This dissertation investigates the history of Chile’s island and ocean territories from roughly 1830 to 1980. Focusing on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), annexed by Chile in 1888, this dissertation reimagines Chile as a maritime geography. I unearth connections between South American ports and the Island Pacific or Oceania, reasserting the place of Latin America in international commerce and the process of globalization. This dissertation gazes inward at Chile from the perspective of a “distant” island in the Pacific, evincing transregional crosspollination and opening new possibilities for historical investigation. “Steam, Sheep, and Exile” approaches Chile as an archipelagic nation, tying together the history of the thousands of islands of the country’s far south and their Indigenous inhabitants with that of its Oceanic outposts.