T-t-t-oday we're asking
Who does Antarctica b-b-belong to?
Welcome to Map Men.
W-w-we're the m-m-men
- And here's the... - Oh, do it properly!
And here's the m-m-m-m-m-m-map.
♫ Map Men, Map Men
♫ Map Map Map Men Men.
Antarctica is the continent you know least about.
When it does have the decency to appear on maps
it tends to be shown as a crinkly white stripe across the bottom.
Or for those watching in Mercator Projection
a massive splodge of white twice the size of the rest of the world's landmass combined.
So, little thought is given to what shape it really, or how big it really is.
Here on a round earth is what Antarctica really looks like from below.
Deciding which way up this map this map should be is difficult
since every direction is north.
But most maps have been standardised this way
with zero degrees longitude going straight up from the South Pole.
During the winter, the sun doesn't rise for four months
and temperatures reach the dizzying lows of -60 degrees celsius
which is the same as -60 degrees centigrade.
Surprisingly it doesn't actually snow a lot.
Antarctica is one of the driest places on earth
and technically the world's largest desert
as well as looking like the world's largest dessert.
It's covered in a 4km thick sheet of ice
littered with perfectly preserved corpses of generations of dead penguins.
Sounds like an awful place.
It is. But that hasn't stopped people from trying to own it.
In the late 19th century, Antarctica was the last bit of the world map
yet to be properly filled in.
Dozens of brave explorers from Britain, Norway, France
and various other seafaring countries all set out for the South Pole
in a bid for fame, glory, fortune and prizes.
And the winners were Norwegians Roald Amundsen and his crew
who, surviving the blistering cold by eating their own dogs
became the first humans ever to reach the South Pole
on December 14th 1911.
They then spent three further freezing cold days
taking celestial measurements just to make sure they were in the right spot.
- Good, I was right. Let's go.
Today, British school children learn about Amundsen as a small footnote
in the story of the much braver British Captain Scott
who reached the Pole 33 days after those naughty Norwegians
but at least had the decency to die before he made it home.
Even though Amundsen had "done" the South Pole
the race to own Antarctica was only just hotting up.
Owning more land increased your chances of finding valuable things
like gold, zinc, and uranium, which Antarctica had lots of.
And so, Norway, France, and especially Britain
claimed they owned the bits of coastline where their early explorers had planted flags.
With no locals to say otherwise,
these claims stretched all the way to the South Pole like Trivial Pursuit wedges.
Apart from Norway, who, content with being the first to reach the Pole
were content with not pretending to own it.
Faced with a blank canvas, colonists were allowed to be as inventive as they liked
in coming up with the names for their new Antarctic colonies.
Queen Mary Land
King Edward VII Plateau
Princess Elizabeth Land
Queen Maud Land
Graham Land?
But British domination wouldn't last.
When Australia and New Zealand got their independence
they also inherited the wedges nearest their coastline
that they'd been taking care of for the British.
And they've continued to hold on to them since.
At one point, a small portion of Antarctica was claimed by Nazi Germany
who, in 1939, flew over dropping massive darts with swastikas on them.
Historians today consider this to be in the top 10 least important things to happen during World War II.
Perhaps the oddest claims come from Chile and Argentina
who, in the middle of the 20th century,
suddenly remembered that they already owned Antarctica before it was even discovered.
In the 1400s when Spain and Portugal were colonising South America
they made a deal to split the continent between them in a dead straight vertical line.
And because South America hadn't been fully explored in those days,
the deal made no mention of where the line stopped.
Centuries later, with Antarctica now discovered,
the ex-Spanish colonies of Argentina and Chile politely suggested
that the line might end at the South Pole
meaning these bits of Antarctica would technically belong to them.
Specifically, the bits directly south of their own borders
which meant their claims slightly overlapped each other's
and massively overlapped Britain's.
The only wedge of Antarctica not claimed by any nation
was this section here, Marie Byrd Land.
Remote and hard to get to even by Antarctican standards
making it the largest expanse of land on the planet not claimed by anyone.
And that's how we got to this colourful cartographic confusion today.
Overlapping territory, rival disputes,
Exactly what sort of exciting dramatic consequences did this have?
None.
Guuuhhhh??
Britain didn't seem to mind overlapping territory with Chile and/or Argentina.
They simply ignored them and continued pretending to own the place.
Chile and Argentina returned the favour by simply ignoring Britain.
This was all fine and hilarious
and none of it mattered, until...
(old news voice) It's the Cold War!
Almost every conflict around the world is in some way related
to the ongoing personality clash of the two great superpowers
The United States, and the Soviet Union.
So if you live on a large remote disputed landmass
you might want to prepare yourself for some nuclear weapons testing.
Because the mood on the international stage was...
(whimpers)
all the countries involved, and several more countries who weren't involved
felt that in order to keep hypothetically peaceful Antarctica actually peaceful,
they might have to, at the very least, hold a meeting.
In 1959 they all signed a big piece of paper called The Antarctic Treaty.
Antarctica is the common heritage of all mankind.
It should be perfectly and peacefully preserved
for future generations literally forever.
(all) Oh yes, yes...
So, will you all give up your territories?
(all) No, no, no. (I'm not doing that!)
So they came up with a compromise.
All nations who already had colonies on Antarctica could keep them
as long as they never expanded or changed them
and no one was allowed to make any new ones
which meant the map was effectively frozen.
Two countries to whom this rule did not apply by the way
were the USA and USSR who uniquely were, and still are,
allowed to make their own new territorial claims on Antarctica
if they ever fancy it.
Because, you know... big.
In return for being able to hold onto their claims
all the countries agreed to the following rules:
No mining, no military, no nuclear waste,
no explosions, no heavy petting.
This meant that countries technically could still own the place
but they weren't allowed to do anything that made it look like they own the place.
They both owned it and didn't own it.
(miaow!)
Clever!
The Antarctic Treaty is still upheld today
And as a result of its success, it's the world's largest nature reserve.
A vast, stunningly beautiful totally unspoilt wilderness.
Apart from the more than 3,000 scientists in
hundreds of research stations from every country you can think of.
And more than 44,000 tourists a year.
Tourism in Antarctica is now more popular than ever
As big, huge, polluting cruise liners arrive for people to gawp at the ice sheets.
Everyone is asked to leave Antarctica exactly as they found it
which means - everyone's favourite Antarctica fact -
you have to take your poo home with you.
- You don't want to look in those.
But perhaps the biggest threat to Antarctica is climate change.
In the last decade, Antarctic ice melt has led to over 4mm of global sea level rise
resulting in catastrophic consequences across the blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
The precious Antarctic Treaty will expire in 2048
which sounds like ages away, but actually gets closer every 5 minutes.
Depending on what sort of leaders are in charge,
or what mood the international community is in,
the treaty could end up being scrapped in favour of expensive ice hotels
or quad bike racing tracks
or a Southern Lights themed music festival
or huge movie sets for movies set in the Antarctic
or perhaps just good old fashioned resource exploitation and all-out war.
Either way, the human race is going to have to decide
what kind of future it envisages for cold, white, barren, faraway territories
held together by fragile treaties.
Because Antarctica isn't the only one that's worried.
Maaaaaaark!!
Yes Jay?
I've completed Netflix!
What?
There's nothing else to watch on TV!
You mean you've watched every single show on UK Netflix?
Yeah, it took me ages!
Well why don't you have a look and see what's on American Netflix?
Because we're not in America.
But you can use Surfshark!
What's Surfshark?
(shouting) Surfshark is a...
(talking) Sorry...
Surfshark is a VPN.
An app and browser extension that lets you virtually place your laptop
phone, tablet, or TV in any country in the world.
so you can access content that's not available in your country.
Brits can use Surfshark to watch American Netflix.
Americans can use Surfshark to watch British Netflix.
Australians can use Surfshark to watch Canadian Amazon Prime.
Germans can use Surfshark to watch French Netflix.
And so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.
Can I use Surfshark on my laptop?
Yes.
Can I also use Surfshark on my phone?
Yes.
What, all on the same account?
Yep. Surfshark allows you to have one account on an unlimited number of devices.
Is a side-effect of using Surfshark that it masks my IP address
and helps protect my identity online making my internet safer?
Yes.
Can I use Surfshark on my Rubik's Cube?
Try it and see what happens.
Surfshark!
If you want to try out Surfshark then just click on the link in the description
and use the code "mapmen" to get 83% off Surfshark
plus an extra three months for free.
and best of all, there's a 30 day money back guarantee
so it's basically a free trial
so there's nothing stopping you from just trying it out.
It hasn't made any difference!
Well, it was worth a try.
OK, thanks for the advice about Surfshark Mark. Goodbye!
♫ ♫ ♫