Tierra del Fuego: The islands closest to Antarctica. Why do they belong to two countries?

It is human nature to explore the unknown areas of the world.

A few years ago, when people travele

Tierra del Fuego: The islands closest to Antarctica. Why do they belong to two countries?

It is human nature to explore the unknown areas of the world.

A few years ago, when people traveled all over the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, bathed in the sunshine of Southeast Asian islands, tired of visiting European museums and cathedrals, and visited American brand discount stores, they turned their attention to another unknown field-polar travel.

Compared with the North Pole, Antarctica is more difficult to reach because it has no border with other continents, which makes it look more elegant.

Among several routes to the South Pole, Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost island in South America, is the most important transit point, because it is closest to the Antarctic continent, only across the Drake Strait.

The distance from Tierra del Fuego to the South Pole. Compared with New Zealand and Australia, it is obviously closer to the South Pole.

Due to its unique geographical location, Tierra del Fuego has not only become the rear base for countries around the world to visit Antarctica, but also attracted tourists from all over the world. Especially in the southern hemisphere, every summer, polar tourists from all over the world will come here.

Patagonia in Tierra del Fuego

Ushuaia, located in the east of Tierra del Fuego, is the closest city to the South Pole, known as the "end of the world", only 800 kilometers away from the nearest place on the Antarctic continent.

The colored area is the Argentine part of Tierra del Fuego.

Ushuaia belongs to Argentina, but not all Tierra del Fuego islands belong to Argentina.

Ushuaia (the largest city in Tierra del Fuego)

Tierra del Fuego, the largest island in Tierra del Fuego, is divided into two parts, Chile in the west and Argentina in the east.

There is a great dispute between the two countries over the ownership of some small islands in the archipelago, especially around beagle channel.

How did Tierra del Fuego split in two, and what kind of historical disputes did Chile and Argentina stage in this archipelago closest to the South Pole?

Although Tierra del Fuego seems to be far away from the center of human civilization, it has a long history of human habitation, and the aborigines here are called the Yagan people.

They live by the sea and live by fishing and hunting. Even in the worst weather, they wear very little clothes and walk barefoot in the snow-covered areas.

Indigenous people in Tierra del Fuego

1520, the Spanish explorer Magellan who traveled around the world came to these islands closest to the South Pole. He saw the bonfire lit by the local indigenous people on the island and named the largest island Tierra del Fuego.

In the following hundreds of years, Spanish Francis, Dutch East India Company and Royal Navy Biegler all came here successively.

In order to swear that they have been here, westerners have given names to many areas here. The famous Cape Horn (named after the birthplace of the Dutch navigator) and the controversial beagle channel (named after the British warship mentioned above) both recorded their visits.

Although the western colonists discovered Tierra del Fuego and visited it many times, they did not show much interest in this extremely southern archipelago because of the long distance and particularly bad climate.

It was not until1late 8th century1early 9th century that the fate of Tierra del Fuego took an important turn.

1862 map drawn by France. Tierra del Fuego at that time showed no land.

/kloc-The South American independence movement won in the 9th century, and Argentina and Chile, which are adjacent to Tierra del Fuego, gained independence in 18 16 and 18 18 respectively.

Western colonists were too far away to compete for Tierra del Fuego. However, Argentina and Chile, as the southernmost countries rooted in South America after independence, both saw the geographical location and value of Tierra del Fuego.

At the beginning of independence, both Chile and Argentina claimed sovereignty over Tierra del Fuego for the first time.

1843, the Chilean government began to send an expedition to Tierra del Fuego. Their aim was to establish permanent settlements along the strait of magellan coast in the west of Tierra del Fuego, and Chileans began to swear their sovereignty over Tierra del Fuego through de facto occupation.

According to the conventional script, the Argentines at this time should also quickly occupy the western Tierra del Fuego.

However, the reality is always different from the script. Argentines actually came to Tierra del Fuego several decades later than Chileans.

Before the Argentines came to the west of Tierra del Fuego, there were many British people living here besides the aborigines. They are English missionaries. Ushuaia, the largest Argentine city in Tierra del Fuego, was the earliest settlement of British missionaries in Tierra del Fuego.

At the end of 19, Argentina and Chile reached an agreement on the ownership of Tierra del Fuego after many negotiations, and signed the Border Treaty between Chile and Argentina in 188 1.

The treaty stipulates: Draw a line on Tierra del Fuego, along the meridian of the earth, from Cape San Espiritu in the north to beagle channel in the south. The west of the line belongs to Chile, and the east of the line belongs to Argentina.

Therefore, the sovereignty of Tierra del Fuego was clarified for the first time.

188 1 The boundary line between Chile and Argentina in Tierra del Fuego as determined by the border treaty.

However, according to the treaty, although Tierra del Fuego is divided between the two countries, Tierra del Fuego is only the largest island in Tierra del Fuego. The delimitation of several other islands in the archipelago, such as picton, Nueva and Lenox, has not been resolved.

The competition between the two countries around Tierra del Fuego, especially around the Beagle Strait, has just begun.

/kloc-the 0/9th century was the heyday of the gold rush, and one place after another with gold mines was discovered, which became the goal of people seeking wealth and freedom at that time.

First California, then Australia, then South Africa and Canada's Yukon, these places with gold have become legends of getting rich overnight.

1884, a French ship ran aground on the east coast of Tierra del Fuego. When the sailors on the rescue boat pulled the boat out of the mud, they found gold in the black sand.

The news that there is gold in Tierra del Fuego suddenly "got hot search" and spread from South America to Europe.

Similar to the gold rush in California and Australia, a large number of Chileans, Argentines, businessmen and miners from Europe and Croatia flocked to Tierra del Fuego to set up gold mining companies.

Gold mining equipment in Tierra del Fuego

In the early years of Tierra del Fuego gold rush, mining explorers gained a lot. Although it is cold, humid and windy here, the bad weather conditions make it very difficult to mine gold.

However, driven by huge profits, in just three years, gold prospectors have mined more than 2,000 kilograms of gold in Lenox Island and Nueva near the Beagle Strait.

Gold coins produced in Tierra del Fuego

However, the good times did not last long. By 1885, most of the gold mines in Tierra del Fuego have been mined. By 19 10, all the gold mines in the islands had stopped mining.

After gold mining, most miners returned to their homes in Europe or Central and South America. However, some miners stayed in Tierra del Fuego and settled down. Later, they mainly engaged in fishing and raising sheep.

Sheep farm in Tierra del Fuego.

Like many new continents, the arrival of a large number of western immigrants has also brought devastating disasters to the indigenous people in Tierra del Fuego.

The indigenous people in Tierra del Fuego have no resistance to various infectious diseases brought by westerners. With the acquiescence of the governments of Chile and Argentina, the new immigrants brutally persecuted the indigenous people, which eventually led to the complete extinction of the Yagan people.

In fact, 23 years after Chile and Argentina signed the border treaty in 188 1, Argentina reneged.

1904, the Argentine government requested to redraw the border with Chile near beagle channel, and put forward new ideas.

In Argentina's new proposal, the seaport on the east side of beagle channel has been redrawn, and many islands belonging to Chile in the original treaties, such as picton, Nueva and Lenox, have been included in Argentina's scope.

Naturally, Argentina's new idea has not been recognized by Chile, which continues to actually control these islands.

In the 1940s, the discovery of Tierra del Fuego oil and the proposal of Antarctic sovereignty strategy intensified the competition between Chile and Argentina in Tierra del Fuego.

1945, after the discovery of oil in the northern part of Tierra del Fuego, Chile established the national oil company and began a large number of exploration and exploitation. The oil exploitation in Tierra del Fuego once became the most important source of oil exploitation in Chile.

At the same time, many countries in the world claim sovereignty over parts of Antarctica.

The governments of Chile and Argentina have further realized the importance of Tierra del Fuego's geographical location in the Antarctic sovereignty struggle, and the two countries have successively formulated Antarctic sovereignty strategies.

/kloc-During the 1950s, the Chilean military established the Williams Port in the west of Tierra del Fuego, in order to break the monopoly of ushuaia Port in the east of Argentina on the supply of Antarctic bases.

197 1 year, at the repeated request of Argentina, the governments of Argentina and Chile signed an arbitration agreement to submit their dispute in beagle channel to an arbitration court presided over by Queen Elizabeth II.

1977 in may, the arbitration court ruled that these disputed islands (picton, Nueva and Lenox) belonged to Chile. Argentina, which lost the case, refused the ruling and tried to compete for these islands through military force.

1977 the border between the two countries of the arbitration award (red)

At the height of fierce fighting between Chile and Argentina, when the war was on the verge, the Pope stood up.

Since Argentina and Chile are both Catholic-dominated countries, the intervention of the Pope is extremely important.

However, in 188 1, Chile and Argentina signed a border treaty, and in 1977, the arbitration result was obtained. At this time, it is really difficult for the Pope to come out to mediate and not think of sinners.

Therefore, the Pope tactfully put forward such a proposition: I will not interfere in the area where the British arbitration was decided before, and I respect the result of the British arbitration, so I will divide the maritime boundary for you.

So there was the papal agreement of 1980.

Schematic diagram of the agreement proposed by the Pope

1980 After the Pope proposed a new agreement, Chile approved it, but Argentina did not agree with this new proposal at first.

Chile and Argentina signed a treaty of peace and friendship at the Vatican. The old man in white is the Pope in the photo.

After a long period of coordination and mutual compromise, Chile and Argentina finally signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship in the Vatican in 1984. The demarcation of the two countries in the treaty basically follows the Pope's previous proposal.

1984 demarcation in treaties of peace and friendship

At this point, the ownership of Tierra del Fuego finally settled.

Today, this archipelago closest to the South Pole is famous for its unique natural scenery and special geographical location. People who are eager to explore the wonderful journey of the South Pole are welcome.