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Britain’s Largest Overseas Territory Is Not Where People Expect
The UK Claims Hundreds of Thousands of Square Miles of Antarctica
The United Kingdom no longer oversees the globe spanning empire that it once did but it still holds claim to a variety of territories around the world. These territories are known as British Overseas Territories and there are fourteen in total, including one in Antarctica. In fact, the British Antarctic Territory is the largest of the bunch.
Britain claims a swath of the southernmost continent that encompasses 660,000 sq mi and stretches all the way to the South Pole. But what is the actual status of this territory? Does the United Kingdom administer hundreds of thousands of miles of Antarctic wasteland?
It’s complicated.
An old claim
The United Kingdom has had a continuous presence in and around Antarctica since 1833. Their initial claims extended from the Falkland Islands which became a permanent part of the British Empire at this time. Since then, the United Kingdom has made slow and advancing claims on territory in Antarctica.
