[4][5] It is believed that they were discovered by the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda in 1499, who named the islands after the similarity of the rock formations to the hoods worn by monks.

This archipelago and the unwillingness of the governments of Colombia and Venezuela to define their maritime boundaries has generated diplomatic friction between the two nations.

In 1891, Queen María Cristina of Spain issued an arbitration ruling recognizing Colombia's ownership of almost the entire Guajira Peninsula based on the 1777 and 1790 decrees on the segregation of Maracaibo and Sinamaica, stating that all differences over boundaries were terminated.

On August 9, 1987 the frigate ARC Caldas of the Colombian Navy sailed in undefined waters of the Gulf that Venezuela considers its own, very close to the archipelago, which caused strong tension between both countries and military mobilization by both governments that included in the Venezuelan case: the F-16 fighters, later the Colombian frigate withdrew from the area without fighting.

On January 22, 1999, the then President of Venezuela, Rafael Caldera, almost at the end of his second term of office (1994-1999), inaugurated the works that allowed the union of the two main islands located to the south of the Monks' archipelago, by creating an artificial rock bridge with land gained from the sea, using the material obtained from blasting in the islands themselves, as well as inaugurating a security port.