Chilean Antarctic Territory
The Chilean Antarctic Territory or Chilean Antarctica (in Spanish Territorio Antártico Chileno or Antártica Chilena) is the Chilean territory which is located on the Antarctic Continent between the meridians 53° W and 90° W and to the south of parallel 60° S. Chilean sovereignty over Antarctica is the only one backed by legal titles among all the countries interested in it. The territory belongs to the commune of Antártica in the Antártica Chilena Province of the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region. The territory reaches the South Pole.
Chile has the advantage, moreover, of a privileged and extended location towards its Antarctic possessions, which all other countries lack. While this would suggest that the Chilean situation is highly favorable to its position with respect to Antarctic territory, there are several claims to the same territory and the surrender policies of recent years have jeopardized years of efforts to consolidate Chilean territorial rights over the white continent. Even so, there is no other country in the world with legal titles and historical or geographical arguments as solid as those of the Chilean Antarctic Territory.[1][2][3][4][5]
Chile's geographical relationship with the Antarctic continent
In their eagerness to expose Chilean rights on the basis of the incontestable hispanic legal titles extended in 1555 and 1558 (see below), thus seeking to establish an advantageous distance with the less categorical arguments of the other nations claiming Antarctic sovereignty, many Chilean authors forget that nature had already predisposed -from millions of years before- a geographical relationship over the white continent, for whoever came to possess the Magellanic region.
Although some Chilean writers have ignored the geographical and oceanographic arguments, it is certain that they reaffirm the Chilean condition as a country where the possession of Antarctic lands is of greater legitimacy, given the natural geographical link that exists between Antarctica and the Southern zone of Chile, since everything indicates that the American and Antarctic continents were still united long after the separation of the primordial mega-continent of Gondwana.
Obvious similarities have been found between plant fossils from the Antarctic territory and South America, and Antarctic charcoal would come from fossil forests with a rather equatorial climate. Towards the beginning of the Cenozoic, the union of both continents subsisted only in the Antarctic Peninsula and Cape Horn, two territories that correspond to Chile both by titles and historical relations.
The detachment of both land masses left a trail of islands, rocks and islets that mark the outline of the Southern or Southern Antilles Arc, so named by Suess in 1883, whose line connects the islands south of Tierra del Fuego with the Peninsula, constituting the true border between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which walks joining the next island bridge. Its trajectory is as follows:
It departs at the Chilean island system Wollaston, Cape Horn and Beagle in a southeasterly direction. It jumps to the area of Cape San Diego and Isla de los Estados (some consider this to be the true beginning). Continue on Buhwood Bank, south of Falkland Islands. Continue on Cormorant Rocks and Black Rocks. Proceed to South Georgia Island. Make a U-turn to the southwest, following the outline of the South Sandwich Islands archipelago. Jump from there to the South Orkney Islands. It culminates, finally, in the system of the Pilot Pardo Islands, South Shetland and the Antarctic Peninsula of O'Higgins Land, which in turn maintains the southwest direction in its geographic shape. The arc forms a horseshoe that, in turn, is connected to the discontinuous prolongation of the Andes Mountain Range towards O'Higgins Land, a system of which the islands we have pointed out as landmarks of the oceanic bridge are part of. This is the reason why the characteristic volcanic system of the Chilean Cordillera is prolonged with great activity in the Antarctic territory, even causing some disasters. All the sea within this austral arc, east of the Drake Passage and called Scotia Sea, is Pacific, although it has the appearance of entering the Atlantic and the division of this sea with the Pacific is considered at cartographic level at the height of Cape Horn, although without political implications, according to international agreements.
Throughout the history of the Earth there have been several similar intercontinental bridges, such as the Alaska-Chukotka projection in the Bering Strait ("Beringia"), the Aleutian Islands a little further south, or the island systems east of the Bay of Bengal and in the Philippines. Thus, even accepting that the sea surrounding the frozen continent was an Antarctic Ocean differentiated from the others, the Pacific surrounds the whole of the Chilean legal area by the described situation of the Southern Antilles Arc and the Scotia Sea, so that any foreign claim on the Chilean Antarctic Territory necessarily goes through adjustment or quarrel with legal rights over the Pacific Sea that precedes it.
The relationship of Magallanes with Antarctica, which Cañas Montalva would call "the austral-Antarctic spur" (see below) is, as we can see, unique in the projection of any country in the world towards the white continent.
Let us remember that these geographical rights that nature has generously granted to Chile, are used by their authors only to complement their titles and support their jurisdiction, while other countries, such as Argentina, rely essentially on geographical relations and projections to present grounds for possession or Antarctic correspondence. This is due to the fact that the bulk of Chile's argumentation concentrates on the titles of dominion and historical relations with the Antarctic territory, which we will now see.
Importance of Villa Las Estrellas, Antarctic present and future
- Main article: Villa Las Estrellas
The most significant act for Chile, however, perhaps corresponds to the inauguration of Villa Las Estrellas, by President Augusto Pinochet on April 9, 1984, on King George Island, in the South Shetlands. It is located next to the President Frei Meteorological Center and three kilometers from the Lieutenant Marsh Base. Pinochet visited the continent more than once, the first time in 1977. Today there is the Lucía Mountain named after his wife Lucía Hiriart, the Augusto Pinochet Massif (also known as Dufek) and the Admiral Merino Channel (also known as Plata).
Initially with only six families, in a few months it had already doubled to 12 families and was already the first and only population of civilian settlers established in Antarctica, with no other similar experience in history. The success of this project allowed the registration of some of the first human births in Antarctic territory, which up to 1985 totaled three:
- Juan Pablo Camacho Martinez (November 21, 1984)
- Gisella Ester Cortés Rojas (2 December 1984)
- Ignacio Alfonso Miranda Lagunas (January 23, 1985).
In practice, this means that Chile has allowed the birth of another of the first men with Antarctic gentilage, among the first authentic "Antarctics" in the world, after a registry apparently initiated at the Argentinean base "Esperanza" on January 7, 1978 (Emilio Marcos Palma), but which has been put in doubt by some technical and historical criteria, such as the much earlier birth of a girl in South Georgia Island, United Kingdom: Solveig Gunbjörg Jacobsen, born on October 8, 1913. The case is recorded by Robert K. Headland in his work "The Island of South Georgia" (Cambridge University Press, 1984). Moreover, in the Argentine case, the parents were not resident civilians, but rather officials of a temporary base, although they had been living in specially arranged cabins since that same year. It should be noted that in the case of the Chilean births, they were also residents, since they belonged to families who were members of the settler community. The confusion of the Argentine case and its registration as the "first" in the world, which has even been accepted by the Guinness Book of Records, seems to derive from the campaign carried out during the last Argentine military governments as propaganda in favor of their aspirations over the southern territory.
At present, villa "Las Estrellas" has a large population of its own, including an inn, a nursery, a school, a mini hospital, a small supermarket, a post office and a bank, which make it a real human colony, and not an imitation or a set-up of one, to the point that it has become an important enclave of logistic support for the other eight nations that have installations on King George Island and its surroundings.
Supplies are periodically flown in by air, a task carried out by the Chilean Air Force. The colony's houses are built with great comfort, in a hundred square meters and with lenga wood on a solid steel chassis, with special adaptations in roofs and windows to insulate the cold environment.
The success of villa "Las Estrellas" has not been unique for Chile. In July 2000, another good scientific news took place, after a Chilean research group discovered a natural sanctuary for Antarctic Minke whales, which developed their own habitat on the frozen continent, adapting to its extreme climatic conditions. The whales' refuge was defined by the scientists as "a new population and species of Minke whales for the southern hemisphere". Apparently, the cetaceans developed an extraordinary adaptation that allowed them to permanently inhabit Antarctic waters without having to migrate in the austral winter.
This type of progress is also fundamental for the defense of Chile's Antarctic rights, protected by the Antarctic Treaty, since the country has achieved remarkable advances and discoveries on the white continent, knowledge and foundations that will later be vital for the validation of its rights, since discoveries such as these demonstrate that Chile is one of the few countries with a constant Antarctic relationship. Numerous scientific and geographical studies thus support Chilean sovereignty over the area.
In April 2001, a project to transfer Chilean jurisdiction over Antarctica and the village of "Las Estrellas" from Punta Arenas to the Municipality of Navarino, on the island of the same name, which would be renamed the Municipality of Cape Horn, was approved in April 2001. This measure, although it has some critical remarks, makes a great administrative approximation of the Chilean Antarctic alien to any inductive projection as is the case in other countries, demonstrating another instance of the true close relationship that exists between continental Chile and its polar territory.
In this sense, it may constitute a great advance, but it will be of no use if the serious problem derived from the reduction of the number of people who live in Chile's Antarctic territory persists.[6]
The Laws of the Indies and the Chilean Antarctic Territory
Chile is the first and only country to receive legal title to the Antarctic territory, in early hispanic times, and this occurred when there was still no certainty about the physical and geographical aspect of that enormous frozen continent, whose existence was barely known from stories with more characteristics of fantasy than authenticity. It was the "Terra Incognita", "Terra Australis" or "Terra Australia Nondum Cognita" of the old maps of cartographers such as Abraham Ortelius and Gerard Mercator. The area corresponding to the Spanish dominion and placed in Chilean jurisdiction included the territories of the Antarctic cap between the meridian of Tordesillas at 37º 7' and 90º West of Greenwich, which was in absolute abandonment at the beginning of the conquest.
We will see that the southern end up to the Pole was included in the Spanish domain since the creation of the Gobernación del Estrecho, by Pero Sancho de la Hoz, who received it from concessions extended in 1539 over the so-called "Terra Australis". The direct titles of Chile on the territory are merit of the Conquistador Don Pedro de Valdivia, who insisted to the Crown until achieving the extension of the domain of Chile until the Strait of Magellan, assigning the administration of the southern zone to Jerónimo de Alderete and seeing Pero Sancho de la Hoz in obligation to cede them in 1554.
Alderete was in charge of the conquistador's administration of these lands. Paradoxically, Valdivia had died by the time he succeeded in extending his dominions in 1555, so Alderete became directly Governor of Chile, including the Strait, in another proof that his administration was within the limits of the Chilean Governorate.
Here are some of the main arguments derived from the laws of the Indies that demonstrate the early incorporation of the Antarctic territory into the hispanic government of Chile:
Bull Inter Caetera of 1493: On May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI granted by this bull to the Catholic Monarchs "exclusive rights over all islands and continents not possessed by other princes". It will be recalled that, only a year earlier, Christopher Columbus had arrived in America announcing his discovery in Spain, the sponsor of his voyage to the New World, so that the "unowned" territories necessarily corresponded to the American continent and the Antarctic continent. We will see that the exercise of these rights in Antarctica was entrusted to the hispanic administration of Chile by the Hispanic sovereigns, due to the geographical proximity and its Magellanic connection. It should be remembered that the Treaty of Tordesillas did not alter the exercise of Spain's sovereign rights over Antarctica, nor those inherited by Chile after 1810.
Royal Capitulations of Toledo of 1534: After the conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, the Crown began to distinguish the coasts of the Pacific or South Sea and the Magellanic coasts, at the southern end, where there was an enormous unexplored territory. For this reason, Charles V celebrated, on May 21, 1534, three capitulations or contracts in Toledo, to undertake the conquest towards the South, creating with them three governorships to the South of Pizarro's New Castile: Nueva Toledo, for Diego de Almagro (from 14º to 25º 31' 26, near Taltal); Nueva Andalucía or Río de la Plata, for Pedro de Mendoza (from 25º 31' 26 to 36º 57' 09) and Nueva León or Tierra Magallánica, for Simón de Alcazaba (from 36º 57' 09 to 48º 22' 52, more or less at the height of Isla la Campana). Shortly after it was created, the latter was ceded to Francisco de Camargo, extending it to the Strait of Magellan.
Royal Capitulation of Toledo of 1539: From 1539, the future Captaincy of Chile began to receive insistent instructions from the Crown to exercise dominion over the Magellanic Lands. For this reason, on January 24 of that same year, a fourth Governorate had been created, to the south of the Strait, the "Terra Australis", for Pero Sancho de la Hoz, which would also be within the limits of hispanic Chile. It was then believed that there was a large undiscovered territory south of the Strait. It was for this reason that Sancho de la Hoz attempted a partnership with Pedro de Valdivia when he arrived in Cuzco from Spain and found the latter ready to leave for the conquest of Chile, in the service of Pizarro. However, he got into excessive debt, did not fulfill his part of the contract and had to reluctantly cede his governorship to Valdivia. He would end up betraying the conquistador and dying executed by Villagra in the middle of his conspiracy plot.
Royal Decree of Arrás of 1554: Fearing that the Council of the Indies would not agree to the idea of extending Pedro de Valdivia's governorship to the Strait by transferring territories that had been given to Camargo, as requested by the conqueror of Chile and his envoy to the Court, Don Jerónimo de Alderete, the latter managed to meet with the sovereign Charles V in Arrás and explained the reasons for the interest and the convenience of Valdivia's request. As soon as the meeting concluded, the Emperor notified the members of the Council of the Indies by two Royal Letters, dated September 29, 1554, telling them: "Captain Jeronimo de Alderete came to this our Court, to give us reason of the state in which the things of the Province of Chile called the New Extremadura remained and he has begged us some things on behalf of the said Province, of Don Pedro de Valdivia, our Governor of it and his own...". "We have also been informed by the said Captain Jeronimo de Alderete, of what touches the Strait of Magellan and how much it would matter to our service to finish discovering and populating the other part of the said Strait and to make some forces in certain places that are very convenient for it... having consulted us particularly it has seemed to us to grant as the present we will grant the said Captain Jeronimo de Alderete the Governorate of the land that, as it is said, is on the other part of the said Strait of Magellan...". It was then believed that it was easy to jump to the other side of the Strait to find the "Terra Incognita", since in a curious error of the time (which lasted for a long time) it was taken for granted that the South of Tierra del Fuego was directly connected to Antarctica, as shown in practically all the maps of those years. Thus, a new governorate was created south of the Strait of Gibraltar and given to Alderete.
Royal Decree of Valladolid of 1555: The main concessions for Chile on the Antarctic territory come from two other important decrees, simultaneously issued on May 29, 1555 and relating to the extension of the Governorate that belonged to Pedro de Valdivia (Chile) up to the Strait of Magellan, for Alderete on the death of the conqueror, including the Governorate of the Strait that he had just received the previous year. In the second of them he expressly said: "Adelantado don Jerónimo de Alderete, our governor of the province of Chile, you know how you have provided us with the said government as far as the Strait of Magellan; and because we wish to know the lands and towns on the other side of the said strait, and understand the secrets that are in that land, I command you to send some ships from the said provinces of Chile to take news and a report on the quality of that land and the usefulness of it. ... and you will provide that possession be taken in our name of the lands and provinces that fall in the demarcation of the Crown of Castile..." The same royal decree was addressed as follows: "To the Governor of Chile so that, once he arrives, he will send to take reason of the land on the other side of the Strait". With this, not only was the existence of a jurisdiction of all the territory south of the Strait confirmed, but it was also incorporated to the Chilean territory that now, replacing Valdivia, Alderete would govern in its entirety.
Royal Decree of Brussels of 1558: It was not enough for the Crown to grant jurisdiction over the unknown southern lands. Interested in knowing what was in them, and in another indesmentible and unquestionable act of the rights of Chile in the Pole, on December 20, 1558, Charles V granted a new concession to the Governor Francisco de Villagra by two royal decrees. The first one of them says textually: "As you will see by this our Letter, which with this one is given to you, you are ordered and commanded that when you arrive to that land you send some ships to take news and relation of the land that is on the other side of the Strait; you have care to understand of it and to warn us of the news that the people that you send to it will bring...". The second letter alluded to in the previous paragraph has the following heading: "To the said Francisco de Villagra so that he sends a list of the lands on the other side of the Strait and takes possession of them". The aforementioned letter goes on to request the exploration and adjudication of all the territory further south than the Strait, and to take "possession in our name of the lands and provinces that fall within the demarcation of the Crown of Castile". The cedula alluded to the territory located up to the geographic pole, where the Spanish monarchic jurisdiction culminated. The delimitation of the Crown of Castile then considered an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole 370 leagues to the west of the Cape Verde Islands, by virtue of the bulls of Alexander VI, rectified in the Treaty of Tordesillas signed later between Spain and Portugal.
Royal Commission of Governor García Hurtado de Mendoza of 1560: Finding by then the province of Cuyo within the territory of the Kingdom of Chile, the young Governor García Hurtado de Mendoza decided to extend orders to pacify and populate the region, dictating for this purpose a Royal Commission in favor of Don Pedro del Castillo to appoint him Lieutenant Governor of the province, dated November 20, 1560, in which he writes a very particular heading, only two years after the sailor Juan Ladrillero took possession of the Strait of Magellan, sent by him: "Don García Hurtado de Mendoza, Governor and Captain General in these Provinces of Chile and its comarcas by his Majesty. Inasmuch as his Majesty by his royal Provisions entrusted me with the Governorship of these said Provinces of Chile from North to South from the Valley of Copiapó to the other side of the Strait of Magellan, and from east-west one hundred and fifty leagues, as he gave it and pointed it out by Governorship to the Adelantado Don Jerónimo de Alderete...".
Law 12 of the Compilation of the Laws of the Indies of 1680: In the year 1680, the sovereign Charles II decided to promulgate the "Compilation of the Laws of the Kingdoms of the Indies", gathering most of the laws accumulated with respect to the Indian colonies, merging them into an organic and orderly structure. Law 12, of Title XV (Book II) of this Compilation, establishes a general demarcation guideline of the limits of the "Audiencia y Cancillería Real de Santiago de Chile", where it indicates as internal territory everything that "reduces, populates and pacifies within and outside the Strait of Magellan and the interior land up to and including the province of Cuyo". This reference is very clear in pointing out territories "inside and outside" the Strait of Magellan, referring by those that are outside to those that project southward from the oceanic passage and Tierra del Fuego, precisely in the idea of a geographical relationship between the American continent and the Antarctic Terra Australis, even though there was no longer any continuity with the Fuegian territories, as demonstrated by the voyage of the English corsair Sir Francis Drake when he discovered, in 1578, the feared maritime passage that today bears his name between the southern tip of the Southern Cone and the Antarctic Peninsula. Only in 1616 other navigators dared to pass through this rough passage, when the Dutchmen Le Maire and Schouten discovered Cape Horn. Incidentally, it should be noted that the law indicates the whole of Patagonia, "inland" from the Strait to Cuyo, also in Chilean territory, which invalidates the thesis of the later Argentine claims that Eastern Patagonia belonged then to the Audiencia of Buenos Aires. For all the above reasons, legally, geographically and even oceanographically (relation of the Pacific with Antarctica), Chile has unrenounceable and unquestionable rights over the South Pole continent. Any questioning of these rights is an affront to the historical basis of these rights.
Hispanic chronicles and texts on Chilean Antarctic rights
A no less generous amount of references from chroniclers of the Indies and documents related to the jurisdiction of the Governorate of Chile, also demonstrate the Antarctic extension that the territory of the Kingdom of Chile had in the times of the Hispanic dominion:
"La Araucana" by Alonso de Ercilla, in 1569: In "La Araucana", published in 1569, don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga writes in Canto I: "It is Chile north south of great length, / coast of the new sea, of the South called; / it will have from east to west of narrowness / one hundred miles, for the widest taken; / under the Antarctic pole in height / of twenty-seven degrees, prolonged / until where the ocean and Chilean sea / mix their waters by narrow bosom.".[7] Remember that in those years the adjective "Antarctic" was used as a counterpart of "arctic", that is to say, in allusion to the extreme south of the world, in the polar direction, rather than to the then still legendary white continent that was believed to be connected to the Strait and this, in turn, very close to the archipelago of Chiloé (the author's last destination) given the imprecise cartography of the time. Ercilla insists on this "Antarctic" condition of the Chilean territory in his Canto III: "It was she who found the remote Indians of the Antarctic regions". These lines take the author's memories from between 1557 and 1558, the years of Ercilla's adventure in Chile. They refer to the territory of the original cedulas of Pedro de Valdivia's jurisdiction over the Kingdom of Chile, which were expanded and modified several times after his death in 1554. As will be remembered, it was not until 1558 that Spanish strongholds could be founded in the south of Chile, particularly in Cañete and Osorno, since the discovery and conquest were in full process. That same year, also, Ladrillero's expedition managed to reach Magallanes.
"Description of the West Indies" by Antonio de Herrera, 1601: In 1601 this work, by the first chronicler of the Indies, also known as the "Decades", was published in Madrid. The work is, at times, contradictory and has even been used by historians from Argentina and Bolivia to try to argue that Chile never had an inherited possession of Patagonia or the Atacama Desert, even though it also undermines their respective arguments in several other paragraphs. However, when referring in one part to the Kingdom of Chile, the author writes: "...the whole kingdom is within the area that the ancients called desert, which has been found populated by white Indians and is located on the shores of the South Sea, which is included between its coast and that of the Kingdom of China... and which ends in the coast of Chile and Peru, which is all one, up to the coast of the Kingdom of China. All the said sea, its shores and lands fall within the demarcation of the Crown of Castile and Leon, and everything else that is to be discovered in this sea, from the equinoctial line to the Antarctic Pole, which is the South Pole, also belongs to the Crown of Castile". Herrera includes in his works a sketch of South America where Tierra del Fuego, south of Magellan, appears perfectly linked to the unknown Antarctic land.
"Tabula Geographica" by Alonso de Ovalle, 1646: The map entitled "Tabula Geographica Regni Chile" was included in the "Edición Histórica Relación del Reino de Chile y de las Misiones y Ministerios que Ejercita en él la Compañía de Jesús", by the Chilean Jesuit Alonso de Ovalle, printed in Rome by Francesco Caualli, in 1646. Ovalle had discovered in the Iberian Peninsula a great ignorance on the part of the authorities with respect to the history and the royal concessions that Spain had been granting to Chile for a century, so he took on the task of summarizing the chronicles and characteristics of the territory, capturing them in the "Historical Edition". By the end of 1644 his work was practically finished, but due to curious postponements and delays (among others, the death of the Father General of Spain with whom Ovalle had an understanding) this very important work only saw the light in 1646 and not in Spain, but in Rome, reason why many authors deprive it of official character in spite of having the approval of the Council of the Indies, constituting itself as the first printed chronicle written by an official of the Spanish Crown in the Indies about the territory, the history and the population of the Kingdom of Chile. In spite of the inaccuracies of the map, given that it was conceived with more illustrative characteristics than cartographic rigors, the "Tabula Geographica" shows the Tierra del Fuego connected to the tip of a mysterious southern land then only known by stories and rumors, which would correspond to the Antarctic Peninsula or "Terra Incognita", which already appeared in the cartographies of the time. As we have said, it was a very common criterion at the time to show a supposed connection between Magellan and the mysterious Antarctica, so it seems that Ovalle could have confused the relationship of the Magellanic territory with the position of the Isla de los Estados (discovered thirty years earlier), where he placed his "Terra Incognita". Another interesting detail of the map is that it shows all of Patagonia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in possession of the Kingdom of Chile.
"Política Indiana" by Juan de Solórzano, from 1647: This work, written by the Spanish jurist Juan de Solórzano Pereira, contributes one of the most explicit hispanic paragraphs to Chilean Antarctic rights: "By the Antarctic or South Pole, it is not known how far the land they call Patagones, and Strait of Magellan runs; but it is certain that, as cold as these regions are, they must be found populated and continued as those that fall in the other below the frigid zone. And Henrico Martinez, Ortelio and others say that this is where it joins New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, bordering Peru and the kingdom of Chile". Solórzano's error in believing Antarctica to be connected with the lands around the world persisted as a popular belief for many years among some intellectuals: in 1838, Edgar Allan Poe describes in his enigmatic book "The Adventures of Gordon Pym" a cold Antarctic territory full of icebergs, but inhabited by black tribes of Melanesian appearance and a fauna of African or Australian type, closing his story with the appearance of a mysterious giant that seems to evoke those that Europeans claimed to see in Patagonia.
"Historia General del Reino de Chile" by Diego de Rosales, circa 1660: An hispanic work that would only be published in 1877, was that of the Jesuit Diego de Rosales, entitled "Historia General del Reino de Chile, Flandes Indiano". In it, the influential missionary and politician of the 17th century writes about Chile: "The Kingdom of Chile is the southern end of the vast Empire of Peru on the coast of the South Sea. Extending, past the Tropic of Capricorn, in latitude of six hundred and eighty-two and a half leagues, because its polar graduation is measured from north to south, from 26º to 55º towards the Antarctic pole, widening from east to west...". It is worth remembering that the 55º parallel is halfway between Magellan and the Antarctic Peninsula, so Rosales is actually pointing to Tierra del Fuego south of the Strait as the extreme territory of the kingdom, precisely the area that was supposed to be joined to the Antarctic continent in spite of Drake's discoveries. An amazing detail of this work is that Rosales notices the bifurcation and continuity of the Andes towards the southern end, precisely in the area of the South Antilles that we have described above, when he says: "This Cordillera and this heap of mountains piled one on top of the other, at its widest forty leagues, and as it gains the height of the Antarctic Pole, it narrows until it ends and hides in the sea by the new Strait of Le Maire". These observations are a scientific success for the time. "Relación Histórica" by Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, official chroniclers of the Crown, 1748: The "Relación Histórica del viaje a la América Meridional hecho de orden de Su Mag. The "Relación Histórica del viaje a la América Meridional hecho de orden de Su Mag.", by the famous captains Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, published by royal order in Madrid, in 1748, in Part II, Book 2, page 335, says the following: "The extensive Kingdom of Chile occupies that part of southern America that from the ends of Peru runs towards the southern pole until the Strait of Magellan... making division between both kingdoms, as it is said in another part, the uninhabited area of Atacama...". It should be remembered that the conviction of the time makes us understand these references to the Strait of Magellan as a territory effectively incorporated or at least geographically very close to the Terra Non Cognita of the Austro.
"Historia Militar, Civil y Sagrada" by Miguel de Olivares, circa 1758: Also written by a Jesuit priest, this document contains an interesting reference in its Chapter I, when saying about the geography of Chile: "Its long extension begins from the San Benito hill at the height of 22 degrees of southern latitude to Cape Horn, which is at the height of 56 degrees". Moving on in the reading, he then adds that the southern end is: "...Cape Horn, looking towards the Antarctic pole". The lack of support for the Argentine position based on these titles and recognitions from the times of the Spanish Colony, has led practically all the Buenos Aires authors defending the Argentine Antarctic claim to concentrate exclusively on theories of geographical projections (which avoid confronting the issue with that of Chile's Indian rights in the Antarctic continent), despite being quite questionable as well, given the difficulty encountered by Argentina's desire to project itself territorially over Antarctica, notwithstanding the fact that the Chilean jurisdiction of Magallanes would hinder such a projection over the Antarctic Peninsula.
There is, however, a good amount of Chilean historical antecedents that also allow to sustain an impeccable argumentation of Antarctic rights from the years after the American Emancipation, as we shall see.
Chilean expedition makes the first Antarctic landing in 1820
At the time of Independence, the Republics inherited as their own territory the same territory they possessed when they were hispanic governorships of Spain and in 1810. It is what has been called uti possidetis. In this sense, in relation to the Antarctic issue, it can be assumed that the territory of the white continent that corresponded to Chile at that time, together with Patagonia, Magallanes and probably even the Falkland Islands (Oscar Espinosa Moraga and Manuel Hormazábal argue so), extended some 10 degrees further east than that currently considered, for reasons that will be discussed below and that were conceived with the sole purpose of recognizing Antarctic rights for Argentina. Chile could claim Antarctic territory from the meridian of Tordesillas, where the Spanish domain began, at 37º 7'.
Coincidentally to the years preceding and following the Emancipation process, there was a series of investigations and discoveries in which British and North Americans had great participation. James Cook circumnavigated the Antarctic coasts in 1772, producing a very precise and useful chart for that time; for his part, Williams Smith, in 1819, discovered the Southern Sethlands and landed on King George Island. Other explorers would make similar progress. Officially, the American sailor and hunter Nathaniel Palmer is considered to have sighted the Antarctic Peninsula for the first time in 1819. A few years later, James Wedell penetrated the ice barrier that bears his name. Another American seal hunter, John Davis, would be the protagonist of the first recorded landing in Antarctica, on February 7, 1821 according to official historiography. However, some of these versions are close to having to be revised in the light of the historical data available today.
Wanting to join this official list of pioneers, Argentine authors who publicize the Antarctic rights of their country have brought up that, on August 25, 1818, the Consulate of Buenos Aires issued to the merchant Juan Pedro Aguirre a patent to hunt wolves and settle in what he indicated as "some of the islands that in the height of the South Pole of this continent are uninhabited". In pretending to demonstrate with this weak argument that even then the entire southern Antarctic territory belonged to the Platense country, they overlook the fact that this event took place eight years after 1810 and, therefore, was outside the principle of uti possidetis. In addition, Aguirre represented a North American-Argentine wolf-breeding company incorporated in Argentina for the fur trade, so it is difficult for the Consulate not to have extended a patent to such a profitable business.
Discoveries and historical research have allowed us to form a very different picture of the Antarctic territories from what was previously thought, since it seems that bold sealers, whalers and fishermen have been operating there since ancient times, even before part of this geography was officially declared discovered. The South Shetlands Islands, for example, were already frequented by sea lion hunters before their announced discovery by the English in 1819, according to the accounts of Armando Braun Menéndez. Commercial zeal and disputes between companies supplying seal and whale blubber in the early years of the Industrial Revolution led to the secrecy of the details of these territories and the operations carried out there.
Although Aguirre's ships may have operated near Deception Island, as the Argentine authors point out, there is nothing to suggest that they ever set up a base or camp there or in any other Antarctic area, or that they ever landed on land. Chile, on the other hand, can offer history an extraordinary event that took place only two years after the trader received his authorization from Buenos Aires, and which places Chilean rights at the forefront of the arguments put forward before the community of countries claiming Antarctic titles.
In 1820, the news about the abundance of sea lions in this Antarctic territory sighted by Palmer, motivated the formation in Valparaíso of a series of expeditionary projects nicknamed "first Antarctic sea lion cycle". One of these voyages was made on the brigantine "Dragon of Valparaiso", a former English ship "Dragon of Liverpool" now incorporated to the Chilean merchant navy and captained by the Scotsman Andrew MacFarlane, who had served in the Chilean Navy and had settled in this country. The voyage was financed with English capital, but the crew was Chilean. The case has been rescued from oblivion by scholars such as the historical researcher Jorge Guzmán Gutiérrez.
The MacFarlane expedition sailed with Chilean personnel on September 12 and arrived two months later in Shetland, to hunt wolves in the area where this activity already existed, as we have said. None of the details of this part of the Chilean expedition had been known except that Captain Robert Fildes, of the English "Cora of Liverpool", met them on Deception Island, meeting the crew for a few hours and leaving a written record of this episode. The description made by Fildes allows us to establish, as Guzmán Gutiérrez indicates, that this is the true first landing historically recorded on the Antarctic continent, towards the end of November or beginning of December 1820, specifically in the western sector of the Antarctic Peninsula, and carried out by a Chilean expedition (newspaper "La Estrella" of Valparaíso, Saturday, April 10, 2004):
"...a whaling chalupa belonging to the brig Liverpool Dragon, lately of Valparaiso, docked next to us; it had been seven weeks on the coast and had obtained 5 thousand seal skins..."
"Half a mile from the entrance on a clear day will afford a good view of the land (Deception Island) to the South, which appears covered with snow, here and there black spots on which rocks appear. Captain MacFarlane of the brig Dragon, a very intelligent man, told me that he had landed there and had found leopards and elephant seals, but no seals..."
It is worth remembering that this contrasts with the official version that we have already seen, that the North American Captain John Davis was the first to touch Antarctic continental territory, in February 1821, when MacFarlane was already on his way back to Valparaíso, so that the event places Chile among the pioneer nations in the conquest of Antarctica.
Antarctica in the Chilean republican conscience of the 19th century
The most conclusive proof that any leader of the young independent republics of America would have been interested in the Antarctic territory is provided by a surprisingly premature reference by Bernardo O'Higgins, on August 20, 1831, when informing by correspondence accompanied by a "comparative sketch" between the geographical advantages of the United States of America and Chile, to the member of the British Royal Navy, Captain Coghlan. There, he suggests the convenience of a Chilean colonization with Irish elements and points out that the southern border of continental Chile was on the Atlantic coast from the San Jose Peninsula to New Shetland, in the Antarctic Peninsula that today bears the name of the hero in the official cartography of Chile:
"Chile old and new extends in the Pacific from Mejillones Bay to New South Shetland, in latitude 65º South and in the Atlantic from San José Peninsula in latitude 42º to New South Shetland, that is, 23º with a superabundance of excellent ports in both oceans, and all of them salubrious in all seasons. A mere glance at the map of South America suffices to prove that Chile, as described, holds the keys to that vast portion of the South Atlantic..." Captain Coghlan considered this report so interesting that he sent it personally to the Foreign Office in London, so that it could be studied. The diplomat and writer Carlos Silva Vildósola rediscovered it in the general archive of this English department, translating it into Spanish and publishing it in Santiago in Volume XVII of the "Revista Chilena" of 1923.
In 1843, Chile founded the famous Fort Bulnes in the Brusnwick peninsula, with the expedition of the English officer Juan Williams on board the "Ancud". This act of sovereignty and republican takeover of the Strait of Magellan would be the mother of the Argentine claims on the rights alleged by Buenos Aires over eastern Patagonia. It is worth noting, however, that in the protests sent at the time by the Casa Rosada to La Moneda, the Argentine authorities left a written record that "the Brunswick Peninsula... occupies a central part of Patagonia". The colony would later move a few kilometers further north, giving birth to the city of Punta Arenas.
In 1855, Chile and Argentina signed an agreement in which they mutually recognized each other's territories on the basis of the principle of uti possidetis juris of 1810, which we have described above, although without specifying them. Because it was approved the following year, it is known as the Treaty of 1856. Although the debate over the Patagonian rights that both Republics claimed to have was already launched, the previously studied Indian laws confirm that, by this instrument, Antarctica belonged to Chile in all the portion of it considered by Spain in its territories.
In 1872, there was a fundamental change in the Argentine attitude, particularly when cornered by the shrewdness of the Chilean Chancellor Adolfo Ibáñez Gutiérrez to defend Chilean rights in eastern Patagonia. In order to better orient his position, Argentine Minister Félix Frías altered Buenos Aires' original statement that Magallanes (the Brunswick Peninsula) was "central part" of Patagonia and maintained that "Patagonia, the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego, although contiguous, were distinct territories", unrelated to each other. With this, Argentina intended to diminish the scope of the Chilean occupation of the Strait in 1843 with the foundation of Fort Bulnes. And, although there was no awareness of this in those years, the cut to the historical and geographical continuity of Magallanes and Tierra del Fuego also reached the Chilean rights over the Antarctic territory, born from the concept of continuity, in turn, between the Fuegian and Antarctic territories.
In spite of the unknown nature of the Antarctic territory even in those years, the debate for the possession of Patagonia and Magallanes held between the republics of Chile and Argentina was not exempt from some clear references by Chilean authors to the rights not only over the territories of the Southern Cone border, but also up to the geographical pole, allusions that were conspicuous by their absence in the Argentine defense presented by authors such as De Angelis, Vélez Sarsfield, Quesada or Trelles. Thus, we find an interesting paragraph in the work of Miguel Luis Amunátegui, "La Cuestión de Límites entre Chile y la República Argentina" (The Boundary Question between Chile and the Argentine Republic), published in 1879 in Santiago. There, the outstanding historical researcher and defender of Chilean Patagonian rights, alluding to the 1555 Royal Decrees, says:
"It is patently evident that the superannuation made the government of Chile reach at least as far as the Strait of Magellan, as Pedro de Valdivia had requested on so many occasions".
"And I say deliberately at least, because the second of the second of the writs of May 29, 1555, implies the addition of the land on the southern side of the strait to the government of Chile".
On the other hand, as the colony of Punta Arenas grew, maritime commercial activities increased towards the south of Cape Horn. Thus, in 1885, a society was created for the hunting and exploitation of whales, cetaceans which, at that time, were abundant in the waters of the Southern Hemisphere and which the candor of the time believed to be an inexhaustible resource. This company was formed by the Chileans Gabriel Toro and Juan Martinez. They had four operating vessels, one of which was wrecked in Antarctic waters visited by the fleet. All their authorizations and patents to work in those seas had been granted by Chile.
In 1894, the Governor's Office of Punta Arenas obtained a license for the exploitation by private industrialists of the marine resources south of the 54th parallel and up to Antarctica. An official letter dated June 20 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed the Governor of Magallanes that "in the next auction of leases of fiscal lands of that territory, the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva should be included". A year later, by Decree 1,121, Wollaston Island was leased to private individuals, requiring them to install "stores of provisions and naval articles for the service of ships that cross Cape Horn".
Beginning of the 20th century: Chile consecrates its Antarctic rights
The 20th century began with the scientific and adventurous euphoria left by the legendary feats of Antarctic exploration of the Germans and English. This interest had also manifested itself in two International Congresses of Geography, held in London in 1895 and Berlin in 1901. In those days, when Chilean rights were not yet openly questioned, the Swedish professor of the University of Upsala, Dr. Otto Nordenskjöld, requested authorization from Chile and some facilities to carry out exploratory work, just as the Englishmen Scott had done in 1899 and the Germans with Deygalski, also in 1901.
Following a process initiated in 1902 and concluded on New Year's Eve 1903, the Chilean Ministry of Industry granted the merchant Pedro Pablo Benavides a concession to lease the islands of Diego Ramírez and San Ildefonso, by Supreme Decree N° 3,310, for fishing and hunting sea lions from that place to the geographic pole, or "to the south indefinitely" according to the textual quotation of the document, a measure aimed at safeguarding Chile's territorial and maritime rights over that vast area. The conditions were, among others, to found a naval station, install a lighthouse, create a fishing school exclusively for Chileans and register the fishing boats arriving in the area, requiring them to work under the Chilean flag, thus delegating sovereign control in the region to Benavides. It seems that the facilities of the fishing company of the person in charge would be the first advance of bases in the Antarctic area that would have been requested in history.
It is worth noting that Argentina would later claim Antarctic rights for having founded the "first base" in the area: a meteorological observatory in the South Orkneys, in 1904. This is true; however, it is only the first Antarctic installation with the characteristics of a scientific base and not inhabited since, at that time and as we have seen, Chile already had installations for temporary administrative use in the Antarctic environment and belonging to the assets of the lobera company, which were populated during the annual capture periods.
Before the end of 1903, Benavides transferred his rights to Horacio Zañartu and Daniel Palacio. Both administered the company briefly, ceding it to the Punta Arenas merchant, Mr. José Pasonovic and his French partner Jules Königswerther, a transfer approved by ministerial decree on October 5, 1904. Meanwhile, in August 1904 and January 1905, the industrialists Eugenio Bois de Chesne, Santiago Edwards and Gonzalo González were authorized by decree to fish for whales south of Tierra del Fuego, giving rise to the Sociedad Austral de Pesquería, legally established the following year and which operated with two vessels until 1908.
In 1905 the Sociedad Ballenera de Magallanes was also legally constituted, with a capital of one hundred thousand pesos, formed by the Magellanic merchant Pedro A. de Bruyne and the Norwegian captain Adolfo Andersen, with headquarters in Bahía Águila, south of the Brunswick Peninsula. This company had been the first to attempt to hunt marine mammals in external waters south of Tierra del Fuego, for which it had carried out two expeditions, one between September and October 1903 and the other between December of that year and January 1904.
Meanwhile, the Chilean Chancellor Federico Puga Borne was preparing a remarkable Antarctic expeditionary project and the creation of a special Commission. Just in those days, the Magellan Whaling Society, which operated in Deception Island, would request permission to install a base in Shetland Island, raising the Chilean flag throughout the region in a pioneering activity. The company used to establish camps on Deception Island for whaling and ship repair work. The permit was extended through the Governor's Office of Magallanes, by Decree 29.095 of July 1906.
On the other hand, private individuals such as Enrique Fabry and Domingo de Toro Herrera had obtained from Chile, on February 27, 1906, twenty-year concessions for industrial, agricultural and fishing exploitation in the Diego Ramirez, Shetland and Georgia Islands and Graham's Land in the upper fraction of the Antarctic Peninsula, with the condition of maintaining safeguard and custody of the sovereign interests in the territory. They are the most extensive patents extended over the Antarctic territory and the most distant from the continent, and they were not exempt from controversy since, as Chancellor Puga would later point out, they were authorized by the Government without being completely processed by law due to the existence of pro-surrender politicians who considered the extension granted too wide for private individuals and were on the lookout to destroy it.
Chancellor Puga's successor, Mr. Antonio Huneeus Gana, received a report from the Navy that allowed him to submit to Congress, on July 5, a bill reserved for investing 150,000 pesos in southern expeditions and the establishment of scientific bases. He also appointed an advisory commission composed of the director of the Office of Limits, Luis Riso Patrón, the Director of the Astronomical Observatory, Alberto Obrecht, General Jorde Boonen Rivera, Admiral Arturo Wilson and the advisor to the Foreign Ministry, Alejandro Álvares. The task of the commission was to study "the best means to explore and occupy the islands and lands located in the South American Antarctic region". Unfortunately, they only managed to hold one working session, on August 6, because twelve days later, the violent earthquake of August 12 forced the State to urgently redistribute its resources, sacrificing, among many other things, the Antarctic Commission.
That same year, 1906, Argentina's Antarctic claims made their debut, superimposed on the territory that the Pacific country considered its own. Chile and Argentina began negotiations to recognize each other's Antarctic rights. The result of these agreements was the draft Complementary Boundary Demarcation Treaty, proposing an imaginary line passing between the Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands towards the Pole as the dividing border of the respective territories. Chile's territory was to the west and Argentina's to the east of that boundary. Unfortunately, this agreement was never consolidated into a definitive treaty due to Argentina's refusal to define the Antarctic border.
The Magallanes Whaling Society gradually incorporated captains such as Mauricio Braun and José Menéndez, as well as the Braun & Blanchard trading company, whose fleet of whalers operated under the command of Andersen until 1912. For many years they were the only whaling companies that operated directly in Antarctic waters, together with the Sociedad Ballenera de Corral, formed by Chilean and Norwegian capitals with headquarters in San Carlos cove, port of Corral, and which lost in 1913 one of its factory ships, the "Fiaga", in the waters of Orkney Islands. The Sociedad Ballenera de Magallanes operated until 1915, always preferring the outer waters of Tierra del Fuego, the vicinity of Graham's Land and the Antarctic Sea. In the "British Atlantic Derrotero Atlántico Británico" of 1916, the English noted:
"The Whaling Society has a coal deposit on Deception Island. Dr. Charcot received help there on two occasions, in 1908 and 1909". Chilean rights, then, were being consecrated at the same time as the interest in the area, in the midst of adventure stories and true epics about the conquest of those territories at the end of the world.
Acts of heroism: the feat of the Pilot Pardo in 1916
In August 1914, when the First World War had just broken out, the English explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set sail on his third expedition to Antarctica, not knowing that fate awaited him there with a terrible surprise. His purpose was to cross the South Pole from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea, for which he had the sailing ship "Endurance" and the steamship "Aurora". The latter, after setting sail from Australia, was to intercept the British travelers in the Mac Murdo Strait, next to the Ross Sea. This never happened, however.
As the year 1915 began, the Antarctic weather did not improve with the summer season and, on the contrary, was extremely cruel. Shackleton relied too much on nature and the Endurance was hopelessly trapped in the ice. Several tiring months remained in this situation, until an ice floe of several tons ferociously destroyed the ship on October 25. Finding it impossible to keep her afloat any longer, on November 21 she finally disappeared under the icy waters.
With no other choice, the 22 castaways began to wander around the area floating on pack ice and some boats near Pailet Island, until they reached Elephant or Elephant Island, an extraordinary 640 kilometers away from the place of the shipwreck. Desperate, Shackleton and five other men left in one of the rescued boats on April 25, 1916, finding it impossible to get help to rescue the rest of his men who were subjected to extreme conditions and without provisions. After sailing 1,300 kilometers to South Georgia, they tried to get help from the Norwegian whaler "Southern Sky", which unsuccessfully elaborated a rescue plan. No less badly did they fare in the Falkland Islands. From there, he managed to be transported to Montevideo where he was promised help, but the rescue ship sent there failed to reach the destination. Neither could the attempts of American and British ships penetrate the floating sea ice. The ice floes had completely cut off nautical communication to Elephant Island, where the men lay abandoned to their fate.
Returning to the Falkland Islands, Shackleton somehow knew that only in Chile could they give him the help he needed and he left for Punta Arenas, since the Chilean Navy's scampvessels "Yelcho" and "Yáñez" were hovering in the area. He then met with the Director General of the Navy, Admiral Joaquín Muñoz Hurtado, who advised the Chief of the Magallanes Naval Station, Admiral Luis V. López, to provide the explorer with a ship to rescue the men. Thus, the scampavía "Yelcho" left under the command of the experienced Pilot Luis Pardo Villalón, seconded by the 2nd Pilot León Aguirre Romero.
The rescue mission was a daring almost bordering on madness. The international nautical charts of this area, at the time, were incredibly imprecise and almost dangerous in their ambiguities. The "Yelcho", moreover, looked like a miniature compared to other foreign ships that had already failed in similar attempts. With 72 coal bunkers and 480 tons of displacement, the overload of coal to cover the distances increased the risks, in addition to the fact that the ship's feed pipes were in very bad condition and the condenser discharge was under water. To make matters worse, the weather reports predicted abundant low pressure centers, with freezing winds and some 24º below zero. It was quite a challenge for a crew that did not even carry ground communication equipment or weather-appropriate clothing.
They set sail on August 25, 1916, from Punta Arenas, skirting the channels to the Beagle, from where they crossed the dreaded Drake Passage with their bow towards the Antarctic continent. On the 28th, anguish began to grow when a suffocating fog obstructed their path. However, the daring Pilot Pardo did not give way and sailed on at full speed, arriving at the rocks of Seal, on Elephant Island, on August 30 at eleven o'clock in the morning. They began to round the island until they located the men at about 13:30 hours. It took another hour to get them all aboard the "Yelcho". "They really did not look like human beings", engineer Froilán Cabañas would say later, remembering the pitiful situation and the mortuary aspect of the castaways.
On the way back to Magallanes, weather problems continued, being caught by a strong storm in the Drake Sea, managing to reach Dungeness Point on September 2. Unable to disembark there, they continued to Río Seco, where she dropped anchor. They were all received as heroes in Punta Arenas, on September 4, amidst a great popular celebration and even foreign reporters who documented the scenes in the press and on film. Meanwhile, Admiral Lopez presented a request for the promotion of Pilot Pardo for such a titanic mission accomplished.
On board the same "Yelcho", the British were taken to Valparaíso, being greeted by the Squadron in a ceremonious reception and a high turnout of the inhabitants of the port. President Juan Luis Sanfuentes received Shackleton and Pardo as true celebrities. The intrepid pilot was awarded a merit note on his resume and was promoted to 1st Pilot on September 7. In a sign of his modesty and his vocation of service, he refused to accept from the British Government a financial recognition of 25,000 pounds sterling in gratitude for his feat, a succulent figure for which many other men, without fortune like him, would be willing to sell their souls. Pardo excused himself, declaring that he had only acted in the line of duty.
By law, ten years were credited by grace for the effects of retirement and it was established that he would enjoy a retirement pension equivalent to the full salary of his grade. Pardo retired in May 1919 and, in gratitude for his service, the Government appointed him Chilean Consul in Liverpool. The hero died on February 21, 1935, at the premature age of 53.
The rescue in Antarctica carried out by Pilot Pardo constitutes one of the most heroic acts that have taken place in that continent, blending, in addition with another of its most important and epic milestones, as was the Shackleton expedition, in a further proof of the solid relationship that the Republic of Chile already enjoyed in those years with its extracontinental extension in the Antarctic Territory.
Chile declares by law its Antarctic territory in 1940
In spite of Shackleton's adventure, the First World War turned out to be more of a generalized distraction with respect to the attention that Antarctica had, up to that moment. Virtually all scientific expeditions were halted and for periods nothing was said about it. But, after the end of the conflagration, the vertiginous development of aerial navigation was incorporated to the possibilities of research in little known territories such as Antarctica, so it was not strange that a series of new English, German and American explorers reappeared making surprising discoveries. Of these expeditions, it is worth mentioning those of the American Admiral Richard Eveleyn Byrd, which began in November 1929, trying to reach the South Pole in a Ford tri-engine plane "Floyd Bennet". He would make four other polar explorations, by air, land or sea, before his death. In 1934 he managed to survive from March to August in a small camp during the Antarctic winter, some 200 km from the nearest base. His adventures were recorded in the extraordinary work of his authorship "Alone".
Inspired by Admiral Byrd's exploit in 1929, the young Chilean Captain Ramón Cañas Montalva decided to start preparing his own expedition to highlight the geopolitical importance of Magallanes, which he called "the austral-Antarctic spur" because of its unequalled projection over the Antarctic Peninsula. He began to publish articles on the subject in "El Magallanes" in September 1931. It is worth noting that Cañas Montalva was familiar with the then immature concept of geopolitics, having personally met its creators during his stay in Europe in the early 1920s: the Uppsala University Professor Rudolf Kjellen and the German General Karl Haushofer. In addition, in 1916 he had met Shackleton upon his arrival in Punta Arenas, meeting him again in 1920 in Europe, where a great friendship was forged between them.
Meanwhile, Norway declared urbi et orbi its Antarctic pretensions between meridians 0º and 20º, on January 14, 1939. The news again alerted La Moneda to the danger that a resurgence of claims would begin to fall closer and closer to Chilean Antarctic territory, and President Pedro Aguirre Cerda and his Foreign Minister Abraham Ortega began the drafting of a report presented on January 17 with the purpose of safeguarding Chilean rights from any other claim. Shortly afterwards, the Germans took the Palmer Peninsula islands, claimed by England, partly confirming these fears.
In those days, Mr. Julio Escudero Guzmán was preparing a study entitled "The Present State of Antarctic Problems and their Eventual Link to the Chilean Interest". Escudero had been a student of J. Guillermo Guerra, and had succeeded him in the Chair of International Law. His work was published by decree number 1,574 of September 7, 1939, establishing the limits of the Chilean Antarctic Territory based on the legal, historical and geographical background studied by the author.
Perhaps the insistence of Cañas Montalva, President Pedro Aguirre Cerda and the then Chancellor Marcial Mora, who decided to establish by Decree 1,747 of November 6, 1940, based on the work of Professor Escudero, the Chilean Antarctic limits between meridians 53º and 90º, affirming sovereignty over about 1,250,000 square kilometers, had influenced his motivation:
"They form the Chilean Antarctic or Chilean Antarctic Territory, all the lands, islands, islets, islets, reefs, glaciers and others known and to be known, and the respective territorial sea, existing within the limits of the cap constituted by the meridians 53º, west longitude Greenwich, and 90º, west longitude Greenwich". Although Chile could claim Antarctic territory from the meridian of Tordesillas, where the Spanish dominion began, at 37º 7', this law fixed it at 53º only to respect the Argentine presence in Laurie Island, through an observatory, a generous attitude that the Platense nation would not take with Chile when declaring its pretensions on Antarctic territory superimposing them to those of its neighbor, six years later. Chile had given up for nothing more than a third of what it was really entitled to, as Major Pablo Ihl would later point out.
In spite of these titles and studies that led to the 1940 Antarctic Declaration, some authors of open anti-Chilean tendency, such as the Bolivian General Humberto Cayoja Riart (militarily trained and also decorated in Argentina), writes with careless spelling and all the brashness the following in a book entitled "Chile's Expansion in the Southern Cone" (La Paz, 1998):
"By the year 1975, Chile with its traditional geopolitics of deception and subterfuge, officially included in its maps as CHILEAN ANTARCTIC TERRITORY the entire area previously delimited, superimposing this sector to Argentina's claim, constituting a new germ of disputes". (p. 137)
"According to this theory the Spanish Crown already in the 15th century considered the Antarctic Polar regions as its own and that therefore by virtue of Uti Posidetis Juris, the Chilean and Argentine claim (sic) includes its territorial aspirations up to those polar regions. Chile, currently illegally from the International Legal point of view, has incorporated in its maps under the denomination of CHILEAN ANTARCTICA" (page 140).
A Chilean saves the Antarctic rights. Antarctic Treaty of 1959
By a happy chance, President Ibañez appointed Miguel Serrano as his Chargé d'Affaires in India, around 1953, later promoted to Ambassador. As we shall see below, the writer had been one of the participants in the Chilean Antarctic expedition of 1947-1948.
In the 1950s, the Indian representative to the United Nations, Krishna Menon, presented an official proposal for the internationalization of the Antarctic Continent. As the idea seemed to have the sympathy of a large number of representatives of countries that did not have recognizable Antarctic rights or did not recognize those of others, those who did claim them quickly became alert. Argentine Ambassador Vicente Fatone sought talks with the New Delhi authorities without success. He was followed by the American representative John Sherman Cooper, who also failed. Faced with the need to stop the project, Washington sent an extraordinary delegate to India, Ambassador Cabbot Lodge, with no less happy results.
Serrano decided to act, although at first he did not succeed in reversing the Indian government's decision. Using his friendship with the remembered leader Indira Gandhi, he managed to arrange an interview with her father, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who received him a few days later. During the meeting, the man with the rose understood perfectly well that Menon's proposal was going to throw on the floor years of efforts by countries like Chile to consolidate their territorial rights over the white continent. In an extraordinary act of generosity, Nehru withdrew the proposal.
The Indian Ambassador to the UN tried to present it on at least one more occasion, but the firm relationship that was born between Nehru and Serrano was stronger, achieving the definitive withdrawal. Representatives Cabbot Lodge and Fatone formally thanked the Chilean management, which saved Antarctica from internationalization.
Unfortunately, Miguel Serrano's political affiliations have been harshly punished by some historians and academics who, in addition to the national literature prize, have denied him any form of recognition for his successful management. Even the name he had given to one of the Antarctic hills, in recognition of his participation in the Chilean expeditions of 1947-1948, has been inexcusably modified at a later date.
The interest in depriving Serrano of recognition has crushed, in passing, the relevance that Chile had in this process, since it was his notable actions in India (which, among other things, included giving him the support of the then young and exiled Dalai Lama of Tibet), when no other nation would open its doors to him, when no other nation would open its doors to him for fear of having an impasse with communist China) and the postponements he achieved on the Antarctic internationalization project, which allowed President Eisenhower, of the United States, to formulate an invitation to the 12 countries participating in the International Geophysical Year to hold a conference regarding the future of Antarctica.
The Chilean Foreign Ministry responded to this invitation on May 14, 1958, warning that it was not opposed to scientific collaboration but that the mere invitation to a country to participate in this meeting could not be invoked:
"...as a basis for aspirations or desires to occupy Antarctic territories, since, according to the principles of International Law, scientific research cannot be made a source of law". It also warned that Chile's rights in the territory were not colonialist in nature and were the only ones arising from legal and historical titles, and therefore it would not accept "any form, whether direct or indirect, of internationalization of its national Antarctic territory" or the subjection of the same to another administration.
Thus, on December 1, 1959, Chile, Argentina, Australia, Australia, Belgium, United States, France, Great Britain, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, South Africa and Russia signed the Antarctic Treaty, which establishes that all seas and territories located south of parallel 60° can only be used for peaceful purposes that do not involve mining exploitation or alteration of the ecosystem, allowing the scientific exchange of knowledge. The Antarctic rights of each country are protected if they are legitimate. Summarizing, the commitments of this agreement were:
To give the Antarctic territory peaceful purposes, preventing military or armed installations. To allow extensive international scientific research in Antarctica. To leave claims frozen, assuring each signatory nation a status quo for the duration of the treaty. Chile ratified these commitments on July 14, 1961. In 1991 and 1998, environmental protocols were added that reaffirmed the validity and validity of the Treaty.
Chilean Antarctic bases: an advantageous presence
In 1947, the Soberanía Base, renamed "Capitán Arturo Prat", was installed on Greenwich Island. The following year, the "O'Higgins Base" was inaugurated. In 1951, the "Gabriel González Videla" Base was inaugurated. In 1955, the "Pedro Aguirre Cerda" Base, already destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Between 1956 and 1957, the "Risopatrón" Base was installed, later destroyed in a fire. In 1969, the "Presidente Frei" Meteorological Center. In 1980, the "Teniente Marsh" Air Base and the "Presidente Frei" Base, equipped with an airstrip. Along with these important facilities, there is the Base "Teniente Carvajal" (the southernmost of all, south of Adelaide Island), of the FACh, the Scientific Base "Professor Julio Escudero" on King George Island, and sub-bases such as "Comodoro Guesalaga", in addition to the "Spring" Refuge, under the Chilean Antarctic Institute, located in the middle of the Antarctic Peninsula of O'Higgins. There are also the shelters "Yankee Bay" on Greenwich Island, and "Cooper Mine" on Robert Island. There are even bases in ruins, such as "Cabo Gutiérrez Vargas" and "Pedro Aguirre Cerda", both on Deception Island.
The following is the list of bases and shelters published by the Chilean Antarctic Institute, which we think it is interesting to bring to your attention:
Permanent Bases (Source information: INACH):
BASE CAPTAIN ARTURO PRAT: Institution: Chilean Navy - Annual staff: 12 people; in summer it reaches 17 or more, depending on the work to be done. - Location: Guesalaga Peninsula, Chile Bay, Greenwich Island, South Shetland Archipelago. - Coordinates: Latitude 62º 30' South - Longitude: 59º 41' West of Greenwich. History: The construction of this, the first base built by Chile in the Antarctic territory, began on January 27, 1947, after the disembarkation of the elements sent on the frigate Iquique, to which were added, later, those delivered by the transport Angamos on February 12. First, a pier was built to allow the disembarkation of the rest of the elements. A prefabricated, semi-cylindrical building was then erected, which had been brought from Iquique. Its steel and aluminum structure has an interior lining of plywood, which contains various insulating materials. This building, intended for the habitability of the personnel and the controls of the radio station, was tied to the ground by ten steel winds, in anticipation of the intense storms. Inside, three oil stoves and two ventilators kept the temperature at 18º C. A wooden building of 100 square meters was also erected, attached to the previous one, to be used as a warehouse, kitchen, workshops, generators and other ancillary services. The design of the latter building was the work of architect Julio Ripamonti Barros. Another hard work was undertaken when erecting the antennas of the radio station, which consisted of two strong 16-meter long Magellanic oak trunks. The Chilean crew that would be wintering there for the first time would depend entirely on radio communications for their liaison with their families and their institution for the rest of a long annual period. The weather station sheds were also erected. After arduous and long days - taking advantage of the long hours of natural light of the austral summer - in which civilians and uniformed personnel collaborated with enthusiasm, the Commodore of the Antarctic Flotilla, Federico Guesalaga Toro, proceeded to inaugurate the base on February 6, 1947. On that occasion, according to the founding act, it was called "Soberanía Meteorological and Radiotelegraphic Station", a name that was changed to the present one the following year.
BASE GENERAL BERNARDO O'HIGGINS: Institution: Chilean Army - Annual manning: 23 men; in summer this amount can be tripled. - Location: Rada Covadonga, Tierra de O'Higgins, Antarctic Peninsula. - Coordinates: Latitude 63º 19' South - Longitude: 56º 54' West of Greenwich. History: In December 1947 it was decided that a flotilla commanded by Frigate Captain Ernesto González Navarrete would go to Antarctica to -among other tasks- relieve the crew of Puerto Soberanía and locate a suitable place to establish a new base that would be in charge of the Army. The flagship was the frigate Covadonga and the tanker Rancagua completed the flotilla. After the relief of the Prat base personnel, a long, difficult and dangerous exploration began in sectors that did not even appear on the navigation charts of the time. Even when the place where the base was to be built was finally determined, it was found that there was an error in the charts used of 18 miles towards the true 64º. The site chosen by Commodore Gonzalez, which he called Covadonga roadstead -in honor of the flagship- had several favorable characteristics, such as: flat terrain with an elevation of 10 meters above sea level, to build the main house; a natural landing place nearby and allows such operations from six other points; it offers a sheltered harbor and easy access through the Bransfield Strait; and, among other favorable aspects, it can be easily provisioned. Construction of the new Chilean base began on January 9, 1948 and was completed 47 days later. The rough work and cladding of the metal house was completed on January 20, for which reason Lieutenant Arturo Bahamonde, in charge of the 20 men working there, and the architect Julio Ripamonti, moved to live there to dedicate more time to the work. On February 9, it was learned that the President of the Republic, Mr. Gabriel González Videla, would visit the Chilean Antarctic Territory aboard the attack transport Presidente Pinto, and his arrival was estimated for the 17th of that same month. On February 18, 1948, coming from Port Soberanía, the frigate Covadonga, with President González Videla and his retinue on board, anchored in the harbor that bears his name. After the greetings and honors, and with the presence of high-ranking military and civilian authorities, the President proceeded to inaugurate the "General Bernardo O'Higgins" base. PRESIDENT EDUARDO FREI MONTALVA AIR BASE: Institution: Chilean Air Force - Annual manning: 80 people, approximately; in summer it can reach 150. - Location: Fildes Bay, King George Island, South Shetland Archipelago. - Coordinates: Latitude 62º 12' South - Longitude: 58º 53' West of Greenwich. History: In order to continue the meteorological work carried out at the Pedro Aguirre Cerda base -destroyed by volcanic eruptions on Deception Island in 1967- the President Eduardo Frei Montalva Antarctic Meteorological Center was inaugurated on March 7, 1969, on King George Island. Subsequently, on March 31, 1980, Decree Law No. 3263 named the base that had been built around the Meteorological Center "Lieutenant Rodolfo Marsh Martin". Later, when the airstrip was already operational and Villa Las Estrellas was already inhabited, it was decided, in mid 1993, to restore the original name of Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva for the entire air complex, reserving the name of Lt. Marsh only for the airfield and its dependencies. (This explains why in some publications one or the other name is still used for the same base).
BASE PROFESOR JULIO ESCUDERO: Institution: Instituto Antártico Chileno. - Staffing: One scientist during winter; preferential use in summer with a capacity of 22 people. - Location: Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, South Shetland. - Coordinates: Latitude 62° 12' 57 South - Longitude: 58° 57' 35 West. History: In 1975 the first metal containers were installed to support certain scientific studies being carried out in the area. Known as Refugio or Fildes Station, these facilities were expanded in 1990 with new modules. In 1994, architectural work began - according to the design of Architect Guillermo Muñoz Morales - to build the first housing module, which today stands out as the main structure of the complex. Although it was officially inaugurated on February 5, 1995 with the name of "Professor Julio Escudero", it has continued with works of expansion, refurbishment, installation of laboratories and new modules to allow in the shortest time possible the development of scientific projects that require the stay of scientists throughout the year. By means of Law Nº 19.462 of July 5, 1996, the denomination of this base was determined in memory of this outstanding jurist, drafter of the decree that fixed the limits of the Chilean Antarctic Territory and who had relevant participation in the drafting of the Antarctic Treaty. Main summer bases (Source: INACH):
BASE PRESIDENTE GABRIEL GONZÁLEZ VIDELA: Institution: Chilean Air Force - Staffing: sporadic use - Location: Gerlache Strait, Paraíso Bay, Antarctic Peninsula - Coordinates: 64º 49' south latitude; - 62º 51' west longitude Greenwich. History: It was built by the FACh and inaugurated on March 12, 1951. It bears the name of the first head of state in the world to set foot in Antarctica (February 1948). In 1964 it was deactivated until 1968-69. When the President Eduardo Frei Montalva Meteorological Center was built on King George Island, later followed by the current President Frei M. base, the institution concentrated all its efforts there and definitively vacated the GGV base. It currently serves as a refuge for explorers or scientists.
YELCHO BASE: Institution: Instituto Antártico Chileno - Staff: 8 people, summer use. - Location: South Bay, Doumer Island, Palmer Archipelago - Coordinates: Latitude 64º 52' South - Longitude 63º 35' West. History: Its construction was initiated by the Chilean Navy in the summer of 1960-61, being completed in the following season. On February 28, 1963 it was commissioned especially for summer meteorological studies. Subsequently, as a result of a management of INACH, the Navy agreed to transfer it to this agency, which was materialized in the exempt decree No. 61 of May 27, 1986, of the Ministry of National Assets. According to this decree, "the fiscal property called Doumer Island and the constructions of the Yelcho naval sub-base, all of which make up an area of 1,200 hectares" is destined to the new owner.
BASE TENIENTE LUIS CARVAJAL: Institution: Chilean Air Force - Crew: used only in summer - Location: at the southern end of Adelaide Island - Coordinates: latitude 67º 45' south - longitude 68º 55' west of Greenwich. History: The name of this base - determined by law Nº 18.411 of May 1985 - remembers Lieutenant Luis Tomás Carvajal Villarroel, born in 1956, who, as part of the first group of pilots of the former Marsh base - today President Frei Montalva - died as a result of an air accident; he was the first martyr of the FACh fallen in flight activities in Antarctica. This facility had been built by the British in 1961 under the name of Base T and finally vacated in 1977. In 1983 it was ceded to the Government of Chile.
LUIS RISOPATRÓN BASE: Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staffing: summer use only - Location: Coppermine Peninsula, Robert Island, South Shetland - Coordinates: latitude 62º 23' South - longitude: 59º 38' West. History: The first building in the area where this base is located today was a shelter called "Coppermine", installed by the Chilean Navy in the summer of 1956-57. It is a wooden construction of 7 by 3 m. lined on the outside with waterproof canvas, and an annexed warehouse of 2.5 by 1.5 m. for food storage. Depending on Base Prat, this shelter served as support for the explorations that started from there, especially in winter when the English Strait was frozen, allowing it to be crossed on foot. It had, among its equipment, a charcoal stove and 6 bunks equipped with mattresses and their respective blankets. Law Nº 19.087 of September 24, 1991 determined its present name in homage to the outstanding Chilean geographer, Mr. Luis Risopatrón Sánchez, (1869-1930) author -among other important works- of the 1907 American Antarctic chart, considered Chile's first contribution to world cartography referring to Antarctica.
JULIO RIPAMONTI BASE: Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staff: 4 people in summer - Location: Ardley Peninsula, King George Island - Coordinates: Latitude 62° 12.4 ' South -Longitude 58° 53.8' West. History: It was built in 1982, as a shelter, by the Chilean Air Force. It was used in numerous seasons to house researchers from the University of Chile and INACH. It was transferred to INACH in 1986 and expanded with three metal container-type modules. In 1997 the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) of Germany, gave INACH a shelter near this base, which was administratively associated with it. By means of exempt Resolution Nº 58 of February 17, 2000, published in the official gazette of February 24 of the same month, the base was named "Julio Ripamonti" in memory of the architect who not only directed the construction of the first Chilean Antarctic base, "Soberanía", but also executed the plans for it and for the bases "Bernardo O'Higgins" and "Gabriel González Videla".
SHIRREFF BASE: Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staff: 4 people - Location: Cape Shirreff, north coast of Livingston Island, South Shetland - Coordinates: latitude 62º 28.2' South - longitude: 60º 46.3' West. History: In 1966, after Chilean researchers confirmed that the Antarctic fur seal was recovering its population - decimated by hunters a century ago - the IV Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) designated Cape Shirreff "Specially Protected Area No. 11". Subsequently, in 1990, the XV ATTC nominated this sector, including the neighboring San Telmo Islets, as "Site of Special Scientific Interest No. 32". The following year, the XVI RCTA included in the list of Identified Historic Monuments the monolith installed by Chile on February 1, 1993 in memory of the shipwrecked San Telmo, a Spanish ship that is believed to have been shipwrecked on these coasts in 1819. Also in 1993 the Working Group of the Antarctic Environment Monitoring Program (GT-CEMP) agreed to grant the sector the category of CEMP Site for being the most important breeding locality of fur seals in the South Shetland Islands.
ANTONIO HUNEEUS GANA BASE: Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staff: 4 people, in summer - Location: Patriot Hills, Heritage chain, Ellsworth Mountains, 3,400 km from Punta Arenas and 1,084 km from the South Pole. - Approximately 6 hours 15 minutes flight from Punta Arenas by C-130 aircraft - Coordinates: latitude 80º 18' 7 South - longitude: 81º 20' 39 West. History: On January 11, 1995, a first group of researchers, sent by INACH, traveled to study the possibility of carrying out scientific work in the sector and, incidentally, to outline a probable installation of a summer station. Later, in November 1997, the first scientific research support facilities were installed in special tents. By Exempt Resolution No. 303 of October 11, 1999, it was named "Antonio Huneeus Gana Summer Base" in memory of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the beginning of the twentieth century, who had an outstanding performance in the defense and strengthening of our Antarctic sovereignty.
TENIENTE ARTURO PARODI ALISTER POLAR STATION/UNION GLACIER STATION: Institution: Chilean Air Force - Staffing: 5 and up to 40 people - Location: Patriot Hills Sector, Heritage Range, Ellsworth Mountains - Altitude: 885 meters above sea level - Coordinates: latitude 80º 18' South - longitude 81º 22' West - Distances: To the South Pole, 1. 080 Km; to Punta Arenas 3,400 Km; to Santiago 5,490 Km - Runway: enabled on "blue ice" (corrugated) of 2,500 meters long. History: The name assigned to this station remembers who was a pioneer in the aeronautical history of Chile.
COMODORO GUESALAGA REFUGE: Institution: Chilean Navy - Staffing: sporadic use - Location: Avian Island, south of Adelaide Island - Coordinates: latitude 67º 46' South; longitude 68º 54' West of Greenwich. History: This shelter was inaugurated in February 1963 by the Navy and later ceased to function due to the proximity of the Teniente Carvajal base. It is currently closed. DR. GUILLERMO MANN SHELTER: Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staff: 4 people; sporadic use - Location: Spring Point, Hughes Bay, Antarctic Peninsula - Coordinates: latitude 64º 17.8' South; longitude 61º 04' West Greenwich. History: It was built in the 1972-73 season by INACH and was given the name "Punta Spring". It is currently closed. REFUGIO COMANDANTE RAMÓN CAÑAS MONTALVA: Institution: Chilean Army - Location: Duse Bay - Coordinates: latitude 60° 32' 15 South; longitude 57° 24' 11 West Greenwich.
The white continent incorporated to the national life
Chile is the only country that is in immediate proximity to Antarctica, without covering enormous distances, and with only one maritime route, so its rights are not colonialist unlike those of all the other nations that claim territory there.
In 1947, the controversial Chilean National Socialist writer and poet Miguel Serrano Fernandez would travel to Antarctica as the journalistic agent of an expedition destined to install the first military base there (the "Arturo Prat"). As we have seen, it was up to him to achieve the withdrawal of India's proposal to the UN for the internationalization of the white continent. Great figures were also part of this extraordinary team sent in 1947: the future Director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute Mr. Oscar Pinochet de la Barra, the distinguished Ambassador José Miguel Barros and the architect Julio Ripamonti. The experience struck such a deep chord in Serrano's inspiration that he immortalized it ten years later in his eloquent work "Quién Llama en los Hielos", one of the most internationally acclaimed Chilean literary works. Another notable book on these events had also seen the light of day in 1947: "Chilenos en la Antártica" (Chileans in Antarctica), by journalist Oscar Vila Labra.
In 1948, the United States -which did not recognize any jurisdiction on the continent- proposed an international government for Antarctica, which was immediately rejected by Chile. Upon insisting on the subject, the Foreign Ministry in Santiago declared, on February 18, that it did not accept any attempt of this kind, although it was willing to reach agreements for scientific collaboration among several countries. Interestingly, U.S. policy changed significantly in the years that followed. The fear of internationalization projects led Chile and Argentina to sign on March 14, 1948 a mutual agreement on the protection and legal defense of their territorial rights jointly defined between the 25th and 90th meridians of West longitude, in whose territories both recognized sovereign rights without going into the conflictive issue of the respective delimitations.
With such a close relationship, it is not surprising the number of Chilean pioneers and heroes in Antarctic territory, after the adventure of Pilot Pardo that we have seen above. A particularly heroic feat among the Antarctic ice was the action of the then Chilean Lieutenant, Roberto Araos Tapia, recognized as an outstanding patriot, who in 1951 set out dangerously with a small group of brave men, rowing and by boat, from the González Videla Base to the Argentine station Bahía Melchior, after six hours of exhausting travel, to assist the Argentine officers who had been affected by an unfortunate fire at that base.
Another heroic page was written on April 9, 1961, when the outstanding Commander of the Arturo Prat Base, Lieutenant Commander Pedro González Pacheco, died in an accident while climbing the Cornisa snowdrift, on the López peak, to make meteorological observations, at the precise moment that the Argentine Republic was carrying out a series of media events to reinforce internationally the knowledge of its Antarctic aspirations.
Between October 10 and 14, 1984, Chile also carried out the first complete tourist voyage through Antarctica, since up to that moment most of the projects in this sense had only considered trips through the coastal area. On this occasion, travelers of different nationalities had the opportunity to get to know and set foot on the territory at the Chilean base Teniente Marsh, under the flag of Chile and the Air Force. The participants were Chilean, Argentinean and Brazilian tourists, totaling some forty in all, and the idea for this adventure came from the Public Relations Manager of the Ladeco airline, Sergio Pizarro, who proposed it to the FACh and the National Tourism Service.
As can be seen, Chile's presence in Antarctica is predominant, given its proximity to its continental territory. For Chile, the Antarctic territory is a comfortable and unforced extension of the continental territory. The bases are not only hastily marked points of presence, but have their own history, a past and a present integrated with the rest of the nation. A history that even has its own martyrs, the last of them after the accidental death of the prestigious Chilean geologist Eduardo García Soto, in the southern summer of 1999, while doing scientific research in the vicinity of the Teniente Carvajal Base.
History repeats itself with triple drama on September 28, 2005, when several Chilean officers fall into a 40-meter crevasse in their snowmobile, 17 kilometers from the "O'Higgins" base, where Captain Enrique Encina, 34 years old, and NCOs Fernando Burboa and Jorge Basualto Bravo, both 49 years old, perish. It is worth noting that shortly before, on Saturday, September 17, two Argentine explorers (biologist Augusto Thibaud and Navy NCO Teofilo Gonzalez) had had the same type of fatal accident, falling into a crevasse of more than 80 meters in the Collins Glacier.
A series of intrigues and controversies surrounded this accident of Chilean personnel after the investigations generated by the case, even complicating high-ranking military officials in a complex and dark plot that reflected the sad state and irresponsible management of the policy of Chilean presence in Antarctica. It will also be recalled that, since the previous year, both Chile and Argentina were cutting funding from their respective Antarctic plans in order to redirect them towards illusory and supine projects of "binational integration" in Antarctica, which included the closure of the "Prat" base and the creation of the "Abrazo de Maipú" refuge, where ironically the bodies of the three deceased Chileans ended up. As it is known, the melting of Antarctica and the repeated fracture of the ice crust demanded, on the contrary, to allocate more resources to preventive research instead of wasting them in anodyne sensitivities.
Chile, thus, has lived facing Antarctica, a luxury that no other nation has given itself. The fact that Chilean sovereignty in the region is not colonialist, has allowed the relationship between the country and its Antarctic part not to place these lands in the vulgar status of a vacation home. In liaison is constant: just look at the daily weather report, which includes the forecast for the Antarctic area, something that has generated Argentine protests on several occasions. The Chilean presence has marked important milestones, such as scientific discoveries and geological findings, in addition to a notable predominance of Chile in aspects of meteorological control, communication and air transport from Punta Arenas to the area, which has placed the Pacific country as the main contact for large scientific or adventurous expeditions in the last century.
It is also worth adding that Chile is the only country with a historical and even folkloric tradition so directly related to the extreme austral zones south of Tierra del Fuego, as can be seen in works by national authors such as "Cabo de Hornos", by Francisco Coloane, or "Quién Llama en los Hielos", by Miguel Serrano. Oreste Plath even identified legends related to the white continent and linked in one way or another to Chilean culture. The works of "adopted Chileans", such as those of the German Martin Gusinde and the Englishman Thomas Bridges, also suggest a curious and intriguing folkloric relationship between the native Fuegian-Magellanic culture and the mention of the "White Island", in possible archaic allusions to Antarctica.
Geographic location of Chilean Antarctica
All this enormous extension is enclosed within the cap limited by the parallel 66 degrees south, with the sole exception of the Antarctic Peninsula (O'Higgins Land), whose extreme reaches up to latitude 61 degrees, incorporating the South Shetland Archipelago. The Ross and Weddell Seas penetrate deeply into the Antarctic continent. The former reaches beyond 85 degrees south latitude and the latter to 83 degrees south latitude. Antarctica is covered by an ice sheet, which in certain sectors reaches a thickness of more than three thousand meters. This layer dominates practically between 98% and 99% of the surface terrain, leaving only about 260,000 square kilometers uncovered, which can be seen in large sectors of the Peninsula and adjacent islands and along the continental coast itself. Geographically, this continent is divided by the so-called Transantarctic Mountains, with an extension of three thousand kilometers, and one of the longest chains in the world, which divides it into two parts: East Antarctica, which geologically has an age of about 3 billion years, and West Antarctica, of more recent formation. There are also some interior mountain ranges and a number of peaks that emerge above the ice to expose its rocky nature.[8]
References
- ↑ Pinochet de la Barra, Óscar (November 1944). La Antártica Chilena. Editorial Andrés Bello.
- ↑ Francisco Orrego Vicuña; Augusto Salinas Araya (1977). Desarrollo de la Antártica (in es). Santiago de Chile: Instituto de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad de Chile; Editorial Universitaria..
- ↑ Pablo Mancilla González (July 1, 2011). Antecedentes históricos sobre el Territorio Antártico Chileno conocidos hacia la década de 1950 (es). Repositorio Antártica, Universidad de Magallanes.
- ↑ Andrea Calamari (June 2022). El conjurado que gobernó la Antártida (es). Jot Down.
- ↑ Guillermo Lagos Carmona (1985). Los Títulos Históricos – Historia de las Fronteras de Chile (in es). Andrés Bello.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ The Araucana (16 September 2017).
- ↑ [2]