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Stamp, Argentina Scott #561, showing the Argentine Antarctic Claim.

Despite the fact that the heart of Argentina lies in the capital of Buenos Aires and the pampas that surround it, many Argentines believe they are an “Austral nation” (Antarctica, Malvinas and other islands), and geopolitical thinking strengthens this perception. The media reinforces this idea, as does the Government throught the education system. Image File history File links Stop_hand. ... Buenos Aires (Good Airs in Spanish, originally meaning Fair Winds) is the capital of Argentina and its largest city and port, as well as one of the largest cities in Latin America. ... For the poet called Pampa (902–975 CE), see Kannada literature. ... Motto: Desire the right Official language English Capital Stanley Governor Howard Pearce Chief Executive Chris Simpkins Area  - Total  - % water not ranked 12,173 km² - Population  - Total (2003 E)  - Density not ranked 2,967 0. ...

One of the cartographic, geological, oceanographic and geopolitical arguments that strongly makes this case is the notion of “Tri-Continental Argentina” in which mainland Argentina is tied through a chain of Islands (Insular Argentina) to their Antarctic claim. Further cementing this notion is the concept of an “Argentine Sea” from the River Plate, through the chain of southern islands to South Sandwich, and then through the “Orcadas” (South Orkneys) to the Antarctic Peninsula and their sector claim. While not a sovereignty claim over the vast ocean surfaces, the “Argentine Sea” is more a concept in which Argentine influence and presence are paramount. In the case of the South Atlantic Islands there is a deeply-felt emotional tie which was reinforced by the 1982 Malvinas/ Falklands War and the deaths of some 700 young Argentine men in that conflict. A satellite view of the estuary Another satellite view of the estuary The River Plate (Spanish: Río de la Plata) is the estuary formed from the combination of the Uruguay River and the Parana River. ... The South Orkney Islands (Spanish: Islas Orcadas) are a group of sub-antarctic islands situated at latitudes 60°50 to 60°83 S, and longitudes 44°25 to 46°25 W in the Southern Ocean. ... Antarctic Peninsula map Booth Island and Mount Scott flank the narrow Lemaire Channel on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. ... The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), was a war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands (also known in Spanish as the Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, between March and June of 1982. ...

The geopolitical “Tri-continental Argentina” concept is sometimes also inserted in the notion of a “Greater Argentina” which would encompass the limits of colonial Buenos Aires at the end of the 18th Century plus the later Antarctic claim. This would include today’s’ continental Argentina, plus Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, and substantial portions of Brazil and Chile. This “Greater Argentina” based on these geopolitical ideas has occasionally found its expression in the search for a great “national project, perhaps best enunciated by General Juan D. Peron in the early 1950s, and also in sometimes bizarre schemes to “recover” (never “invade”) the Malvinas Islands. It appears the latter “great national project” was in the back of the minds of the military Junta in April 1982 when it launched the operation against British presence on the Islands. In one of his more effusive speeches in 1982 President/General Galtieri stated that the recovery of the Malvinas was only the start of a larger operation aimed at restoring Argentine greatness and repossession of territories which had been stolen from her in the past. Juan Domingo Perón (October 8, 1895 – July 1, 1974) was an Argentine military officer and the President of Argentina from 1946 to 1955 and from 1973 to 1974. ... Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli (July 15, 1926 - January 12, 2003) was an Argentinian general and dictator. ...

Those who articulate this notion sometimes use the argument that Argentina has been “mutilated” in the past by neighbors and outside nations. The 1833 taking of the Malvinas/Falklands by the British (with considerable help from the United States, according to the Argentines) was only the beginning, now that many other nations are establishing a presence in the Antarctic sector claimed by Argentina.

Argentina has six major Antarctic bases and dozens of smaller summer-only stations, as well as numerous emergency huts spread out across the Antarctic Peninsula and the mainland of her claimed sector . The bases are generally identified as Army, Navy or Air Force bases depending on which service set them up and who staffs them. The resulting cost of Argentine Antarctic programs, frequently somewhat hidden in various military budgets, is not an inconsiderable amount: ten million dollars a year is one estimate. During Argentina’s economic and political crises of 2001-2003 there was talk of consolidating and shutting down some of these bases, or converting several of the six major bases into summer-only installations. This suggestion was quickly denied by Argentine authorities, and has not been implemented, although the staffing of many of the stations has been reduced.

The first human being to be born in Antarctica (and thus the first true Antarctic “citizen”) was the son of an Argentine military officer in 1978 who, with strong government urging, brought his pregnant wife to a major Argentine base. The perhaps apocryphal story goes that the Chileans, in a gesture of one-upmanship, sent to one of their bases a recently married couple (a civil servant who volunteered for the mission), so that a year later the first baby both conceived and born in Chilean Antarctica would be Chilean.

See also: Argentine Antarctica Antarctic portion between meridians 25º West and 74º West Argentine Antarctica (in Spanish, Antártida Argentina) is a sector of Antarctica which Argentina considers part of its National Territory. ...

References: Child, Jack. Antarctica and South American Geopolitics: Frozen Lebensraum. New York: Praeger, 1988, Ch. 4.

Dodds, Klaus. Geopolitics in Antarctica: views from the Southern Oceanic Rim. Chichester ; New York : Published in association with Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge by J. Wiley, 1997.

Escudé, Carlos. "Argentine Territorial Nationalism". Journal of Latin American Studies, 20, pp. 139-165, 1988.

Moneta, Carlos J., ed. La Antártida en el Sistema Internacional del Futuro. Buenos Aires: Grupo Editor Lationoamericano, 1988.

Quadri, Ricardo P. La Antártida en la Política Internacional. Buenos Aires: Pleamar, 1986.

Schmied, Julie. La Política Antárctica de los Países Latinoamericanos. Madrid: Instituto de Cuestiones Internacionales, 1988.