History
To begin with, the Galapagos Islands were created from volcanoes. Fray Tomas de Berlanga was the 1st visitor to the Galapagos Islands in 1535. He and his crew told King Carlos V of Spain of the strange tame wildlife and the Galapagos tortoise. There was a chance that the Inca king had discovered the Galapagos Islands in the 15 century, but is uncertain. From this the name stuck. In 1546, some lost sailors came here and named it Las Islas Enchantades because of its movement and it seemed enchanted. William Ambrose Cowley made the first navigational chart in 1684. In the 16th century, it appeared on the map as Insulae delas Galopegos. The first colonists colonized in 1807. Also, whalers came in the 1800’s; it had terrible effects on the elephant tortoise and the near extinct sperm whales. Passing ships had discovered that tortoises could be on their backs and not need food for a year. So they stocked upon them so they could have fresh meat. In 1832, the Galapagos Islands became part of Ecuador. Then when the Panama Canal was being built, the Japanese advanced on the Pacific Ocean, and the U.S.A. was allowed to build a small naval base and airstrip on the Galapagos Islands. After the war, the Galapagos Islands was returned to Ecuadorian government. Now TAME (Transporte Aereo Militar Ecuadoriano) uses the airstrip to attract people from the continent. In 1959, the Ecuadorian government made all uninhabited areas of the Galapagos Islands a national park. Lastly, in 1978 the Galapagos Islands was designated the first heritage site by UNESCO. This just touches a small bit of the history of the Galapagos Islands.