History
Alexander Island was discovered on January 28, 1821 by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named it Alexander I Land for the reigning Tsar Alexander I of Russia, but it was believed to be part of the Antarctic mainland until 1940. Its insular nature was proven in December 1940, by a sledge party under Finn Ronne of the United States Antarctic Service. In the 1950s, a British base administered as part of the British Antarctic Territory was constructed as Fossil Bluff (Base KG).
The island is now used as a meteorological centre and refuelling base. It is claimed by the United Kingdom, for which it represents their largest remaining overseas island, part of the British Antarctic Territory, while for Chile and Argentina it is part of the Antártica Chilena Province and Tierra del Fuego Province respectively.
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“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
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