About Chile
Chile
Chile’s pre-Columbian history goes back to the Inca Empire, when the northern and central portions of present-day Chile were part of it. While Spanish conquistadores (led by Francisco Pizarro) conquered the Inca Empire in nearby Peru and established a colonial presence there by 1534 (in the Spanish crown’s quest for gold), Chile wasn’t settled by the Spaniards until 1540. The year after (1541), Pedro de Valdivia, one of Pizarro’s lieutenants, founded the city of Santiago. With the Spaniards failing to find any gold or silver in that country, they made Chile part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
With turmoil in Spain (triggered by Napoleon’s conquest of that country in the early 1800s), Chile, like other Latin American countries, eventually fought for independence, which it won in 1818 (under the leadership of Bernardo O’Higgins – a Chilean independence leader of Spanish and Irish descent; and with help from Argentine patriot José de San Martín). The geographic composition of present-day Chile (which goes from the Andes into Tierra del Fuego – which faces Antarctica) was consolidated by suppressing the indigenous Mapuche people in the southern regions of the country, while it gained territory in the north (totaling 1/3 of its present land mass) as a result of the War of the Pacific with Peru and Bolivia (1879-83).
With Chile establishing a parliamentary democracy by the late 19th century, it still went through periods of political uncertainly well into the 20th century. In 1970, Chilean Senator Salvador Allende, a Marxist and member of Chile’s Socialist Party (who headed the “Popular Unity” (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats), won the country’s presidency in a three-way contest. Mass demonstrations by those concerned about Allende’s left-leaning direction of the country, recurring strikes, violence by various political factions, and hyperinflation were among the factors that contributing to his overthrow in September 1973 by right-wing General Augusto Pinochet.
Pinochet ruled Chile until 1989 under a cloud of human rights abuses and a stifling of civil liberties. He also reversed the economic direction of Allende by instituting laissez-faire free-market capitalism (which some credit with attracting both local and foreign investment). After democracy returned to the country in 1989 (with a series of moderate and center-right politicians gaining the country’s presidency into the 21st century), Chile’s continued its road toward economic stability (a rarity for South American countries).
Nowadays, Chile is ranked as a high-income economy by the World Bank, and is regarded as one of South America’s most stable and prosperous countries. Despite continuing economic disparities in the country, Chile has the highest nominal GDP per capita in Latin America ($18,419 in 2012). Among its better-known exports are copper, agricultural goods, fish, and wine (regarded among the best in the world and among the most competitively-priced).
With Chile having a wide diversity in natural landscapes (from the Atacama Desert toward the country’s northern border, to the Scandinavian-life fjords of Chilean Patagonia, and the forests of the Lakes District, Chile has been getting notice by international tourists in recent years. Easter Island, a South Pacific island that Chilean annexed in 1888, attracts tourists interested in its unique archeological attractions (its 887 monumental statues, created by the indigenous Rapa Nui people). Regardless, Chilean tourism is less than 3% of its GDP (with the world average of about 10%), and Chilean president Sebastián Piñera aims to raise it.