page_title: Chilean Antarctic Territory
section_title: Sovereignty and Antarctic Treaty System
hierarchical_section_title: Chilean Antarctic Territory / Sovereignty and Antarctic Treaty System
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Chile including antarctic claim and maritime zones ("tricontinental Chile")
context_page_description: The Chilean Antarctic Territory or Chilean Antarctica is the territory in Antarctica claimed by Chile. The Chilean Antarctic Territory ranges from 53° West to 90° West and from the South Pole to the 60° South parallel, partially overlapping the Argentine and British Antarctic claims. It is administered by the Cabo de Hornos municipality in the South American mainland.
  The territory claimed by Chile covers the South Shetland Islands, Antarctic Peninsula, called "O'Higgins Land" in Chile, and adjacent islands, the Alexander Island, Charcot Island, and part of the Ellsworth Land, among others. It has an area of 1,250,257.6 km². Its boundaries are defined by Decree 1747, issued on November 6, 1940, and published on June 21, 1955, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established:
  The Chilean Antarctica or Chilean Antarctic Territory is: all lands, islands, islets, reefs, glaciers, and others, known and unknown, and respective territorial waters, existing within the limits of the cap constituted by the meridians 53° longitude west of Greenwich and 90° longitude west of Greenwich.
  Within Chilean territorial organization Antártica is the name of the commune that administers the territory.
context_section_description: On January 14, 1939, Norway declared its territorial claims on Antarctic territory between meridians 0° and 20° (Queen Maud Land), which alarmed the Chilean government, so the president Pedro Aguirre Cerda encouraged the definition of National Antarctic Territory and the September 7 of that year established by Decree No. 1541 a special commission to examine the country's interests in Antarctica.
  The commission set the bounds according to the Theory of polar areas taking into account geographical, historical, legal and diplomatic precedents, which were formalized by Decree No. 1747, enacted on November 6, 1940, and published on June 21, 1955. As in Chile is considered their Antarctic rights arrived until the line Treaty of Tordesillas, the decree setting the limit of his claim in a meridian located further west (the 53° West), his claim to not include the South Orkney Islands in consideration of the rights of Argentina. Argentina formally protested by decree in a note November 12, 1940, rejecting its validity and expressing a potential claim to the same area. In turn, the United Kingdom objected to the February 25, 1941.
  In the late 1940s, Argentina and Chile recognized each other "... that Chile and Argentina have unquestionable rights of sovereignty in the polar area called American Antarctica ("Antártida Americana" in Spanish)".
  In January 1942, Argentina declared its Antarctic rights between the meridians 25° and 68° 24' W, that of Punta Dúngeness. On September 2, 1946, Decree No. 8944 set new boundaries for the Argentine Antarctic Sector between the meridians 25° and 74° west longitude. Finally, February 28, 1957, Decree Law No. 2129 established the definitive limits of their claim between the meridians 25° and 74° West and parallel 60° South latitude. This decree established a territory which is superimposed on part of the territory claimed by Chile.
  Chile began to perform acts of sovereignty in the Antarctic continent with installation, Sovereignty Base current Arturo Prat in 1947. The following year, and as a way of settling the Chilean claims, the President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla opened the Base General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, the first official visit of Head of state to Antarctica.
  On 4 March 1948, Chile and Argentina they signed an agreement on mutual protection and legal defense of its Antarctic territorial rights, recognizing each other:
  (...) until agreed, by mutual agreement, the line common neighborhood in Antarctic territories of Chile and Argentina, declared: 
  
  1) That both governments acting in agreement on legal protection and defense of their rights in American Antarctica, between the meridians 25° and 90° west longitude of Greenwich, indisputable sovereign rights are recognized by Chile and Argentina.
  In 1953, the representative of India in United Nations presented a project for the internationalization of Antarctica, movement which adhered several countries without a history of acts of sovereignty over the Antarctic territory. That if they had started efforts to avoid internationalization, and Chilean ambassador in New Delhi, Miguel Serrano, persuaded the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru down the proposal.
  On May 4, 1955, the United Kingdom filed two lawsuits against Argentina and Chile, respectively, before the International Court of Justice for it to declare the invalidity of claims of sovereignty of the two countries on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic areas. On July 15, 1955, the Chilean government rejected the jurisdiction of the Court in that case and on August 1 so did the Argentine government, so the 16 March 1956 claims were filed.
  Law No. 11486 of June 17, 1955 added the Chilean Antarctic Territory to the Province of Magallanes, which became on July 12, 1974, the XII Region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica.
  In 1958, the president of the US Dwight Eisenhower invited Chile to the Conference by the International Geophysical Year to resolve the issue Antarctic. On 1 December 1959, Chile signed the Antarctic Treaty, which stated that:
  Antarctica is World Heritage Site.
  Gives the Antarctic t
caption: Map of tricontinental Chile, including the Antarctic claim
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