Picton, Lennox and Nueva () form a group of three islands (and their islets) at the extreme southern tip of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, in the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an commune of

Cabo de Hornos Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...

Antártica Chilena Province Antártica Chilena Province () is the southernmost of the four Provinces of Chile, provinces in Chile's southernmost Regions of Chile, region, Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region (XII). The capital is Puerto Williams. The province comprises ...

, Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region. Located in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, they lie east of

Navarino Island Navarino Island () is a large Chilean island, with an area of and a coastline of . It is located between Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, to the north, and Cape Horn, to the south. The island forms part of the Communes of Chile, Commune of Cabo ...

and are separated from the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

part of Isla Grande in the north by the

Beagle Channel Beagle Channel (; Yahgan language, Yahgan: ''Onašaga'') is a strait in the Tierra del Fuego, Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, on the extreme southern tip of South America between Chile and Argentina. The channel separates the larger main island of I ...

. They have an area of 170.4 km² (Lennox), 105.4 km² (Picton), 120.0 km² (Nueva). Close to the islands are the islets of

Snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. ''Gallinago'' snipe have a nearly ...

, Augustus, Becasses, Luff, Jorge, Hermanos, Solitario, Gardiner, Terhalten, Sesambre and others.

History

Robert Fitzroy Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy, politician and scientist who served as the second governor of New Zealand between 1843 and 1845. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of ...

and

Phillip Parker King Phillip Parker King (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. Early life and education King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Josepha King ''née'' Coo ...

named the island "Picton" in honour of

Thomas Picton Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton (24 August 175818 June 1815) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He fought in the Napoleonic Wars and died at Waterloo. According to the historian Alessandro Barbero, Picton was "respecte ...

, first British governor of Trinidad in the West-Indies. Lennox was discovered in 1624 by Dutch Admiral Schapenham who named the island Terhalten, after the officer who first sighted it. It was renamed later by Fitzroy and Parker King. From the signing of the boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina to 1904, the islands were considered in Chile and Argentina as Chilean territories. At the end of the 19th century, the Chilean government gave the first concessions to Antonio Milicic for Nueva Island, Esteban Loncaric for Lennox Island and Thomas Bridges for Picton Island. In 1910/11 the following were inhabited: ''Caleta Las Casas'' in Nueva Island, ''Puerto Piedra'' in Picton Island, and ''Caleta Oro'' and ''Caleta Cúter'' in Lennox Island Mateo Martinic in ''Crónica de las tierras del sur del Canal Beagle'' (''Caleta'' is Spanish for ''little bay''). These concessions were transferred in the course of time to other entrepreneurs, mostly for cattle farming or mining.

Puerto Banner

From 3 to 6 December 1914, after the Battle of Coronel, the German East Asia Squadron (

armored cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a pre-dreadnought battles ...

s and and the light cruisers , , and and the merchants ''Santa Isabel'', ''Baden'', ''Seydlitz'' and the captured Norwegian ship ''Drummuir'') under the command of Admiral Graf Spee moored off Puerto Banner on the way to the

Battle of the Falkland Islands The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a First World War naval action between the British Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 in the South Atlantic. The British, after their defeat at the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, ...

. This was considered by Chile as a violation of its neutrality and forced the government to establish Puerto Banner as a coaling station for the Chilean Navy. Puerto Banner served twice as the coaling station of the '' Yelcho'' during her services to rescue the

Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Ernest Shackleton, Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the ...

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarcti ...

. During the Chilean land reform, the east part of

and the three islands (86,000 ha) were part of an economic unit and plan to benefit the settlers.

Puerto Toro Puerto Toro is a hamlet on the eastern coast of Navarino Island, Chile. Puerto Toro was founded in 1892 during the Tierra del Fuego Gold Rush by Governor of Punta Arenas Señoret.Bascopé Julio, JoaquínSENTIDOS COLONIALES I. EL ORO Y LA VIDA SAL ...

, the next settlement to the islands, in Navarino Island, was re-established in 1969.

Operation Soberanía

Due to their strategic location south of the

and facing the border between the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

and the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, the islands had been claimed since 1904 by Argentina, not because of the treaty of 1881 but for so-called "political reasons". Whichever government controlled Picton, Lennox and Nueva could stake territorial rights further into the Ocean (important for the fishing industry), to several other islands, and to a larger part of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, where resource development and exploration were important. The dispute over control of the islands continued into the late 20th century. On 22 July 1971

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...

and Alejandro Lanusse, the presidents of

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, respectively, signed an arbitration agreement (th
Arbitration Agreement of 1971
. This agreement was to settle their dispute over the territorial and

maritime boundaries A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of Earth's water surface areas using physical geography, physiographical or human geography, geopolitical criteria. As such, it usually bounds areas of exclusive sovereignty, national rights over mine ...

between them, and in particular the title to the Picton, Nueva and Lennox islands near the extreme end of the South American continent. It was submitted to binding arbitration under the auspices of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. On 25 January 1978 Argentina repudiated the arbitration decision. It began to prepare for war and the three islands plus the Hermite and Wollastone islands became the main objective of the Argentines. In order to increase deterrence against the Operation Soberanía, the

Chilean Navy The Chilean Navy () is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense (Chile), Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso. History Ori ...

installed minefields in strategic areas on the islands. On 22 December 1978, Argentina commenced (and a few hours later aborted) Operation Soberanía to invade both those islands and continental Chile. Although it called off the operation, the Argentine government never gave up on the use of military force to pressure Chile.Mares, David R
''Violent Peace''
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. . After the invasion of the Falklands on 2 April 1982, the Argentine junta planned the military occupation of the three islands, as stated by Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo, chief of the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands war, in an interview with the Argentine magazine ''

Perfil ''Perfil'' is an Argentine weekly tabloid based in Buenos Aires, Argentina and refounded in 2005. History In 1997, the Argentine publishing house Editorial Perfil announced plans to launch a "super tabloid" named ''Perfil''. It was first laun ...

'': : L.F. Galtieri: ''" hilehave to know that what we are doing now, because they will be the next in turn.'' The last minefields were installed shortly after the 1982 Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. Since 2007 mine clearance in Chile has been carried out by de-mining units of the army and navy.

Literature

'' The Survivors of the "Jonathan"'', also known as ''Magellania'',Les Voyages Extraordinaires
In French, ''Magellania'', ''En Magellanie'', or ''Les Naufragés du "Jonathan"''. is a novel written by

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

in 1897 and published posthumously in 1909, after it had been rewritten by Verne's son Michel under the title ''Les naufragés du "Jonathan"''. The novel tells the story of a mysterious man named Kaw-djer who lives on the Nueva Island, whose motto is "Neither God nor master". He refused any contact with

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

, relying on himself in order to survive and also provides assistance to the indigenous peoples of Magellania. However, the 1881 Boundary Treaty will destroy his

paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

individualist anarchism Individualist anarchism or anarcho-individualism is a collection of anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hi ...

because it will end the state of

terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". Since the nineteenth century it has occasionally been used in international law as a principle to justify claims that territory may be acquired ...

in the region.

References

{{Territorial disputes involving Argentina Former disputed islands Islands of Magallanes Region Islands of Tierra del Fuego

History

Puerto Banner

Operation Soberanía

Literature

See also

References