Why Did Humans Move to Antarctica?

Every other continent has a story about people moving in. Antarctica has no native people at all, no farmland, and nothing anyone is allowed to mine, yet right now over a thousand people are sitting through the dark of winter there. So why did humans go to a place that doesn't want us? The answer involves seal fur, a ship frozen in the ice for a whole winter, a baby born on purpose, a poisoning that was never fully explained, and a treaty that stopped a land grab. In this video: who is really down there and how many, why sealers and whalers came first, the Belgica's accidental winter in 1898, the first wintering on the mainland, why the idea that Antarctica is full of oil is a myth, the 1957 International Geophysical Year and the Antarctic Treaty, the science that justifies the bases, the children born at Esperanza and Villa Las Estrellas, the death of Rodney Marks and the law at the end of the Earth, why pregnant staff can't winter over, and the real reason the stations stay open. Sources Wikipedia: History of Antarctica; Belgian Antarctic Expedition; Southern Cross Expedition; Deception Island; Grytviken; International Geophysical Year; Antarctic Treaty System; Territorial claims in Antarctica; Emilio Palma; Esperanza Base; Villa Las Estrellas; Orcadas Base; Rodney Marks NOAA: text of the Antarctic Treaty; NSF: Antarctic Treaty summary; NTI: Antarctic Treaty; ASOC: what happens in 2048 COMNAP (2023): facilities and research stations; IAATO tourism figures via IAATO reports (ATCM 46) Farman, Gardiner and Shanklin, Nature (1985); EPICA Dome C ice core; NASA: ice sheets Hawkes and Norris, "The third-quarter phenomenon" meta-analysis, Polar Record (2017) Live Science: Bellingshausen Station stabbing (2018); Universe Today and Wikipedia on Rodney Marks US Antarctic Program: pregnancy FAQs; NZHistory: Mt Erebus disaster; National Museum of Australia: dogs leave Antarctica #antarctica #history #explained #science #antarctictreaty