StampWhys - It's Chile in Antartica!

The solution

Let's meet in Santiago for "onzes" if you answered (a).

This 1958 stamp from Chile (Scott 310) depicts a map section of Antarctica, the date of a government proclamation no. 1747 of September 6, 1940, and a quote from the 16th century Spanish poet Zuniga which links Chile to the Antarctic realm. 

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The slender Antarctic Peninsula shown on the stamp which the Chileans call Tierra O'Higgins, the Argentines Tierra San Martin, and the British Graham Land, was disputed by these three countries for much of the first half of the 20th century.

The Antarctic treaty signed in 1959 put an end to the squabbling when these three countries and nine others (including the USA) agreed to respect the Antarctic as a scientific and environmental preserve.

The signatories to this treaty did not renounce their territorial claims, however. Chile did not discover the continent and claims of first sightings by European explorers are contested. Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole and his expedition was sponsored by Norway in 1911 (hence Norway's claim to a slice of the Antarctic pie). As for permanent settlements on the great icy continent, there aren't any, and for this reason the United States refuses to recognize any national claim to Antarctica.

The fact that the Chilean government issued the stamp in 1958, just before signing the treaty, is a good example of philately in the service of political propaganda. And what of Senor Zuniga? He was a Spanish conquistador who fought the Araucanian Indians of Chile for control of their lands. He later returned to Spain to write the first epic poem of America, La Araucana (1569-90) in which he expressed both sympathy and respect for his former, and defeated, foes.

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