Background

Tierra del Fuego's narrated history began with the early 16th century explorers, but the island had been inhabited by indigenous groups for some 10,000 years. The most populous of these groups, the Onas (also known as the Selk'nam), were hunter-gatherers in the north, living mainly on guanaco which they shot with bow and arrow. The south- eastern corner of the island was inhabited by the Haus or Hausch, also hunter-gatherers. The Yaganes or Yámana lived along the Beagle Channel and on the islands further south, and were seafaring people who survived mainly on seafood, fish and birds, physically smaller than the Onas but with a strongly developed upper body for rowing long distances. The fourth group, the Alacalufe, lived in the west of Tierra del Fuego as well as on the Chonos Archipelago, surviving by fishing and hunting seals.

The first Europeans to visit the island came with the Portuguese navigator Fernão Magalhães (Magellan), who, in 1520, sailed through the channel that now bears his name. It was Magellan who named the island Land of Fire when he saw the smoke from many fires lit along the shoreline by local inhabitants. As a result of numerous maritime disasters, including the failure of Sarmiento de Gamboa's attempt at colonizing the Straits in 1584, the indigenous population were left undisturbed for three centuries.

Fitzroy and Darwin's scientific visits in 1832 and 1833 recorded some fascinating interaction with the indigenous peoples, four of whom Fitzroy had earlier brought to London to see if they could be 'civilized', and of whom he now returned the surviving three. Fitzroy and Darwin's visits were a precursor to attempts to convert the indigenous groups to Christianity so that the island could be used by white settlers without fear of attack. Several disastrous missions followed, encountering stiff resistance from the inhabitants. In 1884, Reverend Thomas Bridges founded a mission at Ushuaia and was the first European to learn the Yámana language, and compiled his Yámana-English dictionary. He soon realized that his original task was a destructive one. The purpose of the missionary work had been to facilitate lucrative sheep farming in the island, however, the Ona were attracted to the 'white guanacos' on their land and hunting sheep proved far easier than the faster footed guanaco. The colonists offered two sheep for each Ona that was killed (proof was provided by a pair of Ona ears), but Bridges realized that he would rather protect the Onas, as the indigenous groups were further ravaged by epidemics of European diseases. In a desperate attempt to save the Ona, Salesian missionaries founded three missions in the Magellan Straits in the early 20th century, but, stripped of their land, the Ona lost the will to live; sadly the last Ona died in 1999. The Hausch also died out. One old Yámana lady presently survives near Puerto Williams and there is a handful of Alacalufe at Puerto Edén in the Chonos Archipelago.

Imprecision in the original colonial land division and the greed of the rush southwards led to border disputes between Argentina and Chile, which still rumble on today. The initial settlement of the dispute in 1883 was followed by a desire by both governments to populate the area by allocating large expanses of land for sheep farming. The main beneficiaries of this policy on Tierra del Fuego were the Menéndez and Braun families, already established in Punta Arenas.

For many years, the main economic activity of the northern part of the island was sheep farming, but Argentine government tax incentives to companies in the 1970s led to the establishment of new industries in Río Grande and Ushuaia and a rapid growth in the population of both cities; the subsequent withdrawal of incentives has produced increasing unemployment and migration. Tourism is increasingly important in Ushuaia.