The Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region (, , ), often shortened to Aysén Region or Aisén,Examples of name usage: 1 , official regional government site refers to the region as "Región de Aysén". 2 , Chile's official meteorological agency refers to the region as "Región de Aisén". 3 Chilean government official website refers of Pilar Cuevas Mardones as intendant of "Región de Aysén" . 4 Chile's Ministry of Public Works calls the region "Región de Aysén" in the title of their 2011 report on that region. 5 , Corporación Nacional Forestal, a government agency refers to the region as "Región de Aysén" in their homepage.
Here is some evidence of the short name use in English: I, The Guardian reports on the 2012 Aysén protest. II, Santiago Times, a local English language newspaper use "Aysén Region" in a note referring to the same protest. III Santiago Times again.
V scientific paper in Journal of Hospital Infection referring to the region as "Aysen Region". is one of Chile's 16 regions. It is the third-largest region in area and the least populous, with a population of 102,317 as of 2017. The capital of the region is Coyhaique, the region's former namesake. The region's current namesake is the former President of Chile, General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo.
The landscape is marked by several glaciations that formed many lakes, channels and fjords. The region contains icefields including the Northern Patagonian Ice Field and the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the world's third largest after those in Antarctica and Greenland. The northern half of the region feature a north-south string of volcanoes. While the western part of the region is densely vegetated and mountainous, the eastern reaches contain open grasslands and much flat and rolling terrain.
Aysén Region was the last major area to be effectively incorporated into the Republic of Chile, with the first permanent settlements emerging in the second half of the 19th century and the inland part being settled at the turn of the century. Until the construction of Route 7 (the Carretera Austral, or Southern Highway) in the 1980s, the only overland routes from north to south through the region were extremely primitive tracks.
Etymology
There is no certainty about the origin of the name Aysén, which has been used to designate the region since at least the 18th century, although several theories exist. One proposes that it comes from a Huilliche word achén or aichirrn, meaning "twisted" or "crumbled," a typical characteristic of the fjords in the area. Another suggests it derives from a word of Chono origin meaning "that which goes further inland," referring to the Aysén Fjord as seen from the coast of the Moraleda Channel.
Another possible origin, proposed by Kémel Sade, is a compound word from the Gününa Küne or Aonikenk language that could be translated as "rocks where there is water," alluding to the numerous water sources compared to the more eastern territory inhabited by these tribes.
One of the most controversial proposals is that the region takes its name from the English words "ice end". This idea is attributed to the captain of HMS Beagle, Robert FitzRoy, who during his expedition along the region's coast together with Charles Darwin around 1835 may have marked the area on his maps with these words. However, the name Aysen already appears on maps by the Spanish cartographer José de Moraleda, produced in the early 1790s.
During the period of colonization of the territory, the grave pronunciation with a definite article was common: el Aisen.
Although contemporary Spanish orthography prefers the spelling "Aisén" with i, the name of the region is often written with y. In both cases, the words are pronounced with the same semivowel sound for y/i, since the use of y corresponds to an archaic feature of Spanish orthography that is still preserved in the toponymy of some Spanish localities. The use of both spellings is widespread, although "Aysén" is locally preferred.
Both the Military Geographic Institute (IGM), responsible for regulating Chilean toponymy, and the National Statistics Institute used the word Aisén until the beginning of the 21st century; however, in 2010 the IGM decided to use the name Aysén, as well as "Coyhaique" instead of "Coihaique" for the regional capital, which also presents this dual spelling.
Regarding the designation "General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo," Decree Law No. 712 of 1974 gave the region this name due to "the need to pay tribute to the memory of General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo for his outstanding administration and constant struggle to uplift our Nation." (La necesidad de rendir homenaje a la memoria del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo por su destacada administración y constante lucha por levantar nuestra Nación).
History
Pre-Hispanic settlements
Archaeology in the Aysén Region has so far shown that the earliest settlements came from east of the Andes. Some evidence indicates that approximately 12,600 years ago, hunter-gatherers widely distributed throughout the Americas reached this territory, occupying the continental portion of Patagonia as far south as the Strait of Magellan. An important migration is thought to have occurred about 9,400 years ago, with these people becoming established and altering the existing pattern of development. Later, around 5,000 years ago, new populations entered from Magallanes, while others arrived along the coast, causing a demographic increase that eventually led to the emergence of multiple distinct groups.
During the period of Spanish colonial exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries, various nomadic canoe peoples were reported in the area. They were known by different names, and their relationships with one another are unclear. Among them were the Chono and the Kawésqar, also known as Alacaluf. On the mainland, the nomadic Aónik'enk, also known as Tehuelche or Patagonians, were prominent. Following contact with Europeans, these peoples began to disappear as a result of disease, slave raids, and forced migrations to Chiloé, followed later by disease, alcoholism, and killings carried out by hunters and adventurers.
Explorations
Aysén was one of the last areas of what is now Chile to be explored, colonized, and incorporated into the country. The first person to visit these lands was Hernando de Magellan, who named the lands he saw after crossing the strait the “Province of Trapananda.” He observed a rugged coastline with high mountains, which he called the “Lands of December” (Tierras de Diciembre). Later, Pedro de Valdivia sent an expedition in 1553 under Francisco de Ulloa. Ulloa reached the Taitao Peninsula, becoming the first navigator to set foot in these lands.
During the colonial period, Spanish explorers barely traveled through the channels of Aysén, and those who did were unsuccessfully searching for a route to the mythical City of the Caesars.
The Trapananda region (present-day Aysén) was incorporated into the domains of Chiloé. This geographical area, located between the Chiloé Archipelago and the Strait of Magellan, was considered the final area to be fortified for the Spanish Empire.María Ximena Urbina Carrasco (2011). La proyección colonial de Chile a la Patagonia Insular en el siglo XVIII. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. These domains extended as far as Cape Horn.
Between 1557 and 1679, twelve religious expeditions were undertaken to explore the region.
On old maps, the Patagonian region between the 48th and 50th parallels south appeared to be occupied almost exclusively by a large island called “Campana,” separated from the mainland by the “Channel of the Calén Nation.” This nation was believed to have existed until the 18th century between the 48th and 49th parallels south.
In 1741, the British ship HMS Wager was wrecked in the Guayaneco Archipelago. Following the incident, Spain increased its interest in the region, expanding expeditions to the Ofqui Isthmus and sending Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries, who relocated canoe peoples.
In 1743, Mateo Abraham Evrard led an expedition to Wager Island.
Between 1762 and 1767, and again in 1798, the Jesuit J. Vicuña visited the region. Juan Levien received a land title between the 43rd and 48th parallels south after assisting José de Moraleda.
In 1749, King Ferdinand VI of Spain ordered the construction of Fort San Fernando de Tenquehuén on the Taitao Peninsula. It was later dismantled. Previously, the English admiral George Anson had promoted the establishment of a British settlement on Inche Island.
In 1792, an expedition led by Francisco de Clemente y Miró, together with Luis Lasqueti, traveled to Inche Island in the Chonos Archipelago.
Fishermen and farmers from Chiloé sailed along the Aysén coast, particularly around the Guaitecas Islands. They established temporary settlements to hunt sea lions and sea otters and to extract Guaitecas cypress wood. The first permanent settlement on these islands was the town of Melinka, founded in 1859 and the oldest settlement in the region.
Several scientific expeditions also visited the area. Notable among them was the expedition of Robert FitzRoy aboard HMS Beagle, accompanied by Charles Darwin, between late 1834 and early 1835, when they explored parts of the Chonos Archipelago. In 1857, the Chilean Navy organized an expedition led by Lieutenant Francisco Hudson, who was shipwrecked and died. Five years later, Captain Francisco Vidal Gormaz was sent to navigate the coasts of continental Chiloé and the Guaitecas Islands. In 1870, the Chilean Navy commissioned Enrique Simpson to explore the western coast of Patagonia in search of a passage to the inland valleys. He reached the river that was later named after him.
Apart from these expeditions, the Chilean presence was almost nonexistent, unlike in the Magallanes area farther south, where the government was carrying out a colonization policy. During the border dispute with Argentina over control of Patagonia, little attention was paid to the uninhabited lands of Aysén. Instead, efforts focused on defining territorial claims around the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego. The Chile–Argentina border through the Aysén area was established by the 1881 Treaty, but numerous disagreements arose over the following years. Chile therefore hired the German geographer Hans Steffen to explore the area and assist with defining the borders. Ultimately, the disputes between Chile and Argentina were submitted to the British Crown, which determined the division of the disputed territory through an arbitration award.
Colonization
The settlement of Aysén was initially carried out mainly by colonists from Chiloé. Around 1880, the first settlement on the mainland was established: a group of houses for workers at a cypress sawmill in Aysén Fjord.
The Chilean state made its first attempt at colonization during the same decade. In 1888, around twenty families from Chiloé reached the mouth of the Palena River and settled on Los Leones Island, at the same location where Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda would later be founded. In January 1889, the government of José Manuel Balmaceda therefore created the Palena colony (Lower Palena),Ministry of the Interior (10 January1889). Decreto s/n: Funda una población en la isla de los Leones en la desembocadura del río Palena. Diario Oficial de la República de Chile (Santiago). p. 7. which was administered by the Intendancy of Llanquihue.Martinic Beros, Mateo (2004). «El dominio del territorio. El poblamiento fundacional (1903-1928)». De la Trapananda al Aysén: una mirada reflexiva sobre el acontecer de la Región de Aysén desde la Prehistoria hasta nuestros días. Santiago: Pehuén Editores. pp. 115-118.