Antarctica's Forgotten Countries

Antarctica is Earth’s third largest natural landmass, its southernmost continent, and at least tied for the southernmost continent anywhere in the universe. Seeing as it’s mostly covered by glaciers, receives very little precipitation, and is, well, cold, Antarctica is only sparsely inhabited by humans. Even so, the political history of Antarctica is more complex than you might think, and you may be surprised by the true number of countries that the Antarctic has held throughout history and into the present day. Let’s explore!

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Introduction
0:52 Current claims
1:36 New Swabia
2:34 Old unofficial claims
3:13 Really old claims
4:03 Research stations
4:28 Kind-of claims
5:04 Conclusion

All the actual information is accurate to the best of my knowledge at the time I wrote the script: any mistakes I find later will be in the description as usual.

Sources:
Francisco Orrego Vicuña; Augusto Salinas Araya (1977). Desarrollo de la Antártica (in Spanish). Santiago de Chile: Instituto de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad de Chile; Editorial Universitaria. [info on Spain's claim]

https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/pdd26.htm [US Antarctic Policy]

“Annekteringen av Dronning Maud Land”, Turi Widerøe https://polarhistorie.no/artikler/ann... [Norwegian article on New Swabia]

"REICH TO DEFEND ANTARCTIC COLONY" The New York Times, April 13 1939 [Contemporary article on New Swabia]

https://scar.org/scar-news/member-ecu... [info on Ecuador's assertion of rights]

https://www.srmun.org/atlanta/docs/bg... [info on Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, and Ecuador's kind-of-claims]

Escudé, Carlos; Cisneros, Andrés. "Historia General de las Relaciones Exteriores de la República Argentina" [Orcadas del Sur - former Scottish station]

https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2021... [Antarctic interpretation of Ui-Te Rangiora]
https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2021... [More skeptical interpretation]

Media credits:
Orcadas Station Photo: Government of Argentina, CC BY 2.5 ar
Research Station Countries Map: Xoocit, CC BY 4.0
IceCube Neutrino Observatory: John Hardin, CC BY 4.0
Wind sound: kevp888, CC BY 4.0
CIA Map: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...