French Southern and Antarctic Lands
The French Southern and Antarctic Lands is an overseas territory of France. It consists of: Kerguelen Islands, a group of volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa equidistant between Africa and Australia; the territory is sometimes referred to as the French Southern Lands or French Southern Territories to emphasize non-recognition of French sovereignty over Adélie Land as part of the Antarctic Treaty system. The territory has no permanent civilian population; those resident consist of visiting military personnel, scientific researchers and support staff. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands have formed a territoire d'outre-mer of France since 1955, they were administered from Paris by an administrateur supérieur assisted by a secretary-general. The territory is divided into five districts: a According to new law 2007-224 of February 21, 2007, the Scattered Islands constitute the TAAF's fifth district; the TAAF website does not mention their population. The data are not included in the totals.b.
The headquarters of the district chief lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint-Pierre on Réunion Island.c The Territory's principal station is Martin-de-Viviès on Île Amsterdam. The capital and headquarters of the Territorial administrator lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint-Pierre on Réunion Island; each district is headed by a district chief. Because there is no permanent population, there is no elected assembly, nor does the territory send representatives to the national parliament; the territory includes Amsterdam Island, Saint-Paul Island, Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean near 43°S, 67°E, along with Adélie Land, the sector of Antarctica claimed by France, named by the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville after his wife. Adélie Land and the islands, totaling 7,781 km2, have no indigenous inhabitants, though in 1997 there were about 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter to summer. Amsterdam Island and Saint-Paul Island are extinct volcanoes and have been delineated as the Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands ecoregion.
The highest point in the territory is Mont Ross on Kerguelen Island at 1,850 m. There are few airstrips on the islands, only existing on islands with weather stations, the 1,232 km of coastline have no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages; the islands in the Indian Ocean are supplied by the special ship Marion Dufresne sailing out of Le Port in Réunion Island. Terre Adélie is supplied by Astrolabe sailing out of Hobart in Tasmania. However, the territory has a merchant marine fleet totaling 2,892,911 GRT/5,165,713 tonnes deadweight, including seven bulk carriers, five cargo ships, ten chemical tankers, nine container ships, six liquefied gas carriers, 24 petroleum tankers, one refrigerated cargo ship, ten roll-on-roll-off carriers; this fleet is maintained as a subset of the French register that allows French-owned ships to operate under more liberal taxation and manning regulations than permissible under the main French register. This register, however, is to vanish; the territory's natural resources are limited to fish and crustaceans.
Economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets. The main fish resources are Patagonian spiny lobster. Both are poached by foreign fleets; such arrests can result in heavy fines and/or the seizure of the ship. France sold licenses to foreign fisheries to fish the Patagonian toothfish; the territory takes in revenues of about €16 million a year. The French Southern Territories have been given the following country codes: FS and TF. France Outline of France French overseas departments and territories Administrative divisions of France Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans French colonial empire List of French possessions and colonies Wikimedia Atlas of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands Official website French Southern and Antarctic Lands – Official French website "French Southern and Antarctic Lands"; the World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. French Southern Territories at Curlie Southern & Antarctic Territories Crozet Archipelago Kerguelen Archipelago Terre Adélie
Terra Nova Expedition
The Terra Nova Expedition the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. It had various scientific and geographical objectives. Scott wished to continue the scientific work that he had begun when leading the Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic in 1901–04, he wanted to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole. He and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, where they found that the Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had preceded them by 34 days. Scott's entire party died on the return journey from the pole; the expedition, named after its supply ship, was a private venture, financed by public contributions augmented by a government grant. It had further backing from the Admiralty, which released experienced seamen to the expedition, from the Royal Geographical Society; the expedition's team of scientists carried out a comprehensive scientific programme, while other parties explored Victoria Land and the Western Mountains.
An attempted landing and exploration of King Edward VII Land was unsuccessful. A journey to Cape Crozier in June and July 1911 was the first extended sledging journey in the depths of the Antarctic winter. For many years after his death, Scott's status as tragic hero was unchallenged, few questions were asked about the causes of the disaster which overcame his polar party. In the final quarter of the 20th century the expedition came under closer scrutiny, more critical views were expressed about its organization and management; the degree of Scott's personal culpability, more the culpability of certain expedition members, remains controversial. After Discovery's return from the Antarctic in 1904, Scott resumed his naval career, but continued to nurse ambitions of returning south, with the conquest of the Pole as his specific target; the Discovery Expedition had made a significant contribution to Antarctic scientific and geographical knowledge, but in terms of penetration southward had reached only 82° 17' and had not traversed the Great Ice Barrier.
In 1909 Scott received news that Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition had narrowly failed to reach the Pole. Starting from a base close to Scott's Discovery anchorage in McMurdo Sound, Shackleton had crossed the Great Ice Barrier, discovered the Beardmore Glacier route to the Polar Plateau, had struck out for the Pole, he had been forced to turn for home at 88° 23' S, less than 100 geographical miles from his objective. Scott had claimed prescriptive rights to the McMurdo Sound area, describing it as his own "field of work", Shackleton's use of the area as a base was in breach of an undertaking he gave Scott not to do so; this soured relations between the two explorers, increased Scott's determination to surpass Shackleton's achievements. As he made his preparations for a further expedition, Scott was aware of other polar ventures being planned. A Japanese expedition was being planned. Meanwhile, Roald Amundsen, a potential rival, had announced plans for an Arctic voyage. Sixty-five men formed ship's parties of the Terra Nova Expedition.
They were chosen from 8,000 applicants, included seven Discovery veterans together with five, with Shackleton on his 1907–09 expedition. Lieutenant Edward Evans, the navigating officer on Morning, the Discovery Expedition's relief ship in 1904, was appointed Scott's second-in-command, he abandoned plans to mount his own expedition, transferred his financial backing to Scott. Among the other serving Royal Navy personnel released by the Admiralty were Lieutenant Harry Pennell, who would serve as navigator and take command of the ship once the shore parties had landed, two Surgeon-Lieutenants, George Murray Levick and Edward L Atkinson. Ex-RN officer Victor Campbell, known as "The Wicked Mate", was one of the few who had skills in skiing, was chosen to lead the party that would explore King Edward VII Land. Two non-Royal Navy officers were appointed: Henry Robertson Bowers, known as "Birdie", a lieutenant in the Royal Indian Marine, Lawrence Oates, an Army captain from the 6th Dragoons. Oates, independently wealthy, volunteered his services to the expedition and paid £1,000 into its funds.
The Admiralty provided a naval lower deck, including the Antarctic veterans Edgar Evans, Tom Crean and William Lashly. Other seamen in the shore party included Patrick Keohane and Robert Forde, Thomas Clissold and Frederick Hooper. Two Russians, Dimitri Gerov and Anton Omelchenko landed. To head his scientific programme, Scott appointed Edward Wilson as chief scientist. Wilson was Scott's closest confidant among the party; as well as being a qualified medical doctor and a distinguished research zoologist, he was a talented illustrator. His scientific team – which Scott's biographer David Crane considered "as impressive a group of scientists as had been on a polar expedition" — included some who would enjoy careers of distinction: George Simpson the meteorologist, Charles Wright, the Canadian physicist, geologists Frank Debenham and Raymond Priestley. T. Griffith Taylor, the senior of the geologists, biologists Edward W. Nelson and Dennis G. Lillie, assistant zoologist Apsley Cherry-Garrard completed the team.
Cherry-Garrard had no scienti
Norway
Norway the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe whose territory comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the kingdom. Norway lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land. Norway has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres and a population of 5,312,300; the country shares a long eastern border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, the Skagerrak strait to the south, with Denmark on the other side. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the Barents Sea. Harald V of the House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway. Erna Solberg has been prime minister since 2013. A unitary sovereign state with a constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the parliament, the cabinet and the supreme court, as determined by the 1814 constitution; the kingdom was established in 872 as a merger of a large number of petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for 1,147 years.
From 1537 to 1814, Norway was a part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with the Kingdom of Sweden. Norway was neutral during the First World War. Norway remained neutral until April 1940 when the country was invaded and occupied by Germany until the end of Second World War. Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: counties and municipalities; the Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Norway maintains close ties with both the United States. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Free Trade Association, the Council of Europe, the Antarctic Treaty, the Nordic Council. Norway maintains the Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system, its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals; the Norwegian state has large ownership positions in key industrial sectors, having extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, lumber and fresh water.
The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside of the Middle East; the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World IMF lists. On the CIA's GDP per capita list which includes autonomous territories and regions, Norway ranks as number eleven, it has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of US$1 trillion. Norway has had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world since 2009, a position held between 2001 and 2006, it had the highest inequality-adjusted ranking until 2018 when Iceland moved to the top of the list. Norway ranked first on the World Happiness Report for 2017 and ranks first on the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity, the Democracy Index. Norway has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Norway has two official names: Norge in Noreg in Nynorsk; the English name Norway comes from the Old English word Norþweg mentioned in 880, meaning "northern way" or "way leading to the north", how the Anglo-Saxons referred to the coastline of Atlantic Norway similar to scientific consensus about the origin of the Norwegian language name.
The Anglo-Saxons of Britain referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. There is some disagreement about whether the native name of Norway had the same etymology as the English form. According to the traditional dominant view, the first component was norðr, a cognate of English north, so the full name was Norðr vegr, "the way northwards", referring to the sailing route along the Norwegian coast, contrasting with suðrvegar "southern way" for, austrvegr "eastern way" for the Baltic. In the translation of Orosius for Alfred, the name is Norðweg, while in younger Old English sources the ð is gone. In the 10th century many Norsemen settled in Northern France, according to the sagas, in the area, called Normandy from norðmann, although not a Norwegian possession. In France normanni or northmanni referred to people of Sweden or Denmark; until around 1800 inhabitants of Western Norway where referred to as nordmenn while inhabitants of Eastern Norway where referred to as austmenn. According to another theory, the first component was a word nór, meaning "narrow" or "northern", referring to the inner-archipelago sailing route through the land.
The interpretation as "northern", as reflected in the English and Latin forms of the name, would have been due to folk etymology. This latter view originated with philologist Niels Halvorsen Trønnes in 1847; the form Nore is still used in placenames such as the village of Nore and lake Norefjorden in Buskerud county, still has the same meaning. Among other arguments in favour of the theor
Germany
Germany the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north and the Czech Republic to the east and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to the west. Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,386 square kilometres, has a temperate seasonal climate. With 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a decentralized country, its capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport. Germany's largest urban area is the Ruhr, with its main centres of Essen; the country's other major cities are Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Bremen and Nuremberg. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity.
A region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Confederation was formed in 1815; the German revolutions of 1848–49 resulted in the Frankfurt Parliament establishing major democratic rights. In 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic; the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, the annexation of Austria, World War II, the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, Austria was re-established as an independent country and two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American and French occupation zones, East Germany, formed from the Soviet occupation zone.
Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990. Today, the sovereign state of Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor, it is a great power with a strong economy. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer of goods; as a developed country with a high standard of living, it upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection, a tuition-free university education. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993, it is part of the Schengen Area and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the G20, the OECD. Known for its rich cultural history, Germany has been continuously the home of influential and successful artists, musicians, film people, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors.
Germany has a large number of World Heritage sites and is among the top tourism destinations in the world. The English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine; the German term Deutschland diutisciu land is derived from deutsch, descended from Old High German diutisc "popular" used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz "popular", derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- "people", from which the word Teutons originates; the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a coal mine in Schöningen between 1994 and 1998 where eight 380,000-year-old wooden javelins of 1.82 to 2.25 m length were unearthed. The Neander Valley was the location where the first non-modern human fossil was discovered.
The Neanderthal 1 fossils are known to be 40,000 years old. Evidence of modern humans dated, has been found in caves in the Swabian Jura near Ulm; the finds included 42,000-year-old bird bone and mammoth ivory flutes which are the oldest musical instruments found, the 40,000-year-old Ice Age Lion Man, the oldest uncontested figurative art discovered, the 35,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels, the oldest uncontested human figurative art discovered. The Nebra sky disk is a bronze artefact created during the European Bronze Age attributed to a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, it is part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme. The Germanic tribes are thought to date from the Pre-Roman Iron Age. From southern Scandinavia and north Germany, they expanded south and west from the 1st century BC, coming into contact with the Celtic tribes of Gaul as well
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
Jean-Baptiste-Étienne-Auguste Charcot, born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a French scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. His father was the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. Jean-Baptiste Charcot was appointed leader of the French Antarctic Expedition with the ship Français exploring the west coast of Graham Land from 1904 until 1907; the expedition reached Adelaide Island in 1905 and took pictures of the Palmer Archipelago and Loubet Coast. From 1908 until 1910, another expedition followed with the ship Pourquoi-Pas, exploring the Bellingshausen Sea and the Amundsen Sea and discovering Loubet Land, Marguerite Bay and Charcot Island, named after his father, Jean-Martin Charcot. On, Jean-Baptiste Charcot explored Rockall in 1921 and Eastern Greenland and Svalbard from 1925 until 1936, he died when Pourquoi-Pas? was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Iceland in 1936. A monument to Charcot was created in Reykjavík, Iceland by sculptor Einar Jónsson in 1936 and another by Ríkarður Jónsson in 1952.
Charcot participated in many sports. He won two silver medals in sailing at the Summer Olympics of 1900. Le "Pourquoi pas?" dans l'Antarctique 1908–1910, Paris, 1996, ISBN 2-7003-1088-8 Sur les traces du "Pourquoi-Pas?" Icelandic website in memory of Jean-Babtiste Charcot" Newspaper clippings about Jean-Baptiste Charcot in the 20th Century Press Archives of the German National Library of Economics
Antarctic Treaty System
The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude; the treaty entered into force in 1961 and has 53 parties. The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation, bans military activity on the continent; the treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. Since September 2004, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters has been located in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the main treaty was opened for signature on December 1, 1959, entered into force on June 23, 1961. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year of 1957–58; the twelve countries that had significant interests in Antarctica at the time were: Argentina, Belgium, France, New Zealand, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States.
These countries had established over 55 Antarctic stations for the IGY. The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific co-operation, achieved "on the ice". Article I1. Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only. There shall be prohibited, inter alia, any measures of a military nature, such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military maneuvers, as well as the testing of any type of weapons. 2. The present treaty shall not prevent the use of military personnel or equipment for scientific research or for any other peaceful purposes. Article IIFreedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica and cooperation toward that end, as applied during the International Geophysical Year, shall continue, subject to the provisions of the present treaty. Article III1. In order to promote international cooperation in scientific investigation in Antarctica, as provided for in Article II of the present treaty, the Contracting Parties agree that, to the greatest extent feasible and practicable: information regarding plans for scientific programs in Antarctica shall be exchanged to permit maximum economy and efficiency of operations.
2. In implementing this Article, every encouragement shall be given to the establishment of cooperative working relations with those Specialized Agencies of the United Nations and other international organizations having a scientific or technical interest in Antarctica. Article IV1. Nothing contained in the present treaty shall be interpreted as: a renunciation by any Contracting Party of asserted rights of or claims to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica. 2. No acts or activities taking place while the present treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim, to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present treaty is in force. Article V1. Any nuclear explosions in Antarctica and the disposal there of radioactive waste material shall be prohibited. 2. In the event of the conclusion of international agreements concerning the use of nuclear energy, including nuclear explosions and the disposal of radioactive waste material, to which all of the Contracting Parties whose representatives are entitled to participate in the meetings provided for under Article IX are parties, the rules established under such agreements shall apply in Antarctica.
Article VIThe provisions of the present treaty shall apply to the area south of 60 degree South Latitude, including all ice shelves, but nothing in the present treaty shall prejudice or in any way affect the rights, or the exercise of the rights, of any State under international law with regard to the high seas within that area. Article VII1. In order to promote the objectives and ensure the observance of the provisions of the present treaty, each Contracting Party whose representatives are entitled to participate in the meetings referred to in Article IX of the treaty shall have the right to designate observers to carry out any inspection provided for by the present Article. Observers shall be nationals of the Contracting Parties; the names of observers shall be communicated to every other Contracting Party having the right to designate observers, like notice shall be given of the termination of their appointment. 2. Each observer designated in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall have complete freedom of access at any time to any or all areas of Antarctica.
3. All areas of Antarctica, including all stations and equipment within those areas, all ships and aircraft at points of discharging or embarking cargoes or personnel in Antarctica, shall be open at all times to inspection by any observers designated in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article. 4. Aerial observation may be carried ou
Palmer Archipelago
Palmer Archipelago known as Antarctic Archipelago, Archipiélago Palmer, Antarktiske Arkipel or Palmer Inseln, is a group of islands off the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It extends from Tower Island in the north to Anvers Island in the south, it is separated by the Gerlache and Bismarck straits from the Antarctic Peninsula and Wilhelm Archipelago, respectively. Palmer Archipelago is located at 64°15′S 62°50′W. Adrien de Gerlache, leader of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, discovered the archipelago in 1898, he named it Archipelago Palmer for American Captain Nathaniel Palmer, who navigated these waters in 1820. Both Argentina and the United Kingdom have operated research stations there; the archipelago includes: Composite Antarctic Gazetteer List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S SCAR Territorial claims in Antarctica Media related to Palmer Archipelago at Wikimedia Commons
