Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case 1902 (Argentina, Chile)

The Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case

Report of the Chilean Expert on marking the frontier line Diego Barros Arana to his government showing the different interpretation of the 1881's treaty in Chile and Argentina
Type	bilateral treaty
Signed	20 November 1902 (1902-11-20)
Original signatories	Argentina Chile

The Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case (Spanish: Laudo limítrofe entre Argentina y Chile de 1902 was a British arbitration in 1902 that established the present day boundaries between Argentina and Chile. In northern and central Patagonia, the borders were established between the latitudes of 40° and 52° S as an interpretation of the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina.

As result of the arbitration, some Patagonian lakes, such as O'Higgins/San Martín Lake, became divided by a national boundary. Additionally the preferences of settled colonists in a cultivated part of the area in dispute had been canvassed. The boundary proposed in the arbitration was a compromise between the boundary preferences of the two disputing governments, which neither strictly followed the alignment of highest peaks nor the fluvial watershed, and was published in the name of King Edward VII.

The escalation in tension between Chile and Argentina suggested armed conflict had become a distinct probability towards the end of the 19th Century as both had claims on Patagonia. The Argentinian Riccheri Law continued to provide for selective national service; the expansion of the Argentine armed forces after the campaigns and subjugation of the Pampas and expanded southwards and westwards into Patagonia in the "Conquest of the Desert". Argentina and Chile had successfully reached a measure of mutual agreement in the Boundary Treaty of 1881 and subsequently identified other boundary alignment issues to be resolved by binding arbitration under the 1902 "May Pact" and sought the involvement of the UK as mediator.

Commissioners Francisco Moreno (Argentina), Diego Barros Arana (Chile) and Sir Thomas Holdich (UK) visited the Andean Patagonian valleys to make site-based observations following the written submissions presented previously by the two parties to the Arbitration Panel.