The territory of present-day
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
has been populated since at least 12,000 BC. In the 16th century
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
conquistadorConquistador is the term widely used to refer to the Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th through the 17th centuries following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s began to subdue and colonize the region of present-day Chile, and the territory became a colony from 1540 to 1818, when it gained independence from Spain. Chile's economic development was successively marked by the export of first agricultural produce, then
saltpeterSodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula NaNO
3. This salt, also known as "Chile saltpeter" or "Peru saltpeter" , is a white solid which is very soluble in water...
and later
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
until the 1980s. The wealth of raw materials led to an economic upturn, but also led to dependency, and even wars with neighboring states. The country was governed during most of its first 150 years of independent life by different forms of restricted democracy, where the electorate was carefully vetted and controlled by an elite. Failure to address the economic and social disparities and increasing political awareness of the less-affluent population, as well as indirect intervention and economic funding to the main political groups by both the
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
and the CIA , as part of the Cold War, led to a political polarization under socialist President
Salvador AllendeSalvador Isabelino Allende Gossens was a physician and the first democratically elected Marxist socialist to become president of a state in the Americas....
which in turn resulted in the
Chilean coup of 1973The Chilean coup d'état of 1973 was a watershed event in the history of Chile and the Soviet-American Cold War. On 11 September 1973, the government of President Salvador Allende was overthrown by the military in a coup d’état....
and the government of General
Augusto PinochetAugusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean army general and later head of state as president. He was the Commander in Chief of the Chilean army from 1973 to 1998, president of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981 and President of the Republic from 1974 until the return of...
. The
17-year military-led governmentGeneral Augusto Pinochet one of the most controversial figures in the history of Chile, was head of the military junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990....
was marked by severe human-rights violations and deep market-oriented economic reforms. In 1988, Chile made a peaceful
transition to democracyThe Chilean transition to democracy began on September 11, 1980, when a Constitution establishing a transition itinerary was approved in a plebiscite. From March 11, 1981 to March 11, 1990, several organic constitutional laws were approved leading to the final restoration of democracy...
. Sound economic policies have contributed to steady growth.
Early history
About 12,000 years ago, migrating
Native AmericansThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
settled in the fertile valleys and coastal areas of what is present day Chile. Pre-Hispanic Chile was home to over a dozen different Amerindian societies. The current prevalent theories are that the putos initial arrival of humans to the continent took place either along the Pacific coast southwards in a rather rapid expansion long preceding the
Clovis cultureThe Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoindian culture that first appears in the archaeological record of North America around 11,500 rcbp radiocarbon years ago, at the end of the last glacial period, characterized by a particular tool kit adapted to the hunting of large mammals...
, or even trans-Pacific migration. These theories are backed by findings in the
Monte VerdeMonte Verde is an archaeological site in south-central Chile, which has been dated to 14,500 years BP .. This dating adds to the evidence showing that settlement in the Americas pre-dates the Clovis culture by roughly 1000 years...
archaeological site, which predates the Clovis site by thousands of years. Specific early human settlement sites from the very early human habitation in Chile include the Cueva del Milodon and the
Pali Aike CraterThe Pali Aike Crater is an extinct volcano cone within a series of such craters in the Pali-Aike National Park. The locale of this crater is a semi-desert. This crater within the Pali-Aike Volcanic Field has an extant lava tube which has yielded archaeological traces termed by C. Michael Hogan as...
's
lava tubeLava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like...
.
Despite such diversity, it is possible to classify the indigenous people into three major cultural groups: the northern people, who developed rich handicrafts and were influenced by
pre-Incan culturesThis is a chart of Cultural periods of Peru and the Andean Region developed by Edward Lanning and used by some archaeologists studying the area. An alternative dating system was developed by Luis Lumbreras and provides different dates for some archaeological finds...
; the Araucanian culture, who inhabited the area between the river
ChoapaChoapa River or El Río Choapa is a river of Chile located in the Coquimbo Region. The river rises in the Andes, at the confluence of the streams Totoral, Leiva and Del Valle. The river then flows through the town of Salamanca before it meets with its main tributary, the Illapel River...
and the island of
ChiloéChiloé Island , also known as Greater Island of Chiloé , is the largest island of Chiloé Archipelago off the coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean. The island is located in southern Chile, in the Los Lagos Region...
, and lived primarily off agriculture; and the Patagonian culture, composed of various nomadic tribes, who supported themselves through fishing and hunting (and who in Pacific/Pacific Coast immigration scenario would be descended partly from the most ancient settlers).
No elaborate, centralized, sedentary civilization reigned supreme.
The Araucanians, a fragmented society of hunters, gatherers, and farmers, constituted the largest native American group in Chile. A mobile people who engaged in trade and warfare with other indigenous groups, they lived in scattered family clusters and small villages. Although the Araucanians had no written language, they did use a common tongue. Those in what became central Chile were more settled and more likely to use irrigation. Those in the south combined slash-and-burn agriculture with hunting. Of the three Araucanian groups, the one that mounted the fiercest resistance to the attempts at seizure of their territory were the
MapucheThe Mapuche are the indigenous inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina. They were known as Araucanians by the Spaniards. This is now considered pejorative by the people and the term Mapuche is the one most often used by people in conversation...
, meaning "people of the land."
The
Inca EmpireThe Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca Empire arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in early 13th century...
briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, where they collected tribute from small groups of fishermen and oasis farmers but were not able to establish a strong cultural presence in the area. As the Spaniards would after them, the Incas encountered fierce resistance and so were unable to exert control in the south. During their attempts at conquest in 1460 and again in 1491, the Incas established forts in the Central Valley of Chile, but they could not colonize the region. The
MapucheThe Mapuche are the indigenous inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina. They were known as Araucanians by the Spaniards. This is now considered pejorative by the people and the term Mapuche is the one most often used by people in conversation...
fought against the Sapa
Tupac Inca YupanquiTúpac Inca Yupanqui was the tenth Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire, and fifth of the Hanan dynasty. His father was Pachacuti, and his son was Huayna Capac.-Description:...
(1471-93 CE) and his army. The result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the
Battle of the MauleThe Battle of the Maule, in modern Chile, was fought between the Mapuche people and the Inca Empire. It took place over three days and resulted in the end of the Incas' southward expansion...
was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the
Maule riverThe Maule river is one of the most important rivers of Chile and is inextricably linked to this country's pre-Hispanic times, the country's conquest, colonial period, wars of Independence, modern history, agriculture , culture , religion, economy and politics...
, which subsequently became the boundary between the Incan empire and the Mapuche lands until the arrival of the Spaniards.
Scholars speculate that the total Araucanian population may have numbered 1 million at most when the Spaniards arrived in the 1530s; a century of European conquest and disease reduced that number by at least half. During the conquest, the Araucanians quickly added horses and European weaponry to their arsenal of clubs and bows and arrows. They became adept at raiding Spanish settlements and, albeit in declining numbers, managed to hold off the Spaniards and their descendants until the late nineteenth century. The Araucanians' valor inspired the Chileans to mythologize them as the nation's first national heroes, a status that did nothing, however, to elevate the wretched living standard of their descendants.
Spanish conquest and colony
The first European to sight Chilean territory was
Ferdinand MagellanFerdinand Magellan was a maritime navigator and explorer. Ferdinand Magellan was born circa 1480 at Sabrosa, near Vila Real, in the province of Tras-os-Montes, one of the wildest districts of Portugal...
, who crossed the
Strait of MagellanThe Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland Chile and north of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego...
on November 1, 1520. However, the title of discoverer of Chile is usually assigned to
Diego de AlmagroDiego de Almagro , also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo , was a Spanish conquistador and a companion and later rival of Francisco Pizarro...
. Almagro was
Francisco PizarroFrancisco Pizarro González, 1st Marqués de los Atabillos was a Spanish conquistador, conqueror of the Incan Empire and founder of Lima, the modern-day capital of Peru. Pizarro was born in Trujillo, Extremadura, modern Spain. Sources differ in the birth year they assign to him: 1471, 1475–1478, or...
's partner, and he received command of the southern part of the Inca Empire (
Nueva Toledo). He organized an expedition that brought him to central Chile in 1537, but he found little of value to compare with the gold and silver of the Incas in Peru. Left with the impression that the inhabitants of the area were poor, he returned to Peru, later to die in a Civil War.
After this initial excursion there was little interest from colonial authorities in further exploring modern-day Chile. However,
Pedro de ValdiviaPedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, where he served under Francisco Pizarro in Peru...
, captain of the army, realizing the potential for expanding the Spanish empire southward, asked Pizarro's permission to invade and conquer the southern lands. With a couple of hundred men, he subdued the local inhabitants and founded the city of Santiago de Nueva Extremadura, now Santiago de Chile, on February 12, 1541.
Although Valdivia found little gold in Chile he could see the agricultural richness of the land. He continued his explorations of the region west of the Andes and founded over a dozen towns and established the first
encomiendaThe encomienda is a trusteeship labor system that was employed by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Philippines. In the encomienda, the crown granted a person a specified number of natives for whom they were to take responsibility. The receiver of the grant...
s. The greatest resistance to Spanish rule came from the
MapucheThe Mapuche are the indigenous inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina. They were known as Araucanians by the Spaniards. This is now considered pejorative by the people and the term Mapuche is the one most often used by people in conversation...
culture, who opposed European conquest and colonization until the 1880s; this resistance is known as the
Arauco WarThe Arauco War was a conflict that lasted three centuries, making it one of the longest wars in human history, between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people of the region south of the Bío Bío River, the Araucanía, nowadays the Araucanía and Biobío regions of modern Chile...
. Valdivia died at the
Battle of TucapelThe Battle of Tucapel is the name given to a battle fought between Spanish conquistador forces led by Pedro de Valdivia and Mapuche Indians under Lautaro that took place at Tucapel, Chile on December 25, 1553...
, defeated by Lautaro, a young Mapuche
toquiToqui is a title conferred by the Mapuche to those who are chosen as their leader during times of war. The toqui is chosen in an assembly or parliament , of the chiefs of the various clans or confederation of clans , allied during the war in question...
(war chief), but the European conquest was well underway. The Spaniards never subjugated the Mapuche territories; various attempts at conquest, both by military and peaceful means, failed. The Great Uprising of 1598 swept all Spanish presence south of the
Bío-Bío RiverThe Biobío River is the second largest river in Chile. It originates from Icalma and Galletué lakes in the Andes and flows 380 km to the Gulf of Arauco on the Pacific Ocean....
except Chiloé (and Valdivia which was decades later reestablished as a fort), and the great river became the frontier line between Mapuche lands and the Spanish realm.
North of that line cities grew up slowly, and Chilean lands eventually became an important source of food for the
Viceroyalty of PeruCreated in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled South America, governed from the capital of Lima...
.
Valdivia became the first governor of the Captaincy General of Chile. In that post, he obeyed the viceroy of Peru and, through him, the King of Spain and his bureaucracy. Responsible to the governor, town councils known as
CabildoFor a discussion of the contemporary Spanish and Latin American cabildo, see Ayuntamiento.A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a former Spanish, colonial administrative council that governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of...
administered local municipalities, the most important of which was Santiago, which was the seat of a Royal Appeals Court from 1609 until the end of colonial rule.
Chile was the least wealthy realm of the Spanish Crown for most of its colonial history. Only in the 18th century did a steady economic and demographic growth begin, an effect of the reforms by Spain's Bourbon dynasty and a more stable situation along the frontier.
Independence (1810-1826)
The drive for independence from
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother
Joseph Bonapartealign=right|Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte, King of Naples and Sicily, King of Spain and the Indies, Comte de Survilliers was the elder brother of Napoleon I of France, who made him King of Naples and Sicily and later King of Spain as Joseph I of Spain...
. The Chilean War of Independence was part of the larger
South American Wars of IndependenceThe Latin American Wars of Independence were the various revolutions that took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in the Latin American region. These revolutions followed the American and French Revolutions, which...
movement, and it was far from having unanimous support among Chileans, who became divided between independentists and royalists. What started as an elitist political movement against their colonial master, finally ended as a full-fledged civil war between pro-Independence criollos who sought political and economic independence from
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
and
RoyalistThe Royalists or loyalists were the American and European supporters of the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, during the Spanish American Wars of Independence, between 1808-1829...
criollos, who supported the continued allegiance to and permanence within the
Spanish EmpireThe Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in world history, and one of the first global empires. It included territories and colonies in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, from the 15th century through—in the case of its African holdings—the latter portion of the 20th century...
of the
Kingdom of ChileThe Kingdom of Chile , also known as the General Captaincy of Chile or Gobernacion de Chile, was an administrative territory of the Viceroyalty of Peru in the Spanish Empire from 1541 to 1818, the year in which it declared itself independent, becoming the Republic of Chile...
. The struggle for independence was a war within the upper class, although the majority of troops on both sides consisted of conscripted mestizos and native Americans.
The beginning of the Independence movement is traditionally dated as September 18, 1810 when a national junta was established to govern Chile in the name of the deposed king Ferdinand VII. Depending on what terms one uses to define the end, the movement extended until 1821 (when the Spanish were expelled from mainland Chile) or 1826 (when the last Spanish troops surrendered and
ChiloéChiloé may refer to* Chiloé Archipelago in Chile** Chiloé Island the main island of the archipelago** Chiloé Province, administrative division that covers almost all of the archipelago...
was incorporated to the Chilean republic). The independence process is normally divided into three stages:
Patria Vieja,
Reconquista, and
Patria Nueva.
Chile's first experiment with self-government, the "Patria Vieja" (
old republic, 1810-14), was led by
José Miguel CarreraJosé Miguel Carrera Verdugo was a Chilean general, considered one of the founders of independent Chile. Carrera was the most important leader of the Chilean War of Independence during the period of the Patria Vieja . After the Spanish Reconquista , he continued campaigning from exile...
, an aristocrat then in his mid-twenties. The military-educated Carrera was a heavy-handed ruler who aroused widespread opposition. Another of the earliest advocates of full independence,
Bernardo O'HigginsBernardo O'Higgins Riquelme , was a South American independence leader who, together with José de San Martín, freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. Although he was the second Supreme Director of Chile , O'Higgins was the first holder of this title to head a fully...
, captained a rival faction that plunged the criollos into civil war. For him and for certain other members of the Chilean elite, the initiative for temporary self-rule quickly escalated into a campaign for permanent independence, although other criollos remained loyal to Spain. Among those favoring independence, conservatives fought with liberals over the degree to which French revolutionary ideas would be incorporated into the movement. After several efforts, Spanish troops from Peru took advantage of the internecine strife to reconquer Chile in 1814, when they reasserted control by winning the Battle of Rancagua on October 12. O'Higgins, Carrera and many of the Chilean rebels escaped to Argentina.
The second period was characterized by the Spanish attempts to reimpose arbitrary rule during the period known as the
ReconquistaIn colonial Spanish America, the Reconquista refers to the period following Napoleon's failed invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. During the invasion, a number of Spanish colonies in the New World moved for greater autonomy or independence outright...
of 1814-17 ("Reconquest": the term echoes the
ReconquistaThe Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims...
in which the Christian kingdoms retook Iberia from the Muslims). During this period, the harsh rule of the Spanish loyalists, who punished suspected rebels, drove more and more Chileans into the insurrectionary camp. More members of the Chilean elite were becoming convinced of the necessity of full independence, regardless of who sat on the throne of Spain. As the leader of guerrilla raids against the Spaniards,
Manuel RodríguezManuel Javier Rodríguez Erdoíza Chilean lawyer and guerrilla leader, considered one of the founders of independent Chile...
became a national symbol of resistance.
In exile in Argentina, O'Higgins joined forces with
José de San MartínJosé Francisco de San Martín Matorras, also known as José de San Martín , was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain....
. Their combined army freed Chile with a daring assault over the Andes in 1817, defeating the Spaniards at the
Battle of ChacabucoThe Battle of Chacabuco, fought during the Chilean War of Independence, occurred on February 12, 1817. The rebel army led by José de San Martín defeated the Spanish force led by Rafael Maroto...
on February 12 and marking the beginning of the
Patria Nueva. San Martín considered the liberation of Chile a strategic stepping-stone to the emancipation of Peru, which he saw as the key to hemispheric victory over the Spanish. Chile won its formal independence when San Martín defeated the last large Spanish force on Chilean soil at the
Battle of MaipúThe Battle of Maipú was a battle fought near Santiago, Chile on April 5 1818 between South American rebels and Spanish royalists, during the South American wars of independence...
on April 5, 1818. San Martín then led his Argentine and Chilean followers north to liberate Peru; and fighting continued in Chile's southern provinces, the bastion of the royalists, until 1826.
A
declaration of independenceThe Chilean Declaration of Independence is a document declaring the independence of Chile from the Spanish Empire. It was drafted in January 1818 and approved by President Bernardo O'Higgins on February 12, 1818 at Talca, despite being dated in Concepción on January 1, 1818...
was officially issued by Chile on February 12, 1818 and formally recognized by Spain in 1840, when full diplomatic relations were established.
Constitutional organization (1818-1833)
From 1817 to 1823, Bernardo O'Higgins ruled Chile as supreme director (president). He won plaudits for defeating royalists and founding schools, but civil strife continued. O'Higgins alienated liberals and provincials with his authoritarianism, conservatives and the church with his anticlericalism, and landowners with his proposed reforms of the land tenure system. His attempt to devise a constitution in 1818 that would legitimize his government failed, as did his effort to generate stable funding for the new administration. O'Higgins's dictatorial behavior aroused resistance in the provinces. This growing discontent was reflected in the continuing opposition of partisans of
CarreraJosé Miguel Carrera Verdugo was a Chilean general, considered one of the founders of independent Chile. Carrera was the most important leader of the Chilean War of Independence during the period of the Patria Vieja . After the Spanish Reconquista , he continued campaigning from exile...
, who was executed by the Argentine regime in Mendoza in 1821, like his two brothers were three years earlier.
Although opposed by many liberals, O'Higgins angered the Roman Catholic Church with his liberal beliefs. He maintained Catholicism's status as the official state religion but tried to curb the church's political powers and to encourage religious tolerance as a means of attracting Protestant immigrants and traders. Like the church, the landed aristocracy felt threatened by O'Higgins, resenting his attempts to eliminate noble titles and, more important, to eliminate entailed estates.
O'Higgins's opponents also disapproved of his diversion of Chilean resources to aid San Martín's liberation of Peru. O'Higgins insisted on supporting that campaign because he realized that Chilean independence would not be secure until the Spaniards were routed from the Andean core of the empire. However, amid mounting discontent, troops from the northern and southern provinces forced O'Higgins to resign. Embittered, O'Higgins departed for Peru, where he died in 1842.
After O'Higgins went into exile in 1823, civil conflict continued, focusing mainly on the issues of anticlericalism and regionalism. Presidents and constitutions rose and fell quickly in the 1820s. The civil struggle's harmful effects on the economy, and particularly on exports, prompted conservatives to seize national control in 1830.
In the minds of most members of the Chilean elite, the bloodshed and chaos of the late 1820s were attributable to the shortcomings of liberalism and federalism, which had been dominant over conservatism for most of the period. The abolition of slavery in 1823—long before most other countries in the Americas—was considered one of the liberals' few lasting achievements. One liberal leader from the south,
Ramón FreireRamón Freire Serrano was a Chilean political figure. He was head of state on several occasions, and enjoyed a numerous following until the War of the Confederation.-Early life:...
, rode in and out of the presidency several times (1823-27, 1828, 1829, 1830) but could not sustain his authority. From May 1827 to September 1831, with the exception of brief interventions by Freire, the presidency was occupied by
Francisco Antonio PintoFrancisco Antonio Pinto y Díaz de la Puente was a Chilean political figure. He was twice President of Chile between 1827 and 1829.-Early life:He was born in Santiago, the son of Joaquín Pinto and Mercedes Díaz de la Puente...
, Freire's former vice president. In August 1828, Pinto's first year in office, Chile abandoned its short-lived federalist system for a unitary form of government, with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. By adopting a moderately liberal constitution in 1828, Pinto alienated both the federalists and the liberal factions. He also angered the old aristocracy by abolishing estates inherited by primogeniture (mayorazgo) and caused a public uproar with his anticlericalism. After the defeat of his liberal army at the Battle of Lircay on April 17, 1830, Freire, like O'Higgins, went into exile in Peru.
Conservative Era (1830-1861)
Although never president,
Diego PortalesDiego José Pedro Víctor Portales Palazuelos was a Chilean minister, statesman and entrepreneur. He was of Jewish descent.-Early life:...
dominated Chilean politics from the cabinet and behind the scenes from 1830 to 1837. He installed the "autocratic republic," which centralized authority in the national government. His political program enjoyed support from merchants, large landowners, foreign capitalists, the church, and the military. Political and economic stability reinforced each other, as Portales encouraged economic growth through free trade and put government finances in order.
Portales was an agnostic who said that he believed in the clergy but not in God. He realized the importance of the Roman Catholic Church as a bastion of loyalty, legitimacy, social control, and stability, as had been the case in the colonial period. He repealed Liberal reforms that had threatened church privileges and properties.
Portales brought the military under civilian control by rewarding loyal generals, cashiering troublemakers, and promoting a victorious war against the Peru-Bolivia Confederation (1836-39). After defeating Peru and Bolivia, Chile dominated the Pacific Coast of South America. The victory over its neighbors gave Chile and its new political system a psychological boost. Chileans experienced a surge of national enthusiasm and cohesion behind a regime accepted as legitimate and efficacious.
Portales also achieved his objectives by wielding dictatorial powers, censoring the press, and manipulating elections. For the next forty years, Chile's armed forces would be distracted from meddling in politics by skirmishes and defensive operations on the southern frontier, although some units got embroiled in domestic conflicts in 1851 and 1859.
The "Portalian State" was institutionalized by the 1833 constitution. One of the most durable charters ever devised in Latin America, the Portalian constitution lasted until 1925. The constitution concentrated authority in the national government, more precisely, in the hands of the president, who was elected by a tiny minority. The chief executive could serve two consecutive five-year terms and then pick a successor. Although the Congress had significant budgetary powers, it was overshadowed by the president, who appointed provincial officials. The constitution also created an independent judiciary, guaranteed inheritance of estates by primogeniture, and installed Catholicism as the state religion. In short, it established an autocratic system under a republican veneer.
The first Portalian president was General Joaquín Prieto, who served two terms (1831-36, 1836-41). President Prieto had four main accomplishments: implementation of the 1833 constitution, stabilization of government finances, defeat of provincial challenges to central authority, and victory over the Peru-Bolivia Confederation. During the presidencies of Prieto and his two successors, Chile modernized through the construction of ports, railroads, and telegraph lines, some built by United States entrepreneur William Wheelwright. These innovations facilitated the export-import trade as well as domestic commerce.
Prieto and his adviser, Portales, feared the efforts of Bolivian general
Andrés de Santa CruzAndrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana was President of Peru and Bolivia...
to unite with Peru against Chile. These qualms exacerbated animosities toward Peru dating from the colonial period, now intensified by disputes over customs duties and loans. Chile also wanted to become the dominant South American military and commercial power along the Pacific. Portales got Congress to declare war on Peru in 1836.
Liberal era (1861-1891)
The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics and the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
. A strong presidency eventually emerged, but wealthy landowners remained powerful.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by persistently suppressing the
MapucheThe Mapuche are the indigenous inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina. They were known as Araucanians by the Spaniards. This is now considered pejorative by the people and the term Mapuche is the one most often used by people in conversation...
during the
Occupation of the AraucaníaThe Occupation of Araucanía was a series of military campaigns, agreements and penetrations by the Chilean army and settlers which led to the incorporation of Araucanía into Chilean national territory...
. In 1881, it signed a treaty with
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
confirming Chilean sovereignty over the
Strait of MagellanThe Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland Chile and north of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego...
, but conceding all of oriental
PatagoniaPatagonia is a geographic region containing the southernmost portion of South America. Located in Argentina and Chile, it comprises the southernmost portion of the Andes mountains to the west and south, and plateaux and low plains to the east. The name Patagonia comes from the word patagón used by...
, and a considerable fraction of the territory it had during colonial times. As a result of the
War of the PacificThe War of the Pacific , occurring from 1879-1884, was a conflict between Chile and the alliance of Bolivia and Peru. Also known as the "Saltpeter War," the war arose from disputes over the control of territory that contained substantial mineral-rich deposits.The conclusion of the conflict...
with
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
and
BoliviaBolivia, officially Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, and Chile and Peru to the west....
(1879-1883), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable
nitrateIn inorganic chemistry, a nitrate is a salt of nitric acid with an ion composed of one nitrogen and three oxygen atoms . In organic chemistry the esters of nitric acid and various alcohols are called nitrates.-Chemical properties:...
deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence.
In the 1870s, the church influence started to diminish slightly with the passing of several laws that took some old roles of the church into the State's hands such as the registry of births and marriages.
In 1886,
José Manuel BalmacedaJosé Manuel Emiliano Balmaceda Fernández was a Chilean political figure and President. Balmaceda was part of the Castilian-Basque aristocracy in Chile.-Early life:...
was elected president. His economic policies visibly changed the existing liberal policies. He began to violate the
constitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
and slowly began to establish a dictatorship. Congress decided to depose Balmaceda, who refused to step down.
Jorge MonttJorge Montt Álvarez was vice-admiral of the Chilean navy and president of Chile from 1891 to 1896.-Early life:...
, among others, directed an armed conflict against Balmaceda, which soon extended into the
Chilean Civil WarThe Chilean Civil War of 1891 was an armed conflict between forces supporting Congress and forces supporting the sitting President, José Manuel Balmaceda...
of 1891. Defeated, Balmaceda fled to Argentina's embassy, where he committed suicide. Jorge Montt became the new president.
Parliamentary republic (1891-1925)
The so-called Parliamentary Republic was not a true parliamentary system, in which the chief executive is elected by the legislature. It was, however, an unusual regime in presidentialist Latin America, for Congress really did overshadow the rather ceremonial office of the president and exerted authority over the chief executive's cabinet appointees. In turn, Congress was dominated by the landed elites. This was the heyday of classic political and economic liberalism.
For many decades thereafter, historians derided the Parliamentary Republic as a quarrel-prone system that merely distributed spoils and clung to its laissez-faire policy while national problems mounted. The characterization is epitomized by an observation made by President
Ramón Barros LucoRamón Barros Luco was President of Chile between 1910 and 1915.Barros Luco was born in 1835 in Santiago, Barros Luco was son of Ramón Luis Barros Fernández and Dolores Luco Fernández de Leiva. He graduated from Law School in 1858...
(1910-15), reputedly made in reference to labor unrest: "There are only two kinds of problems: those that solve themselves and those that can't be solved." At the mercy of Congress, cabinets came and went frequently, although there was more stability and continuity in public administration than some historians have suggested. Chile also temporary resolved its border disputes with Argentina with the Puna de Atacama Lawsuit of 1899, the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina and the 1902 General Treaty of Arbitration.
Political authority ran from local electoral bosses in the provinces through the congressional and executive branches, which reciprocated with payoffs from taxes on nitrate sales. Congressmen often won election by bribing voters in this clientelistic and corrupt system. Many politicians relied on intimidated or loyal peasant voters in the countryside, even though the population was becoming increasingly urban. The lackluster presidents and ineffectual administrations of the period did little to respond to the country's dependence on volatile nitrate exports, spiraling inflation, and massive urbanization.
In recent years, however, particularly when the authoritarian regime of Augusto Pinochet is taken into consideration, some scholars have reevaluated the Parliamentary Republic of 1891-1925. Without denying its shortcomings, they have lauded its democratic stability. They have also hailed its control of the armed forces, it respect for civil liberties, its expansion of suffrage and participation, and its gradual admission of new contenders, especially reformers, to the political arena. In particular, two young parties grew in importance - the Democrat Party, with roots among artisans and urban workers, and the
Radical PartyThe Radical Party of Chile was a political party formed in 1863 by some dissatisfied liberals. It originally represented the extreme anticlericalist faction of Chilean politics...
, representing urban middle sectors and provincial elites. By the early twentieth century, both parties were winning increasing numbers of seats in Congress. The more leftist members of the Democrat Party became involved in the leadership of labor unions and broke off to launch the
Socialist Workers' PartyThe Communist Party of Chile is a Chilean political party that advocates communism. It was founded in 1922, as the continuation of the Socialist Workers Party.- History :...
( - POS) in 1912. The founder of the POS and its best-known leader,
Luis Emilio RecabarrenLuis Emilio Recabarren Serrano was a Chilean political figure. He was elected several times as deputy, and was the driving force behind the Worker's Movement in that country.- Early life :...
, also founded the
Communist Party of ChileThe Communist Party of Chile is a Chilean political party that advocates communism. It was founded in 1922, as the continuation of the Socialist Workers Party.- History :...
( - PCCh) in 1922.
Presidential republic (1925-1973)
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, Arturo Alessandri Palma. Alessandri appealed to those who believed the social question should be addressed, to those worried by the decline in nitrate exports during World War I, and to those weary of presidents dominated by Congress. Promising "evolution to avoid revolution," he pioneered a new campaign style of appealing directly to the masses with florid oratory and charisma. After winning a seat in the Senate representing the mining north in 1915, he earned the sobriquet "Lion of Tarapacá." As a dissident Liberal running for the presidency, Alessandri attracted support from the more reformist Radicals and Democrats and formed the so-called Liberal Alliance. He received strong backing from the middle and working classes as well as from the provincial elites. Students and intellectuals also rallied to his banner. At the same time, he reassured the landowners that social reforms would be limited to the cities.
Alessandri soon discovered that his efforts to lead would be blocked by the conservative Congress. Like Balmaceda, he infuriated the legislators by going over their heads to appeal to the voters in the congressional elections of 1924. His reform legislation was finally rammed through Congress under pressure from younger military officers, who were sick of the neglect of the armed forces, political infighting, social unrest, and galloping inflation. whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress.
A double military coup set off a period of great political instability that lasted until 1932. First military right-wingers opposing Alessandri seized power in September 1924, and then reformers in favor of the ousted president took charge in January 1925. The
Saber noiseSaber-noise or saber-rattling may be used to refer to a historical incident in Chilean history that took place on September 3, 1924, when a group of young military officers protested against the political class and the postponement of social measures by rattling their sabers within their scabbards...
(ruido de sables) incident of September 1924, provoked by discontent of young officers, mostly lieutenants from middle and working classes, lead to the establishment of the September Junta led by General
Luis AltamiranoDivision General Luis Altamirano Talavera was a Chilean military officer, minister, Vice President of the Republic and finally President of the Government Junta of Chile between 1924 and 1925....
and the exile of Alessandri. However, fears of a conservative restoration in progressive sectors of the army led to
another coup in JanuaryThe Chilean coup d'état of 1925 took place on January 23, 1925, when the Chilean military overthrew the September Junta. Led by Colonel Marmaduque Grove, the troops arrested the President, Luis Altamirano, and then handed the power to General Pedro Dartnell as interim President...
, which ended with the establishment of the January Junta as interim government while waiting for Alessandri's return. The latter group was led by two colonels,
Carlos Ibáñez del CampoGeneral Carlos Ibáñez del Campo was a Chilean Army officer and political figure. He served as dictator between 1927 and 1931 and as constitutional President from 1952 to 1958.- The coups of 1924 and 1925 :...
and Marmaduke Grove. They returned Alessandri to the presidency that March and enacted his promised reforms by decree. The latter re-assumed power in March, and a new Constitution encapsulating his proposed reforms was ratified in a plebiscite in September 1925. The new constitution gave increased powers to the presidency. Alessandri broke with the
classical liberalismClassical liberalism is a political ideology that developed by the middle of the nineteenth century in England, western Europe, and the Americas, which provided a coherent vision of how society should be organized. Central to the classical liberalism of the nineteenth century is a commitment to...
's policies of
laissez-faireThe general meaning of Laissez-faire is to allow events to take their own course, or to let people do what they choose. The term is a French phrase literally meaning "let it be" or "leave it alone"....
by creating a Central Bank and imposing a revenue tax. However, social discontents were also crushed, leading to the
Marusia massacreThe Marusia massacre was the response of the Chilean government under president Arturo Alessandri to a strike by the workers of a saltpeter mine leading to over 500 dead, over ninety percent being strikers or their family members....
in March 1925 followed by the La Coruña massacre.
The longest lasting of the ten governments between 1924 and 1932 was that of General Carlos Ibáñez, who briefly held power in 1925 and then again between 1927 and 1931 in what was a
de facto dictatorship. When constitutional rule was restored in 1932, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years.
The Seguro Obrero Massacre took place on September 5, 1938, in the midst of a heated three-way election campaign between the ultraconservative Gustavo Ross Santa María, the radical
Popular FrontA popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
's
Pedro Aguirre CerdaPedro Abelino Aguirre Cerda was a Chilean political figure. A member of the Radical Party, he was chosen as the Popular Front's candidate for the 1938 presidential election, and was triumphally elected. He governed Chile until his death in 1941...
, and the newly-formed Popular Alliance candidate,
Carlos Ibáñez del CampoGeneral Carlos Ibáñez del Campo was a Chilean Army officer and political figure. He served as dictator between 1927 and 1931 and as constitutional President from 1952 to 1958.- The coups of 1924 and 1925 :...
. The
National Socialist Movement of ChileMovimiento Nacional Socialista de Chile was a political movement in Chile, during the Presidential Republic Era, which initially supported the ideas of Adolf Hitler, although it later moved towards a more indigenous form of fascism....
supported Ibáñez's candidacy, which had been announced on September 4. In order to preempt Ross's victory, the National Socialists mounted a
coup d'étatA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
that was intended to take down the rightwing government of Arturo Alessandri Palma and place Ibáñez in power.
During the period of
Radical PartyThe Radical Party of Chile was a political party formed in 1863 by some dissatisfied liberals. It originally represented the extreme anticlericalist faction of Chilean politics...
dominance (1932-52), the state increased its role in the economy. In 1952, voters returned Ibáñez to office for another 6 years.
Jorge AlessandriJorge Alessandri Rodríguez was President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the centre-right in Chile's crucial presidential election of 1970...
succeeded Ibáñez in 1958.
The
1964 presidential electionA presidential election was held in Chile on September 4, 1964. Christian Democratic candidate Eduardo Frei Montalva won the election by an absolute majority....
of Christian Democrat
Eduardo Frei MontalvaEduardo Frei Montalva was a Chilean political figure and president of Chile from 1964 to 1970. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, also became president of Chile .-Early life:...
by an
absolute majorityAn absolute majority or majority of the entire membership is a voting basis which usually requires that more than half of all the members of a group must vote in favour of a proposition in order for it to be passed...
initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty", the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and
agrarian reformAgrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of agricultural land or can refer more broadly to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land reform measures. Agrarian reform can include credit...
, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.
Collapse of democracy
In the
1970 presidential electionA presidential election was held in Chile on 4 September 1970. A narrow plurality was secured by Salvador Allende, the candidate of the Popular Unity coalition of leftist parties...
, Senator
Salvador Allende GossensSalvador Isabelino Allende Gossens was a physician and the first democratically elected Marxist socialist to become president of a state in the Americas....
won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest. He was a
MarxistMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
physician and member of Chile's
Socialist PartyThe Socialist Party of Chile is part of the ruling Coalition of Parties for Democracy coalition. Its historical leader was the late President of Chile Salvador Allende Gossens, deposed by General Pinochet....
, who headed the "
Popular UnityUnidad Popular was a coalition of political parties in Chile that stood behind the successful candidacy of Salvador Allende for the 1970 Chilean presidential election....
" (UP or "Unidad Popular") coalition of the Socialist, Communist, Radical, and Social-Democratic Parties, along with dissident Christian Democrats, the
Popular Unitary Action MovementThe Popular Unitary Action Movement or MAPU is a small leftist political party in Chile. It was part of the Popular Unity coalition during the government of Salvador Allende. MAPU was repressed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet...
(MAPU), and the Independent Popular Action. Allende had two main competitors in the election —
Radomiro TomicRadomiro Tomić Romero was a Chilean politician of Croatian origin. He was one of the most prominent leaders of that country's Christian Democrat Party....
, representing the incumbent Christian Democratic party, who ran a left-wing campaign with much the same theme as Allende's, and the right-wing former president
Jorge AlessandriJorge Alessandri Rodríguez was President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the centre-right in Chile's crucial presidential election of 1970...
. In the end, Allende received a plurality of the votes cast, getting 36% of the vote against Alessandri's 34% and Tomic's 27%.
Despite pressure from the government of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the
Chilean CongressThe National Congress is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Chile.The National Congress of Chile was founded on July 4, 1811...
, keeping with tradition, conducted a runoff vote between the leading candidates, Allende and former president
Jorge AlessandriJorge Alessandri Rodríguez was President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the centre-right in Chile's crucial presidential election of 1970...
. This procedure had previously been a near-formality, yet became quite fraught in 1970. After assurances of legality on Allende's part, the murder of the Army Commander-in-Chief, General
René SchneiderGeneral René Schneider Chereau was the Commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army at the time of the 1970 Chilean presidential election, when he was assassinated during a botched kidnapping attempt. His murder virtually assured Salvador Allende's eventual overthrow and death in a coup shortly thereafter...
and Frei's refusal to form an alliance with Alessandri to oppose Allende - on the grounds that the Christian Democrats were a workers' party and could not make common cause with the oligarchs - Allende was chosen by a vote of 153 to 35.
The Popular Unity platform included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
mines, the advancement of workers' rights, implementation of
land reformLand reforms is an often-controversial alteration in the societal arrangements whereby government administers possession and use of land...
, reorganization of the national economy into socialized, mixed, and private sectors, a foreign policy of "international solidarity" and national independence and a new institutional order (the "people's state" or "poder popular"), including the institution of a unicameral congress. Immediately after the election, the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
expressed its disapproval and raised a number of economic sanctions against Chile. In addition, the CIA's website reports that the agency aided three different Chilean opposition groups during that time period and "sought to instigate a coup to prevent Allende from taking office". The action plans to prevent Allende from coming to power were known as Track I and
Track IIProject FUBELT is the codename for the secret Central Intelligence Agency operations that were intended to undermine Salvador Allende's government and promote a military coup in Chile....
. At the same time, indigenous and peasant forces across the country violently started to take control of agricultural lands, forcibly fulfilling Allende's land redistribution promises.
In the first year of Allende's term, the short-term economic results of Economics Minister
Pedro VuskovicPedro Vuskovic Bravo was a Chilean economist of Croatian descent, political figure, minister and author of the economic plan implemented by Salvador Allende during his government.-Life:...
's
expansive monetary policyThe Vuskovic Plan was the basis for the economic policy of the Popular Unity government of Chilean President Salvador Allende. It was drafted by and named after his first Economics Minister Pedro Vuskovic, who had worked before with the CEPAL. Although good results were obtained in 1970,...
were unambiguously favorable: 12% industrial growth and an 8.6% increase in
GDPThe gross domestic product or gross domestic income is a basic measure of a country's economic performance and is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year...
, accompanied by major declines in inflation (down from 34.9% to 22.1%) and unemployment (down to 3.8%). Allende adopted measures including price freezes, wage increases, and tax reforms, which had the effect of increasing consumer spending and redistributing income downward. Joint public-private
public worksPublic works are the construction or engineering projects carried out by the state on behalf of the community.-Overview:The notion of internal improvements or public works is a concept in economics and politics...
projects helped reduce unemployment. Much of the banking sector was
nationalizedNationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being state...
. Many enterprises within the copper,
coalCoal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
,
ironIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
,
nitrateIn inorganic chemistry, a nitrate is a salt of nitric acid with an ion composed of one nitrogen and three oxygen atoms . In organic chemistry the esters of nitric acid and various alcohols are called nitrates.-Chemical properties:...
, and
steelSteel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
industries were
expropriatedExpropriation is the confiscation of private property with the express purpose of establishing social equality.Unlike eminent domain, expropriation takes place beyond the common law legal systems and refers to socially-motivated confiscations of any property rather than to taking away the real estate...
, nationalized, or subjected to state intervention. Industrial output increased sharply and
unemploymentUnemployment occurs when a person is available to work and seeking work but currently without work. The prevalence of unemployment is usually measured using the unemployment rate, which is defined as the percentage of those in the labor force who are unemployed...
fell during the administration's first year. However, these results were not sustainable and in 1972 the Chilean
escudo had runaway
inflationIn economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real...
of 140%. An economic depression that had begun in 1967 peaked in 1972, exacerbated by
capital flightCapital flight, in economics, occurs when assets and/or money rapidly flow out of a country, due to an economic event that disturbs investors and causes them to lower their valuation of the assets in that country, or otherwise to lose confidence in its economic strength...
, plummeting private investment, and withdrawal of bank deposits in response to Allende's socialist program. Production fell and unemployment rose. The combination of inflation and government-mandated price-fixing led to the rise of black markets in rice, beans, sugar, and flour, and a "disappearance" of such basic commodities from supermarket shelves.
The
Cuban packages scandalThe Cuban packages was a Chilean smuggling scandal, involving President Salvador Allende, his Minister of the Interior, Hernán del Canto and the Director of the Civil Police Eduardo Paredes. It was cited by the authors of the Chamber of Deputies' Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy...
revealed arms smuggling from the Communist Cuba to Chile; Allende - surrounded by
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
advisors - had turned Chile into a center for Soviet operations in Latin America. Salvador Allende now had a personal
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
adviser. According to Allende’s KGB file, Allende "was made to understand the necessity of reorganising Chile's army and intelligence services, and of setting up a relationship between Chile’s and the USSR's intelligence services". The nationalization of U.S. and other foreign-owned companies led to increased tensions with the United States. As a result, the
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
administration
organized and inserted secret operativesThe United States intervention in Chilean politics started during the War of Chilean Independence. During the almost two centuries since, the US presence in Chile has slowly risen from a marginal factor to one of the most decisive ones, both in the economical as well as the political...
in Chile, in order to quickly destabilize Allende’s government. In addition, Nixon gave instructions to make the Chilean economy scream, and international financial pressure restricted economic credit to Chile. Simultaneously, the CIA funded opposition media, politicians, and organizations, helping to accelerate a campaign of domestic destabilization. By 1972, the economic progress of Allende's first year had been reversed, and the economy was in crisis. Political polarization increased, and large mobilizations of both pro- and anti-government groups became frequent, often leading to clashes.
By 1973, Chilean society had grown highly polarized, between strong opponents and equally strong supporters of Salvador Allende and his government. Military actions and movements, separate from the civilian authority, began to manifest in the countryside. A failed military
coupA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
was attempted against Allende in June 1973.
In its "Agreement", on August 22, 1973, the
Chamber of Deputies of ChileThe Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Chile is the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress. Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of Chile's current constitution....
asserted that Chilean democracy had broken down and called for "redirecting government activity", to restore constitutional rule. Less than a month later, on September 11, 1973, the Chilean military deposed Allende, who apparently
shot himself in the headSalvador Allende, President of Chile, committed suicide during the Chilean coup of 1973. Since that time, there has been great controversy between supporters and detractors of Allende on the circumstances of his death, since the military junta's version of his suicide was discounted by his supporters...
to avoid capture as the
Presidential PalacePalacio de La Moneda , or simply La Moneda, is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: Interior, General Secretariat of the Presidency and General Secretariat of the Government...
was surrounded and bombed. Subsequently, rather than restore governmental authority to the civilian legislature,
Augusto PinochetAugusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean army general and later head of state as president. He was the Commander in Chief of the Chilean army from 1973 to 1998, president of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981 and President of the Republic from 1974 until the return of...
exploited his role as Commander of the Army to
seize total powerThe Chilean coup d'état of 1973 was a watershed event in the history of Chile and the Soviet-American Cold War. On 11 September 1973, the government of President Salvador Allende was overthrown by the military in a coup d’état....
and to establish himself at the head of a
juntaA military dictatorship is a form of government wherein the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
.
Controversy surrounds alleged CIA involvement in the coup. As early as the
Church CommitteeThe Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1975. A precursor to the U.S...
Report (1975), publicly available documents have indicated that the CIA attempted to prevent Allende from taking office after he was elected in 1970; the CIA itself released documents in 2000 acknowledging this and that Pinochet was one of their favored alternatives to take power.
According to the
Vasili MitrokhinVasili Nikitich Mitrokhin was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, and co-author with Christopher Andrew of The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, a massive account of Soviet intelligence...
and
Christopher AndrewChristopher Maurice Andrew is a historian at the University of Cambridge with a special interest in international relations and in particular the history of intelligence services.-Life:...
, the
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
and the Cuban Intelligence Directorate launched a campaign known as
Operation TOUCANOperation TOUCAN was allegedly a KGB/DGI public relations and informative campaign directed at the military government of Chile led by military dictator Augusto Pinochet. According to former KGB officer Vasili Mitrokhin, the plan was originally conceived by Soviet politician and General Secretary...
. For instance, in 1976, the New York Times published 66 articles on alleged human rights abuses in Chile and only 4 on Cambodia, where the communist
Khmer RougeThe Khmer Rouge was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the totalitarian ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan....
killed some 1.5 million people of 7.5 million people in the country..
Military government (1973-1989)
By early 1973,
inflationIn economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real...
was out of control. The crippled economy was further battered by prolonged and sometimes simultaneous
strikesStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
by physicians, teachers, students, truck owners, copper workers, and the small business class. A
military coupThe Chilean coup d'état of 1973 was a watershed event in the history of Chile and the Soviet-American Cold War. On 11 September 1973, the government of President Salvador Allende was overthrown by the military in a coup d’état....
overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace (
Palacio de La MonedaPalacio de La Moneda , or simply La Moneda, is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: Interior, General Secretariat of the Presidency and General Secretariat of the Government...
), Allende committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime were marked by allegations of human rights violations. On October 1973, at least 72 people were murdered by the
Caravan of DeathThe Caravan of Death was a Chilean Army death squad that, following the Chilean coup of 1973, flew by helicopter from south to north of Chile between September 30 and October 22, 1973. During this foray, members of the squad ordered or personally carried out the execution of at least 75...
. At least a thousand people were executed during the first six months of Pinochet in office, and at least two thousand more were killed during the next sixteen years, as reported by the
Rettig ReportThe Rettig Report, officially The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, is a report by a commission designated by then President Patricio Aylwin encompassing human rights abuses resulting in death or disappearance that occurred in Chile during the years of military rule under...
. About 30,000 left the country, and tens of thousands of people were detained and tortured, as investigated by the 2004 Valech Commission. A new
ConstitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
was approved by plebiscite characterized by the absence of registration lists, on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became president of the republic for an 8-year term.
In the late 1980s, the government gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly,
speechFreedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, and association, to include trade union and political activity. The government launched market-oriented reforms, which have continued ever since. Chile moved toward a free market economy that saw an increase in domestic and foreign private investment, although the copper industry and other important mineral resources were not opened for competition. In a plebiscite on October 5, 1988, General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president (56% against 44%).
After the coup, Chileans witnessed a large-scale repression, which started as soon as October 1973, with at least 70 persons murdered by the
Caravan of DeathThe Caravan of Death was a Chilean Army death squad that, following the Chilean coup of 1973, flew by helicopter from south to north of Chile between September 30 and October 22, 1973. During this foray, members of the squad ordered or personally carried out the execution of at least 75...
. The four-man junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet abolished
civil libertiesCivil liberties are rights in Freedom that protect an individual from the government of the nation in which they reside. Civil liberties set limits on government so that its members cannot abuse their power and interfere unduly with the lives of private citizens.Common civil liberties include the...
, dissolved the national congress, banned union activities, prohibited strikes and collective bargaining, and erased the Allende administration's agrarian and economic reforms. The junta jailed, tortured, and executed thousands of Chileans. According to the
Rettig commissionThe Rettig Report, officially The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, is a report by a commission designated by then President Patricio Aylwin encompassing human rights abuses resulting in death or disappearance that occurred in Chile during the years of military rule under...
and the
Valech ReportThe Valech Report was a study that detailed abuses committed in Chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. The first part of the report was published on November 29, 2004 and detailed the results of a six month investigation...
, close to 3,200 were executed or "disappeared", and at least 29,000 imprisoned and tortured. According to the Latin American Institute on Mental Health and Human Rights (ILAS), "situations of extreme trauma" affected about 200,000 persons.; this figure includes individuals killed, tortured or exiled, and their immediate families.
The junta embarked on a radical program of
liberalizationIn general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy...
and
privatizationPrivatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector...
, slashing
tariffA tariff is a duty imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary.-History:...
s as well as government welfare programs and
deficitA budget deficit occurs when an entity spends more money than it takes in. The opposite of a budget deficit is a budget surplus. Debt is essentially an accumulated flow of deficits. In other words, a deficit is a flow, and debt is a stock....
s. In 1973, Chile was in shambles -
inflationIn economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real...
was hundreds of percents, the country had no foreign reserves, and
GDP was fallingIn economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than a recession, which is seen as part of a normal business cycle....
. In order to halt the ongoing economic collapse,
economic reformsThe "Miracle of Chile" was a term used by free market economist Milton Friedman to describe liberal and free market reorientation of the economy of Chile in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, and the purported benefits of his style of economic liberalism...
were drafted by a group of technocrats known as the
Chicago boysThe Chicago Boys were a group of about 25 young Chilean economists who trained at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger....
because many of them had been trained or influenced by
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
professors. The first reforms were implemented in three rounds - 1974-1983, 1985, and 1990.
After the economic crisis of 1982,
Hernan BuchiHernán Büchi Buc is a Chilean economist and politician. He served as Minister of Finance under President Pinochet between 1985 and 1989.After the recession of the early 1980s, Büchi's appointment as Finance Minister in 1985:...
became Minister of Finance from 1985 to 1989. He allowed the peso to float and reinstated restrictions on the movement of capital in and out of the country. He introduced banking legislation, simplified and reduced the corporate tax. Chile pressed ahead with privatizations, including public utilities plus the re-privatization of companies that had returned to the government during the 1982–1983 crisis. Under these new policies, the rate of inflation dropped from about 1,000% per year to about 10% per year. While this was still a high rate of inflation, it allowed the economy to start recovering. From 1984 to 1990, Chile's gross domestic product grew by an annual average of 5.9%, the fastest on the continent. Chile developed a good export economy, including the export of fruits and vegetables to the northern hemisphere when they were out of season, and commanded high prices.
An important initiative begun in 1981 and carried on until today, aimed at modernizing the use of Information and Communication technology, greatly contributed to disentangle the traditional bureaucratic and cumbersome clerical procedures in all dealings with branches of the government, from
civil registryA civil registry or population registry is a repository or database maintained by a state listing vital statistics about all of its citizens and residents. There is a legal requirement to notify the relevant authority of any life event which affects the registry; typically such events include...
to import/export documentation, thereby fostering a more agile economy and a more efficient
public administrationPublic administration can be broadly described as the development, implementation and study of branches of government policy. The pursuit of the public good by enhancing civil society, ensuring a well-run, fair, and effective public service are some of the goals of the field.Public administration...
.
The military junta began to change during the late 1970s. Due to problems with Pinochet, Leigh was expelled from the junta in 1978 and replaced by General
Fernando MattheiFernando Matthei Aubel is a retired Chilean Air Force General that was part of the military junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, after Gustavo Leigh was dismissed on 1978. Before he became a junta member, Matthei was Minister of Health of the military government...
. Due to the Caso Degollados ("slit throats case"), in which three Communist party members were assassinated,
César MendozaGeneral César Leonidas Mendoza Durán was a member of the Government Junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, representing the police force ....
, member of the junta since 1973 and representants of the
carabinerosthumb|250px|Carabineros de Chile, patrolling a street in [[Santiago, Chile|Santiago]]Carabineros de Chile are the uniformed Chilean national police force and gendarmery, created on April 27, 1927. Their mission is to maintain order and create public respect for the laws of the country...
, resigned in 1985 and was replaced by
Rodolfo StangeGeneral Rodolfo Stange Oelckers is a Chilean politician and former senator. He was a member of the Government Junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, representing the police force . He was elected Senator in 1998, finishing his term in 2005.Stange was born in Puerto Montt, in the south of Chile...
. The next year,
Carmen Gloria QuintanaCarmen Gloria Quintana Arancibia is a Chilean woman who suffered severe, almost fatal burns in an incident where she and other youngsters were detained by an army patrol during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet...
was burnt alive in what became known as the Caso Quemado ("Burnt Alive case").
Problems with Argentina coming from the 19th century reached a high in 1978, with disagreements over the Beagle Canal. The two countries agreed to papal mediation over the canal. Chilean-Argentine relations remained bad, however, and Chile helped Britain during the
Falklands WarThe Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
.
Chile's
constitutionIn its temporary dispositions, the document ordered the transition from the former military government, with Augusto Pinochet as President of the Republic, and the Legislative Power of the Military Junta , to a civil one, with a time frame of eight...
was approved in a national plebiscite held in September 1980. It came into force in March 1981. It established that in 1988 there would be another plebiscite in which the voters would accept or reject a single candidate proposed by the Military Junta. Pinochet was, as expected, the candidate proposed, and he was denied a second 8 year term by 54.5% of the vote.
Return to Democracy
Chileans elected a new president and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress on December 14, 1989. Christian Democrat
Patricio AylwinPatricio Aylwin Azócar was the first president of Chile after its return to democratic rule in 1990, following the military government of General Augusto Pinochet. Patricio Aylwin is of Irish and Basque descent.- Early life :...
, the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the
ConcertaciónThe Concert of Parties for Democracy , more often known as the Concertación, is a coalition of center-left political parties in Chile, founded in 1988...
, received an absolute majority of votes (55%). President Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994, in what was considered a transition period. In February 1991 Aylwin created the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, which released in February 1991 the
Rettig ReportThe Rettig Report, officially The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, is a report by a commission designated by then President Patricio Aylwin encompassing human rights abuses resulting in death or disappearance that occurred in Chile during the years of military rule under...
on human rights violations committed during the military rule. This report counted 2,279 cases of "
disappearancesA forced disappearance occurs when force is used to cause a person to vanish from public view, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty , thereby placing the victim outside the protection of law.According to the Rome Statute of the International...
" which could be proved and registered. Of course, the very nature of "disappearances" made such investigations very difficult. The same problem arose, several years later, with the
Valech ReportThe Valech Report was a study that detailed abuses committed in Chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. The first part of the report was published on November 29, 2004 and detailed the results of a six month investigation...
, released in 2004 and which counted almost 30,000 victims of
tortureTorture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of...
, among testimonies from 35,000 persons.
In December 1993, Christian Democrat
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-TagleEduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is a Chilean politician and civil engineer who was President of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He is currently Senator for Los Ríos and was President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008...
, the son of previous president
Eduardo Frei MontalvaEduardo Frei Montalva was a Chilean political figure and president of Chile from 1964 to 1970. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, also became president of Chile .-Early life:...
, led the Concertación coalition to victory with an absolute majority of votes (58%). Frei Ruiz-Tagle was succeeded in 2000 by Socialist
Ricardo LagosRicardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a lawyer, economist and social democrat politician, who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. He won the 1999-2000 presidential election by a narrow margin in a runoff over Independent Democrat Union candidate Joaquín Lavín...
, who won the presidency in an unprecedented runoff election against
Joaquín LavínJoaquín José Lavín Infante is a Chilean right-wing politician and economist. He is a member of the Independent Democrat Union party and former mayor of Santiago and Las Condes municipalities of capital Santiago. He ran for president twice in 1999 and 2005, losing both times.Lavín earned a...
of the rightist
Alliance for ChileThe Alliance for Chile , also known as La Alianza , is a coalition of right-wing Chilean political parties. It includes the National Renewal and the Independent Democratic Union...
, by a very tight score of less than 200,000 votes (51,32%).
In 1998,
Augusto PinochetAugusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean army general and later head of state as president. He was the Commander in Chief of the Chilean army from 1973 to 1998, president of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981 and President of the Republic from 1974 until the return of...
traveled to London for back surgery. But under orders of Spanish judge
Baltasar GarzónBaltasar Garzón Real is a Spanish judge currently seated on the Criminal Court of Spain. He is examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No...
, he was
arrested thereGeneral Augusto Pinochet was indicted on 10 October 1998 by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón. He was arrested in London and finally released by the British government in March 2000...
, attracting worldwide attention, not only because of the past history of Chile and South America, but also because this was one of the first arrest of a former president based on the
universal jurisdictionUniversal jurisdiction or universality principle is a principle in international law whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other relation...
principle. Pinochet tried to defend himself by referring to the State Immunity Act of 1978, an argument rejected by the British justice. However,
UK Home SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Jack StrawJack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also be:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" * Jack Straw * Jack Straw Foundation, American public radio foundation* Jackstraws, game pick-up sticks...
took the responsibility to release him on medical grounds, and refused to extradite him to Spain. Thereafter, Pinochet returned to Chile in March 2000. Upon descending the plane on his wheelchair, he stood up and saluted the cheering crowd of supporters, including an army band playing his favorite military march tunes, which was awaiting him at the airport in Santiago. President
Ricardo LagosRicardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a lawyer, economist and social democrat politician, who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. He won the 1999-2000 presidential election by a narrow margin in a runoff over Independent Democrat Union candidate Joaquín Lavín...
later commented that the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.
The
Concertación coalition has continued to dominate Chilean politics for last two decades. In January 2006 Chileans elected their first woman president,
Michelle BacheletVerónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a center-left politician and the current President of Chile—the first woman to hold this position in the country's history. She won the 2006 presidential election in a runoff, beating center-right billionaire businessman and former senator Sebastián Piñera,...
, of the Socialist Party. She was sworn in on March 11, 2006, extending the
Concertación coalition governance for another four years.
In 2002 Chile signed an association agreement with the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
(comprising FTA, political and cultural agreements), in 2003, an extensive free trade agreement with the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and in 2004 with
South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
, expecting a boom in import and export of local produce and becoming a regional trade-hub. Continuing the coalition's free-trade strategy, in August 2006 President Bachelet promulgated a
free trade agreementA free trade agreement is a trade treaty between two or more countries. Usually these agreements are between two countries and are meant to reduce or completely remove tariffs to trade. According to the World Trade Organization there are more than 200 FTAs in force...
with the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
(signed under the previous administration of Ricardo Lagos), the first Chinese free-trade agreement with a Latin American nation; similar deals with Japan and India were promulgated in August 2007. In October 2006, Bachelet promulgated a multilateral trade deal with
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
,
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
and
BruneiBrunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
, the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (P4), also signed under Lagos' presidency. Regionally, she has signed bilateral free-trade agreements with
PanamaPanama, officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of both Central America and, in turn, North America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the...
,
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
and
ColombiaColombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a constitutional republic in northwestern South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the northwest by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean...
.
See also
- List of Chile-related topics
- Timeline of Chilean history
This is a timeline of Chilean history. To read about the background to these events, see History of Chile. See also the list of governors and presidents of Chile.This timeline is incomplete; some important events may be missing...
- Arauco War
The Arauco War was a conflict that lasted three centuries, making it one of the longest wars in human history, between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people of the region south of the Bío Bío River, the Araucanía, nowadays the Araucanía and Biobío regions of modern Chile...
- War of the Confederation
The War of the Confederation , was a conflict between the Peru-Bolivian Confederation on one side, and Chile, Argentina, and Northern Peruvians on the other, fought mostly in the actual territory of Peru and which ended with a Confederate defeat and the...
- Chincha Islands War
The Chincha Islands War was a series of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru and Chile from 1864 to 1866, that began with Spain's seizure of the guano-rich Chincha Islands, part of a series of attempts by Isabel II of Spain to reassert her country's lost...
- War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific , occurring from 1879-1884, was a conflict between Chile and the alliance of Bolivia and Peru. Also known as the "Saltpeter War," the war arose from disputes over the control of territory that contained substantial mineral-rich deposits.The conclusion of the conflict...
- Occupation of the Araucanía
The Occupation of Araucanía was a series of military campaigns, agreements and penetrations by the Chilean army and settlers which led to the incorporation of Araucanía into Chilean national territory...
- U.S. intervention in Chile
- History of South America
The history of South America is the study of the past, particularly the written record, oral histories, and traditions, passed down from generation to generation on the continent in the Earth's southern hemisphere and western hemisphere. South America has a history that spans the full range of...
- Economy of South America
The economy of South America comprises around 371 million people living in twelve nations and three territories.-Economic development:As of early 2007, South America is experiencing great economic development, with Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru growing their economies by over 8%...
- Economic history of Chile
-Colonial era to 1690:In colonial times, the segmentation of Chile into latifundios left only small parcels for native American and mestizo villagers to cultivate. Cattle raised on the latifundios were a source of tallow and hides, which were sent, via Peru, to Spain. Wheat was Chile's principal...
- Economy of Chile
Chile has a dynamic market-oriented economy characterized by a high level of foreign trade. During the early 1990s, Chile's reputation as a role model for economic reform was strengthened when the democratic government of Patricio Aylwin - which took over from the military in 1990 - deepened the...
- Miracle of Chile
The "Miracle of Chile" was a term used by free market economist Milton Friedman to describe liberal and free market reorientation of the economy of Chile in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, and the purported benefits of his style of economic liberalism...
- Agriculture in Chile
Agriculture in Chile encompasses a wide range of different activities due its particular geography, climate and geology. Historically agriculture is one of the bases of Chile's economy, now agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounts only for 4.9% of the GDP as of...
- Fishing in Chile
Fishing in Chile is a major industry with a total catch of 4,442,877 tons of fishes in 2006. Due to the Humboldt Current the Chilean Sea is considered among the most productive marine ecosystems in the world as well as the largest upwelling system. Artisan fishing is practised all over Chile's...
- Tourism in Chile
Tourism in Chile has experienced sustained growth over the last decades. Chile received about 2.25 million foreign visitors in 2006, up to 2.50 million in 2007...
- Mining in Chile
The mining sector in Chile is one of the pillars of Chilean economy and copper exports alone stands for more than one third of government income. Most mining in Chile is concentrated to the Norte Grande region spaning most of the Atacama Desert...
Sources
- Cronología de Chile in the Spanish-language Wikipedia.