This “A (Brief) history of Antarctica” first appeared in a Dispatch, the updates sent to all Society members. You can join for free here.

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40 million years ago

Antarctica separates from the Australian continent. It was the most dramatic breakup in history until Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton split. Both times.

1400 – 1700: Separate lands

Sailors rounding Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope prove that ‘Terra Australis Incognita’ (Unknown Southern Land), was a separate continent. Yet, not everyone can agree it even exists.

1700 – 1800: Claims, claims, claims

Further north, the Falklands are beginning to be explored before France establish a colony at Port St. Louis in 1764. The British, late to the party, claim the islands in 1765 and build a settlement at Port Egmont. Nothing like coming a year late and claiming to discover something. Two years later the Spanish take over Port St. Louis. A few years after that, they force the British off the island. After a bit of back and forth that almost sparks a war, the Spanish take Port St. Louis and the British keep Port Egmont. Six years later, thanks to the American War of Independence not going well, the British withdraw from the islands but still keep their claim. Two countries claiming one area of land… probably won’t cause any issues in 200 years or so, right?

Meanwhile, Captain James Cook (yep, that one) and his crew are the first to circumnavigate the Antarctic continent in 1773, crossing the Antarctic Circle. He then circumnavigates South Georgia and made the first landing in 1775, claiming that for the UK. It’s named the ‘Isle of Georgia’ after King George III.

1800 – 1895: Land Ahoy!

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen, a name that would bankrupt anyone sending a telegram, is credited with the first confirmed sighting of the Antarctic Peninsula on the 27th of January, 1820. This is the first sighting of the land itself and not only the islands or a connecting ice sheet. They beat a rival expedition to the discovery by 2 days (!), although the defeated Edward Bransfield and William Smith were the first to officially chart part of the Antarctic Peninsula. This part is called the Trinity Peninsula. The Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen Russian Expedition (again, quite a mouthful) also discovers Peter I Island and Alexander I Island, the first islands discovered below the Antarctic Circle.

Both expeditions attempt to reach the Weddell Sea, but both fail to make it through the ice. Of course, it wasn’t called the Weddell Sea then. It wasn’t even called that when it was successfully traversed by Scottish sailor James Weddell in 1823. He named it after King George IV, but it was later changed to honour Weddell in 1900. Funnily enough, it was almost also called ‘New South Greenland’, a name as uninventive and confusing as any, by American captain Benjamin Morrell who claimed to have broken deep into it. However, his calculations didn’t add up and it was disproved a century later.

In 1833 the British returned to the Falklands with Charles Darwin visiting on The Beagle a year later. The settlements of Darwin (for Charles) and Fitzroy (for Robert, the captain) take their name from this visit.

Between 1839 and 1843 the British captain James Clark Ross makes three trips to Antarctica, uncovering many of Antarctica’s geographical features. This includes McMurdo Sound, Cape Adair and the twin volcanoes Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, named for the two ships on the journey. He also named the Ross Sea, the Great Ice Barrier (later renamed the Ross Ice Shelf) and Ross Island. Wonder if you can see a trend here.

And then, like that, it stops. Not a great deal happens for the next 50 years.

1895 – 1922 – 30 years of craziness

In 1895, a Norwegian whaling ship makes the first undisputed landing on Antarctica. Only three years later, the Belgian Antarctic Expedition becomes the first expedition to overwinter within the Antarctic Circle.

At the same time the Discovery Expedition, led by Robert Falcon Scott, begins its exploration. It is a landmark expedition, not only for reaching close to the South Pole but for also being the first trip of eventual Antarctic legends like Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Frank Wild and Tom Crean.

At the same time, Otto Nordenskjold, the leader of the 1901 to 1904 Swedish Antarctic Expedition, has a close call. After a brutal overwinter at Snow Hill, his team waited for the sea ice to melt so the relief ship, the Antarctic, could come and collect them. Except, it never did. The ice stayed frozen all summer. The Antarctic dropped off some men to make the journey to Snow Hill to rejoin the other men but then sank when it was crushed by ice. That team rowed to safety and it was another year later when Nordenskjold was finally rescued along with his team, the team that came to rescue them, and the team that had to rescue them. The Antarctic Sound is named after his ship.

Meanwhile, in 1904 a Norwegian, Carl Anton Larsen, established the first land-based whaling station and first permanent habitation (Grytviken) of South Georgia. It was dangerous and unglamorous work, isolated at the end of the world amongst rotting whale carcasses. And those whales could be dangerous even when dead. It was said, “A rotting whale could fill with gas to bursting, ejecting a fetus the size of a motor vehicle with sufficient force to kill a man.” A lovely image.

Ernest Shackleton’s rushed Nimrod expedition arrived in Antarctica in 1907, determined to beat his now bitter rival Scott to the South Pole. He set a new southern record through a brutal trip south and cemented his name into the history books. Riding along on the expedition was the last-minute addition of Australian Douglas Mawson, who dragged sleds across crevasse-strewn areas for four months to reach the South Magnetic Pole, which he claimed for the British empire.

In the middle of this mass “claiming” the United Kingdom also claimed sovereignty in 1908 over the South Sandwich Islands/South Georgia.

The race was on to be the first to reach the South Pole. Englishman Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen went head to head (along with unexpected Japanese visitor Nobu Shirase) in a now famous race to the pole. Scott arrived at the South Pole with his final three companions on the 17th of January 1912 to find a tent and a letter from Amundsen. Amundsen had made it first, less than a month earlier. Defeated, the Scott party turned around for the 1,387 km walk home. None of them made it, dying of starvation and frostbite less than 20 km from a cache of food.

Douglas Mawson returns to Antarctica in 1911 to map the largely unknown area of Antarctica just south of Australia. During his trek his two companions die and he walks the soles of his feet off, but survives.

Ernest Shackleton, now out of the race for the South Pole, decides to walk across the continent on the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It goes wrong, almost instantly. His ship, the Endurance, becomes trapped and crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea. The crew lived on the ice until it started to break, then sailed to Elephant Island. Realising there was no one to save them, Shackleton and five of his men sailed over 1,300 km of rough open ocean, in a tiny lifeboat, to reach South Georgia. When they landed on the far side of the island, far from help, Shackleton, Crean and Frank Worsley then trekked across the island. Surviving the towering mountains and deadly crevasses without any equipment, then finally made it to Stromness. Raising the alarm, they eventually managed to rescue all crew, both those on South Georgia and then the rest on Elephant Island. It’s an incredible story. He later returns in 1922 at the beginning of another expedition but has a heart attack and dies, and is buried there still today.

1923 – 2023: Modern Antarctica

The 30 years or so around World War I and then War World II saw various expeditions and manoeuvres near Antarctica. This was largely to prevent one nation from dominating the area. In particular, the islands of the Falklands and South Georgia were heavily protected to stop them harbouring secret navies. Even in the outbreak of war, with the world’s focus elsewhere, there were still some visitors. The United States, Chile, Argentina and even Nazi Germany all made visits to the area on various trips to claim areas for themselves or build bases on their territories, or disputed territories. The story of a secret Nazi base existing in Antarctica seems to be fake, as they were only there for a few weeks.

President Juan Peron of Argentina attempts to buy the Falkland Islands from the UK in 1953. It didn’t work.

In 1958 Vivian Fuchs leads the first successful overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. The backup party was led by Sir Edmund Hillary, 5 years after summiting Mount Everest.

In a post-war world, 1959 saw a monumental shift in approach towards Antarctica. The Antarctic Treaty was signed by 12 nations, all active in Antarctica science, and has since been agreed to by another 48. The Treaty is to ensure that Antarctica is to be used for peaceful purposes only and that there is freedom of scientific investigation, the results of which are to be freely distributed. It has since been expanded to ban all mineral extraction and to protect the native flora and fauna of Antarctica. Although countries still retain claims to areas of land, these claims are often overlapping and not even recognised by various other countries. So, in short: Sharing is caring.

In the 1960’s the commercial whaling in the area was stopped and the whaling stations abandoned. These rusting hulks are still able to be visited today on islands like South Georgia.

In 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, reclaiming it as “their territory”, with the British responding to defend “their territory”. As Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote, it was like “a fight between two bald men over a comb.” A little over two months later it was all over, with the UK winning the unofficial war. The small scrap came at a high cost, with close to 1,000 people dying and a large relative loss of aircraft and ships. In fact, it was only in November 2020 that the Falklands were finally declared land-mine free. Often considered to be more English than England, the islands are self-governing with their defense and foreign affairs handled by Britain. You’ll also see it referred to as the ‘Falklands-Malvinas’, recognising the competing, and ongoing claims.

A few years later in 1985, the territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands was formed, largely in response to the Falklands War.

In the late 1980s, four companies offered limited Antarctica trips. By 1991, that number was up to six companies and assisted approximately 6,000 tourists per year. By 2019, that number is now over 53,000 people a year. This includes expedition cruising, fly-in travel and sail-by. However, because of the natural isolation, limited seasonality, higher price of entry and continued managed growth, travel today to Antarctica operates under strict rules and regulations set by the Antarctic Treaty, the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) and the operators themselves. After all, seeing this place with your own eyes converts anyone into a passionate environmentalist keen to protect this untouched wonder.

In 2023, 2024 or 2025, you visit and have an incredible time.