Galapagos | Travel Guide | Galapagos history

A short history of the Galapagos

The first European discovery of the Galapagos Islands was in 1535 when the Bishop of Panama arrived there by accident, his boat having drifted off course. The islands' name is derived from a Spanish word for saddle, referring to the saddle shape of the shells of the tortoises they found.

Excavations by Thor Heyerdahl has found pre-columbian pottery indicating occasional visits from the mainland before European arrival, but no sign of permanent settlements. In the late 1500s the islands were an occasional haunt of pirates and buccaneers. In 1793 a British whaling fleet arrived and the islands became a regular port of call for whaling fleets throughout the nineteenth century. Whalers caused incalculable damage to the islands' populations of giant tortoises, which they took in great number for provisions at sea.

The archipelago was annexed by Ecuador and colonised in 1835. A small settlement was established on Floreana which quickly became a penal colony.

During the early twentieth century settlers and scientists flocked to the islands from all over the world. The scientists built up huge collections of wildlife specimens to take back to museums around the world. The settlers introduced alien species such as pigs, dogs, rats and goats which over the years have multiplied catastrophically depriving native species, particularly giant tortoises, of food and encourage soil erosion. Introduced agricultural species such as guava, elephant grass and blackberry are also now out of control on several islands squeezing out native plants such as tree ferns, scalesia and cat’s claw.

During the second world war the USA was permitted to establish an air base on Baltra to protect the Panama Canal – this landing strip is the principal point of entry for visitors today.

In 1959 the Ecuadorian government declared the 97% of the archipelago which is without human population to be a national park and an international foundation called the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF) was created. In 1979 UNESCO declared the Galapagos Islands a World Heritage Site.

The CDF has a research station at Academy Bay on Santa Cruz island where there is a captive breeding programme for endangered tortoises and land iguanas. Its main roles are scientific research and education. The foundation is assisted in its work by the Galapagos National Park Service which concentrates on conservation issues and strictly controls the impact of tourism in the islands. Each year the 70,000 permitted visitors pay a National Park fee (currently US$100 per person) part of which is spent on important programmes to bring about the eradication of introduced species such as feral goats, which number 100,000 on Santiago island alone.

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