Tierra del Fuego, Argentina 6.01

Tierra del Fuego is an Argentine province.The province had been inhabited by indigenous people for more than 12,000 years, since they migrated south of the mainland. It was first discovered by a European in 1520 when spotted by Ferdinand Magellan. Even after Argentina achieved independence, this territory remained under indigenous control until the nation's campaign known as the Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s. After destroying most of the native population in the desert part of Patagonia, Argentina organized this section in 1885 as a territory. European immigration followed due to a gold rush and rapid expansion of sheep farming on large ranches in the area. Tierra del Fuego is the most recent Argentine territory to gain provincial status, which occurred in 1990.ExtentThe effective extent of the province is the eastern part of the island of Tierra del Fuego, Isla de los Estados and adjacent islands.However, Argentina has made a territorial claim over the two British overseas territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and over a segment of Antarctica, which overlaps with the British and Chilean claims on that continent. Although Argentina exercises no authority in those territories, other than in Argentine Antarctic bases, nevertheless those territories (known in Argentine Spanish as las Islas del Atlántico Sur and Antártida Argentina respectively) have been nominally included in the province since 1990.