Saturday, December 1, 2012

December 1: Antartica Treaty

On this date in History .... 1959:

The Antarctica Treaty is signed by the U.S., Russia and ten other nations, banning military activity and weapons testing on the continent, becoming the first arms control agreement signed in the Cold War period.
 
The “South Pole” area, the Earth’s only continent without a native human population (and therefore no citizenship or government), had been a constant clash of claims against territorial ownership and U.S. officials wanted Pres. Eisenhower to be more assertive as they believed it to be a great space for nuclear testing. 
 
Eisenhower, however, took the opposite approach. He began working with the Soviets and the treaty made it military free and allowed scientific expeditions to travel across any area claimed by other nations without any hindrance or problems, encouraging “environmental stewardship”.    
 
There are now over 50 countries that have signed the treaty.


.

No comments:

Post a Comment