Patagonia

Map of Patagonia

Geography of Patagonia

Patagonia comprises four Chilean regions (Los Ríos, Los Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes) and five Argentine provinces (Río Negro, Neuquén, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego), and the southern part of Buenos Aires province is also usually included. The largest city is Neuquén in Argentina, with roughly a quarter of a million inhabitants.

The geography of the region on each side of the border couldn’t be more different. Chilean Patagonia receives humid oceanic winds from the Pacific year-round, producing heavy rain and snow and an incredibly lush landscape heavily mantled in forests, while its coast is indented with an enormous network of fjords, channels and islands created by glacial action. By the time these winds pass the mountains, they are depleted of moisture, so most of Argentine Patagonia is a desert, although strips of greenery carve through it where major rivers such as the Río Chubut and Río Negro irrigate the land. Further south, the mountain peaks are dominated by the two Patagonian Icefields, the last remnants of the enormous ice sheets which once blanketed these mountains.

The Uttermost Part of the Earth – the History of Patagonia

Summarizing the complex history of such a large and diverse region is difficult, and recollections can vary depending on the side of the border. Archaeological evidence proves human presence in Patagonia no later than 12,000 years ago, and excavations at the Monte Verde site near Puerto Montt in Chile suggest human presence around 14,500 years ago. Several Indigenous groups call Patagonia home, including the Mapuche in Chile, the Aónikenk (also known as Tehuelches) in Argentina, and the Kawésqar of the southwestern Chilean channels. On Tierra del Fuego lived the canoe-faring Yámana of the Beagle Channel, whose shoreline fires are believed to have given the ‘Land of Fire’ its name, and the guanaco-hunting Selk’nam of the island’s interior, whose elaborate painted Hain masks have become powerful symbols of Indigenous Patagonian culture.

The arrival of Europeans drastically changed Indigenous ways of life in Patagonia. In Chile, Spanish colonists fought a long and protracted campaign against the Mapuche known as the Arauco Wars (1546–1656), and even today relations between the Mapuche and the Chilean State remain strained. In Argentina, General (later President) Julio Argentino Roca’s ‘Conquest of the Desert’ aimed to establish Argentine sovereignty over the Patagonian desert, with utterly devastating results – entire peoples were exterminated. In Tierra del Fuego, Captain Fitzroy of the Beagle took several Yámana hostages in 1830, including Orundellico (also known as Jemmy Button), while gold prospectors and ranchers ruthlessly persecuted the Selk’nam in what is now recognized as a genocide: by 1945, only an estimated 25 Selk’nam survived of a pre-contact population of over 4,000.

Control of the Strait of Magellan led Chile to establish the city of Punta Arenas in 1848. The city thrived on ships passing through the strait until the opening of the Panama Canal; today it is the largest city below 47°S and one of the main gateway cities to Antarctica. On the Argentine side, Ushuaia on the Beagle Channel was founded as a mission, and a penal colony was established there in 1904. Prison labor was used to construct the Southern Fuegian Railway, which now operates as the Tren del Fin del Mundo (the Train at the End of the World). Today, over 90% of visitors to Antarctica pass through Ushuaia’s port, and Patagonia is firmly established as one of the world’s premier travel destinations, drawing modern-day explorers from around the world.