Settlements in the Antarctic (32 K)

History
The knowledge of a continent begins when man arrives and man arrived only recently in the Antarctic.
In 1716, the pilot Gregorio Jerez in his ship León coming from Peru and going to Cádiz was tossed by a storm and arrived at an unknown island on June 28. He called the island San Pedro.
Between 1772 and 1775, the English Captain James Cook sailed around the Antarctic Continent and, although he did not see it, he assumed that it was there because of the ice masses that drifted nearby. He also arrived at San Pedro Island , which he called Southern Georgias.
At the end of the XVIII century many ships, especially Spanish ones, travelled around the Antarctic, discovering many islands around the continent.
F. G. von Bellingshausen, a German Captain sailing for the Russian government saw in 1831 the Antarctic coast and named the zone Alexander I (69º 53 ' S) honouring the czar. In 1823 the English Captain Weddell, discovered the sea named after him, (74º 15 ' S and 34º 17 ' W).
The French Captain Cesar Dumont D' Urville discovered Earth Adelia and the Island Joinville to the north of the Antarctica peninsula.
Informed of these discoveries, James Ross, an official of the British Navy crossed the ice that drifts towards the north in summer, and after four days he entered a sea that is called after him today. He also saw Mount Erebus, an active volcano of more than 4.000 m. In 1880 the Argentine President Roca supported an expedition organised by the Italian Guillermo Bove which was sponsored by the Argentine Geographical Institute
In 1897-1899 a Belgian Expedition, commanded by the lieutenant Adrian de Gerlache who sailed together with Roald Amundsen spent the whole winter trapped in the ice. This was the first expedition to spend the winter in the Antarctic.
To fulfil the recommendations of the International Geography Congress that gathered in Berlin in 1899, four scientific expeditions were organised: the German Expedition (1901-1903), commanded by professor Erich Von Drygalsky; the Swedish Expedition (1901 - 1904), commanded by professor Otto Nordenskjöld; the British Expedition, commanded by Captain Robert F. Scott and the Scottish Expedition (1902-1904), commanded by William S. Bruce.
February 22 1904 Argentina began to occupy the Antarctic buying the small meteorological station of William Bruce, and placing it on the island Laurie.
Argentina also established the second permanent meteorological station in the southern seas in January 1905 in Grytviken.