Antarctica’s claims

Slices of a pie

Between 1908 and 1942 seven nations decreed sovereignty over pie-wedge sectors of the continent, each running to the South Pole.^[2] Most follow lines of longitude. The United Kingdom claims from 20° W to 80° W; Norway, since 1939, Dronning Maud Land from 20° W to 45° E; Australia from 45° E to 160° E, except the French sector of Adélie Land between 136° E and 142° E; and New Zealand the Ross Dependency, from 160° E to 150° W.^[3][5][6][7]

Several claims were handed on within the British Empire. James Clark Ross claimed the Ross Sea region for the crown in 1841, and it passed to New Zealand; in 1933 Britain placed the sector south of 60° S between 45° E and 160° E under Australia.^[2][6]

Three claims on one peninsula

Argentina claims the sector between 25° W and 74° W and Chile the one between 53° W and 90° W, both inside the British claim. Between 53° W and 74° W all three overlap.^[3] Even the peninsula’s name was fought over: O’Higgins Land to Chileans, San Martín Land to Argentines, Graham Land to the British and Palmer Peninsula to Americans, until it was agreed to call it simply the Antarctic Peninsula.^[2]

In 1943 British warships found an Argentine claim left on Deception Island, removed its signs and hoisted the Union Jack; a year later they found an Argentine flag painted in its place and set up a base to back their claim. In 1952 the Argentine navy fired small arms to drive a British weather party back to its ship at Hope Bay.^[2]

The countries that never claimed

The United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, Sweden, Belgium and Germany all explored Antarctica without lodging formal claims. In 1924 the US said discovery alone did not make a valid claim without settlement, and it never took up the claim Richard Byrd’s expedition made in 1929 to Marie Byrd Land, which remains unclaimed.^[2] Today the US and Russia keep a “basis of claim”, and countries other than the seven do not recognise any claims.^[1]

Frozen by a treaty

Twelve countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year of 1957–58 signed the Antarctic Treaty in Washington on 1 December 1959. It applies south of 60° S, reserves the continent for peace and science, and bans nuclear explosions. Its Article IV neither gives up nor recognises the old claims.^[4][1]

A protocol signed in Madrid in 1991, in force from 1998, made Antarctica a natural reserve and banned all mineral activity other than science. The ban can be reviewed from 2048, but it cannot be lifted without a binding regime to govern mining, itself within the treaty’s rules on sovereignty.^[4]

“No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in force.”^[1]