Beginning in the late 19th century, Europeans began to settle in the region, developing large sheep ranches on the main island.

In 1890, the Chilean government granted Salesian missionaries from Italy a 20-year concession to Dawson Island to educate, care for, and try to assimilate indigenous peoples into European-Chilean culture.

After the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet used the island to house political prisoners suspected of being communist activists, including government ministers and close friends of the deposed President Salvador Allende, most notably Orlando Letelier, Luis Corvalán, Clodomiro Almeyda and José Tohá.

[citation needed] Members of the International Red Cross, BBC, and Brazilian press corps were permitted to visit the camps.

It was based on a memoir of the same name written by Sergio Bitar, a former political prisoner on the island during the Augusto Pinochet regime.