Why No One Owns Antarctica

Antarctica is the only continent which isn't a country, doesn't have a government, nor any indigenous tribal living there for ages. 

One of the most obvious reasons is that, it is the coldest continent in the world. The temperature can go as low as -89 °C, Additionally, it is also the windiest place on Earth. With snowstorms at a speed of 300 km/hr which can blind you.

 Antarctica is also the world's driest continent. To the extent that you might be surprised to know that it is considered a desert. There's only around 51 mm of rain there, and even when it rains, it turns into snow before reaching the ground. So in a way, Antarctica is the only place on Earth with little to no influence of humans, but it doesn't mean that countries all across the world haven't tried to take over Antarctica. 

Antarctica. A composite portrait of a continent which has challenged man since the first he can sail beyond the limits of his horizon." "The Antarctic Continent is surrounded by frozen seas. 

It was around 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle, was among the first people to say that the Earth was spherical. At the time, the Greeks were aware of the Arctic regions in the North. They had named it the Arctos. The word 'Arctos' was derived from the bear.

The constellations that we can see in the sky, one of them is of the Great Bear, they were inspired by that constellation and named the Arctic region, Arctos. Because they knew that the Earth is spherical, they knew that the North and South are like mirror images and would have similar features. So they named the unknown southern region Antarctos. 

It meant antithetical to the bear. The opposite of Arctos. And from here, the name Antarctic was derived. Humans stepped on Antarctica for the first time during the 1890s, but hundreds of years before that, Antarctica had started appearing on maps. When several explorers went on expeditions around the world, they knew that if they went to the South of the world, they come upon some land. But they didn't know what was on the land exactly. Or how big it is. This is why when the French explorers, made the world map in the year 1530, they had drawn Antarctica. 

The Northern Hemisphere is depicted on the left side. And the Southern Hemisphere on the right side. The largest land mass in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere.

About 200 years later, in 1773, British Naval officer James Cook became the first person to go to the South of the Antarctic Circle. He was about 130 km farther from Antarctica, when he turned his ship around. Even though he hadn't seen Antarctica, he had seen icebergs with rock deposits on them. When he saw those rocks, he concluded that Terra Australis does exist. But going much closer to Antarctica was so dangerous, that he had famously said, He was so sure that no one could reach Antarctica, because the place was so perilous. With strong winds blowing and the ship at danger of hitting icebergs at any moment. But his words were proven wrong 50 years later.

It is quite controversial as to who was the first person to step on Antarctica. Because several people claim to have been the first person. British-American Captain John Davis believed that he was the first person to do so, because his ship was lost and he reached Antarctica. 

The first undisputed landing was in 1895, when a Norwegian ship called the Antarctic, reached its shores. 6-7 members of the crew of this ship got into a small boat and went on to the land. A Norwegian in the boat was Carsten Borchgrevink, claims that he landed before the boat and he was the first to step on Antarctica. But a man from New Zealand, Alexander, claims to have been on this boat, and to keep the boat steady, he was the first one to step out of the boat.

These two people from the same boat got into an argument about who was the first to get off and the first to step on Antarctica. There were new scientific discoveries, and we found out many new things about Antarctica. It was the first time we found out that there are plants growing on this continent. Mosses were found growing in Antarctica. 

After this heroic era, came the Colonial period of Antarctica. When several countries tried to lay claim on Antarctica. Between 1908 and 1942, 7 countries claimed sovereignty over this continent. Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom. 

Apart from them, there were countries like the USA, the Soviet Union, Japan, Sweden, Belgium, and Germany, who were conducting explorations and expeditions on Antarctica, without claiming any territory.

During Hitler's rule, in 1939, a German Antarctic Expedition was carried out, in which they flew in an airplane to take pictures of some areas of the Antarctic. They even dropped metal Nazi Swastikas, claiming that the areas where the Swastikas were dropped, were under the control of Nazi Germany. Surprisingly, during this period, the USA wasn't very active. 

In 1924, the Secretary of State in America, announced their official position regarding the territorial claims on Antarctica. He said that if any country discovers new land in Antarctica, it doesn't mean that the new areas, would belong to the country. The land would belong to the country only when there are actual settlements in the area. When the citizens of that country live there permanently. But this didn't happen. 

After the end of World War II, these countries started fighting each other over their claims on Antarctica's land. By 'fighting' I do not mean literal warfare, what I mean is that they were expressing their claims more strongly. 

 Antarctica is not a country. It is a political territory where several countries have come together to collaborate, and divided power among them equally. But Antarctica doesn't have any police force, no army, and no legal system. The loopholes of this Treaty can be seen being exploited even now.

 For tourism, tourists can go to the British station in Antarctica named the Port Lockroy, and can get their passports stamped there. 

 Countries collaborating together, not allowed to do mining and drilling, and people can be allowed to go there for scientific research or tourism.