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I’m Mr. Beat and I have a big announcement to make.
I'm starting my own country!
I'm really excited about this.
You just need four things to start a country.
I'm sure you learned about this before.
Population, government, sovereignty, and territory.
Population, well that’s easy. My family and I will live in this new country.
Government, and that one will also be easy.
Because I'LL be the government.
And I'm sure it will be easy to get other countries to recognize that.
And, I even already have a constitution written up, so it's great, ok?
Sovereignty. Sure, uh, of course. I will have the authority to do this.
And I'm sure I can control my country
as long as I find an area that is isolated enough.
Speaking of which, territory.
Yes, I do need a territory with defined boundaries.
Hmmmm
How about Antarctica?
Wait a second.
Can you actually create a country in Antarctica?
Nope, you can't.
The end. (applause)
Now hold up, it’s not so simple. Maybe you can
but before I explain how, I wanted to tell you that this is a collaboration with THE AlternateHistoryHub. That’s right.
He’s just released a video about what WOULD happen if a country just decided to take over all of Antarctica.
Make sure you catch it after you’re done watching this one.
So Antarctica? Yes, that frozen continent at the bottom of the globe.
It’s the highest, driest, coldest, windiest, and brightest of all the continents.
And it’s probably bigger than most folks realize, about the size of the United States and Mexico combined, bigger than Europe, and almost twice the size of Australia.
90% of all ice on Earth is in a giant ice sheet on Antarctica. We’re talking millions of years of snowfall piled up, most which has never melted.
This ice is up to three miles high, and would raise sea levels worldwide by more than 200 feet if it ever melted.
So anyway, why would I, let alone anyone, want a country in a frozen wasteland?
Well, for almost all of human history, no one did.
The first documented discovery of the continent by humans was in 1820, when a Russian expedition spotted it.
The Russians were like, the heck with this place, and for most of the rest of the century no one dared set foot there since it is such a hostile environment.
Not only is it so cold there, it is isolated, surrounded by sea ice, and those seas are also very rough.
Finally, on January 24, 1895, a team of Norwegians and one New Zealander were able to land on Antarctica.
Several others would soon follow.
During what’s known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration of the late 1800s/early 1900s, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France, Japan, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand all led expeditions on the continent.
They were brutal. 22 men died in total on these expeditions.
In 1911, Norway’s Roald Amundsen and Britain’s Robert Falcon Scott literally were in a race to be the first person to ever reach the South Pole.
Amundsen got their first, and tragically Scott ended up dying on his way back after getting there second.
In 1928, Hubert Wilkins and Ben Eielson made the first successful flight to Antarctica.
7 years later, Lincoln Ellsworth and Herbert Hollick-Kenyon made the first successful flight across the entire continent.
Meanwhile, by that time, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, and Germany had all claimed territory in Antarctica.
So you might be wondering….when did people actually start living in Antarctica?
Well there are no permanent residents there.
There are only temporary residents
who have home countries elsewhere.
They only live there a few months or maybe a few years at a time.
Actually, Argentina was the first to send settlers to be there for longer periods way back in 1904.
It set up a small base on one of the South Orkney islands after purchasing a meteorological observatory, even though the United Kingdom had claimed that area.
By the way, that settlement is still there today.
Argentina and Chile were both worried about those aforementioned European countries and later Australia claiming territory in Antarctica, and both set out to make as many claims and send as many people there as they could.
But then World War II happened, and the whole imperialism dynamic quickly changed.
Other countries started calling out these territorial claims by the UK, Australia, France, Norway, Argentina, and Chile, and tensions between those countries got a bit more tense.
In 1952, an Argentine team at Esperanza Base fired machine guns over the heads of a British Antarctic Survey team unloading supplies from a ship.
The Argentines later apologized, saying there had been a misunderstanding.
But that’s about as tense as it got. And of course by this time the Americans were sending teams down there.
In the late 1950s, a bunch of countries, even some that normally hated each other, started working together on the continent in the name of scientific progress.
Tourists began arriving. Americans built the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Yep, it really was built at the bottom of the globe and named after the aforementioned Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, who were the two who raced to be the first human to step foot on the South Pole.
And even though Americans built it, later several countries used it.
It became a symbol for humanity uniting in the name of science.
What a wonderful thing.
Except that Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is the only place where humans have lived on land where there is essentially one really long day each year, with 6 months of daylight followed by 6 months of night.
Oh, and the temperature often gets below -100 F in the winter. That part doesn’t seem too wonderful.
Anyway, all of this scientific cooperation ended up leading to the Antarctic Treaty, which went into effect on June 23, 1961.
According to the treaty, any land and ice shelves south of 60 degrees South latitude is a scientific preserve and cannot have any military activity.
It was the first arms control agreement of the Cold War, and is often used as a great example of countries working together to prevent conflict before it develops.
54 countries are now committed to the Antarctic Treaty and its related agreements which include things like no mining and no nuclear explosions there.
That Antarctic Treaty System said new territorial claims could not be made on the continent.
However, it did not get rid of any previous territorial claims.
This made countries like the United States and Russia mad, bro, and they both say to this day, they can make territorial claims in the future if they want to.
So the law is a bit shaky, but overall those who signed the Antarctic Treaty and its related agreements are the ones who control it.
Today, most who live in Antarctica are either scientists or their support staff. Last year, almost 52,000 tourists visited.
So say I am going to Antarctica. First of all, I should feel very lucky
because according to my estimates, less than half a million people have actually set foot on the continent.
If you wanted to go to Antarctica, likely, you would be going as a tourist,
But as a tourist, if you are a citizen of one of the 54 Antarctic Treaty countries, you’ll need permission from your government.
If you are NOT a citizen of one of the Antarctic Treaty countries, you technically don’t need a visa since no country owns Antarctica.
Back to my original point. Say I do get to Antarctica and want to start my own country. Could I?
Well as long as I'm not around any people,
I could start my own country because
technically no one owns Antarctica
and, at the same time, everyone owns Antarctica.
Sure, there are territorial claims, but according to this map, I could carve a piece of unclaimed territory and claim it as mine.
In particular, Marie Byrd Land, this 620,000 square mile portion that is so uninhabitable no country has been crazy enough to claim it.
And ok, it might still be risky since I’d be breaking the Antarctic Treaty System, but I doubt anyone would try to stop my crazy butt from doing it and countries break treaties all the time (nervous laugh).
So I guess I CAN start my own country.
All I have to do is convince Mrs. Beat to move to Antarctica.
Hey honey?
Can we move to Antarctica?
Mrs. Beat: What?!
R: No!
L: I don't want to move to Antarctica!
Ellie: meow
Want college-level learning without student loans? (sigh) Curses to you, student loans. Curses!
Well how about The Great Courses Plus, a subscription on-demand video learning service with top-notch lectures and courses from Ivy League professors.
Hey did you know there’s a lecture about Antarctica? Why of course there is.
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So don’t stop with your fascination about Antarctica now. Again, this is a collaboration with AlternateHistoryHub.
Be sure to check out his video about what WOULD happen if a country just decided to take over all of Antarctica.
Also, if you’re new here...I have a ton of videos like this one.
Like, that video.
Or perhaps that video.
mmmm. That one might be a little bit better. Yeah, start with that one.