Queen Maud Land territory claimed by Norway
Later developments
The Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1949–52 was the first international scientific expedition in Antarctica. The expedition established its winter quarters at a base called Maudheim at 71°S, 11°W, and mapped much of western Queen Maud Land. During the International Geophysical Year (1957–1958), year-round stations were established in Queen Maud Land by Norway, the Soviet Union, Belgium and Japan. The Norwegian expedition continued with topographical mapping, while the others started geophysical and geological research. Norway's Norway Station was lent to South Africa following the withdrawal of the Norwegian expedition in 1960. South Africa later built the SANAE station, near the now-defunct Norway Station. The Soviet Union, and later Russia, has maintained continual operations, although it moved from Lazarev Station to Novolazarevskaya Station. Japan has been based at its Showa Station since 1957, except for a hiatus of a few years. Belgium closed its King Baudouin Station in 1961, though it mounted limited operations in cooperation with the Netherlands in 1964–66. The United States established the temporary Plateau Station in 1966.In 1948, the newly created Norwegian Polar Institute was assigned the administration of Norwegian territories in the Arctic and Antarctic, including Queen Maud Land. Norway sent two major expeditions to the territory in the 1940s and 1950s, but its efforts declined after that. On 21 June 1957, Queen Maud Land became subject to Norwegian sovereignty as a dependency (biland), and the Antarctic Treaty officially came into force on 23 June 1961. Norwegian activity during the 1960s was limited to some minor co-expeditions with the United States, until it gradually picked up again following a larger expedition to western Queen Maud Land and the eastern Weddell Sea by the Norwegian Polar Institute in 1976–77.Founded in 1978, the Polar Affairs Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police, headquartered in Oslo, has been assigned the administration of the Norwegian polar areas including Queen Maud Land. Since 1979, the Norwegian Polar Institute has been a directorate under the Ministry of the Environment.
In 1992, an expedition by Ivar Tollefsen made the first ascents of several mountains, including the tallest, Jøkulkyrkja. Norway established the summer station Troll in 1989–90. In 2003, Minister of the Environment Børge Brende was the first Norwegian minister to visit Queen Maud Land, and he soon allocated funds to expand the Troll station. Troll was upgraded to a year-round station in 2005 as part of the centenary of Norway's independence. Among the guests were Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Petersen and Minister of the Environment Knut Arild Hareide, and Troll was officially opened by Queen Sonja of Norway, the first queen to ever visit Antarctica. In 2008, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, accompanied by forty officials, scientists and reporters, became the first Norwegian prime minister to visit Queen Maud Land. He personally named three mountains around the Troll station where he was based, although he chose to sleep outdoors in a tent, rather than in a bed inside. He said the purposes of the visit were to claim Norway's possessions in Antarctica, as well as to learn more about the climate research at Troll, which he said was key to better understanding of global climate change.In 2015, King Harald V became the world's first reigning monarch to visit Antarctica when he went to Queen Maud Land.