Few young students in the western world have failed to read the famous novel, Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe (1719). Although set in the Caribbean region, the story does relate to the real Robinson Crusoe Islands in the Pacific Ocean 667 km off the coast of continental Chile. These islands, also known as the Juan Fernandez Islands after the Spanish navigator who first discovered them in 1574 (Medina, 1974), harboured a Robinson Crusoe-type sailor for five years during 1704–9. After having suffered passage around Cape Horn, Alexander Selkirk had a dispute with Captain Thomas Stradling of the ship, Cinque Ports, and demanded to be set off at the next available land, which to his misfortune happened to be the Juan Fernandez Islands. In this solitude he endured a quiet and eventually rewarding experience that created genuine interest in journalists of the day (including Defoe) when he finally returned to England in 1711.

The Juan Fernandez Islands have been of even greater interest for economic and strategic reasons to European countries for over four centuries. The two greatest considerations were as a location for refitting boats and recuperating crews after the long and arduous trip around the tip of South America, and as a place to mount raids against ships and coastal towns throughout the colonial Spanish empire. Ships coming from Europe had an initial long journey across the Atlantic Ocean and down the eastern coast of South America, generally touching Brazil and Argentina.