included the Tehuelches, whose numbers and society were reduced to near extinction not long after the first contacts with Europeans. Tehuelches included the Gununa'kena to the north, Mecharnuekenk in south central Patagonia and the Aonikenk or Southern Tehuelche in the far South, north of the Magellan channel. On Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, the Selk'nam (Ona) and Haush (Mannekenk) lived in the north and south east respectively. In the archipelagos to the south of Tierra del Fuego were Y�mana, with the Kaw�skar (Alakaluf) in the coastal areas and islands in western Tierra del Fuego and the south west of the mainland. In the Patagonian archipelagoes north of Taitao Peninsula lived theChonos. These groups were encountered in the first periods of European contact with different lifestyles, body decoration and language, although it is unclear when this configuration emerged.
Around 1000 BC, Mapuche-speaking agriculturalists penetrated the western Andes and from there across into the eastern plains and down to the far south. Through confrontation and technological ability, they came to dominate the other peoples of the region in a short period of time, and are the principal indigenous community today. The Tehuelche model of domination through technological superiority and armed confrontation was later repeated as Europeans implemented a succeeding but conceptually identical cycle, essentially replacing the position of the former dominators with a new, albeit predominately European class.
Early European exploration and Spanish conquest attempts (1520�1584)
Nao Victoriathe first shipStrait of MagellanThe region of Patagonia was first mentioned in European accounts in 1520 by the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, who on his passage along the coast named many of the more striking features � San Mat�as Gulf, Cape of 11,000 Virgins (now simply Cape Virgenes), and others. However, it is also possible that earlier navigators such as Amerigo
