The region's current namesake is the former President of Chile, General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo.

While the western part of the region is densely vegetated and mountainous, the eastern reaches contain open grasslands and much flat and rolling terrain.

[10] The relief found throughout the region results in different types of climate zones in the western and eastern parts.

[11] These two ice fields receive abundant precipitation year-round, particularly in the west facing slopes of the Andes that descend to the ocean and fiords.

[11] Mean summer temperatures can exceed 15 °C (59.0 °F) in Chile Chico, which permits agriculture, similar to the one in the central parts of the country.

[11][12] The primary sector dominates in the regional economy, which focuses on the exploitation and processing of marine, mining, forestry, and animal resources.

[8] The archipelago and fjord region in the west is primarily oriented towards the exploitation and cultivation of marine resources.

Exploitation of forests and the production of yard timber, plywood, and panels for furniture is mostly geared to export markets.

[21] Both Chonos and Kawésqar used Pilgerodendron uviferum as firewood as well as wood for rows, boats and houses.

[22] Guaitecas Archipelago made up the southern limit of Pre-Hispanic agriculture[23] as noted by the mention of the cultivation of potatoes by a Spanish expedition in 1557.

[24] Pedro de Valdivia sought originally to conquer all of southern South America to the Straits of Magellan (53° S).

[25] Indeed, even in Chiloé did the Spanish encounter difficulties to adapt as their attempts to base the economy on gold extraction and a "hispanic-mediterranean" agricultural model failed.

There were a number of motivations for their explorations, including a desire to Christianize indigenous peoples, to prevent intrusions of foreign powers into territory claimed by Spain, to increase geographic knowledge of the zone, and finally, to search for a mythical city called City of the Caesars.

[27] The said order was carried of by José de Moraleda who led an expedition that visited many of the main channels of the zone.

[27] Following the decline of the Chono populations in the archipelago in the 18th century, the area gained a reputation of "emptyness" among Chileans akin to the description of eastern Patagonia as a "desert.

In 1870, Aysén Fjord was explored by Enrique Simpson onboard the Chacabuco, who discovered its usefulness for accessing more inland locations.

[29] Following the signing of the Boundary Treaty with Argentina in 1881, European settlers came from the Pampas to the valleys that cross the Andes from east to west.

In the archipelagos south of the Gulf of Penas and to Tierra del Fuego lived the Alacalufes or Kaweshkar, also fishermen.

Both groups were quickly decimated by disease and attacks by settlers in the late 19th century coming from northern and southern Chile and Europe; a great number of the Europeans were from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the former Yugoslavia, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom.

Large numbers of Russians, Croats, Scots, Welsh, Irish, and Sudeten Germans from present Czech Republic arrived by government invitation and land sale programs to assist in populating southern Chile and to reduce the number of indigenous peoples.

[32] The Gaucho is an important symbol of the region shaping the cuisine, dance, and music of Aysén rather than the Huaso of Central Chile.

It is the blend of these cultures and geographic isolation that make Aysén a region distinct from the national identity of Chile which to a large degree developed around the center of the country.