Spanish colonization attempt of the Strait of Magellan

In the late 16th century, the Spanish Empire attempted to settle the Strait of Magellan with the aim of controlling the only known passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at the time.

The colonization effort took the form of a naval expedition led by veteran explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, which set sail from Cádiz in December 1581.

[1] Aid to the struggling colony was later hampered by Sarmiento falling prisoner to English corsairs in 1586 and the unresponsivity of King Philip II, likely due to the strain of Spain's resources caused by the wars with England and Dutch rebels.

Antonio Pigafetta understood his voyage through the area with Magellan as an unrepeatable feat, yet others in Europe saw it instead as an opportunity and a strategic location to facilitate long-range trade.

[6] The Strait of Magellan was never reached by the land-based Spanish colonization of South America as southward expansion halted after the conquest of the Chiloé Archipelago in 1567.

[8] In 1578 English navigator Francis Drake entered the Pacific Ocean by crossing the strait, effectively inaugurating an era of privateering and piracy along the coasts of Chile.

[13] On 23 March Sarmiento's party reached a bay with favourable conditions where they founded the city of Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe two days later.

[14][9] Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe was built to have plenty of wooden buildings such as a church, town hall, royal magazine, a Franciscan convent and a clergy house.

[16] There, realizing there was not enough food for all, Andrés de Biedma ordered the people to scatter along the northern coast of the strait and wait for any vessel that could provide aid.

[3] When the next English navigator, Thomas Cavendish, landed at the site of Ciudad Rey Don Felipe in 1587, he found the ruins of the settlement as well as a handful of survivors whom he refused to assist.

"[17] The last known survivor was rescued in 1590 by Andrew Merrick, captain of the Delight, the only one of five vessels to reach the strait from an expedition organized by another English corsair, John Childley.

[21] King Philip II's inaction despite repeated appeals by Sarmiento to aid the ailing colony was likely due to the strain on Spain's resources that resulted from wars with England and Dutch rebels.

[22] Rumours of a foreign settlement in Patagonia resurfaced in 1676 when claims that England was preparing an expedition to settle the Strait of Magellan reached the Spanish courts.