Has there ever been an organized attempt to establish a permanent settlement in Antarctica?

by koshthethird

Excluding the research bases with rotating staffs that exist there now.

ijflwe42

Yes, sort of. Though neither are actually on the mainland (they're on islands just off the Antarctic Peninsula), Chile and Argentina each have 1 permanent civilian settlement. The Chilean one is Villa Las Estrellas, the Argentine one Esperanza Base. Both are very small, 80-120 people in Villa Las Estrellas and 230 people in Esperanza Base (though only 66 are civilians), but they have schools, government buildings, recreation, and even tourism. Esperanza Base is also the site of the first, but not only, person born in Antarctica, Emilio Palma.

So, they're not attempts at extensive colonization, and not technically on the continent itself, but they are settlements with permanent civilian populations, families, and children being born there.

Sources: (sorry they're not peer reviewed, reliable sources; I searched JSTOR and nothing came up, and these were the best results Google was able to give me. But I think in this case, all that needs to be shown is that there are permanent civilian settlements there.

http://en.mercopress.com/2010/10/26/argentine-population-in-antarctica-230-including-nine-families-and-16-children

http://www.chile.travel/en/where-to-go/patagonia/southern-patagonia/site/antartica.html

http://mentalfloss.com/article/25676/not-so-famous-firsts-infant-edition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Las_Estrellas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanza_Base

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Palma