7 Countries That Have Claimed Territory in Antarctica (Even Though It’s Not Allowed)

Land of Eternal Winter

Here are a few fast facts about Antarctica:

• Of all the continents, it is the southernmost, the coldest, driest, windiest, and highest (on average).
• 98 percent of the continent is covered in thick ice sheets.
• Some of the most notable living creatures in Antarctica are krill, albatrosses, penguins, whales, and seals.
• Tours to Antarctica usually just visit the Antarctic Peninsula, about 1,500 miles from Chile across the treacherous Drake Passage.
• Antarctica is of great interest to climate researchers because its melting ice sheets provide a measure of the pace of global warming and sea level rise.
• There is no official flag of Antarctica, but one of the suggested designs is a simple light blue field with a white map of the continent in the center.

People in Antarctica

Here are a few facts about how people interact with this remote continent:

• American Nathaniel Palmer first sighted the continent in 1820.
• Roald Amundsen led a Norwegian team to beat a British team to be the first to reach the South Pole in 1911.
• In 1978, Emilio Marcos de Palma was the first baby born on the continent.
• There are 70 research stations in Antarctica representing 29 countries. The U.S. has three stations there, including one at the South Pole.
• One of the research facilities is the IceCube Neutrino Observatory which detects neutrinos, a type of sub-atomic particle, originating outside the Solar System.
• An Antarctic English dialect has started to form among people who have lived there for extended periods of time.

The Antarctic Treaty

The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 nations actively conducting science in Antarctica. They agreed that:

• The continent would be used for peaceful purposes. No military maneuvers, bases, or weapons testing would take place there.
• No nuclear weapons testing or disposal of radioactive waste would take place there.
• Countries could still conduct scientific investigations there and would do so cooperatively and share their findings.
• No new claims to territorial sovereignty would be asserted. The 7 countries currently claiming land there staked their claims between 1840-1943. Today, 45 more countries have signed the treaty.

Why Claim Antarctic Territory?

No doubt, Antarctica is the most forbidding and remote continent on the planet. Why would any country want to claim territory there and try to defend that territory against other countries? Here are a few reasons:

• Minerals: There may be valuable minerals under the ice that will be easier to access as the ice cap melts.
• Military Strategy: Some countries might perceive a military advantage to stationing troops or basing missiles in Antarctica. Nuclear missiles there, for example, could provide a “second strike” capability to a country to respond to an overwhelming first strike from an enemy on their homeland. Military forces stationed there might also have the flexibility to deploy to three neighboring continents: South America, Africa, and Australia. And countries on those continents might want to claim Antarctic land to their south to prevent it from being used by another country to stage an invasion.
• Science: Current treaties allow countries to inspect one another’s scientific stations. A country doing secretive research may want to control the territory around their facilities and forcefully prevent other countries from monitoring their activities.
• Nationalism: It can feel good to a country’s people to see a large area on the map as part of their country. They may be more supportive of a government that helps them feel like a great power in the world.

Now, on to the 7 countries that have claimed Antarctic territory. Note that all territorial claims to date have radiated out from the South Pole like pizza slices. In the featureless terrain, using navigational instruments to determine longitude and latitude makes this a more convenient way to identify different territories.

1. Argentina

Name: Argentine Antarctica

Date of Claim: 1943

Location:25°W–74°W

Note: The is the most disputed region of the continent. Argentina, Chile, and the United Kingdom have overlapping claims in this area. This is because it is the part of Antarctica that is closest to South America and to the Falkland Islands, a British territory off the southeast coast of Argentina disputed between the two countries.

2. Australia

Name: Australian Antarctic Territory

Date of Claim: 1933

Location:160°E–142°E and 136°E–44°38′E

Note: Australia’s claim is bisected into two parts due to an earlier French claim.

3. Chile

Name: Chilean Antarctic Territory

Date of Claim: 1940

Location:53°W–90°W

Note: Most adventure tours to Antarctica start in southern Chile and take tourists only to the Antarctic Peninsula and offshore islands.

4. France

Name: Adélie Land

Date of Claim: 1840

Location:136°E–142°E

Note: France’s claim to this thin slice of Antarctica is based on an expedition by a French explorer named Jules Dumont d’Urville. He named it after his wife, Adèle.

5. New Zealand

Name: Ross Dependency

Date of Claim: 1923

Location:150°W–160°E

Note: New Zealand’s claim includes most of the Ross Ice Shelf, which is about the size of France. It was named for Sir James Clark Ross who first discovered it in 1841. This formation is especially of interest to scientists because if it melts it could raise sea levels a catastrophic 10 feet.

6. Norway

Name: Queen Maud Land

Date of Claim: 1939

Location:44°38′E–20°W

Note: The territory is named for Norway’s British-born queen from 1905-1938. She was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the wife of King Haakon VII of Norway.

7. United Kingdom

Name: British Antarctic Territory

Date of Claim: 1908

Location:20°W–80°W

Note: Britain owns the Falkland Islands, which are disputed with Argentina, as well as the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands to the east, which are considered sub-Antarctic islands. In 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, but after a 74-day war, Britain was able to reclaim them. This territorial conflict makes the conflicting British and Argentine claims in Antarctica potentially the most dangerous dispute on the continent if either side decides to press their claim.

What About Other Countries?

It might be surprising to realize that today’s major powers—the United States, China, and Russia—have not made claims to Antarctic territory (yet). This is because none of them had made claims before the Antarctic treaty went into effect, making new claims illegal. However, it also means they are not limiting themselves to claiming just a slice of the pie; any of them could try to grab the whole thing in the future.

Other aspiring powers have announced intentions to build Antarctic bases, including Iran, Turkey, India, and Pakistan. So, while no one is ready to stake out and defend a claim aggressively, plenty of countries are positioning themselves to have bases and a history of involvement that will enable them to claim the continent’s riches in the future.