The significance of the frontier in Antarctic history: how the US West has shaped the geopolitics of the far south

Abstract

This paper argues that the experience of westward expansion and the myth of the frontier in the USA have shaped geopolitical thinking in Antarctica over the course of the twentieth century. In the early twentieth century, individual US adventures were inspired by western expansionism and drew upon the idea of the frontier to win funding and support for their Antarctic expeditions. The 1924 Hughes Doctrine and the US reservation of its rights to the entire continent have clear echoes of the nineteenth century Monroe Doctrine and the idea of manifest destiny. By the mid-twentieth century, the idea of Antarctica as a scientific frontier began to have significant geopolitical implications. More recently, the contested experiences of resource exploitation and natural park creation in the US West have influenced international thinking about conservation and preservation in Antarctica. By highlighting a number of connections between the history of the US West and the geopolitics of Antarctica, this paper does not seek to romanticize Antarctic history. Rather, it suggests that these connections encourage us to apply the insights of the so-called New Western History – which has been highly critical of the idea of the frontier in the US West – into the study of Antarctic history. By examining the significance of the frontier in Antarctic history, this paper seeks to encourage a similar demythologization of Antarctic history that New Western historians have brought to their studies of the US West.