Populate Antarctica

[NapoleonXIV]

What sort of history would be needed to give the world a populated Antarctica? And what sort of development/cities would that population have? I don't mean necessarily a large population but a respectable sized one, like Australia or New Zealand.

 

[Leo Caesius]

Well, avoiding ASB stuff, the South Shetland Islands are somewhat habitable. King George Island has eight weather stations on it, there are active volcanos on Bridgeman Island and Deception Island, and Livingston Island had some small seal hunters' settlements on Byers Peninsula, which is ice-free throughout the year. Perhaps if they were colonized by Inuit pirates they might survive; I don't see Europeans settling down permanently in the South Shetlands, what with Patagonia nearby.

 

[Straha]

This will be OTL in a few years when political dissidents in the US fget shipped to antarctica.

 

[Doctor What]

Leo: Inuit pirates?

 

[Hendryk]

Let's imagine that a tribal war erupts in Tierra del Fuego around 1000 BCE. The losing tribe, having been kicked out of its hunting grounds, finds itself forced to seek other lands beyond the stormy waters to the south. Taking to the sea aboard flimsy rafts, many unsurprisingly fail to make it, but, by sheer luck, some manage to reach the South Shetlands. Living conditions are harsh, but not that much worse than in Tierra del Fuego, and the outcasts adapt to it, learning among other things to clothe themselves in sewn seal pelts. Within a few generations the tribe has grown back to respectable numbers, and discovered the South Orkneys and the Antarctic Peninsula. Little by little, adventuring groups begin to settle these new territories, making it as far as Ellsworth Land and Thurston Island. In the following centuries, a cultural split develops between the islanders, whose lifestyle is still fairly similar to what it was in Tierra del Fuego, and the mainlanders, who have become an Antarctic analog to the Inuit, living off the hunting of seals and other sea mammals.
By the time European explorers show up, the whole periphery of the Antarctic is home to nomadic tribes, whose total population is in the 100/200,000 range.

 

[Leo Caesius]

Leo: Inuit pirates?

You would prefer Aleuts?

I was looking for a group with experience living in that kind of a habitat - which is to say, a diet composed almost entirely of seal, fish, and whale - and the technology and culture to thrive under these conditions. Europeans won't be able to make it unless they adopt native customs. That is unlikely to happen. So I imagined a group that would be able to survive there.

 

[Midgard]

You would prefer Aleuts?

I was looking for a group with experience living in that kind of a habitat - which is to say, a diet composed almost entirely of seal, fish, and whale - and the technology and culture to thrive under these conditions. Europeans won't be able to make it unless they adopt native customs. That is unlikely to happen. So I imagined a group that would be able to survive there.

Well, the Inuit is plausible... but pirates? Who would they pirate, I wonder... given the low-tech nature of such society I cannot imagine a plausible way they would be able to pirate anything off any seagoing group (which is likely to be Europeans given lack of seafaring in the Americas - even at the earliest realistic point of contact we are talking at least XVth or, more likely, XVIth century Europeans with all relevant tech; one ship would be able to make short work of any tribe's laughable attempt to "pirate" it - that is, if the tribe is not shocked in awe at something like a caravel that they had probably never seen in their lives and that appears like something straight out of a myth)...

 

[Straha]

That's simple. They'd pirate each other

 

[Leo Caesius]

All I'm asking for is a way to get Inuits down by the Antarctic circle rather than the Arctic circle. Hendryk's tribal warfare idea works well, too. The point behind making them pirates was that they'd be forced to find some place that was fairly secluded and not already occupied by some other group, but close enough to a major naval thoroughfare, to be their base. The South Shetland Islands aren't exactly very hospitable; unless you're hunting seals or looking to build a weather station, you probably wouldn't give them a second glance. And you can hunt seals from the mainland... unless, of course, you have a legitimate reason not to base yourself on the mainland...

 

[Paul Spring]

It would definitely be something like Hendryk's scenario. Any pre-modern inhabitants of Antarctica would almost certainly come from Tierra del Fuego via the chain of islands down to the Antarctic peninsula. Their way of life and culture would probably have a lot of similarities to the Inuit in the Arctic, although they would hunt penguins as well as seals and fish, and would not have any really large animals such as caribou or polar pears to hunt or to worry about hunting them.

 

[Leo Caesius]

Unfortunately we don't know much about the Fuegans, as they were all but wiped out when the Spanish arrived. There were four groups, the Yámana (aka the Yaghan), who lived on the mainland, the Selk'nam (also called Ona) who lived on the island, the Alacaluf, and the Haush (who may be the same as the Yámana; Ethnologue is not so clear on this). According to some other sources, they were nomadic hunter-gatherers, and had some large canoes made from bark. There were apparently not many of them (according to some sources, 10,000 at the time of contact).

 

[Tyr]

Didn't someone once do a tl on this?
IIRC the natives were called Yamanians and came from Terra Del Fuego

 

[Midgard]

All I'm asking for is a way to get Inuits down by the Antarctic circle rather than the Arctic circle. Hendryk's tribal warfare idea works well, too. The point behind making them pirates was that they'd be forced to find some place that was fairly secluded and not already occupied by some other group, but close enough to a major naval thoroughfare, to be their base. The South Shetland Islands aren't exactly very hospitable; unless you're hunting seals or looking to build a weather station, you probably wouldn't give them a second glance. And you can hunt seals from the mainland... unless, of course, you have a legitimate reason not to base yourself on the mainland...

How much naval traffic would be present in the area before the Europeans arrive? This factor would pretty much determine whether or not the "piracy" is a viable way of life, or if there would simply be no one to pirate. It would require IMO at least a decent sized population with seafaring used not only for hunting but also for commerce, communications, etc. Otherwise the logic would be, why find a fisherman's boat and take all his fish if it would be easier and less time consuming to catch all the fish yourself?

Also, if you want to make a plausible scenario of the kind, naval technology would need to be advanced beyond simple rafts and/or small fishing boats to allow for the boats that can sail in less than perfect weather and house crew large enough to overpower the crew of whatever vessels they decide to pirate. Maybe a population explosion coupled with advances in shipbuilding could do, or...

Not sure how plausible this would be, but what if the Mayans or the Inca developed advanced shipbuilding? It would be easier with the former (although they are more remote, increasing the chance they would not even bother exploring that far south), but if Inca somehow gained interest in naval exploration, maybe even through a European or even a Chinese vessel somehow crashing near enough to their shores to pique their interest and to make them think about what lies out there, they might want to sponsor a program of exploration. Let's say that whatever they find in Antarctica becomes a fashion fad or a delicacy or whatnot, resulting in trade route there becoming very profitable, and give that trade route a hundred years or so to fully develop before the Europeans arrive.

The Incas do not like the land they found, but it is profitable to make a journey, so a small settlement thrives due to the need to maintain an active trading post/fort. Eventually the settlement expands to about a hundred or so people; then the Spanish arrive. Let's say the Incas do not perform any better against the Spanish than in OTL; however, when everything seems lost, they are able to send few shiploads of refugees to the "cold land" in the south, believing that the warm "mainland" will be overran by the "Spanish devils" (or whatever they choose to call them). The refugees will face very hard time, and mortality in the first winter or two would be very high, but eventually they adopt the ways of more primitive, but better suited for survival in the area "Yamanians". Since the Europeans would not get there for quite some time (but they will get to what would be OTL Argentina and Chile, discouraging "Antarcticans" from ever sailing north), the Antarctic culture would develop in relative isolation until XIXth century or so, when they are finally discovered to be a thriving set of settlements about 100,000 or so people strong.

 

[Paul Spring]

On a related note

The Inca themselves were an inland people, but I think that some of the coastal peoples of what is now Peru and Ecuador had just about the most advanced shipbuilding techniques in the Americas. They had ships with sails as well as oars that could travel considerable distances in oceans, although they usually didn't go too far from shore. If somehow their shipbuilding evolved faster than in OTL, you could get exploratory voyages down the western coast of South America, Tierra Del Fuego, and possibly as far as Antarctica.

 

[Roedecker]

What sort of history would be needed to give the world a populated Antarctica?

If early explorers had discovered that Antarctica is abundant with some valuable mineral or substance then there definately would be colonization.

Perhaps British explorers discover gold or silver or diamonds in the late 18th century or early 19th century. Maybe all three and this leads to a massive amount of mining colonies on the coast of Antarctica.

By way, Australia has a population of 20.2 million and New Zealand has a population of 4.1 million. With most of the habitants living on the coast of Antarctica I'd put the population range at about the same as New Zealand's.

 

[1978]

Four words: March ... of ... the ... Penguins

 

[Tyr]

I think this is referring to natives.

If not for the cold war it would be almost definatly be populated by humans today.

 

[purebredlabs]

what if shackleton's journey had succeeded, global warming cames years and years earlier, AND antartica had a valuable mineral? I think we'd be set

 

[pa_dutch]

Native Americans weren't terrible seafarers... The Taino probably had contact with the Mayans and other Mesoamerican groups due to certain cultural similarities, like ball courts. The best though were probably tribes along the Northwest coast, one of which I remember reading may have sailed as far as Siberia, and certain tribes along California like the Chumash who some theorize had contact with Polynesians.

 

[jolo]

I see only 3 possibilities for a large colony in the antarctic: Innuit coming there by accident or travel, Trading/Mining outposts, or fishermen who build wintergardens to supplement their food.

Innuit are the only ones who could've survived for more than a few warm winters there even in ancient times. But they'd need a reason and a means to get there. How about a few of them travelling to the south out of curiosity, hearing the theory the earth might be round, travelling further south, and somehow getting a (big) sailing boat and making it to the Antarctic, even to a habitable part of the shore?

Fishing, Trading and Mining would be pretty dependend on more than one country buying their goods regularly, even during wars, to survive in large numbers. That's pretty unlikely. But such outposts might learn to get a little less dependent on single nations after some time. They probably wouldn't be able to get and stay there before the 17th century, and they'd probably need to belong to some kind of very conservative and small religion to stay there and grow in population (mining won't feed that many people) despite much better empty space to move to.