Brief Regional History

THE PRESENCE OF MAN

About three millennium after the arrival of the firsts human beings, happened, simultaneousness or successively, some climatic and telluric events that could assume catastrophic features by its consequences for the environment and, specially, for natural life. These episodes directly caused or contributed to the extinction of the ancient late Pleistocene fauna and imposed, in consequence, a parenthesis in human life. When it came back after the eight millennium before the present, it did it with various adaptive cultural expressions.

That way, since then, without interruption but several changes, human life extended itself for several places of eastern Magellan territory, as much as land hunters as sea hunters or canoeists that settled on the littoral archipelagoes of the center, west and south of the big region. It could have happened as evolution of the first paleoindians that arrived, as for the incorporation of new migratory contingent.
However it was, primitive hunters succeeded in adapting to the severe environmental conditions and created several cultural expressions showed along milleniums until the arrival of the historical time.

At the time of the arrival of Spaniards, four great native ethnic groups, culturally different inhabited current regional territory. In the continental steppe zone lived the Aonikenk, the Selknam or Onas; in the western channels, from Penas gulf to Brecknock channel, the several groups known with the common name of Kaweskar or Alakalufes, and in Beagle channel area and Cape Horn, the Yamana.

FIND OF THE TERRITORY BY EUROPEANS

The discovery of Magellan territory was an indirect consequence of the search of the ocean crossing that should contact Europe with the east nations, China, Japan, India and, specially, the Molucca Islands, the famous land of spices.

Imperial Spanish, striving to win to its rival, Portugal kingdom, the race to the Indies and with it the monopoly of spice trade, the future emperor, king Charles, in 1519 agreed with Portuguese sailor Fernando de Magalhaes, afterwards known as Fernando de Magallanes, the discovery of a crossing towards the east through the new continent discovered a few years before by Columbus. Supplied and arranged, the five ships of Magellan fleet set sail from San Lucar de Barrameda on September 2nd of 1519.


After a trip full with ups and downs and incidents, the captain ship Trinidad, on October 21st of 1520, at last inserted into the strait that the Admiral named afterwards "Todos los Santos" ("All the Saints"), and that posterity, justly, would rechristen with the name of its eminent discoverer. Chile had been discovered and with such a happy event were born to Geography and History the people of "Land of Patagons" and "The Land of the Fires", that is to say, two of the components of today Magellan Region.

OCCUPATION OF MAGALLANES

The effective inclusion of present territories of Aysen and Magallanes regions was due to the brilliant inspiration of Bernardo O'Higgins, founder of the Republic and liberator of Chile.

Intendente of Chiloe Domingo Espineira was held responsible by President Manuel Bulnes to organize the expedition assigned to take possession and to start the colonization of the Strait region. Espineira, a diligent and active civil servant, carried out with special zeal his mission, and on May 21st of 1843, the schooner "Ancud" set sail from the homonym port, under the authority of Commander Juan Williams, with twenty-three people on board, among crew, soldiers and supernumeraries.



After a four months trip, not free of adventures, on September 21st the Ancud anchored off Santa Ana point, Brunswick peninsula, quite near the place in which, three centuries before, was City of King Felipe.

A month later, and after a fast and fruitless reconnaissance along the north coast of the Strait, looking for a suitable place for founding a colony, the 30th of October was officially inaugurated a small fort built on top of Santa Ana point -a real watchtower- named "Bulnes" as a tribute to the illustrious Republic leader. This way, Fort Bulnes became the first permanent establishment in the Patagonia vastness, initial outpost of national colonization and civilization in the south regions. The first years of the new settlement were extremely hard and difficult. Understanding the need to move the colony to a better place and after exploring most of the eastern coast of Brunswick peninsula, the new appointed Governor Jose de los Santos Mardones ordered to move it half a hundred kilometers to the north, to a land he thought more suitable, situated by the bank of Carbon river, in a place known as Punta Arenosa (Sandy Point). Once the cattle was taken there, the sowing started, put up the basic buildings and moved to them most of the families, Mardones took up there his seat and residence, giving birth, on December 18th of 1848, to the hamlet of Punta Arenas, that in the years to come became city capital of a rich region and principal city of the Patagonia.

Source:
Mateo Martinic, Brief History of Magallanes,
Published by Universidad de Magallanes.