Argentine Antarctica mainland. Argentina was the only nation to have an Antarctic base for 40 years until the British built a base on the same islands. Argentina bases its claims on this sector of Antarctica on the following grounds: Argentina's claim to the Antarctic Peninsula overlaps with the Antarctic claims of Chile, 53°W to 90°W, and the UK claims, 20°W to 80°W. Currently, there are no attempts by Argentina or any other country to enforce territorial claims in Antarctica. See List of Antarctic territorial claims. None of these claims have international recognition and have been suspended by the Antarctic Treaty in 1961.
Antarctica in 2004 at the Russian Bellingshausen Station—is manned year-round by one or two priests, who are similarly rotated every year. The first semi-permanent inhabitants of regions near Antarctica (areas situated south of the Antarctic Convergence) were British and American sealers who used to spend a year or more on South Georgia, from 1786 onward. During the whaling era, which lasted until 1966, the population of that island varied from over 1,000 in the summer (over 2,000 in some years) to some 200 in the winter. Most of the whalers were Norwegian, with an increasing proportion of Britons. The settlements included