Territorio y saber en disputa. La controversia limítrofe Chileno-Argentina sobre los Andes

Abstract

Through the study of the border dispute between Argentina and Chile in Patagonia, the article offers a reflection and an example of the use of geographical knowledge in claiming territorial sovereignty. Based on the social history of science and cultural history, it presents the conditionings that influenced the arguments of both countries, and the political resolution of a territorial quarrel that over a hundred years ago, and also nowadays, forced Chile to resort to international bodies to determine its limits and ensure its rights. This situation implied a decision on the geographical knowledge of the disputed nature. This argument, however, did not bolster the Chilean position, since the referee called upon to decide the dispute, after revised several sources and not only the geographical knowledge claimed by Chile.