So another fascinating alteration ITTL – the
Galapagos Islands. They also give a bit more insight into South American history, which I hope to elaborate on in due course.
Enjoy
The
Galapagos Islands is an autonomous British Overseas Territory in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 973 kilometres (605 miles) off the western coast of South America. The 7,880-square-kilometre (3,040-square-mile) territory covers an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed on either side of the equator, comprising eighteen main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. As of the 2011 census, the population of the Galapagos Islands was 35,124 making it the fourth-most populous British overseas territory in the Americas. The capital city is Selkirk, situated on Saint Christopher Island, and the largest city is Port Alexandra on Indefatigable Island. English is the
de facto official language, although the Galapagos Islands Creole language, a blend of English, Spanish and Quecha, is widely spoken amongst Mixed and Amerindian populations.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the islands were first visited by South American peoples in the pre-Columbian era, with several pre-Incan artefacts having been found at several sites on the islands. However, there were no permanent settlements on the islands before the 19th century, although the island was likely visited by sailors or fishing boats blown of course out to sea prior to their discovery by Europeans. Legends claim the Incas visited the archipelago, but there is little evidence for this. On 10 March 1535, the Spanish became the first Europeans to visit the islands when the Bishop of Panama was blown off course on route to Peru. Richard Hawkins became the first English captain to visit the archipelago in 1593, and until the early 19th century the islands were often used as a hideout for English pirates who raided Spanish treasure fleets carrying gold and silver from South America to Spain.
In 1793, British naval officer James Colnett first described the flora and fauna of the islands, and drew the first accurate navigation charts of the archipelago. Colnett suggested the islands could be used as a base for the whalers operating in the Pacific, and the subsequent influx of maritime fur traders, seal hunters and whalers resulted in the killing and capture of thousands of tortoises, greatly diminishing, and in some cases eliminating, certain species and bringing the population of seals close to extinction. The first known permanent inhabitant of the Galapagos Islands was Patrick Watkins, an Irish sailor marooned on Charles Island from 1807 to 1809, who survived by hunting and trading with visiting whalers before stealing a boat and sailing to Guayaquil. In the 1820s, the Galapagos Islands became a frequent stop for whalers exploiting the nearby whaling grounds.
On 12 February 1832, the Galapagos Islands were annexed by the Granadine Confederation, naming them the Archipelago of Bolivar, after Emperor Simon Bolivar, and the name is still used in parts of South America to refer to the islands. In October 1832, the first settlers arrived on the islands, consisting of convicts, artisans and farmers. The survey ship HMS
Beagle visited the islands in 1835 on the second voyage of the Beagle. Although primarily concerned with the geology and biology of the islands, the young naturalist Charles Darwin used the observations of differences between mockingbirds and tortoises on the various islands to develop his theory of natural selection explaining evolution, which was presented in
On the Origin of Species. Due to the instability of continental New Granada, settlement of the islands was limited during the early 19th century, with only small communities existing on the islands of Charles and Saint Christopher.
During the Granadine Civil War, the islands were seized by the British in April 1862 as a base for intervention in support of the independence of Ecuador from New Granada. Under the terms of the Treaty of Montería, the islands were ceded to the British Empire in perpetuity, recognised by both Ecuador and New Granada, and the archipelago was constituted as a crown colony, under the title of the “Colony of the Galapagos Islands”. Early efforts to settle the islands were centred around a plantation system to harvest sugar cane, with settlers and workers emigrating from South America and the Caribbean, alongside some colonists hailing from British America and the Home Isles. The islands also continued to attract scientific expeditions from European and North American universities and academies.
With the completion of the British-Granadine built Panama Canal in 1904, the islands acquired geopolitical importance due to their strategic location in the Pacific close to the newly finished canal. The Royal Navy established a harbour and resupply base in 1906, boosting the island’s population and economy. With the outbreak of the First World War, the islands were the main British base off the western coast of South America, serving as a staging point for naval operations off the Mexican coast and the blockade of the Nicaragua Canal. The Chilean declaration of war in December 1914 put the islands on a state of high alert, although it was presumed the German East Asia squadron and their Chilean allies would focus efforts on British Patagonia and Peru. A sudden assault by German Admiral Maximilian von Spee on 14 March 1915 caught the islands' defenders off-guard, with the HMS
Defence docked for repairs and the rest of the fleet out on operations. The islands capitulated within hours and were occupied for five months until August 1915, when a British-Japanese force assaulted the German-Chilean occupiers, sinking or capturing the occupying forces.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Lima, the islands were returned to British administration and Chile was required to pay reparations for the occupation. Throughout the interwar period, the islands attracted small numbers of European and American settlers as Britain strengthened its military presence, although a substantial number of Ecuadorians also emigrated to the island in search of work. During the Second World War, the archipelago was home to a naval base and radar stations, charged with patrolling for enemy submarines and providing protection for the Panama and Nicaragua canals. Following the war, the islands attracted mass immigration from South American fisherman and farmers seeking opportunities in the tourism, fishing and agricultural industries. In 1969 the islands became a national park, prior to being granted a formal self-governing constitution on 18 February 1973.
In the 21st century, the Galapagos Islands is a highly developed territory, with a strong environmental technology sector alongside tourism, fishing and other agriculture. The territory’s proximity to Latin America has impacted its demographics, with nearly 70% of the population being of mixed European and Amerindian descent, although nearly a quarter of the islanders are of European descent. Tourism is now the mainstay of the territorial economy, after the beginning of regular flights in the 1970s, although successive governments have limited development in favour of environmental protections such as the creation of a 70,000-square-kilometres marine reserve and the establishment of a whale sanctuary. The culmination of these efforts was the 2010 decision to the remove the Galapagos Islands from the list of endangered precious sites.