Argentina 

and Chile both increased their activities to back up their

claims to the Antarctic Peninsula as a result of the British occupancy.
(Chile had expressed a claim in 1940.) The Argentines had maintained
a weather station in the South Orkney Islands continuously since
1903, and after 1947 they and the Chileans constructed bases at
several sites. In addition to using effective occupation, Chile and
Argentina used arguments based on historical treaties and
geographical contiguity in staking their claims, but these arguments
had little international legal currency at the time. With the coming of
the U.S. Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE) in 1947–48 to
the old U.S. Antarctic Service East Base camp on Marguerite Bay, the
peninsula protagonists—British, Argentine, and Chilean—became
concerned that the United States might restore its claims.

Military violence has flared on two occasions in the region and in both
instances has involved Argentina and the United Kingdom. The first
incident took place in 1952 when the Argentine navy used small-arms
fire to chase back to its ship a British meteorological party that had
landed at Hope Bay (at the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula).
The matter was resolved when the Argentine government agreed not
to interfere with the party. The second, much more serious
confrontation took place in 1982 in the Falkland Islands, a British
colony that is also claimed by Argentina (called the Islas Malvinas by
the Argentines). Argentine forces invaded the Falklands and South
Georgia Island in early April. The British responded by sending a
military task force, reoccupying the islands, and forcing the Argentines
to surrender on June 14 (see also Falkland Islands War).