Editing History of Antarctica (section)

===Other European claims===
[[File:Reconnaissance de la Terre Adelie, le 20 Janvier 1840.jpg|thumb|Discovery by [[Jules Dumont d'Urville]] of [[Adélie Land]] in 1840. This served as a basis for the French claim to this region in 1924.]]
Meanwhile, alarmed by these unilateral declarations, the French government laid claim to a strip of the continent in 1924. The basis for their claim to [[Adélie Land]] lay on the discovery of the coastline in 1840 by the French explorer [[Jules Dumont d'Urville]], who named it after his wife, Adèle.<ref>{{Cite book |title=From Venus to Antarctica: The Life of Dumont D'Urville |last=Dunmore |first=John |year=2007 |publisher=Exisle Publ. |location=Auckland |isbn=9780908988716 |page=209 }}</ref> The British eventually decided to recognize this claim and the border between [[Adélie Land]] and [[Australian Antarctic Territory]] was fixed definitively in 1938.<ref name= mawson>{{cite web |title= A Brief History of Mawson |publisher= Australian Government - Australian Arctic Division |url= http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=7041 |access-date= 2008-07-16 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080727085111/http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=7041 |archive-date= 27 July 2008 |url-status= dead }}</ref>

These developments also concerned Norwegian whaling interests, who wished to avoid the British taxation of [[Whaling|whaling stations]] in the Antarctic and were concerned that they would be commercially excluded from the continent. The whale-ship owner [[Lars Christensen]] financed several expeditions to the Antarctic with the view to claim land for Norway and establish stations on Norwegian territory to gain better privileges.<ref name=k52>{{cite book|title=Norge i Antarktis|editor-last=Kyvik|editor-first=Helga |location=Oslo|publisher=Schibsted Forlag|year=2008|isbn=978-82-516-2589-0|page=52}}</ref> The first expedition, led by Nils Larsen and Ola Olstad, landed on [[Peter I Island]] in 1929 and claimed the island for Norway. On 6 March 1931, a Norwegian royal proclamation declared the island under Norwegian [[sovereignty]]<ref name=k52 /> and on 23 March 1933 the island was declared a dependency.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lov om Bouvet-øya, Peter I's øy og Dronning Maud Land m.m. (bilandsloven)|url=http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19300227-003-0.html#1|publisher=Lovdata|access-date=29 August 2011|archive-date=2 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202231248/http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19300227-003-0.html|url-status=dead|language=no}}</ref>

The 1929 expedition led by [[Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen]] and [[Finn Lützow-Holm]] named the continental land mass near the island as [[Queen Maud Land]], named after the Norwegian queen [[Maud of Wales]].<ref name=npi>{{cite web |url=http://www.npolar.no/no/antarktis/dronning-maud-land.html |publisher=[[Norwegian Polar Institute]] |access-date=10 May 2011 |language=no |title=Dronning Maud Land |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721073332/http://www.npolar.no/no/antarktis/dronning-maud-land.html |archive-date=21 July 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The territory was explored further during the ''Norvegia'' expedition of 1930–31.<ref name=snl>{{cite web |url=http://www.snl.no/Dronning_Maud_Land |work=[[Store norske leksikon]] |access-date=9 May 2011 |first=Tore |last=Gjeldsvik |title=Dronning Maud Land |language=no |archive-date=9 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009084631/http://snl.no/Dronning_Maud_Land |url-status=live }}</ref> Negotiations with the British government in 1938 resulted in the western border of Queen Maud Land being set at 20°W.<ref name=snl/>

[[File:Peter I Island 1929A.jpg|thumb|left|Norwegian expedition landing on [[Peter I Island]] in 1929]]
Norway's claim was disputed by [[Nazi Germany]],<ref name=admle>{{cite news |url=http://www.polarhistorie.no/artikler/2008/annekteringen%20av%20dronning%20maud%20land/print_artikler_view |first=Turi |last=Widerøe |work=Norsk Polarhistorie |language=no |title=Annekteringen av Dronning Maud Land |year=2008 |access-date=15 July 2011 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924075108/http://www.polarhistorie.no/artikler/2008/annekteringen%20av%20dronning%20maud%20land/print_artikler_view |url-status=dead }}</ref> which in 1938 dispatched the [[New Swabia#German Antarctic Expedition (1938–1939)|German Antarctic Expedition]], led by [[Alfred Ritscher]], to fly over as much of it as possible.<ref name=snl/> The ship ''[[MS Schwabenland (1925)|Schwabenland]]'' reached the pack ice off Antarctica on 19 January 1939.<ref>Murphy, 2002, p. 192.</ref> During the expedition, an area of about {{convert|350000|sqkm}} was photographed from the air by Ritscher,<ref>Murphy, 2002, p. 204.</ref> who dropped darts inscribed with [[swastika]]s every {{convert|26|km}}. Germany eventually attempted to claim the territory surveyed by Ritscher under the name [[New Swabia]], but lost any claim to the land following its defeat in the [[World War II|Second World War]].<ref name=admle/>

On 14 January 1939, five days prior to the German arrival, Queen Maud Land was annexed by Norway,<ref name="npi"/> after a royal decree announced that the land bordering the [[Falkland Islands Dependencies]] in the west and the [[Australian Antarctic Territory|Australian Antarctic Dependency]] in the east was to be brought under Norwegian sovereignty.<ref name=snl/> The primary basis for the annexation was to secure the Norwegian whaling industry's access to the region.<ref name=npi/><ref name=npo1>{{cite web |title=Forutsetninger for Antarktistraktaten |url=http://www.polarhistorie.no/artikler/2009/Antarktistraktaten |work=Norsk Polarhistorie |access-date=15 May 2011 |language=no |archive-date=20 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720023856/http://www.polarhistorie.no/artikler/2009/Antarktistraktaten |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1948, Norway and the United Kingdom agreed to limit Queen Maud Land to from 20°W to 45°E, and that the Bruce Coast and [[Coats Land]] were to be incorporated into Norwegian territory.<ref name=snl/>