Fray Thomas de Berlanga

The archipelago was used as hiding place by the English pirates that pilfered the Spanish galleons carrying gold and silver from South America to Spain. The islands first appeared on maps in about 1570 in those drawn by Abraham Ortelius and Mercator. The islands were called "Insulae de los Galopegos" (Islands of the Tortoises). The first English to visit Galapagos was Richard Hawkins, in 1593. From that time until 1816 many famous pirates visited the archipelago.

The man after who's adventures in Juan Fernandez Islands inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk, visited the Galapagos in 1708 after he was picked up from Juan Fernandez by the privateer Woodes Rogers, while Rogers was refitting his ships in the islands after sacking Guayaquil. The first scientific mission to the Galapagos arrived in 1790 under the leadership of Alessandro Malaspina, a Sicilian captain whose expedition was sponsored by the King of Spain. However, the records of the expedition were lost. In 1793, James Collnet made a description of the flora and fauna of Galapagos and suggested that the islands could be used as base for the whalers operating in the Pacific Ocean.

He also draw the first accurate navigation charts of the islands. Whalers killed and captured thousands of the Galapagos tortoises to extract their fat. The tortoises could also be kept on board ship as a means of providing of fresh protein as these animals could survive for several months on board without any food or water. The hunting of the tortoises was responsible for greatly diminishing and in some cases eliminating certain races.

Along with whalers came the fur-seal hunters who brought the population of this animal close to extinction. Ecuador annexed the Galapagos Islands on February 12, 1832, naming it Archipelago of Ecuador. This was a new name that added-up to several names that had been, and are still, used to refer to the archipelago. The first governor of Galapagos, General Jose de Villamil, brought a group of convicts to populate the island of Floreana and in October 1832 some artisans and farmers joined.

Charles Darwin was the first to make a scientific study of the islands. He was a young student just out of university and was the naturalist on a round-the-world scientific and geographical voyage on board the HMS Beagle (1831 - 1836). Darwin reached the Galapagos on September 15 1835 and spent about five weeks, until October 20, studying the geology and biology on four of the thirteen islands. It was here that he began to develop his theories of evolution. During WWII Ecuador authorized the United States to establish a naval base in Baltra Island and radar stations in other strategic locations. In 1959, with funds raised from various scientists and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) the Charles Darwin Research Center was established. That same year, Ecuador declared the Galapagos a National Park and 95% of the archipelago was protected.

Organized tourism began in the mid-60s with a little over 1,000 visitors a year, a number which has increased ten-fold over the decades with an estimated 60,000 tourists visiting the islands in 1991.

UNESCO recognised the islands as a World Heritage Site in 1978, which was extended in December 2001 to include the marine reserve. The Charles Darwin Foundation dedicated to the conservation of the islands was founded in Belgium in 1959.