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South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday
Dependent Territory of the Dominion of South Africa
Flag Coat of Arms
Location of the South Georgia Islands
Location of South Georgia off the coast of South America.
Capital King Edward Point
Largest City Grytviken
Language English
Governor
Area 3903 km²
Population 500 
Admission 1990

South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands are small Islands west of the Falklands. Since Doomsday the colony has grown from a research and tourist settlement and now houses its own fishing industry and a significant number of British exiles from the Falklands. In 1990, after a period of Argentine occupation, South Georgia became a dependent territory of the Dominion of South Africa at the same time as Saint Helena and Dependencies. It still has this status today, despite an ongoing claim by Argentina to the territory.

History[]

Pre-Doomsday[]

The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant, and was named Roche Island on a number of early maps. It was sighted by a commercial Spanish ship named León operating out of Saint-Malo on 28 June or 29 June 1756. In 1775 Captain James Cook circumnavigated the island, made the first landing, claimed the territory for the Kingdom of Great Britain, and named it "the Isle of Georgia" in honour of King George III. British arrangements for the government of South Georgia were first established under the 1843 British Letters Patent.

In 1882–1883 a German expedition for the First International Polar Year was stationed at Royal Bay on the south-east side of the island. They also observed the transit of Venus and recorded waves produced by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Throughout the 19th century South Georgia was a sealers' base and, in the following century, a whalers' base until whaling ended in the 1960s. The first land-based whaling station, and first permanent habitation, was established at Grytviken in 1904 by Norwegian Carl Anton Larsen. It operated through his Argentine Fishing Company, which settled in Grytviken. The station remained in operation until 1965.

This photograph was taken by Frank Hurley during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. From 1905 the Argentine Meteorological Office co-operated in maintaining the meteorological observatory at Grytviken under the British lease requirements of the whaling station until these changed in 1949. In 1908 the United Kingdom issued a further Letters Patent to establish constitutional arrangements for its possessions in the South Atlantic. As well as South Georgia, the Letters Patent covered the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, the South Sandwich Islands, and Graham Land.

From 1909 an administrative centre and residence was established at King Edward Point on South Georgia, near the whaling station of Grytviken. A permanent local British administration and resident Magistrate exercised effective possession, enforcement of British law, and regulation of all economic, scientific and other activities in the territory, which was then governed as the Falkland Islands Dependencies. In about 1912, what is according to some accounts the largest whale ever caught, a blue whale of 33.58 metres, was landed at Grytviken.

In April 1916, Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition became stranded on Elephant Island, some 800 miles south west of South Georgia. Shackleton and five companions set out in a small boat to summon help, and on May 10, after an epic voyage, they landed at King Haakon Bay on South Georgia's south coast. While three stayed at the coast, Shackleton and other two companions went on to cover 22 miles overland to reach help at Stromness whaling station. The remaining 22 members of the expedition, who had stayed on Elephant Island, were all subsequently rescued. In January 1922, during a later expedition, Shackleton died on board ship off South Georgia. He is buried at Grytviken. Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927.

During World War II, the Royal Navy deployed an armed merchant vessel to patrol South Georgian and Antarctic waters against German raiders, along with two four-inch shore guns (still present) protecting Cumberland Bay and Stromness Bay, manned by volunteers from among the Norwegian whalers. The base at King Edward Point was expanded as a research facility in 1949/1950 by the British Antarctic Survey.

The Falklands War was precipitated on 19 March 1982 when a group of Argentinians, posing as scrap metal merchants, occupied the abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbour on South Georgia. On April 3 the Argentine troops attacked and occupied Grytviken. Among the commanding officers of the Argentine Garrison was Alfredo Astiz, a Captain in the Argentine Navy who, years later, was convicted of felonies committed during the Dirty War in Argentina. The island was recaptured by British forces on 25 April in Operation Paraquet.

Doomsday[]

On Doomsday, the Island lost communications with the UK, and soon after the small populace of 30, plus around 50 British soldiers who were still at King Edward Point, feared that it would be taken by Argentina. The island was put on high alert. Even though they were a Falkland Islands Dependency it appeared that there was little help that the Falklands could send: they were preoccupied with their own issues. Still the islands remained in contact; some of the tourists or civilians who were on the islands returned to the Falklands, but others were worried of an Argentinian revenge attack and chose to remain. The small exodus stopped when a boat traveling to the Falklands sank and rumors circulated that it was the Argentinians, although this was dismissed as false later on.

Food was a problem, as the island had very little plant life since it was a tundra island. The tourist season was not big around this time of year, but nevertheless there were a handful of tourists at Grytviken, who were all in confusion and most were forced to stay in a museum. Luckily some of the surrounding fishermen who did not go to the Falkland Islands arrived at Grytviken around November when the seas became simply too cold and rough to stay out or fuel had run out on the gasoline powered boats. In effect they created the only non-governmental population on the island. The fishermen made up around 87 people, almost all men. The tourists, only around 30, were also mostly men other than less than a dozen women. The tiny government, confused on where to settle them, turned the former tourist attraction and abandoned town of Grytviken.

Soon the government began creating steps towards a "true" government by December, electing random fishermen, tourists, or an occasional soldiers that they could not hope to govern properly, but 4 or 5 officials of the old British government station could not hope to govern the new population either. The "Fishers Regime" as it was called was called gave the simplest of orders: assigning the fishermen to return to their fleets and fish, or find some building materials. Weapons were a problem. An Argentinian attack was inevitable, as they had already seized the island only one year ago. A scant handful of the fishermen had harpoons or even small firearms, but the British soldiers couldn't hope to contain the Argentinian attack. So every man and women were told to be on the lookout for the Argentinians. This was the beginning of the "Freezing Cold War".

Freezing Cold War[]

The attack did not come right away. Instead, early in 1984 the Argentinians offered support to the small island and peaceful annexation as an autonomous territory. This was just after the Falklands had surrendered to a new occupying force from Argentina; but unlike those in the Falklands, the South Georgians refused to surrender, knowing that the attack would come soon.

Several hundred Falklanders now began to cross over, bringing with them much-needed supplies, in particular vegetables and a small amount gasoline, but the gasoline would not be used to use cars, it would be stockpiled for heat in the coming winter. The population just barely made it through the winter of 1984; the fishermen were always well prepared for the coldest of climates and had the warmest of clothes to hand out to the less-prepared civilians.

The population reached over 800 by the end of 1984, and this put a massive strain on the heat and construction resources. The exiles worked tirelessly to build themselves homes in Grytviken, designed to keep the cold out. Meanwhile, the South Georgians also did what they could reinforce the promontory north-eastern settlement at King Edward Point. This was seen as the best place to defend the island from should an Argentinian invasion occur and some of the Falklanders chose to settle there rather than in Grytviken. It was also home to one of the few places on the island where crops could be grown.

South Sandwich Islands[]

Throughout this whole time not a soul had stepped foot on the South Sandwich Islands. Several fishing boats approached the islands and discovered what appeared to be a failed fisherman settlement on the island which was made up of a mere 12 people. They had settled on Montagu Island and had tried to use the volcano as a heat source. Their bodies were buried on the island.

The is practically no presence on the islands now, though there were plans for 40 people to move to the islands to enforce their control over them. Several fishermen would move to the islands and build several enforced cottages on the island, using thermal heat like the failed colony, but even then most have moved back or only maintain their cottages when they are around fishing. It was these tiny settlements that prompted Argentina to take action once more.

Argentinian Invasion[]

The occupation finally came in October 1985, the springtime. By this point, having come through a second winter, the islanders were starving and exhausted, in no condition to resist. However, there was really nowhere to take the people, other than back to the Falklands. A few leaders were taken to the mainland where they faced trial for insurrection. Others were given the opportunity to return home to what were now the Malvinas. The islanders were disarmed, but most remained on South Georgia because there was nowhere else for them.

Argentina's latest acquisition was thus filled with an unruly population, which the republic was unwilling to force into utter submission, but which also lacked the means to mount a real rebellion. Three years of low-level conflict ensued.

British Counterattack[]

In 1986-7, two convoys of Royal Navy ships sailed from Britain to Port Elizabeth, South Africa. With Britain no longer capable of maintaining the ships, the navy was ordered to go and defend the new Dominion of South Africa, whose head of state was also King Andrew of Great Britain. In 1987, this naval detachment, still operating somewhat autonomously from the DSA government, began to send expeditions to the British territories of the South Atlantic. This of course brought it into conflict with Argentina.

When the British ships found South Georgia under a far inferior Argentine force, they sent a message ordering the occupiers to depart. This they did, and the British took possession of the island once again - to universal relief and delight among the residents. People suffering from medical conditions were brought back to South Africa, and the ships unloaded much-needed supplies for those who remained.

A subsequent reconnaissance mission to the Falklands determined that those islands could not be liberated without a major military operation, something that the Royal Navy was not equipped to undertake. After the loss of South Georgia, Argentina increased its presence in and around the islands and prepared for a second Falklands War. But Argentina, like the Royal Navy, was unwilling to engage in a direct military confrontation. It ruled out attacking South Georgia while the British military remained there.

So this state of affairs set in: the British remained in possession of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and claimed the Falklands; while Argentina continued to occupy and govern the Malvinas and claimed South Georgia. The dispute dragged on for years with no end in sight.

South African Territory[]

Dominion regions

In 1990, the Dominion fully incorporated the remnants of the British navy and annexed all British territories of the South Atlantic. South Georgia thus became a Dependent Territory of the DSA. Annexation allowed the island to have a more regular administration. The emergency of the 80s came to an end.

South Africa also facilitated a migration to relieve the population pressure that the island was experiencing. The population had grown to over 900, and the land could not support so many. The DSA meanwhile was looking for people to resettle Ascension Island, a former British territory that had lacked a permanent population before 1983 and which had been largely evacuated. Around half of the people of South Georgia ultimately decided to move to Ascension, bringing the Falklander diaspora to a new island.

The people of South Georgia were happy to join together with their compatriots on St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha, along with the new settlements on Ascension. Together they formed a community of British territories united under the British Crown, under the supervision of the DSA.

Present Day[]

The island remained a sticking point between the DSA and Argentina. This has presented some obstacles especially since the mid-2000s, when Argentina joined other South American nations in occupying Cape Town and setting up the RZA government. Forced to cooperate as partners, the Dominion and Argentina came to a tacit agreement to not actively pursue their respective claims on one another's islands.

In 2010, South Georgia joined the revived Commonwealth of Nations in its own right as an expression of its British identity, alongside the other dependent territories of the DSA.

Economy[]

Fishing is the largest occupation on the Island. Besides that, many of the the islands' natural resources are not touched due to a lack of equipment needed to extract them. Fuel is the largest problem, since it is used to keep most of the boats running or to keep generators running. This is mostly provided by the Dominion government and tightly rationed. Subsistence farming undergirds the economy and is necessary for survival.

Culture[]

Flag of the United Kingdom

the Union Jack

Flag of the Falkland Islands (1948–1999)

the Falklands flag

Since Doomsday, South Georgia has become a survival based economy. Due to the scarcity of pretty much every needed material excluding food and water everyone shares everything from shoes to gas to clothes.

Symbols[]

As a Falkland Islands dependency, South Georgia used the Falklands' flag and shield before 1983. The population of exiled Falklanders continued to use these symbols, and today they officially represent South Georgia. The Union Jack alone is also flown by inhabitants and has official status as a symbol of the territory's people and heritage.

Communication[]

The radio and semi-regular shipments keep the the Island closely tied to South Africa.

Energy[]

South Africa had two wind turbines installed on the island to reduce its dependence on imported fuel. The wind turbines generate quite a lot of electricity considering the amount of winds that pass through the area.

International Relations[]

Argentina still clams South Georgia, but the island is loyal to the Dominion. Local militia leader George Pale has said that at the time Falkland went to Argentina, South Georgia was on its own and that it wasn't going to be transferred.

South Georgia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The DSA represents it internationally in most other contexts, including the League of Nations.

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