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The Galápagos Islands were discovered accidentally in 1535, when Fray Tomás de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama, was carried away from the west coast of South America—and his diocesan duties—by a strong westward current. Regardless of how the bishop portrayed the islands he encountered to the King of Spain—either as a desolate land with precious few exploitable resources or as a haven of biological marvels—the Spaniards never decided to colonize the distant islands.
Instead, during the 17 th and 18 th centuries, the archipelago became a favorite resting spot for British pirates making their way—raiding and pillaging—through Spanish colonies on the South American continent. These adventurers made the first primitive maps of the archipelago, giving the islands their English names. Although they also took advantage of the fresh tortoise meat available on the islands, they were never abundant enough to cause irreparable harm to wildlife populations.
The next major group to exploit the Galápagos—18 th century North American and European whalers—were less benign in terms of their effects on the resource base. Hundreds of ships passed through Galápagos waters, restocking their fleets with island provisions, most often the abundant and portable—given their ability to survive long periods without food or water—Galápagos tortoises. Whaling dropped off considerably in the late 19 th century when overexploitation of sperm whales—not to mention the extermination of two island tortoise subspecies and the near-extinction of fur seals—made cruising to the Galápagos unprofitable.
In 1832, the newly independent Republic of Ecuador seized its opportunity to claim the uninhabited and potentially valuable offshore islands, and colonization soon followed. The first settlers, led by Frenchman Jose Villamil, arrived on Floreana as farmers, intent on overcoming harsh climatic conditions to make a living in agriculture and animal husbandry. Others arrived to Isabela, San Cristóbal , and Santa Cruz over the next century to develop agriculture, salt, coral, and sulfur mining, and penal colonies. The results for early settlers were lifestyles rife with adversity, ranging from subsistence at best to extreme poverty at worst. In the early 1920's and 1930's, several groups of European immigrants settled in the Galápagos, the most notorious of which were the fiery-tempered Baroness Wagner de Bosquet from Austria and her all-male entourage, all of whom died under suspicious circumstances.
Of all of the temporary and permanent visitors to the Galápagos, the young naturalist Charles Darwin has undisputedly caused the greatest impact. Ever since the 1835 expedition aboard the HMS Beagle that prompted the eventual formulation of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, scientists have flocked to the Galápagos to conduct surveys, museum collections, and research investigations. These scientific expeditions have been paramount in identifying the negative effects of introduced species and spearheading the global effort for island preservation.
During the mid-20 th century, the centenaries of Darwin's Galápagos tour and the publication of The Origin of Species —and the impending threats to island biological treasures—inspired government officials to team with international representatives to prioritize and develop effective conservation initiatives in the islands. In 1959, the Galápagos National Park , incorporating approximately 97% of the archipelago's total land area, was established, and the regulatory implementing body—the Galápagos National Park Service—was created nine years later. Legal protection was extended to the water in 1986—and strengthened with the 1998 Special Law of the Galápagos—declaring the islands' adjacent seascape as the Galápagos Marine Resource Reserve.
Santa Cruz , Isabela, San Cristóbal , and Floreana are still the only populated islands, housing around 20,000 total residents. Although strict migration and environmental legislation tend to prioritize ecosystem protection over anthropogenic activity, exotic species introduction by humans, overpopulation, and illegal fishing remain formidable challenges to conservation.
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