ABSTRACT
The Beagle Channel is the southerly of these two passages and is named after HMS Beagle, the British survey ship in which Charles Darwin made his famous voyage in the 1830s. Boundary Treaty on 23 July 1881 assigned all islands east of Tierra del Fuego to Argentina and all islands south of the Beagle Channel, as far as Cape Horn and west of Tierra del Fuego, to Chile. In 1982, Argentina seized the Malvinas and South Georgia and was repelled in a short and bloody conflict by the UK. The war highlighted the importance of resources but Argentinas defeat, together with Chiles desire to avoid a full-scale war, led to compromise and agreement on the Peace and Friendship Treaty. In 1902 both Chile and Argentina governments subscribed to a General Treaty of Arbitration, the solution by friendly means of any bilateral problems, and the British Crown was made responsible for arbitration.
