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PATAGONIA TIMELINE

1860's: Michael Jones and the 'Wladfa'

1870's: Gaiman Established

1880's: From Chapels to Railways

1890's: Heavy Flooding

1900's: More Flooding

1910's: The 'Golden Age'

1920's: The Depression

1930's: A Language Oppressed

1940's: The Chubut Suffers

1950's: A Dam for the 'Wladfa'?

1960's: Centenary Year

1970's: The Chubut Music School

1980's: The Falklands

1990's: Funding Welsh Teachers





1861: A meeting at Bod Iwan, Bala, between Michael Jones, the head of Bala College and others to discuss the possibility of establishing a Welsh colony. Michael Jones had been in discussions with the Argentine Government who were prepared to offer a hundred square miles to the Welsh. The handbook of the Wladfa is published for prospective emigrants.

1862: Lewis Jones goes to Buenos Aires to confirm the agreement with Dr Rawson from the Argentine government.

1865: Approximately 200 Welsh sailed from Liverpool in May on board the Mimosa, a brig of 447 tons. A two-month voyage lay before them.

1865: July 27th - Having had good weather, the ship lands at a place which became to be known as Puerto Madryn. They are greeted by Lewis Jones and Edwin Roberts. The landscape around the settlers is completely different to Wales, and also to all the other places which the Welsh had emigrated over the years, such as Pennsylvania.

1865: With the land very difficult to cultivate, the first settlers suffer form a lack of food and scarce resources generally - there are many stories of hardship from this period.

1867: November - Two important events which changed the fortunes of the settlers. A ship arrives with supplies and Rachel Jenkins suggests that channels are dug around the Chubut river to make the land more fertile - this is a development which historians recognise saved the whole colony to a large extent. The following spring, wheat was harvested and the success brought more attention from the government in Santa Fe. Dr Rawson sent more food and livestock.