Julio Montebruno y la enseñanza de las regiones polares y la Antártica Occidental en la primera mitad del siglo XX

The objective of this research is to rescue the professor of history and geography Julio Montebruno from anonymity as one of the main precursors of teaching in Chile of the polar regions in the first half of the 20th century, to account for his participation in the IX International Congress Geography of Geneva (1908) and the implications of the concept “West Antarctica” used in his works and especially in the Universal Atlas of 1925. The methodology used is that of historical research, organized from a research question and intended to answer or clarify the stated objectives. The conclusions confirm that Montebruno would have been the first to systematize Antarctic knowledge in Chilean secondary education; the ideas presented by him in 1908 would have allowed the government to reflect on the political role of geographic and polar studies and that West Antarctica under the name of ‘Brit.’ (British), was associated with the English colonialism prevailing in the first half of the 20th century.