Chilean expansionism

Chile's capture of Peru's warship Huáscar, in 1879, further assured its naval supremacy and victory in the war.

Territories gained in the war of the Pacific (to the north of Atacama Province).

To its north, Chile imposed its dominance by eliminating the threat posed by the union of Bolivia with Peru during the War of the Confederation (1836–1839), followed by the conquest of these countries' mineral-rich territories in the Atacama during the War of the Pacific (1879–1884)—in the process leaving Bolivia landlocked and sacking the Peruvian capital. Chile gained control over Tacna, Arica, Tarapacá, Antofagasta and Puna de Atacama. Tacna and Puna de Atacama territories were mostly lost later on by diplomacy.

Chile slowly started to expand its influence and to establish its borders. By the Tantauco Treaty, the archipelago of Chiloé was incorporated in 1826. The economy began to boom due to the discovery of silver ore in Chañarcillo, and the growing trade of the port of Valparaíso, which led to conflict over maritime supremacy in the Pacific with Peru.

The Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina confirmed Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan. As a result of the War of the Pacific with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third, eliminating Bolivia's access to the Pacific, and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. Chile had joined the stand as one of the high-income countries in South America by 1870.[5]

Chile's occupation of the Araucanía was fiercely resisted by the Mapuche, who resorted to cavalry raids for defense

To its south and east, Chile used military force and colonization to occupy Araucanía (1861–1883) and successfully dispute Argentine claims over westernmost Patagonia and the Strait of Magellan—the outbreak of war only narrowly avoided in multiple occasions.

Reconstruction of Fuerte Bulnes in Chilean Patagonia

At the same time, attempts were made to strengthen sovereignty in southern Chile intensifying penetration into Araucanía and colonizing Llanquihue with German immigrants in 1848. Through the founding of Fort Bulnes by the Schooner Ancud under the command of John Williams Wilson, the Magallanes region joined the country in 1843, while the Antofagasta area, at the time part of, Bolivia, began to fill with people.

There was a failed Chilean settlement in "Puerto Gallegos" on the banks of the river of the same name since March 4, 1873. The governor of Magallanes, Óscar Viel y Toro, commissioned by Minister Adolfo Ibáñez Gutiérrez, was in charge of founding the settlement, which would only last six weeks after the diplomatic agreement between this country and the Argentine Nation. There was also the presence of Chilean ships up to the Santa Cruz River.

Chilean statesman Vicuña Mackenna was a major advocate of Chilean expansionism into Polynesia

Policarpo Toro

Chile's interest in expanding into the islands of the Pacific Ocean dates to the presidency of José Joaquín Prieto (1831–1841) and the ideology of Diego Portales, who considered that Chile's expansion into Polynesia was a natural consequence of its maritime destiny.[6][upper-alpha 2] The first stage of the country's expansionism into the Pacific began a decade later, in 1851, when—in response to an American incursion into the Juan Fernández Islands—Chile's government formally organized the islands into a subdelegation of Valparaíso.[8] That same year, Chile's merchant fleet briefly succeeded in creating an agricultural goods exchange market that connected the Californian port of San Francisco with Australia, renewing Chile's economic interest in the Pacific.[9] By 1861, Chile had established a lucrative enterprise across the Pacific, its national currency abundantly circulating throughout Polynesia and its merchants trading in the markets of Tahiti, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Shanghai; moreover, negotiations were also made with the Spanish Philippines, and altercations reportedly occurred between Chilean and American whalers in the Sea of Japan.[10] This period ended as a result of the Chilean merchant fleet's destruction by Spanish forces in 1866, during the Chincha Islands War.[11]

Chile's Polynesian aspirations would again be awakened in the aftermath of the country's decisive victory against Peru in the War of the Pacific, which left the Chilean fleet as the dominant maritime force in the Pacific coast of the Americas.[6] Valparaíso had also become the most important port in the Pacific coast of South America, providing Chilean merchants with the capacity to find markets in the Pacific for its new mineral wealth acquired from the Atacama.[12] During this period, the Chilean intellectual and politician Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna (who served as senator in the National Congress from 1876 to 1885) was an influential voice in favor of Chilean expansionism into the Pacific—he considered Spain's discoveries in the Pacific to have been taken by the British, and envisioned that Chile's duty was to create an empire in the Pacific that would reach Asian shores.[6] In the context of this imperialist fervor in 1886, Captain Policarpo Toro of the Chilean Navy proposed to his superiors the annexation of Easter Island; a proposal that attained support from President José Manuel Balmaceda because of the island's apparent strategic location and economic value. After Toro transferred the rights to the island's sheep ranching operations from Tahiti-based businesses to the Chilean-based Williamson-Balfour Company in 1887, Easter Island's annexation process was culminated with the signing of the "Agreement of Wills" between Rapa Nui chieftains and Toro, in name of the Chilean government, in 1888.[13]

Commemorative stamp of the Chilean Antarctic declaration of 1940

Chile claims to have sovereignty over part of Antarctica inherited from the Spanish Empire since 1539, more specifically from the Governorate of Terra Australis which was transfered to the Kingdom of Chile in 1555.[14][15][16][17][18]

In 1603, Admiral Gabriel de Castilla,[19][20] who left Valparaíso to reconnoiter the coasts of Chile, reached the southwest coast, reaching the 64th degree south, discovering the first Antarctic lands, and it was not until 1616 that Cape Horn was discovered.[14]

In the 19th century the growth of the Chilean colony in Magallanes, and then in the city of Punta Arenas, allowed the founding of companies for hunting and exploitation of whales in Antarctic seas, which requested authorization from the Chilean government. In 1894, the power for the exploitation of marine resources in the south of the parallel 54°S was given to the Punta Arenas Municipality.

In the early years of the 20th century, the interest of studying the Antarctic territories increased. Some of these expeditions asked permission from the government of Chile to be performed, among which one can highlight the Swedish teacher Otto Nordenskjöld in 1902 and the British teacher Robert F. Scott in 1900. Chile also gave mining permits, as conferred on December 31, 1902, Decree No. 3310 by Pedro Pablo Benavides to lease the Diego Ramírez Islands and San Ildefonso, may extend fishing south indefinitely on condition to install a naval station in the islands.

On May 8, 1906, the Whaling Society of Magallanes was created with a base in Punta Arenas, which was authorized on December 1 to settle in the South Shetland Islands by Decree No. 1314 of the governor of Magallanes, which they did in Whalers Bay on Deception Island, there hoisted the Chilean flag and installing a coal deposit. That place was visited by Jean-Baptiste Charcot in December 1908 to replenish coal and continued to be inhabited in summer season until 1914.

From 1906, they began to be promulgated several decrees, even from the National Congress of Chile, for mining permits in the Antarctic area. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile mentioned on September 18, Chilean national day, of that year, the Chilean Antarctic rights in a memory and said that the delimitation of the territory would be subject to preliminary investigations. Argentina formally protested the June 10, 1907, for these actions in Chile and a negotiation process began for the mutual recognition of Antarctic territories. A limit was to be set to define two different areas, but this treaty was never signed.

On July 21, 1908, the United Kingdom officially announced its claim to sovereignty over all lands within the meridians 20° and 80° south of parallel 50°, in 1917 was moved to 58° south and in 1962, to the parallel 60° south.

Luis Pardo Villalón

In 1914, the British Ernest Shackleton began an expedition to cross the South Pole from the Weddell Sea to Ross Sea. With two ships, Endurance and Aurora, he went to Antarctica, but the weather worsened dramatically until an iceberg sank the Endurance. Shackleton then sailed to Argentine ports, the Falklands and South Georgia Islands without finding anyone willing to join the expedition trapped on an Antarctic island. In Punta Arenas, however, he found the pilot Luis Pardo Villalón, who, while aboard the Yelcho, managed to rescue those shipwrecked on the Elephant Island. On September 4, 1916, they were received at the port of Punta Arenas as heroes. The Pilot Pardo feat, sailing with temperatures close to −30 °C (−22 °F) and a stormy sea of icebergs, made him win national and international recognition.

On January 14, 1939, Norway declared its territorial claims on Antarctic territory between meridians 0° and 20° (Queen Maud Land), which alarmed the Chilean government, so the president Pedro Aguirre Cerda encouraged the definition of National Antarctic Territory and the September 7 of that year established by Decree No. 1541 a special commission to examine the country's interests in Antarctica.

The commission set the bounds according to the Theory of polar areas taking into account geographical, historical, legal and diplomatic precedents, which were formalized by Decree No. 1747, enacted on November 6, 1940, and published on June 21, 1955.[21] As in Chile is considered their Antarctic rights arrived until the line Treaty of Tordesillas, the decree setting the limit of his claim in a meridian located further west (the 53° West), his claim to not include the South Orkney Islands in consideration of the rights of Argentina.[lower-alpha 1]

Gabriel González Videla inaugurating the Base General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme in Antarctica in 1948

Chile began to perform acts of sovereignty in the Antarctic continent with installation, Sovereignty Base current Arturo Prat in 1947. The following year, and as a way of settling the Chilean claims, the President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla opened the Base General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, the first official visit of Head of state to Antarctica.

Law No. 11486 of June 17, 1955 added the Chilean Antarctic Territory to the Province of Magallanes, which became on July 12, 1974, the XII Region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica.

In 1958, the president of the US Dwight Eisenhower invited Chile to the Conference by the International Geophysical Year to resolve the issue Antarctic. On 1 December 1959, Chile signed the Antarctic Treaty which freezes (but doesn't derogate) all the territorial claims in the continent, ensuring each signatory nation to a status quo for the duration of the treaty.