Which continent is governed by a treaty between multiple countries?
We’ve all heard of treaties between countries; to end wars, agree to trade, or build alliances. And some of us have heard of specific treaties, like the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War One, or the Geneva Conventions that established a standard for humanitarian conduct during war. But how many of us have heard of a treaty of governance that 12 countries signed? The countries being Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Welcome to Not Trivial! A podcast that takes a deeper dive into the stories behind the trivia questions you may or may not have heard at the pub. My name is Liz, and I’ve been a trivia nerd since I was young. My parents and I would play Trivial Pursuit very often. I’ve hosted and played pub trivia, and I’m a collector of random history, language, and world culture facts. One of my greatest passions is sharing what I’ve collected with others. I’m hopeful this podcast makes the trivia questions feel less trivial, and more important to understanding how the past creates the present, and subsequently the future. Let’s get started…
To start with today, let’s take a stroll through a history of treaties. The first treaties that we have evidence of stem back to ancient Egypt and Greece. They were peace treaties. Like the Treaty of Kadesh. The Battle of Kadesh was fought in 1274 BC between Egypt and the Hittites. These two empires had been fighting for a couple centuries off and on over who had control of a certain piece of land. But while they were glaring at each other, other empires were growing nearby. The Assyrians and the Sea Peoples, to be specific. After the Battle of Kadesh, which was more of a stalemate than anything else, both Ramsesses II and Hattusilli III opted for a peace treaty in order to ensure they could focus on possible bigger threats. We know of this treaty because evidence in both ancient Egyptian and Hittite languages still exists today.
The Thirty Years Peace Treaty ended the First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in 445 BC. The Treaty of Lutatius ended the First Punic War betweem Rome and Carthage in 241 BC. The Roman Jewish Treaty of 161 BC established friendship, or a truce, between the Roman Republic and Judah Maccabee. Sometimes a treaty would identify the boundary between two entities, an agreement of where each empire could exist. If crossed, the treaty would be broken and war could ensue. Sometimes a treaty would ensure a political marriage, an insurance policy to prevent future infractions.
Did you know that the Magna Carta is a treaty? We just don’t think of it as such because it was internal, a civil dispute inside England. It is essentially a royal charter of rights; a protection order for the church’s rights, protection for the wealthy barons against illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and limitations of feudal payments to the Crown. One of the longest-standing treaties is the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373, effectively establishing a “perpetual alliance” between England and Portugal. And the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 was signed by both Spain and Portugal, effectively dividing the world outside of Europe between the two empires. This treaty is one of the reasons why Brazil speaks a version of Portugese, while other areas of the Americas speak a version of Spanish.
In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia established the idea of state sovereignty, which helped establish the mechanics of modern international relations. It was a treaty that ended the Thirty Years’ War, which was mainly about religion, but also built a framework that still exists today. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 essentially recognizes the United States of America as its own nation. It was signed by representatives of both the US and the UK. Actually, it was the Second Treaty of Paris. The first was ratified in 1763 and was between France, England, and Spain regarding the Seven Years War. A war that England won and helped them establish more control over its colonies in the Americas and elsewhere around the world. So, there’s some twenty-year irony for you.
And then, of course, the infamous Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which is seen as a leading contributor to the cause of the Second World War and the rise of Nazism. Its terms were so harsh and debilitating towards Germany, including not allowing Germany a seat at the table during any negotiations when drafting up the treaty itself. Germany was simply forced to sign the document without appeal or review. It’s clear that some treaties have worked effectively, while others haven’t. Some of them are temporary, like a limited warranty, and need to be reviewed on a regular basis. Other treaties are perpetual, or at least were written as such.
For today’s answer about a treaty of governance signed by multiple countries, we need to think about why we still need treaties. Countries have borders that can be crossed by invading armies. Is it a country with a defined border? A country that has an existing treaty that would be violated? A treaty which requires other allied countries to provide defensive support? Can allied countries afford to provide such support when its needed? It’s all starting to sound more complicated than a simple vow of assistance.
Our world today also needs treaties, pacts, and agreements in order to conduct business. That’s where most of the complications arise: Money. We’re all interconnected with each country’s GDP relying on exports and imports, as much as taking care of its own citizens. Land, resources, and the monopolized rights to said resources. That’s what wars are about, hence why we need treaties still. And one spot on Earth is such a specific kind of resource that it requires a treaty of governance. So that no one entity can monopolize it: Antarctica.
Antarctica is 40% larger than Europe, making it the fifth-largest continent. It is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on Earth. 70% of the world’s freshwater reserve is frozen here, covered in an ice sheet over one mile thick. It is essentially a polar desert. It’s where the geographic south pole exists, as well as species like penguins, tardigrades, mites, seals, and nematodes.The only vegetation visible is moss or lichen along coastal rockfaces. And we know all this because there are scientists that perform research there at stations like McMurdo, Princess Elisabeth, Vostok, and Kunlun.
The Antarctic Treaty was drafted in 1959, during the very Cold War between capitalism and communism, specifically the US vs the Soviet Union. It was in fact the first arms treaty between said nations. The treaty designates Antarctica as a scientific reserve, banning military activity on the continent. But as we’ve heard, treaties don’t just come from nowhere. So why was an Antarctic Treaty needed?
After World War II, the US considered establishing a claim in Antarctica. As in, we’re here and so is our flag, therefore its ours. I’m sure Argentina and England feel similarly towards the Falkland Islands. Operation Highjump was a military expeditionary force that deployed to Antarctica in 1946, with the aim to train and test material in conditions of extreme cold. You know, preparing for that hypothetical war that thankfully never took place. By 1948 though, the US proposed that the continent be governed by the United Nations. While in discussion with other countries like Chile, Argentina, Australia, and the UK, some of whom initially rejected the idea of the internationalization of Antarctica, the Soviet Union made a statement of intent: they would not accept any Antarctic agreement unless they were represented.
By 1952, various international conflicts kept the idea of a treaty at the forefront. At Hope Bay, Argentine forces fired warning shots at a British military presence, which caused the UK to send a warship. When Argentina opened up a refuge on Deception Island, they left behind two military personnel. This was seen by the UK as a baby step towards more land grabbing, so a British frigate armed with machine guns and tear gas, captured the two Argentines and the refuge was destroyed. The frigate delivered the two of them to another Argentine naval vessel. In 1955, the UK filed lawsuits in the International Court of Justice to declare the invalidity of the claims of sovereignty of Argentina and Chile over antarctic regions. Those lawsuits were never reviewed or adjudicated.
Clearly, ye olde imperialism was still hard at work. But why are all these countries trying to lay claim to a polar desert? What is so necessary about Antarctica? Well, let’s go back in time and understand how Antarctica was ‘discovered’ by the outside world.
As early as 1513, Europeans understood that there should be a terra australis - the notion that the world needed a southerly landmass to balance out the known landmasses of the northern hemisphere. But it had never been seen or proven to exist. It wasn’t until the 1770s, when Captain Cook was touring around the South Pacific, that the first outsider caught glimpse of the continent. Cook likely came to within 75 miles of Antarctica before being forced to turn back due to sea ice conditions. Beyond that, sealers were likely the first to actually set foot on the continent in the early 19th century. The oldest skull found in Antarctica dates to about 1820-25. It belonged to a young woman and was found on the South Shetland Islands - the same place where the UK and Argentina got into minor fisticuffs in the 1950s.
That same year, 1820, both a UK and Russian naval captain were the first to actually see the ice shelf of the continent. American sealers were also in the area of the Antarctic Peninsula shortly after. Then it became about who could be the first to penetrate the icy and desolate landscape. In 1840, French sailors and scientists on a mission to claim Antarctica disembarked near what is now known as the Dumoulin Islands. They took algae, rock, and animal samples. They also erected a French flag and claimed the territory for France. But two years earlier, an expedition by Americans had claimed to have landed in the continent. It could sound like standard bluster in the name of claiming territory, but also Antarctica as a continent is a tricky one. British naval officer James Clark Ross failed to realize that “the various patches of land recently discovered by the American, French, and English navigators on the verge of the Antarctic Circle” were in fact connected and formed the continent itself.
The famous expeditions of Antarctica don’t occur until the late 19th century and early 20th. Legendary names like Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen pop up thanks to their pioneering efforts to locate the geographic south pole, the south magnetic pole, climb Mount Erebus, traverse the Ross ice shelf, and cross the Transantarctic Mountains. So, now we’ve got Norway entering into the discussion around the territory’s history and any possible claims.
Some of the details from Antarctic expeditions are hard to read to be honest. Shackleton, on his expedition with the ship Discovery, mounted a march to one of the highest possible latitudes in the direction of the South Pole. 22 dogs were taken on the march, and all of them died before fully returning back to the ice-locked ship. Their food was tainted early on and sickness ran rampant. The three men on the venture all got hit with snow blindness, frostbite, and scurvy. After the three-month tour, Shackleton was eventually returned back home on a relief vessel due to his very poor health.
By contrast, Amundsen’s antarctic expedition went much more smoothly. But he had more experience in extreme conditions and preparing for expeditions in general. It was this planning and good equipment, like skis and Inuit-inspired furred skins, that helped his team survive more effectively. However, one of Amundsen’s tactics was to bring a large amount of dogs and strategically decide to kill them off as a source of fresh meat. For the humans and the remaining dogs.
Expeditions continued. The first mechanised tractors were used by the American explorer Richard E. Byrd. Byrd led four different tours and conducted extensive geographical and scientific research through all four. He is credited as having surveyed a larger region of the continent as any other explorer. Norwegian explorer Ingrid Christenson was the first female to step foot on the antarctic mainland in 1937. And in 1996-97, Børge Ousland became the first person to cross Antarctica alone from coast to coast. At one point, with only the help of a kite to conserve energy and utilize the high winds.
At this point, you might be wondering how multiple countries can be responsible for governing a continent. Especially when there’s some deep history around the world of treaties being disregarded and violated. And fair enough, Antarctica’s history of territorial claims is still disputed by various countries. No one narrative is accepted. Currently, the Antarctic Treaty has a total of 58 countries listed as parties. Meaning they have either become a signatory of the document or have ratified and recognized it. 29 countries have consultative or voting status, this includes the 7 original claimant countries. Only 7 countries can lay claim to the territory per historical records. However, the other 51 non-claimant countries do not recognize any other country as having claim. There is an Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, which was established in 2004. The Secretariat tasks are divided into four categories: supporting the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, facilitating the exchange of information between Parties in the Treaty and the Environmental Protocol, collecting and storing all documentation from any treaty-related meetings, and disseminating public information about the Treaty System and activities in Antarctica.
Antarctica has no sovereignty because it never had a native population. All scientists and workers on the continent are citizens of other sovereign states outside of Antarctica. So, Australians remain Australian there. Americans remain American. Russians remain Russian. This means that there are no specifically Antarctic laws being enforced. It’s more like an agreed-upon enforcement of national laws that citizens are expected to abide by. And treaty nations can consult on things like which areas require a permit for entry, etc. And you can imagine, with the amount of scientific research in place currently, that topics like waste management and protected areas are of high priority.
As previously stated, military presence is strictly limited to personnel or equipment that is used for scientific purposes. No troops are allowed for training purposes or other types of military activities, as well as any mineral or oil exploration carried out by a military outfit. The treaty is actually considered to be a good representation of the common heritage of mankind principle. This is a principle of international law that holds the defined territorial areas and elements of humanity’s common heritage should be held in trust for future generations and be protected from exploitation by individual nation states or corporations.
In 2017, there were more than 4400 scientists undertaking research in Antarctica. That number falls to about 1100 over the winter. There are over 70 research stations. Geologists are studying meteorites and plate tectonics. Glaciologists are studying the dynamics of flowing ice, glaciers, and seasonal snow. Biologists are studying how low temperatures and the presence of humans affect adaptation in organisms. Biomedical scientists are studying how viruses spread and the body’s response to extreme seasonal temperatures. Astronomers have near perfect conditions to make observations, due to the high elevation of the interior, low temperatures, and long nights. Astrophysicists are studying cosmic microwave background radiation and neutrinos from space.
The list goes on and on. Antarctica remains a vital scientific stronghold. Even though the onset of expedition tourism has been increasing year after year. Over 74,000 tourists visited the region during the 2019–2020 season, of which 18,500 travelled on cruise ships but did not leave them to explore on land. Some nature conservation groups have expressed concern over the potential adverse effects caused by the influx of visitors and have called for limits on the size of visiting cruise ships and a tourism quota. The primary response by Antarctic Treaty parties has been to develop guidelines that set landing limits and closed or restricted zones on the more frequently visited sites.
Tourism in Antarctica is, in part, ecologically focused with expeditions being offered for bird watching tours due to the high numbers of Adélie, King, and Gentoo penguins – among other species. One site in particular – McDonald Beach – is known to be a high-traffic area for tourists watching the Adélie penguins who number more than 40,000. Overland sightseeing flights operated out of Australia and New Zealand until the Mount Erebus disaster in 1979, when an Air New Zealand plane crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all of the 257 people on board. There are actually multiple airports in Antarctica.
As a fun fact, the southernmost music festival has been held at McMurdo since 1989: Icestock, which is held on or around New Year’s Day. Organizers, performers, and attendees are all personnel working at McMurdo or nearby Scott base. There is also an Antarctica Film Festival, mainly focused on short films of 5 minutes or less. The first full-length fictional film to be shot in Antarctica was South of Sanity, a 2012 low budget British horror film. An upcoming film directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Anthony Hopkins, Bruno Penguin and the Staten Island Princess, will be the first major Hollywood production to shoot in Antarctica.
There is an Antarctica Ice Marathon and 100k Ultra Race, as well as a Cup Yacht Race. The Yacht Race circumnavigates Antarctica, which is roughly 14,000 miles. Yikes! Also, only two holidays are celebrated universally on Antarctica: Midwinter Day (June 20th / 21st, which is the southern winter solstice) and Antarctica Day (December 1st, which is when the treaty was signed).
I could go on to discuss how Antarctica continues to reveal how climate change is real, and that it is impacting us around the world currently due to various scary observations made there. But then this episode would be a real downer. The hopeful thing about Antarctica is that multiple countries around the world have agreed to promote scientific research and conserve the environment. And it was a decision made at the height of a tense and suspicious Cold War, when drafting an arms treaty was perceived as political suicide. And yet it happened!
And that’s the deep dive into a strange and mysterious place that became a place of mutual benefit. The answer to the trivia question: Which continent is currently governed by a treaty between multiple countries? Stay tuned for a brief look at the opposite end of the planet.
Names like Martin Frobisher, Willem Barentsz, Henry Hudson, and Vitus Bering should sound familiar if you’ve ever heard anything about Arctic expeditions. Sir Martin Frobisher was an English sailor and privateer who made three voyages to the New World in the 1570s looking for the Northwest Passage. He probably sighted Resolution Island near Labrador in north-eastern Canada, before entering Frobisher Bay and landing on present-day Baffin Island. Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northeast passage. He reached as far as Novaya Zemlya and the Kara Sea in his first two voyages, but was turned back on both occasions by ice. During a third expedition, the crew discovered Spitsbergen and Bear Island, but subsequently became stranded on Novaya Zemlya for almost a year. Barentsz died on the return voyage in 1597. In 1607 and 1608, Henry Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a rumoured Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle. In 1609, he landed in North America on behalf of the Dutch East India Company and explored the region around the modern New York metropolitan area. Vitus Bering was a Danish-born Russian cartographer and explorer, and an officer in the Russian Navy. He is known as a leader of two Russian expeditions, namely the First Kamchatka Expedition of 1724-31 and the Great Northern Expedition of 1733-43, exploring the north-eastern coast of the Asian continent and from there the western coast on the North American continent. These are only four names, but the Arctic has been explored by so many more. I could do a whole series about the Northwest Passage and its historic significance.
With all this exploration and even more complex history with multiple countries involved, unlike Antarctica, the Arctic does not have any overarching treaty protecting it from external claims or exploitative pursuits. However, there is an Arctic Council, which is a high-level intergovernmental forum that promotes cooperation, coordination, and interaction among the eight Arctic states, including indigenous people.
The eight Arctic states are the US, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands). The dominant governmental power in Arctic policy resides within the executive offices, legislative bodies, and implementing agencies of the eight Arctic countries. NGOs and academia play a large part in Arctic policy. Also important are intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations (especially as relates to the Law of the Sea Treaty) and NATO.
Though Arctic policy priorities differ, every Arctic state is concerned about sovereignty and defense, resource development, shipping routes, and environmental protection. Though several boundary and resource disputes in the Arctic remain unsolved, there is remarkable conformity of stated policy directives among Arctic states and a broad consensus toward peace and cooperation in the region.
Obstacles that remain include United States non-ratification of the United Nations Conference on the Law Of the Sea (or UNCLOS) and the harmonizing of all UNCLOS territorial claims; the dispute over the Northwest Passage; and securing agreements on regulations regarding shipping, tourism, and resource development in Arctic waters.
The US has a focus on national security, protecting arctic wildlife and its environment, including indigenous communities in decisions, and improving scientific monitoring and research. Canada has more arctic landmass than any other country. For them, it’s all about the protection of Canada's sovereignty over its northern regions. It is a "non-negotiable priority" in Arctic policy. Russia has an extensive sea bottom claim in the Arctic region, due to the boundary and shape of continental shelfs. Russian Arctic lands compromise roughly 25% of Russia itself, and while the Arctic population has decreased over time, 80% of the four million people who live in the Arctic live in Russia.
To say that these eight countries see the Arctic as high stakes is not an overstatement. Unlike Antarctica, which is generally uninhabitable and has few resources worth human attention, the Arctic is ripe with resources. From fishing to natural gas to minerals like copper and iron ore. Petroleum is also an available resource in the Arctic, but it is expensive and challenging to drill for. Sea ice is a major factor, as it is unpredictable and very dangerous. Offshore attempts are unlikely to occur without significant technological advances. However, onshore oiling is very manageable, like the Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska.
There have been 57 arctic research stations established since 1903. Studies about ocean acidification, permafrost thaw, marine ecosystems, and biodiversity conservation are just an introduction. Here’s hoping that continued scientific research and collaboration holds back any future exploitation attempts. I hope you enjoyed this little tale of how humans both can and cannot help themselves! Another episode of Not Trivial is coming soon, so please subscribe - available wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you!