page_title: Beagle Channel cartography since 1881
section_title: The Argentine change of policy
hierarchical_section_title: Beagle Channel cartography since 1881 / The Argentine change of policy
caption_attribution_description: English: Four maps refused by the Court of Arbitration Beagle Channel Arbitration between the Republic of Argentina and the Republic of Chile http://untreaty.un.org/cod/riaa/cases/vol_XXI/53-264.pdf Report and Decision of the Court of Arbitration
context_page_description: The region of the Beagle Channel, explored by Robert FitzRoy in the 1830s, was one of the last to be colonized by Chile and Argentina. The cold weather, the long distances from other inhabited regions, and the shortage of transport and subsistence, kept it far from the governmental task.
  In the maps exhibited in this page it is possible to appreciate the lacking knowledge of the geography by navigators and explorers of the zone and also the statesmen who had to decide on the borders. Nevertheless, when the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina was signed, in the Beagle Channel zone at least the main islands and waterways were known.
  The Beagle Channel Arbitration Court reviewed in-depth the cartography of the zone and stated that:
  §163
  Finally, the Court wishes to stress again that its conclusion to the effect that the PNL [Picton, Nueva and Lennox Islands] group is Chilean according to the 1881 Treaty has been reached on the basis of its interpretation of the Treaty, especially as set forth in paragraphs 55–111 above, and independently of the cartography of the case which has been taken account of only for purposes of confirmation or corroboration.
context_section_description: In the course of time became noticeable in Argentina a position that worked continuously towards a new interpretation of the Boundary Treaty. For example, in 1885 appeared a map of Mariano Paz Soldán that continued the perpendicular in the Tierra del Fuego Island forth to the Antarctic, «a fanciful line unrelated to the Treaty basis of division» as stated by the Court of Arbitration. In 1891, the Argentine Government created an "International Boundaries Office" at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in 1893 issued other decree providing that works on national geography already published should not be considered as officially approved unless accompanied by a "special statement" from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
  In 1889 appeared the "Carte de la République Argentine" as part of L'Agriculture et l'Elevage dans la République Argentine, officially sponsored for the purposes of the Argentine participation in the Paris World Exhibition of 1889. In the work of which this map was a part, the
  version there given of the article III of the 1881 Treaty (Argentine attribution in the Islands clause), was seriously incorrect:
  «...appartiendront à la République Argentine : l'île de los Estados, les îlots qui l'entourent et les autres îles de l'Atlantique au sud de la Terre de Feu et des côtes orientales de la Patagonie...» (stress added by Wikipedia)
  (Transl.:«...to the Argentine Republic shall belong Staten Island, the islets that surround it, and the other Atlantic islands to the south of Tierra del Fuego and of the eastern coasts of Patagonia...») (stress added by Wikipedia)
  instead of the original text:
  «...to the Argentine Republic shall belong Staten Island, the small islands next to it, and the other islands on the Atlantic to the east of Tierra del Fuego and of the eastern coast of Patagonia...» (stress added by Wikipedia)
  By the review of the cartography, the tribunal refused the validity of 3 in Argentina and 1 in London (by the Argentine Embassy) published maps. The maps are not disponible for now, but the court gave to every refuse a briefly map description (see text on the maps) that allowed us to rebuild the border line as showed at the left side.
  In order to decide the validity of a map the court used following criterion for exclusion:
  Footnote 102
  This in two respects: (i) since under the first part of Article III of the Treaty, the perpendicular in the Isla Grande of Tierra del Fuego, from Cape Espíritu Santo to the Beagle Channel, was deliberately stopped there, a map showing a line of division which, by prolonging the perpendicular, crossed the Channel, and proceeded southward through the Murray Sound and past the Wollaston group, could not possibly represent the division contemplated by the Treaty; (ii) this map, thereby, and equally by colouring, showed, not only the PNL group, but also Navarino Island and the Hermite group, as Argentine. But these localities were "to the south of the Beagle Channel" according to any possible interpretation of that phrase in the Chilean attribution under the Islands clause of the Treaty.
  The refused maps are:
  1 Paz Soldán Map 1885, published by Carlos Beyer: This version prolonged the perpendicular to the Antarctic and was discarded: «this map, equally, showed a fanciful line unrelated to the Treaty basis of division».
  2 Map published in 1887 by the Argentine Bureau of Information in London: The footnote 102 regards to this map. It was refused with the argument: «a completely fanciful line division that could have no possible warrant under the 1881 Treaty». The map was corrected by the same Bureau on its map of the next year and the corrected map is linked here.
  3 The "Lajouane" versions of the Paz Soldán maps This versions were published between 1887 and 1890: altogether we know 4 different interpretations of Paz Soldán of the 1881 Treaty, see section "Two maps of Argentina, Mariano Paz Soldán, 1888", (above), and two here (left). Such turnaround lead the tribunal to the conclusion: «Two volte-faces of this kind within one five-year period – for which no explanation seems to h
caption: Argentine views of the 1881 Boundary Treaty, Maps drawn according to «Report and Decision of the Court of Arbitration», [http://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_XXI/53-264.pdf