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The Beagle conflict was a border dispute between Chile and Argentina over the possession of Picton, Lennox and Nueva islands and the scope of the maritime jurisdiction associated with those islands that brought the countries to the brink of war in 1978. The islands are strategically located off the south edge of Tierra del Fuego and at the east end of the Beagle Channel. The Beagle Channel, the Straits of Magellan and the Drake Passage are the only three waterways between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean in the southern hemisphere. After refusing to abide by a binding international award giving the islands to Chile, the Argentine junta advanced the nation to war in 1978 in order to produce a boundary consistent with Argentine claims.〔 The Beagle conflict is seen as the main reason for Chilean support to the United Kingdom during the Falklands War of 1982.〔: :''Chile no ignora que la historia suele pegar brincos insólitos. Argentina -por caso- podía salir airosa del conflicto. Ya por una negociación exitosa para sus intereses, ya por derrotar a los británicos. Si esto sucedía, ¿qué le impediría a Leopoldo Galtieri y compañía apoderarse de las islas del Beagle? ¿O qué los condicionaría a tomar iniciativas de esa naturaleza sobre espacios que, en aquel entonces, eran materia de disputa entre Argentina y Chile?'' :(Translation:''"Chile knows that the history can do a sudden turn. Argentina -hypothetically-could win the war. Throughout a military victory or throughout negotiations. In this case, who would prevent Galtieri & Co. to take over the islands on the Beagle? what would impede them to take such initiatives over disputed regions?"'')〕 The conflict began in 1904 with the first official Argentine claims over the islands that had always been under Chilean control.〔(Report and Decision of the Court of Arbitration ), retrieved on 26 August 2008〕 The conflict passed through several phases: since 1881 they were claimed Chilean islands, beginning in 1904 they were disputed islands, followed later by direct negotiations, submission to a binding international tribunal, further direct negotiations, brinkmanship and settlement. The conflict was resolved through papal mediation and since 1984 Argentina recognizes the islands as Chilean territory. The 1984 treaty resolves also several collateral issues of great importance, including navigation rights, sovereignty over other islands in the Fuegian Archipelago, delimitation of the Straits of Magellan, and maritime boundaries south to Cape Horn and beyond. == Background == For a long time after its first exploration by Europeans, the region of Patagonia and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago remained free from colonial settlements because of its inhospitable climate, harsh conditions and sparse local vegetation. After the disaster of Puerto del Hambre (1584) during the regency of Philip II of Spain no other attempts of settlements were made in the zone. In 1843 the Chilean government sent an expedition with the appointed task of establishing a permanent settlement on the shores of the Strait of Magellan. The founding act of the settlement of Fuerte Bulnes took place on 21 September 1843. A few years later (1848) the settlement moved to Punta Arenas. Argentine Ushuaia was founded by English born Thomas Bridges in 1869. In 1881, Chile and Argentina attempted to definitively resolve their territorial disputes through a comprehensive agreement known as the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina. This agreement provided that the border between the two countries would follow: * (Article I, from north to parallel 52°S) the highest peaks and Drainage divide, * (Article II, from 52°S to the Straits of Magellan) mainly the parallel 52°S and * (Article III, south of Straits of Magellan) mainly the meridian 68°34 W and the Beagle channel. Until 1887 there was no doubt in Argentina and Chile that the islands Picton, Nueva and Lennox belonged to Chile: In 1904 the Argentine government solicited Chile to define jointly which was the deepest arm of the Beagle channel in the zone in order to find the demarcation of the border. On the basis of the international cartography of the zone, the descriptions of the discoverer of the channel, and the discourse of the signatories of the 1881 Treaty, Chile initially did not attach importance to the note.〔Sergio Gutiérrez Olivos, ''"Comentarios sobre el tratado de paz y amistad con Argentina"'', page 155.〕 The chief of the Argentine exploring commission of the southern territories, Francisco P. Moreno in a memorandum to the British Ambassador in Buenos Aires, 1918, saw the Argentine claim as baseless: The unresolved conflict continued to simmer. During the Snipe incident, Argentine forces destroyed a Chilean lighthouse on the Snipe islet at the entry of the Beagle Channel installed on 1 May 1958, put up their own and landed marines on the islet, provoking a dangerous buildup. Later both countries agreed to pull back military forces and dismantle the lighthouses.〔:''«Las balizas fueron desmanteladas, estableciéndose que éstas en el futuro no serían de ninguno de los dos países, y se retiraron los infantes de marina.»''〕〔Chilean newspaper El Mercurio de Valparaíso, (A 50 años del incidente del islote Snipe ), on 17 August 2008, retrieved on 24 September 2008, in Spanish language〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beagle conflict」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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