Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region
|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region
XII Región de Magallanes y
de la Antártica Chilena
|Region of Chile|
Map of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region
|Provinces||Magellan, Chilean Antarctica, Tierra del Fuego, Última Esperanza|
|• Intendant||Arturo Storaker|
|• Total||132,291.1 km2 (51,077.9 sq mi)|
|Lowest elevation||0 m (0 ft)|
|Population (2012 census)|
|• Density||1.2/km2 (3.0/sq mi)|
|ISO 3166 code||CL-MA|
|Website||Official website (Spanish)|
The Region of Magallanes, officially the XII Region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica (Spanish: XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena), is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It is the southernmost, largest, and second least populated region of Chile. It comprises four provinces: Última Esperanza, Magallanes, Tierra del Fuego, and Antártica Chilena.
Magallanes has many globally known places and geographical features including Torres del Paine, Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego island, and the Strait of Magellan. It also includes the Antarctic territory claimed by Chile. Despite its large area, much of the land in the region is rugged or closed off for sheep farming, and is thus not suitable for settlement. 80% of the population lives in the capital Punta Arenas, a major market city and one of the main hubs for Antarctic exploration.
The main economic activities are sheep farming, oil extraction, and tourism. It is also the region with the least amount of poverty in Chile (5,8%); households in Magallanes have the highest income of any region in Chile.
This region contains mountainous peaks and glaciers in the far north, including elements of the Patagonian Ice Sheet. Further south there are other mountain ranges such as the Cerro Toro and numerous surface waters including the Seno Última Esperanza, Eberhard Fjord and Lago Grey. Protected areas include the Torres del Paine National Park and the Cueva del Milodon Natural Monument. At the latter, remains have been discovered of the extinct ground sloth as well as of prehistoric man dating to circa 10,000 BC.
Provinces and communes
|Antártica Chilena||Cabo de Hornos||15,854||2,262||1,677||link|
|Tierra del Fuego||Timaukel||10,996||423||204||link|
|Tierra del Fuego||Primavera||4,614||1,016||545||link|
|Tierra del Fuego||Porvenir||6,983||5,465||5,907||link|
|Última Esperanza||Torres del Paine||6,470||739||180||link|
The population of Magellan is one of the lowest in Chile, as one of the last regions colonized and populated.
In the 1854 census counted 158 settlers, who belonged to the people of Punta Arenas, the native population, according to King, amounted in 1830, approximately 2,200 (about 400 in western Patagonia and south approximately 1,600 Strait).
The census of 1875 was aware of 1,144 inhabitants and in 1895 the population had risen to 5,170 inhabitants, mostly concentrated in the city of Punta Arenas and its surroundings.
The installation of the cattle ranches attracted people from Europe (mostly Croats, British, Swiss and Italians) and southern Chile (mostly from Chiloé), which greatly increased the population of the region.
Punta Arenas is said to have the largest percentage of Croatians in the world outside Croatia and the former Yugoslavia. There is a higher proportion of non-Spanish Europeans there as well (esp. Scots and Greeks), and descendants of Germans, Dutch, Danes and other Scandinavians, Russians and Portuguese peoples.
From the late 18th century to the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, thousands of trans-oceanic voyages stopped by Punta Arenas as the most convenient strait between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The settlement of Punta Arenas and the Magellan and Chilean Antarctica Region is a result of its past being a hub to international travel.
Already in the 1907 census, the Territory of Magellan had 17,330 inhabitants, distributed as follows: - City of Punta Arenas: 12,785 hab. - Patagonia Chilena: 1,094 hab. - Pen. of Brunswick: 1,062 hab. - Tierra del Fuego: 1,626 hab. - Beagle Channel: 184 inhabitants. - Last Hope: 392 inhabitants. - Baker River: 187 inhabitants.
This proportion has persisted, the bulk of the regional population in the city of Punta Arenas, and in the provincial capital Puerto Natales, Porvenir (Spanish for "future") and Puerto Williams, one of the world's southernmost cities.
In the past 50 years the population has maintained a moderate increase, as shown below, keeping one of the lowest population densities in the country and since this is mostly urban, mostly concentrated in Punta Arenas.
- 1952: 55,206 hab.
- 1960: 73,358 hab.
- 1970: 89,443 hab.
- 1982: 131,914 hab.
- 1992: 143,198 hab.
- 2002: 150,826 hab.
The most populated cities (2002 census) are: Punta Arenas (116,005 inhabitants), Puerto Natales (16,978) Porvenir (4,734), Puerto Williams (1,952), and Cerro Sombrero (687).
University of Magellan (UMAG) is a university in the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas. It is part of the Chilean Traditional Universities. The University of Magellan was established in 1981 during the neoliberal reforms of the Chile's military regime as the successor of Universidad Técnica del Estado's Punta Arenas section. Universidad Técnica del Estado had established the Punta Arenas section in 1961. The University of Magellan have campuses in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales as well as a university centre in Puerto Williams. University of Magellan publishes the humanities and social sciences journal Magallania twice a year.
Map showing the Chilean Antarctic Territory
|Pacific Ocean||Santa Cruz Province
Tierra del Fuego Province
Media related to Category:Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region at Wikimedia Commons
- "Magallanes & the Chilean Antartic Region". Government of Chile Foreign Investment Committee. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
- "Decreto Ley 2339. Otorga denominación a la Región Metropolitana y a las regiones del país, en la forma que indica.". Ley Chile (in Spanish). Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. 10 October 1978. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- C.M. Hogan, 2008
- "National Statistics Institute" (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- "Territorial division of Chile" (PDF). Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- C. Michael Hogan (2008) Cueva del Milodon, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham The Megalithic Portal
- Gobierno Regional Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Official website (Spanish)
- Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve
- BBC article: "Lake disappears suddenly in Chile"