Beagle Channel cartography since 1881

The zone of the Beagle Channel, discovered in the 30s of the 19th century, was one of the last, which was settled by Chileans and Argentines. The harsh and cold climate, long distances to other cities, the lack of resources and the difficulty of transporting inhibited the settlement of this region.

On some maps on this page you can see how unknown the coastlines and islands of the zone the navigators and explorers were still, as well as for governments, should decide on the boundaries.

Nevertheless, the main islands and the main water connections were already known when the border treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina was signed.

The cartography of this region can serve as an approximation to reconstruct and thus to understand the history of the Beagle conflict, the initial interpretation of the border treaty of 1881.

  • 2.1 First official Argentine map with different boundary line. 1898
  • 2.2 The Moat new channel
  • 2.3 Map The southern regions of the Republics of Argentina and Chile, 1904
  • 2.4 Map of the Argentine army in 1905
  • 2.5 Nuevo Mapa de la República Argentina. Cartographic Office of Argentina, 1914
  • 2.6 Map Ushuaia by the Argentine Instituto Geográfico Militar edition 1967
  • 3.2 Argentine stamp, 1983
  • 3.3 Argentine passport 2011

The initial period

From 1881 to about 1888, the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva and the islands were recorded around Cape Horn as Chilean territory on all recognized Argentine cards. The few different Argentine maps of this period include boundary lines, which are to be brought, according to the international tribunal has difficulties in keeping with the border treaty of 1881 (see the beginning of the conflict ).

Since 1881, the same boundary line shown on all maps of the Chilean state forever. Therefore, only a single Chilean map, namely the engineer Alejandro Bertrand appears in this selection. It is valid until today and is also recognized by Argentina.

Map in the journal La Ilustración Argentina from 1881

The first Argentine map that reflects the established by the Treaty of 1881 state border, a few days after the ratification of the Treaty. The reproduced copy here was the British Ambassador George Petre in Buenos Aires handed out by Bernardo de Irigoyen. Was Irigoyen as Argentine Foreign Minister negotiator and signatory of the Treaty on the part of Argentina. The original is in the official British archives. The British ambassador as it sent its government with the remark that the highly colored region, " the Strait of Magellan, Tierra del Fuego and half all southern islands includes, that is what was actually Chile granted in the contract. ": § 122

Map of the Republic of Argentina from 1883

Partial reproduction after the signing of the border treaty of 1881, according to Chilean opinion, the first official Argentine map. They are prepared by the then Interior Minister of Argentina, Bernardo de Irigoyen (former Foreign Minister ) had ordered to be in a state publication of the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (Statistical Office of Argentina ) in 1883 published. This publication is issued with the name La República Argentina como meta de emigración europea ( The Republic of Argentina as a destination of European emigration ) was in Spanish, English, German, French and Italian with a circulation of 120,000 copies. This card is also known as the Latzina card of 1882. § 126

In this map all the islands of the Great Island of Tierra del Fuego to the south appear as Chilean territory.

Official Map of the Republic of Chile from 1883

This official map, partially reproduced here, " was commissioned by the Chilean government for use in the primary schools in the Republic and on the basis of the latest findings " by the engineer Alejandro Bertrand. The author was a member of the Chilean- Argentine border commission, which was commissioned to mark the boundary on the ground after the Treaty of 1881.

This map was approved at that time by the Chilean Hydrographic Office.

All the islands appear on the map south of the Beagle Channel to Cape Horn under Chilean sovereignty.

Map of the Instituto Argentino Geográfico 1886

1882 decided to issue a map and an atlas of the Republic of Argentina, the Instituto Argentino Geográfico. This task was the renowned Professor Arturo passed Seelstrang the University of Cordoba, who in 1875 created a map of the Republic.

The atlas was " created and published " by the Instituto Argentino Geográfico under the auspices of the National Government.

The map reproduced here XXVII was Gobernación de the Tierra del Fuego y las Islas Malvinas named, created in 1885 and published a year later.

One can see how the border runs through the middle of the Beagle Channel and the islands of Picton, Nueva, Lennox and all the other shows to Cape Horn under Chilean sovereignty.

Map of the Republic of Argentina and neighboring countries from 1886

This map, partially reproduced here, noted that she was " made ​​according to the latest official data " and "given the latest plans and sketches " by Francisco P. Moreno, Argentine expert in the Commission to mark the border with Chile and Lieutenant - Colonel José Olascoaga, director of the Oficina Topografica Militar.

This map has at the lower right margin a handwritten note on the entry in the Library of Congress. In addition to specifying the longitude relative to the Greenwich prime meridian it has also referred the longitude information on a prime meridian through Córdoba ( Argentina).

The international border on this card runs through the middle of the Beagle Channel and shows the islands of Picton, Nueva and Lennox and all other islands and rocks to Cape Horn under Chilean sovereignty.

From the book Geografía de la República Argentina by Francisco Latzina, 1888

This map is attached to the book Geografía de la República Argentina ( Lajouane publisher). The work was in 1888 in Buenos Aires by Francisco Latzina, director of the Instituto de Estadísticas de Argentina and a member of numerous scientific institutions, issued. About this work represents the international court stated: " This work won the ' Gran Premio Bernardino Rivadavia ' of the ' Instituto Geográfico Argentino ' and a large number of copies has been ordered by the Argentine government to them in Europe and spread elsewhere ": § 157a. Among the members of the Institute counted Estanislao Zeballos, Bartolomé Mitre, Julio Argentino Roca, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Guillermo Rawson and Lucio V. Mansilla. She is also known as Latzina - map of, 1888.

At the southern tip of America, the border runs through the middle of the Beagle Channel and extends to the States Island. All islands south of Tierra del Fuego, include, as in the Latzina card from 1882 (see above) to Chile.

In 1889 F.Latzina published a new map with the three disputed islands Picton, Nueva and Lennox under Argentine sovereignty.

Two cards from Argentina's Mariano Paz Soldán, 1888

The Peruvian geographer Mariano Paz Soldán created in 1888 during his exile in Buenos Aires, including two maps of Argentina, of which the relevant sections are reproduced here. The complete originals under

  • Mapa Orohidrográfico de la República Argentina and
  • Mapa general de la República Argentina

Be viewed.

In Mapa orohidrográfico the islands of Picton and Nueva as Argentinian and the island of Lennox as under Chilean sovereignty are shown standing. In contrast, in the Mapa general all disputed islands are shown as Chilean territory.

This difference and other changes (see below) in Paz Soldan interpretation of the border treaty of 1881 were in international arbitration in the Beagle conflict strong doubts about the reliability of his cards come up.

Other editions of his cards are the Gobernación de la Tierra del Fuego y las Islas Malvinas, and the Mapa de Tierra del Fuego y Malvinas, both cards show all three islands as Chilean territory.

Map Mapa de la República Argentina y de los países contiguos, 1889

( Span.: Map of the Republic of Argentina and neighboring countries, 1889)

The here partly reproduced map was created in 1889 in Buenos Aires by J. Declout and edited by E. Nolte.

The limit curve shown in this map north of the Strait of Magellan was corrected by the British Court of Arbitration in 1902.

To the south of Tierra del Fuego, this map shows the boundary line through the middle of the Beagle Channel and east of the channel end. The islands Picton, Nueva, Lennox and all the other islands and rocks to Cape Horn are shown under Chilean sovereignty.

The beginning of the conflict

Over the years, a flow in the Argentine cartography became apparent that working towards a change in the interpretation of the border treaty of 1881. In 1885, for example, appeared a card from Mariano Paz Soldán when the vertical line is continued on Tierra del Fuego to the Antarctic, in contradiction to every possible interpretation of the contract.

The International Court of Arbitration in the Beagle conflict examined the maps for convictions in 1977. Among the maps, there were four whose validity did not recognize the international tribunal. There are three in Argentina and published by the Argentine Embassy in London Argentine cards. For each of them, the Tribunal stated in his reasons a brief description from which the map can be reconstructed ( otherwise it can not freely available ). (See the text for each card).

In order to decide on the admissibility of the cards, the Tribunal used, among other things, the following criteria:

"This in two respects: ( i) since under the first part of Article III of the Treaty, the Perpendicular in the Isla Grande of Tierra del Fuego, from Cape Espíritu Santo to the Beagle Channel, which deliberately stopped there, a map showing a line of division Which, by Prolonging the Perpendicular, crossed the Channel, and proceeded southward through the Murray sound and past the Wollaston group, could not Possibly represent the division contemplated by the Treaty; ( ii ) this map, thereby, and by coloring Equally, Showed, not only the PNL group, but so Navarino Iceland and the Hermite group, as Argentine. But synthesis localities were, to the south of the Beagle Channel ' Accor ding to any possible interpretation of phrase did in the Chilean attribution under the Islands clause of the Treaty. "

"This in two ways: as the Vertical on the Isla Grande of Tierra del Fuego from Cape Espíritu Santo was completed by the Beagle Channel explicitly there ( i ) in the first part of Article III of the Treaty, was a card with a boundary line these Vertical prolonged and thus crossed the channel and continue south ran through the Murray - Sund and on the Wollaston group addition, it is impossible to play the demarcation, which was intended in the contract; ( ii ) this card was characterized and the coloring not only the PNL group but also the Navarino Island and the Hermite group as Argentinean. But these places were under the island clause in the contract, to the south of the Beagle Channel ' assigned in every possible interpretation of this formulation Chile. "

The classified as inadmissible cards are:

1 From the cartographer Paz Soldán produced and published in 1885 by Carlos Beyer Map: This version extends the vertical line in Tierra del Fuego to the Antarctic and from the Tribunal with the words

"This map, Equally, Showed a fanciful line unrelated to the Treaty basis of division"

" This card showed a fantasy line without reference to the agreement of the borderline "

Rejected.

2 From the Argentinean information office in London in 1887 published map: the footnote refers to this card 102 and it is rejected by the Tribunal with the words:

"A completely Call fanciful line division That Could have no possible warrant under the Treaty of 1881 "

" A completely abstruse boundary line, for which the Treaty of 1881 could offer no possible justification "

The London Information Office corrected this line in 1888 and this later version can be viewed here.

3 The Lajouane versions of the Paz- Soldán cards were published in 1887-1890: in total, we have three different versions of the Soldán cards ( see above). Their differences led to the following conclusion of the Tribunal:

"Two volte - faces of this kind within one five -year period - For Which no explanation Seems to havebeen Offered - must throw doubt on the credibility of the whole series of Paz Soldán based maps. It thus raises the question of the reason for it. "

" Two such reversals within five years - for that seems to have been given no explanation - must raise doubts about the credibility of the whole series of going back to Paz Soldan cards. There also arises the question about the reasons for it. "

At the Navarino Island of the Beagle Channel has only one arm and all the islands south of this arm to belong to Chile. This map shows a part of the Wollaston Islands ( Cape Horn ) as Argentine territory. (The other, third, Map of Paz Soldán is doubly available in high resolution and in lower resolution and shows all the time disputed islands under Chilean sovereignty standing. )

4 The Pelliza card published in 1888: This card was presented by Argentina as the first official map to the border treaty of 1881. Also from this card different versions were published, in some, the border on the north shore, others on the southern shore of the Beagle Channel, etc. The card was discarded by the Tribunal on the grounds:

"This result [ border line], even if not absolutely underivable from any possible interpretation of the Treaty, is so eccentric did it can hardly be taken seriously"

"This result [ the boundary ], although it is not totally opposed to any possible interpretation of the contract is so outlandish that you can hardly take it seriously"

For this reason, we refer to this page following card Preliminary Map of the Southern Region of the Argentine Republic in 1898 as the first official Argentine different card.

First official Argentine map with different boundary line. 1898

The here partly reproduced map is the so-called Provisional map of the southern region of the Republic of Argentina, which was presented as Exhibit No. XIV of the Argentine Government to the British Court of Arbitration from 1898 to 1902 for border demarcation in the Cordilleras.

This is the first official Argentine map that another boundary line shows as the Chilean maps of the region.

As you can see in the map, direction Picton passage gives way to the border from the Beagle Channel from, then to Richmond - through to end between the islands Lennox and Nueva. In this way, the islands of Picton and Nueva appear under Argentine, the island Lennox under Chilean sovereignty. The southern islands to Cape Horn are still shown as under Chilean sovereignty.

The controversy over which the British Arbitration Court had to judge from 1898 to 1902, the area of ​​the Strait of Magellan did not affect south. For this reason, neither Chile nor Argentina brought the borders shown in this map there to the language.

The new Moat channel

After the discovery of gold in Tierra del Fuego, the Romanian adventurer Julio Popper held in 1891 a lecture at the Instituto Geográfico Argentino (predecessor of the Instituto Geográfico Militar ) in which he presented a theory according to which the Beagle Channel is not sufficient to Cabo San Pío, but at Punta Navarro south between the islands of Navarino and Picton cornering: Page 63 1899 instructed the Argentine Navy cruiser Almirante Brown under the command of Captain Juan P. Saenz Valiente with a research trip to the waters of the Beagle Channel. The Argentine research confirmed the Argentine theses about a price change of channel and for this reason, the Institute created new card with a new toponymy. From the Moat Bay ( Bahía Moat ) the Moat Canal was. Thus, the island Picton, Nueva and Lennox Terra nullius were interpreted (English without an owner ) as belonging to Argentina, because the border treaty of 1881 referred to in this region only on islands "south of the Beagle Channel ." The change was the United Kingdom and the United States officially informed, but not Chile. Chile in 1904 was only aware of a new map from the U.S. to the change. Segundo Storni, then a lieutenant in the Navy, later ( 1943) Foreign Minister of Argentina, one of Argentina's geopolitical thinkers, renaming justified as follows:

Como la palabra de una bahía carece significación absolutamente precisa y en este caso corresponde mejor de la designación canal por la Configuración del lugar, el cambio it lógico, aunque por nuestra parte que no reconocemos fué indispensable

" Since the word bay has no absolutely precise meaning, and in this case is more representative of the importance of a channel because of local conditions, the change is logical, even if we have to acknowledge our part that this change was not absolutely necessary "

Map The southern regions of the Republics of Argentina and Chile, 1904

This card whose southern portion is reproduced here, the book The Countries of the King 's Award of Col. Sir Thomas Holdich, British geographer and president of the Royal Geographical Society removed. The book was written after his participation in British arbitration of 1898-1902.

During the on-site work for boundary determination and demarcation after the arbitration award Colonel Holdich also visited the area of the Beagle Channel, which was not affected by the arbitration.

In -built by him for his book map the border runs through the middle of the Beagle Channel and far beyond its eastern end addition. The islands Picton, Nueva, Lennox, like all other islands south of Tierra del Fuego to Cape Horn are shown as Chilean territory.

Other European maps, which show these boundary line:

  • Stieler Hand Atlas of 1889
  • La Grande Encyclopedie of 1890
  • Stieler Hand Atlas of 1891
  • Atlante Mondiale Hoepli from 1899

Map of the Argentine army in 1905

Play the map division of the republic into military districts - appeared in 1905 in the Boletín Militar (Army releases ) of the Argentine Ministry of War, born in IV, Volume I, 1st May 1905, No. 140.

With different colors, the military districts of Argentina are marked.

All the islands south of the Beagle Channel are not colored and therefore as under Chilean sovereignty construed standing.

Nuevo Mapa de la República Argentina. Cartographic Office of Argentina, 1914

Excerpt from the Nuevo Mapa de la República Argentina from 1914, created by Pablo Ludwig. Picton and Nueva appear Argentinian, Lennox under Chilean sovereignty. The entire map can be viewed at Nuevo mapa de la República Argentina (1914 ).

Map Ushuaia by the Argentine Instituto Geográfico Militar edition 1967

Replica of the page Ushuaia the map collection of the Instituto Geográfico Militar de la República Argentina, edition of 1967. Was transferred, only the border lines of the geographical area and the Ocean toponym from the copyrighted original. A similar map was published in 1948. The original contains other details such as glaciers, sand banks, roads, wetlands, etc.

The international boundaries shown on the map between the islands of Navarino and Picton and further south between Navarino and Lennox, corresponds to the rejected by the tribunal judgment from 1977 Argentine thesis.

The island Nueva not appear on the map and the islands of Picton and Lennox only partially, both as belonging to Argentina colored. However, all other southern islands appear to Cape Horn under Chilean sovereignty. Oddly enough, right in the naming of the card with the official Argentine position match, after which both oceans adjacent to Cape Horn. The sea south of the island Hoste 1 degree west of Cape Horn is OCÉANO ATLÁNTICO SUR named. Before the Tribunal Argentina insisted that the Cape Horn Meridian is the border between the two oceans.

Argentine maps after the arbitration award

This facsimile shows on the cover of the book Argentina en el Atlántico Chile en el Pacífico Admiral (AD) Isaac F. Rojas published map. The original is about 20 cm high and 20 cm wide. The map shows the boundary line called for in the book. The border is from the middle of the Beagle Channel to the south of the Cape Horn meridian and divides by the islands of Navarino, Wollaston, Herschell and Cape Horn in a western Chilean side and an eastern Argentine side. The islands Picton, Nueva, Lennox, Gratil, Augusto, Snipe, Bécasses, Gable, Evout, Freycinet, Barnevelt and Deceit would thus Argentine territory. The Chilean town of Puerto Toro fell accordingly to Argentina.

The book has been approved by the Argentine Ministry of Education " for education in middle schools and universities ."

Admiral (Ret. ) Isaac Francisco Rojas, former vice president of Argentina and former head of the Argentine Navy, had a turbulent political and military career in Argentina and was an active supporter of the rejection of the arbitration award of 1977.

Argentine stamp, 1983

After the Falklands War, 1983 issued this stamp Lennox, Picton, Nueva and the Cape Horn Islands shows as Argentine territory.

Argentine passport 2011

The back of the Argentine passport in 2011 shows a map of South America. Argentina and its claims on Antarctica and the Falkland Islands can be seen on the map. Half of the Chilean Magallanes region, the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego, the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel and all the islands south of the canal are not shown in this official document.

Analysis

The discrepancies in the maps shown here illustrate the causes of the Beagle conflict.

Carlos Escudé and Andrés Cisneros in her work Historia general de las relaciones exteriores de la República Argentina think about this topic:

(Translation: " Several sources agree that 1881-1902 Argentine political ( ruling ) class the border treaty of 1881 in the same way interpreted as the Chileans and later also (together called ) Tribunal and the Pope on the question of the Beagle channel. Anders said that the intention of the signatories was to give the islands to Chile. " )

The authors Karl Herne Kamp (p. 13), Annegret I. Haffa (p. 96 ) and Andrea Wagner (p. 106) share the same opinion in the sources listed below. Also, the arbitration award of 1977: § 148 comes to the same conclusion:

"There can be no doubt 'that' in the immediate post- Treaty period, did is to say from 1881 to at least 1887/88, Argentine cartography in general Showed the PNL group as Chilean; "

" There can be no doubt bestehn that showed in the period immediately after the contract, ie from 1881 to at least 1887/88, the Argentine cartography in general, the PNL group as Chilean; "

The reason for the new interpretation of the border treaty of 1881 on the part of Argentina from about 1887 may be that due to the growing importance of Argentina in the international community in 1900, important parts of their political class saw fit, better control over at least one of the waterways to have between two oceans. With the new 1978 already foreseeable Convention, which replaced the old 3 -nautical-mile zone by the Exclusive Economic Zone were also given the small islands an economical weight.

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