Die Entwicklung der britischen Territorialansprüche in Spitzbergen zwischen 1904 und 1953

The English territorial claims of the seventeenth century were forgotten, and Arctic Spitsbergen was yet again a no man’s land, when coalfound its way from the archipelago to the Norwegian mainland at the beginningof the twentieth century. An international “coal rush” broke out, which in addition to the British also involved Norwegians, Americans, Russians,Dutch, and Swedes. Based on four British mining and exploration companies, this paper explains how the previously peripheral Spitsbergen gained increasing economic and political importance. In this process, the British territorialclaims, which in their heyday comprised a fifth of the landmass, played a decisiverole, although Spitsbergen belonged to Norway after 1925. The historical details are currently overpowered by inaccurate representations. As a result, the parallels to today's “Arctic rush” are difficult to recognize, although theseshould be a lesson for all modern stakeholders