
Antarctica is the last continent
The discovery of the last continent
The last great geographical discovery took place 205 years ago. On January 28, 1820, the expedition of Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on the sloops Vostok and Mirny discovered Antarctica. The world, however, did not seem to notice this. For the time being, few people were interested in the distant frozen waters and lands.
It was only in the twentieth century that a sluggish dispute broke out between the United States and Great Britain about who exactly discovered the sixth continent. Americans said that their compatriot Nathaniel Palmer was the first to see the shores of Antarctica on November 17, 1820. The British objected: on January 30 of the same year, the British Edward Bransfield discovered the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The Lady of the Seas wanted to record the discovery of at least one continent to her credit. What is it, in fact: America was discovered by the Genoese Columbus under the Spanish flag, Australia by the Dutchman Jansson… Bellingshausen and Lazarev were not mentioned at all in this dispute.
Later, as the Cold War flared up, the topic acquired an acute political connotation. In 1948, the United States decided to determine the fate of Antarctica without the Soviet Union – together with Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom. Moscow could not stand this, and already in 1949 the issue was discussed at the level of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b).
The debate about the discovery is still going on, and there really is something to argue about, since the reports of the navigators are replete with questions and allow for various interpretations. In 2014, British scientist Rip Bulkley stated that a year before the Russians, the South Shetland Islands belonging to Antarctica were observed by English skipper William Smith.…
There is also a conciliatory formulation: Antarctica was gradually revealed to man and not all of it. It was only at the end of 1911 that the expedition of the Norwegian Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. A month later, Englishman Robert Scott reached the pole, who died along with his companions on the way back.
Interestingly, Alexander Kuchin, a navigator and oceanographer from Arkhangelsk province, was part of Amundsen’s squad. Scott’s expedition also included Russians, Anton Omelchenko, a groom from Vladivostok, and Dmitry Girev, a groom from Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. So there is a distinct Russian trace in the conquest of the South Pole.…
An uninhabited continent

Antarctica is an uninhabited continent
If we turn the conversation into an applied plane, it’s not who discovered Antarctica that matters, but who controls it. The southern continent does not belong to any State under the Antarctic Treaty, which entered into force in 1961. This is a non-military and nuclear-free zone where only scientific activities are allowed.
Nevertheless, the Antarctic Club is gradually expanding. Scientific stations have been opened here not only by the Antarctic states, but also by a number of European countries, China, Japan, South Korea, India… Russia has the largest network of Antarctic stations after Argentina: five permanent ones, including the intercontinental Vostok, and three seasonal ones.
Being present in Antarctica is prestigious, like launching a satellite into space on its own carrier. On the other hand, it’s not just about prestige. But what if it comes to dividing up the Antarctic expanses? We need to suggest this idea to Trump – not by Greenland alone! There is also a Southern hemisphere on our exhausted planet and a whole no-man’s-land continent within its borders.
Today it is obvious that the “north”, which once seemed unnecessary, is a real treasure, especially considering the oil and gas shelves and the obvious warming. It is not the first decade that we have heard that the next world War will be a battle for the Arctic. But will the redistricting end there?
Antarctica remains the last uninhabited territory. There are not only penguins here, but ores and hydrocarbons. Antarctica is the last resource reserve of mankind. Despite the aforementioned treaty, Norway, England, Australia, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and France are claiming various parts of it. And the contract is not a law of physics that lasts forever, but just a document.
Is it by chance, for example, that Chileans and Argentines send young military men and their wives to their Antarctic stations and welcome the birth of children on the southern continent? They say this is done in order to present their citizens to the international community during the division of the territory, whose passports indicate that their place of birth is Antarctica; a weighty argument.
Russia also has its own interests in Antarctica. The “big Game” never stopped. If in the 19th century we competed with England, now the United States plays the role of the latter. The political map of the world is changeable. The pieces on the globe–sized chessboard didn’t freeze forever-the players just thought before making their next move.
Vasily Avchenko