The first European to discover Chile was Ferdinand Magellan, in 1520, following the passage in the Strait which bears his name on a wall, at the southern tip of Latin America. Following the conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernán Cortés between 1518 and 1521, a new wave of territorial expansion occurred in the direction of the Inca Empire from 1532—this was exercised by Francisco Pizarro. A partial conquest of Chile started from 1535, which resulted in minor Spanish settlements in the area.
There is controversy regarding the use of the term "discovery" to refer to the European discovery of Chile, as from a collective human perspective, it was already inhabited by humans approximately 16,000 years ago.