Beagle cartography from 1881
| Beagle conflict | |
|---|---|
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| Main Products: | Beagle conflict |
| 1881–1970: | Beagle cartography |
| 1958: | Snipe incident |
| 1971–1977: | Arbitration court in the Beagle conflict |
| 1977–1978: | Direct negotiations |
| 1978: | Operation Soberanía |
| 1979-1984: | Papal mediation |
| 1984: | Friendship treaty 1984 |
The zone of the Beagle Channel , discovered in the 30s of the 19th century, was one of the last ones of Chileans and Argentines settled. The harsh and cold climate , the long distance to other cities, the lack of resources and the difficulties in transport hampered the settlement of this region.
Some of the maps on this page show how unknown the coastlines and islands of the zone were to seafarers and explorers, as well as to the governments that were to decide on the demarcation.
Nevertheless, the main islands and the most important 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 the initial interpretation of the Border Treaty of 1881 and thus understand the history of the Beagle conflict.
The initial period
From 1881 to around 1888, the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva as well as the islands around Cape Horn were recorded as Chilean territory on all recognized Argentine maps . The few deviating Argentine maps of this period contain borders that, according to the international tribunal, are difficult to reconcile with the border treaty of 1881 (see The Beginning of the Conflict ).
Since 1881 the same border line has always been shown on all maps of the Chilean state. Therefore only one Chilean map appears in this selection, namely that of the engineer Alejandro Bertrand. It is still valid today and is also recognized by Argentina.
Map in the magazine La Ilustración Argentina from 1881
The first Argentine map to show the state border established in the Treaty of 1881, a few days after the treaty was ratified. The copy reproduced here was given to the British Ambassador George Petre in Buenos Aires by Bernardo de Irigoyen . As Argentina's foreign minister, Irigoyen was Argentina's negotiator and signatory to the treaty. The original is in the UK Official Archives. The British ambassador sent it to his government with the remark that the strongly colored region "includes the Strait of Magellan, half of Tierra del Fuego and all the southern islands, that is what was actually granted to Chile in the treaty."
Map of the Republic of Argentina from 1882
Reproduction of the first official Argentine map after the signing of the Border Treaty of 1881, according to Chilean opinion. Its production was commissioned by the then Interior Minister of Argentina, Bernardo de Irigoyen (formerly Foreign Minister), to be published in a state publication of the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (Statistical Office of Argentina) in 1883. This publication called 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 language with an edition edited by 120,000 copies. This map is also known as the 1882 Latzina map.
In this map, all islands south of the large island of Tierra del Fuego appear as Chilean territory.
Official map of the Republic of Chile from 1883
This official map, partly reproduced here, "was created on behalf of the Chilean government for use in primary schools in the republic and based on 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 border on site according to the treaty of 1881.
This card was approved by the Chilean Hydrographic Office at the time.
All islands south of the Beagle Channel to Cape Horn appear on the map under Chilean sovereignty.
Map of the Instituto Geográfico Argentino from 1886
In 1882 the Instituto Geográfico Argentino decided to publish a map and an atlas of the Republic of Argentina. This task was given to the renowned professor Arturo Seelstrang of the University of Cordoba , who had already drawn up a map of the republic in 1875 .
The atlas was "created and published" by the Instituto Geográfico Argentino under the auspices of the National Government .
The map XXVII reproduced here was named Gobernación de Tierra del Fuego y las Islas Malvinas , created in 1885 and published a year later.
You can see how the border runs through the middle of the Beagle Channel and shows the islands of Picton, Nueva, Lennox and all the others up to Cape Horn under Chilean sovereignty.
Map of the Republic of Argentina and neighboring countries from 1886
This map, partially reproduced here, notes that it was "made according to the latest official data" and "in view of the latest plans and sketches" by Francisco P. Moreno , Argentine expert in the commission for marking the border with Chile and Lieutenant-Colonel José Olascoaga, head of the Oficina Topográfica Militar .
This map has a handwritten note in the lower right margin of its entry in the Library of Congress . In addition to indicating the longitude relative to the Greenwich - zero meridian it has the longitude information also related to a zero meridian through Córdoba (Argentina) .
The international border on this map runs through the middle of the Beagle Channel and shows the islands of Picton, Nueva and Lennox as well as all the other islands and rocks up 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 Verlag). The work was published in Buenos Aires in 1888 by Francisco Latzina, director of the Instituto de Estadísticas de Argentina and member of numerous scientific institutions. About this work the international court states: "This work won the 'Gran Premio Bernardino Rivadavia' award of the 'Instituto Geográfico Argentino' and a large number of copies were ordered by the Argentine government to be distributed in Europe and elsewhere" . Members of the institute included Estanislao Zeballos , Bartolomé Miter , Julio Argentino Roca , Domingo Faustino Sarmiento , Guillermo Rawson and Lucio V. Mansilla . It is also known as the Latzina card from 1888.
At the southern tip of America, the border runs through the middle of the Beagle Channel and extends to the United States Island. As in the Latzina map from 1882 (see above), all islands south of Tierra del Fuego belong to Chile.
In 1889 F. Latzina published a new map with the three disputed islands Picton, Nueva and Lennox under Argentine sovereignty.
Two Maps of Argentina by Mariano Paz Soldán, 1888
The Peruvian geographer Mariano Paz Soldán created two maps of Argentina during his exile in Buenos Aires in 1888, the relevant sections of which are reproduced here. The full originals can be found at
can be viewed.
In Mapa orohidrográfico the islands of Picton and Nueva are shown as being under Argentine sovereignty and the island of Lennox as being under Chilean sovereignty. In contrast, in the Mapa general, all disputed islands are shown as Chilean territory.
This difference and other changes (see below) in Paz Soldán's interpretation of the 1881 border treaty raised serious doubts about the reliability of his cards in the international arbitration tribunal in the Beagle conflict .
Other editions of his maps are the Gobernación de la Tierra del Fuego y las Islas Malvinas and the Mapa de Tierra del Fuego y Malvinas , both maps 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 the neighboring countries, 1889)
The map partially reproduced here was created in Buenos Aires in 1889 by J. Declout and published by E. Nolte.
The borderline north of the Strait of Magellan shown on this map was corrected by the British Arbitration Court in 1902.
South of Tierra del Fuego, this map shows the border through the middle of the Beagle Channel and east of the end of the channel. The islands of Picton, Nueva, Lennox and all other islands and rocks up to Cape Horn are shown under Chilean sovereignty.
The beginning of the conflict
Over the years, a trend in Argentine cartography became noticeable that worked towards a change in the interpretation of the 1881 Border Treaty. In 1885, for example, a map by Mariano Paz Soldán appeared, continuing the vertical line from Tierra del Fuego to Antarctica , contrary to every possible reading of the treaty.
The international court of arbitration in the Beagle conflict examined the map material to confirm the judgment. Among the maps there were four whose validity the international tribunal did not recognize. There are three Argentine maps published in Argentina and one by the Argentine embassy in London . For each of them, the tribunal gave a brief description in its reasoning, from which the map can be reconstructed (since they are otherwise not freely available). (See the text for each card).
In order to decide on the admissibility of the cards, the tribunal used the following criteria, among others:
“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, was 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 equally by coloring, showed, not only the PNL group, but also Navarino Island and the Hermite group, as Argentine. But these localities were 'to the south of the Beagle Channel' according to any possible interpretation of that phrase in the Chilean attribution under the Islands clause of the Treaty. "
“This in two respects: (i) since in the first part of Article III of the Treaty the vertical line on the Isla Grande of Tierra del Fuego from Cape Espíritu Santo to the Beagle Channel was expressly terminated there, a map with a border line that extended this vertical and thus crossed the canal and continued south through Murray Sound and beyond the Wollaston Group, impossible to reproduce the demarcation intended in the treaty; (ii) This map showed not only the PNL group, but also the island of Navarino and the Hermite group as Argentine by this and by the coloring. But these locations were assigned to Chile under the island clause of the treaty 'south of the Beagle Channel' in every possible interpretation of that phrase. "
The cards classified as inadmissible are:
1 Map produced by the cartographer Paz Soldán and published by Carlos Beyer in 1885 : This version extends the vertical line on Tierra del Fuego to Antarctica and is used by the tribunal with the words
"This map, equally, showed a fanciful line unrelated to the Treaty basis of division"
"This card also showed a fantasy line without reference to the contractual basis of the border drawing"
declined.
2 Map published by the Argentine Information Office in London in 1887 : Footnote 102 refers to this map and is rejected by the Tribunal with the words:
"A completely fanciful line division that could have no possible warrant under the of 1881 Treaty"
"A completely absurd borderline 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 consulted here.
3 The Lajouane versions of the Paz Soldán maps were published between 1887 and 1890: we know of three different versions of the Soldán maps (see above). Their differences led to the following finding of the tribunal:
“Two volte-faces of this kind within one five-year period - for which no explanation seems to have been offered - must throw doubt on the credibility of the whole series of Paz Soldán based maps. It also raises the question of the reason for it. "
“Two such U-turns in five years - for which no explanation seems to have been given - must cast doubt on the credibility of the whole series of Paz Soldan cards. The question of the reasons for this also arises. "
On Navarino Island , the Beagle Channel has only one arm and all islands south of that arm are said to belong to Chile. This map shows part of the Wollaston Islands (at Cape Horn) as Argentine territory. (The other, third, map of Paz Soldán is available twice in high resolution and in lower resolution and shows all the then disputed islands under Chilean sovereignty.)
4 The Pelliza map published in 1888: This map was presented by Argentina as the first official map for the border treaty of 1881. Different versions of this map have also been published, with some the border running on the north bank, others on the south bank of the Beagle Channel, etc. The map was removed by the tribunal on the grounds that:
"This result [border line], even if not absolutely underivable from any possible interpretation of the Treaty, is so eccentric that it can hardly be taken seriously"
"This result [the borderline], even if it does not run counter to any possible interpretation of the treaty, is so unusual that it can hardly be taken seriously"
For this reason we refer to the following map Preliminary Map of the Southern Region of the Argentine Republic from 1898 as the first official Argentine deviating map on this page .
First official Argentine map with a different borderline. 1898
The map partially reproduced here is the so-called provisional map of the southern region of the Republic of Argentina , which was presented as Exhibit No. XIV by the Argentine Government to the British Arbitration Court from 1898 to 1902 to draw the boundaries in the Cordilleras .
It is the first official Argentine map that shows a different borderline than the Chilean maps of the region.
As can be seen in the map, the border deviates from the Beagle Channel towards the Picton Passage, then the Richmond Passage to end between the islands of Lennox and Nueva. In this way, the islands of Picton and Nueva appear under Argentine sovereignty, the island of Lennox under Chilean sovereignty. The more southern islands up to Cape Horn are still shown as being under Chilean sovereignty.
The controversy that the British Arbitration Court had to rule from 1898 to 1902 did not affect the zone south of the Strait of Magellan . For this reason, neither Chile nor Argentina brought up the borderline shown there on this map.
The new Moat Canal
After the discovery of gold in Tierra del Fuego, the Romanian adventurer Julio Popper gave a lecture at the Instituto Geográfico Argentino (predecessor of the Instituto Geográfico Militar ) in 1891 , in which he presented a theory according to which the Beagle Channel does not extend to Cabo San Pío, but to Punta Navarro turn south between the islands of Navarino and Picton. In 1899 the Argentine Navy commissioned the cruiser Almirante Brown, under the command of Captain Juan P. Saenz Valiente, to undertake a research trip into the waters of the Beagle Channel. The Argentine research confirmed the Argentine theses about a change of course of the channel and for this reason the institute created new maps with a new toponymy . The Moat Bay ( Bahía Moat ) became the Moat Canal. Thus the island of Picton, Nueva and Lennox Terra Nullius (dt. Without owner) were interpreted as belonging to Argentina, because the border treaty of 1881 only referred to islands "south of the Beagle Channel" in this region. The change has been officially notified to the United Kingdom and the United States , but not to Chile. Chile only became aware of the change in 1904 through a new map from the USA. Segundo Storni, then Lieutenant in the Navy, later (1943) Foreign Minister of Argentina, one of the geopolitical thinkers of Argentina, justified the renaming as follows:
«Como la palabra bahía carece de una significación absolutamente precisa y en este caso corresponde mejor la designación de canal por la configuración del lugar, el cambio es lógico, aunque reconocemos por nuestra parte que no fué indispensable»
"Since the word bay does not have an absolutely precise meaning, and in this case, due to the local conditions, it corresponds more to the meaning of a canal, the change is logical, even if we for our part have to acknowledge that this change was not absolutely necessary"
The renaming could not prevail and has been forgotten. In the 1984 peace treaty, Argentina renamed the channel the Beagle Channel.
Map The southern regions of the Republics of Argentina and Chile , 1904
This map, the southern part of which is reproduced here, is taken from the book The Countries of the King's Award by Col. Sir Thomas Holdich , British geographer and President of the Royal Geographical Society . The book was written from 1898 to 1902 after participating in the British Arbitration Court.
During the on-site work on defining and marking the boundary after the award, Colonel Holdich also visited the Beagle Channel area that was not affected by the award.
In the map he made for his book, the border runs through the middle of the Beagle Channel and far beyond its eastern end. The islands of Picton, Nueva, Lennox, as well as all the other islands south of Tierra del Fuego to Cape Horn are shown as Chilean territory.
Other European maps that show this borderline are:
- Stieler hand atlas from 1889
- La grande Encyclopedie from 1890
- Stieler hand atlas from 1891
- Atlante Mondiale Hoepli from 1899
Map of the Argentine Army 1905
Reproduction of the map Division of the Republic into Military Districts - 1905 which appeared in the Boletín Militar (Army Communications) of the Argentine War Ministry, Volume IV, Volume I, May 1, 1905, No. 140.
The military districts of Argentina are marked with different colors.
All islands south of the Beagle Channel are not colored and are therefore considered to be under Chilean sovereignty.
New Map of the Republic of Argentina . Cartographic Office of Argentina, 1914
Extract from the Nuevo Mapa de la República Argentina from 1914, created by Pablo Ludwig. Picton and Nueva appear under Argentine, Lennox under Chilean sovereignty. The entire map can be viewed at Nuevo mapa de la República Argentina (1914) .
Map of Ushuaia by the Argentine Instituto Geográfico Militar, edition 1967
Replica of the Ushuaia page of the map collection of the Instituto Geográfico Militar de la República Argentina , 1967 edition. Only the boundary, the geographical area and the ocean toponym have been transferred from the copyrighted original. A similar map was issued in 1948. The original also contains other details such as glaciers , sandbars , roads , wetlands , etc.
The international demarcation between the islands of Navarino and Picton and further south between Navarino and Lennox, shown in the map , corresponds to the Argentine thesis rejected by the arbitration judgment of 1977 .
The island of Nueva does not appear on the map at all and the islands of Picton and Lennox only partially, both colored as belonging to Argentina. Nevertheless, all the other more southern islands up to Cape Horn appear under Chilean sovereignty. Strangely enough, the naming on the map does not match the official Argentine position, according to which both oceans are adjacent to Cape Horn. The sea south of Hoste Island, 1 degree west of Cape Horn, is named OCÉANO ATLÁNTICO SUR . Before the tribunal, Argentina insisted that the Cape Horn meridian was the border of the two oceans.
Argentine maps after the arbitration award
Required boundary line based on an Argentine textbook, 1979
This facsimile shows a map published on the cover of the book Argentina en el Atlántico Chile en el Pacífico by Admiral (AD) Isaac F. Rojas. The original is about 8 inches high and 8 inches wide. The map shows the boundaries required in the book. From the middle of the Beagle Channel to the south, the border is the Cape Horn meridian, dividing the islands of Navarino, Wollaston, Herschell and Cape Horn into a western Chilean side and an eastern Argentine side. The islands of Picton, Nueva, Lennox, Gratil, Augusto, Snipe, Becasses, Gable, Evout, Freycinet, Barnevelt and Deceit would therefore be Argentine territory. The Chilean village of Puerto Toro would then fall 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 Chief of the Argentine Navy, had an eventful political and military career in Argentina and was an active supporter of the rejection of the 1977 arbitral award.
Argentine postage stamp, 1983
After the Falklands War , a postage stamp issued in 1983 showed the Lennox, Picton, Nueva and Cape Horn islands as Argentine territory.
Argentine passport 2011
The back of the 2011 Argentine passport shows a map of South America. Argentina and its claims to 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 islands south of the channel are not shown on this official document.
analysis
The discrepancies in the maps shown here illustrate the causes of the Beagle conflict.
Carlos Escudé and Andrés Cisneros in their work Historia general de las relaciones exteriores de la República Argentina say on this subject:
- "De acuerdo con una serie de fuentes, la actitud de la clase política argentina parece haber coincidido, entre 1881 y 1902, con la interpretación del treadado de 1881 que tienen los chilenos y que luego adoptarían la Corte Arbitral y el Papa en la cuestión del Beagle. In otras palabras, que la intención de los signatarios del treaded from 1881 for the otorgar las islas in Chile. "
(Translation: “Several sources agree that between 1881 and 1902 the Argentine political (ruling) class interpreted the 1881 border treaty in the same way as the Chileans and later the (jointly called) tribunal and the Pope on the Beagle issue -Canals. In other words, the intention of the signatories was to give the islands to Chile. ")
The authors Karl Hernekamp (p. 13), Annegret I. Haffa (p. 96) and Andrea Wagner (p. 106) share the same opinion in the sources given below. The 1977 arbitration decision also comes to the same conclusion:
"There can be no doubt that in the immediate post-Treaty period, that 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 that in the period immediately after the treaty, that is, from 1881 to at least 1887/88, Argentine cartography generally showed the PNL group as Chilean;"
The reason for the new interpretation of the border treaty of 1881 on the part of Argentina from around 1887 may be that, due to the growing importance of Argentina in the international community around 1900, important parts of their political class considered it appropriate to have better control over at least one of the waterways to have between the two oceans. With the new Convention on the Law of the Sea , which was already foreseeable in 1978 , which replaced the old 3- nautical-mile zone with the exclusive economic zone , the small islands also gained economic weight.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Other Chilean maps can be viewed in " Maps related to the Beagle conflict .
- ↑ a b c d e Beagle Channel Arbitration between the Republic of Argentina and the Republic of Chile, Report and Decision of the Court of Arbitration ( Memento of April 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.9 MB)
- ↑ Carlos Escudé and Andrés Cisneros in "Historia de las Relaciones Exteriores Argentinas" , chapter El canal de Beagle se transforma en una nueva cuestión de litigio a partir de 1904 (accessed on August 9, 2010)
-
↑ Beagle Channel Arbitration between the Republic of Argentina and the Republic of Chile, Report and Decision of the Court of Arbitration , Paragraph 163:
- § 163 Finally, the Court wishes to stress again that its conclusion to the effect that the PNL group is Chilean according to the 1881 Treaty has been reached on the basis of its interpretation of the Treaty, especially as set forth in paragraphs 55–111 above , and independently of the cartography of the case which has been taken account of only for purposes of confirmation or corrobation. The same applies in respect of the particular maps discussed in, and from, paragraph 119 onwards.
-
↑ Beagle Channel Arbitration between the Republic of Argentina and the Republic of Chile, Report and Decision of the Court of Arbitration , Paragraph 153:
- M. Pelliza, Argentine Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the time, as part of a book by him entitled Manual del Imigrante en la República Argentina , which was adopted as an official publication.
- ↑ a b Rafael Santibañez Escobar, Los derechos de Chile en el Beagle
-
↑ The contract says:
- Artículo 7 °. El límite entre las respectivas soberanías sobre el mar, suelo y subsuelo de la República Argentina y de la República de Chile en el Mar de la Zona Austral a partir del término de la delimitación existente en el Canal Beagle, […]
- ↑ http://www.funtener.org/imagenes-f8/coleccion-de-monedas-billetes-y-estampillas-t42095.html ( Memento from March 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Carlos Escudé and Andrés Cisneros, in "Historia general de las relaciones exteriores de la República Argentina", chapter El carácter ambiguo del texto delertrado de 1881 ( Memento of June 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
See also
literature
- Beagle Channel Arbitration between the Republic of Argentina and the Republic of Chile: Report and Decision of the Court of Arbitration (PDF; 4.9 MB), in English.
- Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile: Relaciones Chileno-Argentinas, La controversia del Beagle . Geneva 1979. (English and Spanish)
- Andrea Wagner: The Argentine-Chilean conflict over the Beagle Channel. A contribution to the methods of peaceful dispute settlement . Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-631-43590-8 .
- Karl Hernekamp: The Argentine-Chilean border dispute on the Beagle Channel . Institute for Iberoamerican customers, Hamburg 1980, DNB 800851285 .
- Annegret I. Haffa: Beagle Conflict and Falkland (Malwinen) War. On the foreign policy of the Argentine military government 1976–1983 . Weltforum Verlag, Munich / Cologne / London 1987, ISBN 3-8039-0348-3 .
- Isaac F. Rojas, Arturo Medrano: Argentina en el Atlántico Chile en el Pacífico . Publishing house Nemont, B. As. Argentina 1979. (span.)
- Isaac F. Rojas: La Argentina en el Beagle y Atlántico sur 1st party . Editorial Diagraf, Buenos Aires, Argentina. (span.)
- Carlos Escudé, Andrés Cisneros: Historia general de las relaciones exteriores de la República Argentina. (span.)
- Alberto Marín Madrid: El arbitraje del Beagle y la actitud argentina . 1984, Editorial Moisés Garrido Urrea, id = A-1374-84 XIII. (span.)
- Mateo Martinic , Cartografía Magallánica 1523-1945 , ISBN 956-7189-07-2 , Ediciones de la Universidad de Magallanes, 1999
Web links
- Special edition of El Mercurio de Santiago de Chile, September 2, 2005, in Spanish. It contains u. a., interviews with Ernesto Videla, Jaime Del Valle, Helmut Brunner, Marcelo Delpech and Luciano Benjamín Menéndez. All in Spanish.