South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Sovereignty Dispute - History of The Claims - Origins of The British Claim

Origins of The British Claim

The South Georgia archipelago was first claimed for Great Britain by James Cook in January 1775, having been previously discovered by Anthony de la Roché. However, the British did little to enforce this claim until 1843, when Letters Patent were issued to provide for the government of the islands, which were to be governed as a Falkland Islands Dependency. These were revised in 1876 and 1892.

In 1908, following enquiries regarding the sovereignty of the area currently covered by the British Antarctic Territory from the Norwegian government, the British government stated that the islands were British, and issued Letters Patent to include "South Orkney, South Georgia and South Shetland islands, and Graham Land situated in the South Atlantic Ocean to the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude and lying between the 20th and 80th degrees of west longitude" as Falkland Islands Dependencies. It was made clear at this time that the association with the Falkland Islands was intended as an administrative convenience.

As it had been observed within the British government that a literal interpretation of this claim would include parts of the South American mainland, the letters patent were clarified on 28 March 1917, redefining the limits to exclude all territories north of 58°S and west of 50°W, but to otherwise include all land in this region. Though the Argentine government were given details of the 1908 letters patent (at their request), neither Argentina nor Chile objected to either claim.