relatively short sectors around Palena and Laguna del
Desierto, which were resolved by British-led commissions
in 1966 and 1994, respectively.
In 1855, Argentina and Chile formally agreed to accept
that the boundaries they inherited from Spain in 1810 (a
doctrine known as
Uti possidetis)
. The precise alignment
of the inherited boundaries was not clear, however, and
brought the countries close to conflict on several
occasions. An agreement signed in Buenos Aires in July
1881 was an attempt to settle the Andes boundary, which
'shall run… over the highest summits of the said
Cordilleras which divide the waters' (Boggs 1940: pp. 85-
93). Closer examination revealed that the watershed and
the highest peaks do not coincide, because of headward
erosion by the steeper and stronger streams flowing
Figure 26.6
The Argentine-
Chile boundary in the southern
Andes (resolved 1902, 1996,
1994).
1990 by the unification of the Yemen Arab
Republic (North Yemen) and the People's
Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen),
which had been ruled by Britain as the Aden
Protectorate until 1967. Saudi Arabia and North
Yemen agreed on part of their boundary by the
Treaty of Taif (1934), which runs mostly through
populous mountain regions, but no boundary was
Saudi Arabia-Yemen
Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen are
engaged in a major territorial dispute, which the
parties have tried to resolve in high-level talks
since 1993. Political relations between the two
states have rarely been good, in spite of a degree of
economic interdependence.Yemen was formed in
