Antártica Chilena Province

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Map of the province

Antártica Chilena Province is one of four provinces in its southernmost region, Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region. The capital is Puerto Williams. The province is 1,265,853.7 km² in area, which makes it almost twice as large as all other provinces of Chile combined. The province is divided into two communes:

1. Commune of Cabo de Hornos (until 2001 called Navarino, capital Puerto Williams), area 14,146 km², population as of census 2002: 2,262, of which 1,952 are in the capital.^[1]
2. Commune of Antártica, area 1,250,000.0 km², population as of census 2002: 130. This territory as a whole is not recognized internationally.

The province consists of Chile's Antarctic claim. Antártica and Cabo de Hornos are administered by the Municipality of Cabo de Hornos and is the only instance of one municipality running more than one commune provided for in the Chilean constitution.

[edit] Territory recognition

The Commune of Cabo de Hornos is recognized as part of Chile, however, the Commune of Antártica, which encompasses most of the area of the province, is disputed, as it forms the Chilean claim to Antarctica, stretching south of the 60th parallel to the South Pole.

It is practically uninhabited except for research stations of various countries, although Chile maintains a permanent civilian population at Villa Las Estrellas (near Frei Montalva Station), including women and children, a small school, and even a bank, in order to support its territorial claim of the area. The official population for the area as of the census 2002 is 130 (115 male, 15 female). This does not include the staff of non-Chilean bases in the area.^[2]

Chilean Antarctic Territory map in Spanish, Chilean names. It shows the Chilean research stations

According to the Chilean argument, its claim to the Antártica Chilena Province is as old as Chile itself. The Tordesilhas Line established a west/east division of colonial territories between Portugal and Spain.^[3] On the first organization of the new conquered territories, Charles V, ruler of the Spanish Empire assigned to Pedro Sancho de la Hoz control over Terra Australis, which included the Southern part of South America, Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, and all southern undiscovered territories (Terra Australis Ignota). This gobernation eventually merged with other territories in the Captaincy General of Chile.

[edit] Prehistory

Early settlement by prehistoric man is known to have occurred from archaeological recovery within this Province. Yaghans established many settlements on the islands of the present day province of the Antártica espana Province; for example there is a significant early Yaghan archaeological site at Wulaia Bay, which C. Michael Hogan terms the Bahia Wulaia Dome Middens.^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Argentine Antarctica and Tierra del Fuego Province (Argentina)
• British Antarctic Territory
• Antarctic Treaty System
• Antarctic Peninsula
• Gobierno Regional Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Official website (in Spanish)
• Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve
• Diego Ramirez Islands
• Ildefonso Islands

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