Spanish colonization attempt of the Strait of Magellan

Primera Angostura

Nombre de Jesús

Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe

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Location of Spanish settlements in the Strait of Magellan shown with green dots. The sound of Primera Angostura is shown with a blue dot. Modern boundaries between Chile and Argentina are shown.

In the late 16th century, the Spanish Empire attempted to settle the Strait of Magellan with the aim of controlling the only known passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at the time. The project was a direct response to Francis Drake's unexpected entry into the Pacific through the strait in 1578 and the subsequent havoc his men wreaked upon the Pacific coast of Spanish America. The colonization effort took the form of a naval expedition led by veteran explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, which set sail from Cádiz in December 1581. The expedition established two short-lived settlements in the strait, Nombre de Jesús and Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe. However, the settlers proved poorly prepared for the cool and windy environment of the strait, and starvation and disease was soon rampant. A resupply expedition organized by Sarmiento in Rio de Janeiro in 1585 was unable to reach the strait due to unfavorable weather.^[1] Aid to the struggling colony was later hampered by Sarmiento falling prisoner to English corsairs in 1586 and the unresponsivity of King Philip II, likely due to the strain of Spain's resources caused by the wars with England and Dutch rebels.^[2] The last known survivor was rescued by a passing ship in 1590.^[3]

Later, when it became evident that alternative routes to the Strait of Magellan existed south of Tierra del Fuego, the Spanish authorities abandoned their plans of settling the strait.