The Welsh Colony in Patagonia 1865-1885: A Study in Historical Geography

Abstract

The year 1965 marked the centenary of the establishment of a Welsh Colony in the valley of the river Chubut in Patagonia. While it was but an incident in the settlement history of Latin America, its initial phases (1865-85) illustrate many features of the greatest interest to the historical geographer, which have hitherto escaped attention. Due to the depressed conditions at home, many people from rural Wales emigrated overseas in the first half of the nineteenth century. They sought new homes in territories as far apart as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and South Africa, and in two or three generations their descendants became good citizens of their adopted lands. They often ceased to be able to speak the Welsh language and soon lost contact with Welsh life and culture. The establishment of the Welsh colony in Patagonia was an attempt to counteract this, and to establish a new home overseas where the Welsh emigrants could live together and maintain the language and way of life of the homeland. Such a plan was seriously canvassed by Welsh emigrants in the United States and it was here that the idea of establishing a colony in Patagonia was first mooted. One of the earliest supporters was Michael D. Jones who had settled in Ohio in 1845. His assistance, financial support and encouragement both in the United States and later in Wales constituted an important aspect of the movement. It was, how? ever, due to the enthusiasm of a group of Welshmen living in Liverpool in 1859 that the movement gathered momentum. They had been thinking on similar lines to those of the imigre Welshmen in the United States, and virtually formed them? selves into a Policy Committee complete with Chairman and Secretary. When in 1861 E. C. Roberts (one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the idea in the U.S.A.) returned to Liverpool and joined the committee it can be said that two parallel lines of thought had fused (Williams, 1962). Besides conducting propa? ganda through the Press, establishing contact with representatives of the Argentine Government and organizing numerous public meetings throughout Wales, the committee succeeded in doing three important things, each of which has con? siderable geographical interest.

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