Editing Tierra del Fuego (section)

== History ==

===Prehistory===
{{mainarticle|Fuegians}}
[[File:Selknam cazando.jpg|thumb|[[Selkʼnam people|Selkʼnam]] hunters (1930)]]

The earliest human settlement occurred approximately 8,000 BC. The [[Yaghan people|Yaghan]] were some of the earliest known humans to settle in Tierra del Fuego.{{dubious|date=January 2022}} Archeological sites with characteristics of their culture have been found at locations such as [[Navarino Island]].<ref>{{cite web |first=C. Michael |last=Hogan |date=4 April 2008 |url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18795 |title=Bahia Wulaia Dome Middens |publisher=Megalithic Portal |access-date=20 June 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610103246/http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18795 |archive-date=10 June 2011}}</ref>

===European exploration===

[[File:1572 Typus Orbis Terrarum Ortelius.jpg|thumb|World map from 1572, when the area was believed to be part of what was called [[Terra Australis]]]]
The name ''Tierra del Fuego'' was given by the [[Portugal|Portuguese]] explorer [[Ferdinand Magellan]] while sailing for the [[Monarchy of Spain|Spanish Crown]] in 1520; he was the first European to visit these lands. He believed he was seeing the many fires (''fuego'' in Spanish) of the Indigenous inhabitants, which were visible from the sea, and that the "Indians" were waiting in the forests to ambush his [[Naval fleet|armada]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe |last=Bergreen |first=Laurence |year= 2003 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-186588-6 |page=179 }}</ref>{{efn|There is no direct evidence that the name Tierra del Fuego was given to the archipelago by Magellan himself or his companions. In its modern form, this name appeared on maps only in the middle of the 16th century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Woram |first=John |year=2009 |title=Here Be Giants: Travelers' Tales from the Land of the Patagons |url=https://whalesite.org/RV/GIANTS/PDF/01-MAGELLAN.pdf |publisher=Rockville Press, Incorporated |pages=14–18 |isbn=978-0-9769336-1-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://whalesite.org/RV/TIERRA/TEXTS/PLACENAMES.htm |title=Some Place Names from Early Voyages to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego |last=Woram |first=John |date=2012 |website=Whalesite.org |access-date=2024-08-23}}</ref>}}

In 1525, [[Francisco de Hoces]] was the first to speculate that Tierra del Fuego was one or more islands rather than part of what was then called [[Terra Australis]]. [[Francis Drake]] in 1578 and a [[Dutch East India Company]] expedition in 1616 learned more about the geography. The latter expedition named [[Cape Horn]] at [[Hornos Island]].

On his first voyage with {{HMS|Beagle}} in 1830, [[Robert FitzRoy]] picked up four native [[Fuegian]]s, including "[[Jemmy Button]]" (''Orundellico'') and [[Yokcushlu]], and brought them to England. The three who survived the voyage were taken to London to meet the king and queen and were, for a time, celebrities. They returned to Tierra del Fuego in the ''Beagle'' with FitzRoy and [[Charles Darwin]], who made extensive notes about his visit to the islands.

===European colonization and extinction of Native Americans (1860–1910)===
{{Multiple image|direction=vertical|align=right|image1=00 124 2490 Puerto Williams - Südamerika (Feuerland - Tierra del Fuego).jpg|image2=Ushuaia6a (js).jpg|width=200|caption1=[[Puerto Williams]] (2005)|caption2=The city of [[Ushuaia]] (2000)}}
{{See also|Tierra del Fuego gold rush|Selk'nam genocide|Patagonian sheep farming boom}}

During the second half of the nineteenth century, [[Salesians of Don Bosco|Salesian]] Catholic missions were established in Río Grande and [[Dawson Island]].

[[Anglicanism|Anglican]] missionaries, who had established missions on [[Keppel Island]] in 1855, established new missions in 1870 at [[Ushuaia]]. These missions continued to operate through the nineteenth century. Missionary [[Thomas Bridges (Anglican missionary)|Thomas Bridges]] (1842–1898) learned the native language and compiled a 30,000-word Yaghan grammar and dictionary while he worked at Ushuaia.<ref name="NY Times"/> It was published in the 20th century and is considered an important ethnological work.<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news|title=Cook Tried to Steal Parson's Life Work|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/05/21/104935739.pdf|access-date=30 May 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=21 May 1910|archive-date=18 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181018054635/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/05/21/104935739.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

An 1879 Chilean expedition led by Ramón Serrano Montaner reported large amounts of [[placer deposit|placer]] gold in the streams and river beds of Tierra del Fuego. This prompted massive immigration to the main island between 1883 and 1909. Numerous Argentines, Chileans, and [[Croatians]] settled on the main island, leading to increased conflicts with native [[Selkʼnam]]. These late nineteenth century gold rushes led to the founding of numerous small settlements by immigrants, such as the Argentine settlements of Ushuaia and [[Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego|Río Grande]] and the Chilean settlements of [[Porvenir, Chile|Porvenir]] and [[Puerto Toro]].

[[Julius Popper]], a [[Romanian people|Romanian]] explorer, was one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the region. Granted rights by the [[Government of Argentina|Argentine government]] to exploit any gold deposits he found in Tierra del Fuego, Popper has been identified as a central figure in the [[Selkʼnam genocide]].

Following contact with Europeans, the native Selkʼnam and [[Yaghan people|Yaghan]] populations were [[Population history of Indigenous peoples of the Americas|greatly reduced]] by unequal conflict and persecution by settlers, by [[infectious diseases]] to which the Indigenous people had no [[immunity (medical)|immunity]], and by mass transfer to the Salesian mission of Dawson Island. Despite the efforts of the missionaries, many natives died. Today, only [[Selknam genocide|a few Selkʼnam remain]]. Some of the few remaining Yaghan have settled in Villa Ukika in [[Navarino Island]]; others have scattered throughout Chile and Argentina.

Following the signing of the [[Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina|Boundary Treaty of 1881]], Tierra del Fuego was divided between Argentina and Chile; previously, it had been claimed in its entirety by both countries.

===Recent history (1940–present)===
{{see also|Beagle conflict}}

In 1945, a division of Chilean [[CORFO]] (Spanish acronym for Production Development Corporation), engaged in [[Hydrocarbon exploration|oil exploration]], discovered oil in northern Tierra del Fuego. Extraction began in 1949 and, in 1950, the Chile state-owned [[Empresa Nacional del Petróleo|ENAP]] (National Petroleum Company){{Fix|text=words missing}}. Until 1960, most oil extracted in Chile came from Tierra del Fuego.<ref>{{Citation
| last1  = Martinić
| first1 = Mateo
| author-link  = Mateo Martinic
| title     = La Tierra de los Fuegos
| publisher = Municipalidad de Porvenir
| place     = [[Punta Arenas]], Chile
| year    = 1982
| pages   = 164–171
|language=es
}}</ref> During the 1940s Chile and Argentina lodged their Antarctic claims. In the 1950s, the Chilean military founded [[Puerto Williams]]. In the 1960s and 1970s, sovereignty claims by Argentina over [[Picton, Lennox, and Nueva]] Islands in Tierra del Fuego led the two countries to the brink of war. In 1986, the [[National Congress of Argentina|Argentine congress]] decided that the Argentine part of Tierra del Fuego should be a new province. This happened in 26 April 1990.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tierradelfuego.gov.ar/historia/ihistoria.php |title=Historia de Tierra del Fuego |language=es |publisher=Tierradelfuego.gov.ar |access-date=20 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717051438/http://www.tierradelfuego.gov.ar/historia/ihistoria.php |archive-date=17 July 2011}}</ref>