Who owns or governs Antarctica?
Antarctica doesn't belong to one country. It's lands have no nationality in the way the rest of the world understand. There is no government of Antarctica.
No one owns Antarctica mainly because there are no indigenous peoples and no one lives there. the only things in Antarctica are scientific stations that people usually visit from a couple of months to a year.
History
The exploration and scientific investigation of Antarctica properly started with the International Geophysical Year (IGY) from July 1st 1951 to December 31st 1958. 35 scientific stations were made on the Antarctic continent with another 15 on sub-Antarctic islands by 12 different nations.
Back to Present
There is an Antarctic treaty that ensures Antarctica isn't fully owned and that it is safe from different things.
There are now 49 countries that have signed the Antarctic treaty-which are about 80% of the world.
The key rules of the treaty are:
-To keep Antarctica without any military forces, to make it a nuclear-free zone
-To promote scientific co-operation in Antarctica
-To ensure no one owns Antarctica's territory
Antarctic Treaty
Date Country Territory Claim limits
1908 UK British Antarctic territory 20W to 80W
1923 NZ Ross dependency 150W to 160E
1924 France Adelie land 142 2'E to 136 11'E
1929 Norway Peter I Island 68 50'S to 90 35'W
1933 Australia Australian Antarctic territory 160E to 142 2'E and 136 11'E to 44038'E
1939 Norway Queen Maud land 44 38'E to 20W
1940 Chile Antarctica 25W to 74W
- Unclaimed Marie Byrd Land 90W to 150W (except Peter I Island)
Australia owns the most of Antarctica. The picture above shows the territorial claims on Antarctica and the highlighted area is the part Australia owns.
No one owns Antarctica mainly because there are no indigenous peoples and no one lives there. the only things in Antarctica are scientific stations that people usually visit from a couple of months to a year.
History
The exploration and scientific investigation of Antarctica properly started with the International Geophysical Year (IGY) from July 1st 1951 to December 31st 1958. 35 scientific stations were made on the Antarctic continent with another 15 on sub-Antarctic islands by 12 different nations.
Back to Present
There is an Antarctic treaty that ensures Antarctica isn't fully owned and that it is safe from different things.
There are now 49 countries that have signed the Antarctic treaty-which are about 80% of the world.
The key rules of the treaty are:
-To keep Antarctica without any military forces, to make it a nuclear-free zone
-To promote scientific co-operation in Antarctica
-To ensure no one owns Antarctica's territory
Antarctic Treaty
Date Country Territory Claim limits
1908 UK British Antarctic territory 20W to 80W
1923 NZ Ross dependency 150W to 160E
1924 France Adelie land 142 2'E to 136 11'E
1929 Norway Peter I Island 68 50'S to 90 35'W
1933 Australia Australian Antarctic territory 160E to 142 2'E and 136 11'E to 44038'E
1939 Norway Queen Maud land 44 38'E to 20W
1940 Chile Antarctica 25W to 74W
- Unclaimed Marie Byrd Land 90W to 150W (except Peter I Island)
Australia owns the most of Antarctica. The picture above shows the territorial claims on Antarctica and the highlighted area is the part Australia owns.
Antarctica is one of the few places in the world that is mainly used for science and not for war. The treaty will protect Antarctica in the future.