Galapagos History
DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION
The Galapagos were largely ignored and considered unremarkable except to the occasional ship's naturalist until Charles Darwin landed in 1835 aboard HMS Beagle. Darwin was at the time a young man who had embarked on the exploratory voyage while in the midst of studying for the clergy. The voyage and especially the experience and collection of animal specimens from the Galapagos led to the development and crystallization of a set of ideas that would lead to Darwin's theory of evolution. Surprisingly perhaps, when Darwin arrived at the Galapagos, he was more interested in their geology than biology, though this changed when he started to look at what there was to be found there.
What fascinated Darwin the most was the geographical isolation and distribution of species. In Voyage of the Beagle, published in 1845, he documented his epic natural history journey. His discourse on the subject of evolution was not published until 1859, when the first edition of On the Origin of Species emerged in England and forever changed the study of evolutionary biology.
THE FIRST COLONISTS
Galapagos received its first resident, Irishman Patrick Watkins, arrived on the island of Floreana marooned at sea in 1807. For two years he lived from growing vegetables, sometimes trading them with passing whaling ships for rum. Eventually he stole a ship's longboat, taking some of the sailors with him, however only he arrived at Guayaquil on the continent. Another famous visitor, Herman Melville recounts the tale in his stories The Encantadas. The Galapagos were officially annexed by Ecuador in 1832 and were named "Archipiélago del Ecuador." At this time, a small colony was established on Floreana; it soon turned into a penal settlement as many political and other prisoners were sent there as well as prostitutes. The ensuing history for the next century was one of repeated colonisation attempts by settlers, and with penal colonies, most of which were ill-fated. Efforts were made to exploit Fisheries, tortoises, dyer's moss (a lichen), and salt mines. Only the fisheries continue and only on a small scale. Settlement at Villamil on Isabela dates from 1893 while Puerto Ayora [Academy Bay) on Santa Cruz, was started by a group of Norwegians in 1926.
Between 1850 and 1950, both Britain and the United States attempted to lease or purchase the islands on several occasions but their attempts were resisted. In 1892, the islands were officially renamed "Archipiélago de Colón" in honour of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón), but to this day "the Galapagos" remains the most used name. At this time too, the various islands were officially renamed in Spanish. Up to this time a variety of names, both English and Spanish, had been used, but even now there is little consensus as to their use. Santa Cruz has had eight different names in its short history and Santiago six! Table 1 lists some of these names and their derivations.
In 1942, the United States was permitted to construct a major air base on one of the islands, Baltra, to protect and defend the Panama Canal. After World War II, the United States returned this base and its airstrip to Ecuador. Legislation to protect the archipelago had begun in 1934, but war and politics prevented official protection to take place until 1959, when Ecuador established Galapagos National Park. In that same year, 100 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, the Charles Darwin Foundation was established under the auspices of UNESCO and the World Conservation Union. The Foundation's stated goal is "to provide knowledge and support to ensure the conservation of the environment and biodiversity of the Galapagos Archipelago through scientific research and complementary actions." To achieve this goal, in 1964 the Foundation opened the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz.
The principal partner of the Charles Darwin Foundation is the Galapagos National Park Service, the government agency that manages the National Park, and, since the passing of the Special Law for Galapagos in 1998, the Marine Reserve. The CDF helped to establish the GNPS in 1968, and over the years, the Park-Station partnership has become a model for how conservation science and management can work together.