The long coastline is home to penguins , pelicans, and sea lions, and migratory whales can be seen in the waters as they journey to and from feeding and breeding grounds. Puma , alpacas, vicunas, foxes, condors, and flamingos are all found on the diverse landscapes of Chile.
The Atacama Desert is one of the driest areas on the Earth. There are many species of reptiles and cacti. The country's rich supply of copper is also found in the desert region. The country is governed by an elected president, who is both the chief of state and head of government. Presidential elections are held every four years.
The president picks cabinet members. There are two houses of congress, the National Congress and the Senate. The northern part of the country was ruled by the Inca before the Spanish took control in the 16th century. Native Mapuche people lived in the southern and central regions before the country became a Spanish colony.
The country gained independence from Spain in Toward the end of the s, many Europeans began to settle in Chile, including Germans, French, British, and Italians. Many Chinese moved to Chile to help build the railroad. Chile was once considered to be a very stable and free country. But in a bloody battle overthrew Salvador Allende's elected Marxist government and the country suffered 16 years under the dictatorship of Gen.
Augusto Pinochet. Democracy was restored in Major Exports: Copper, fruit, fish products, paper and pulp, chemicals, and wine. Export Partners: China Major Imports: Petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, electrical and telecommunications equipment, industrial machinery, vehicles, natural gas.
Import Partners: China Agricultural Products: grapes, apples, pears, onions, wheat, corn, oats, peaches, garlic, asparagus, beans; beef, poultry, wool; fish; timber Major Industries: copper, lithium, other minerals, foodstuffs, fish processing, iron and steel, wood and wood products, transport equipment, cement, textiles. Natural Resources: copper, timber, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, molybdenum, hydropower Land Use: Agricultural land: Fixed Lines: 3,,, 20 per residents est.
Cell Phones: 23,,, per residents est. International Country Code: Total: 7, Total: 77, km Paved: 18, km includes 2, km of expressways Unpaved: 59, km Archaeological evidence indicates that societies settled throughout Chile as early as the s BC. The country encompasses a wide range of biomes, but by and large the country proved fruitful for growing populations. The peoples of Chile practiced various forms of megalithic construction, and are otherwise famous for their unique textiles and silverworking.
Chile is home to many different indigenous peoples, with a diverse range of cultural practices and languages. These include the Anikenk commonly called by their Mapuche name Tehuelche , who were erroneously identified as giants in early colonial literature.
For the most part, though, pre-Columbian Chile was under the control of the Inca in the north and the Mapuche also known as the Araucanos in the south. The Inca are known around the world as a wealthy and expansive empire, and they projected their power and control throughout large stretches of the Andes. They extended their control as far as central Chile before their collapse and conquest by the Spanish.
The Mapuche won an important pyrrhic victory at the Battle of the Maule that would define the Incas' southern border for decades. In the mids, the Spanish followed the same route of conquest out of Peru as had the Inca. The colony would provide substantial mineral and agricultural value, but its remoteness would make it difficult to protect from raids by local amerindian nations and by the English. The defense of the Chile colony would prove a significant drain on Spain's finances.
For nearly three hundred and fifty years, in a long-running conflict called the Arauco War, Mapuche groups would harass and resist Spanish rule. The Spanish made significant headway over the first fifty years of expansion, but by the native people were able to score major victories and establish a frontier between Spanish Chilean and Mapuche territory.
They would remain largely independent until after Chile won its independence, and because of this the Mapuche have a heroic reputation in many circles. Chile began its bid for independence after the Spanish crown changed hands in the Napoleonic Wars. O'Higgins, dictator until , laid the foundations of the modern state with a two-party system and a centralized government.
The dictator from to , Diego Portales, fought a war with Peru from ? Chile fought the War of the Pacific with Peru and Bolivia from to , winning Antofagasta, Bolivia's only outlet to the sea, and extensive areas from Peru. Pedro Montt led a revolt that overthrew Jos Balmaceda in and established a parliamentary dictatorship lasting until a new constitution was adopted in Industrialization began before World War I and led to the formation of Marxist groups.
In , Salvador Allende became the first president in a non-Communist country freely elected on a Marxist program. Allende quickly established relations with Cuba and the People's Republic of China, introduced Marxist economic and social reforms, and nationalized many private companies, including U.
In Sept. The coup was led by a four-man junta headed by Army Chief of Staff Augusto Pinochet , who eventually assumed the office of president. Committed to eliminating Marxism the junta suspended parliament, banned political activity, and severely curbed civil liberties.
Pinochet's brutal dictatorship led to the imprisonment, torture, disappearances, execution, and expulsion of thousands of Chileans. A government report in indicated that almost 28, people had been tortured during his rule, and at least 3, murders and disappearances had taken place.
The economy, in tatters after the recession that afflicted the Allende administration, gradually improved after Chile's privatization under Pinochet. In , Pinochet lost a plebiscite on whether he should remain in power. He stepped down in Jan. In Dec. Pinochet, who had retained his post as army commander in chief after the plebiscite, retired in March In Oct.
British courts ultimately denied his extradition, and Pinochet returned to Chile in March He died in Dec. Ricardo Lagos became president in March , the first Socialist to run the country since Allende. In , there were several minor financial scandals involving insider information and bribery.
In response, Lagos introduced new reforms promising greater transparency. In , Chile passed a law permitting divorce for the first time. The former pediatrician is a survivor of the Pinochet dictatorship, which was responsible for her father's death and subjected her to prison, torture, and exile. Bachelet took office on March 11, becoming Chile's first female chief of state.
She promised to continue Chile's successful economic policies while increasing social spending. The president's first major challenge came when , of the nation's students organized a national boycott in May demanding educational reform. The students called off the strike in June after the government agreed to address their concerns. In January , president Bachelet swore in six new ministers to her member cabinet.
The major change was the appointment of Christian Democrat leader Edmundo Perez Yoma for Interior Minister, the top political post of the cabinet. Bachelet also replaced ministers of economy, public works, mining, agriculture, and planning.
The cabinet changes are not expected to affect government policy. In January , for the first time in 50 years? Chile elected a right-wing president. Billionaire businessman Sebastin Piera narrowly defeated Eduardo Frei of the Concertacion, the center-left alliance that has been in power for 20 years, in the second round of voting.
Piera, who was elected to the Senate in , owns a television station, a soccer club, and a large stake in the country's main airline, Lan Chile. He lost to outgoing Bachelet in the election, his first run for the presidency. Piera said he would use his business acumen to create jobs give private industry a more prominent role in the economy. He has distanced himself from the Pinochet regime, and his cabinet is made up of a group of technocrats with no ties to Pinochet.
Chile was hit by an 8. Fatalities were relatively low, with some people killed in the devastation. However, as many as 1. The country, long known to be at high risk for earthquakes, has enforced strict building codes in urban areas, which helped to limit the amount of damage in these areas.
But buildings and homes in poorer areas? Chile's electricity grids, communication, and transportation systems were badly damaged, severely hampering rescue and aid efforts.
The epicenter of the quake was 70 miles northeast of Concepcion in central Chile. Massive waves caused additional damage along the coast. In March , Sebastin Piera was sworn in as President of Chile, immediately following three major aftershocks from the recent massive earthquake. Piera is the first right-wing president since Pinochet. He made an effort to distance himself from the former dictator, and he assembled a cabinet of technocrats with no ties to Pinochet.
He faced the widespread devastation of his country following the February earthquake, visiting the quake zone directly after his inauguration. One of his first acts as the new president was to form an emergency response team to deal with the country's reconstruction in the aftermath of the disaster.
On Aug. Remarkably all of the miners survived. Rescuers drilled a small borehole to provide the miners with food, lights, and liquids and to allow them to send notes to and from family members as they wait to be rescued.
The miners have become national heroes throughout Chile. They were rescued in mid-October, weeks earlier than planned, lifted to safety one by one in a rescue capsule. Each of the miners emerged jubilant and in overall good health considering the ordeal. Immediately following the successful rescue of 33 miners in , Chilean President Sebastin Piera had an approval rating of 63 percent. The main reason for the approval rating nosedive was Piera's support for the Hidroaysn electricity project, a plan to build five dams on two rivers and flood over 14, acres of nature reserves in the Patagonia region.
The protests caused injuries to 28 police officers and over one hundred thousand dollars in property damage. One protest in early June involved 30, demonstrators marching to the presidential palace, with some protestors throwing stones and pieces of wood at police vehicles. The police fired back with water cannons. Since the commission's decision, the focus has turned to the yet to be approved transmission line for the project.
Patagonia, considered by Chileans to be a national treasure with its breathtaking glaciers and lakes, attracts thousands of tourists each year. Throughout , partly inspired by the Arab Spring, activists continued to protest and started a movement which came to be known as the Chilean Winter. On August 4, , some protestors set up barricades around Santiago, the nation's capital, while others banged on pots and pans.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of high school and college students. About demonstrators were arrested. Also in August, nearly three dozen university and high school students went on a hunger strike to show their disapproval of President Piera's government. These education protests have taken over several schools, forcing some to stop classes.
Students organized rallies which were attended by , people. The protestors were demanding a more accessible and affordable university system as well as higher quality and equal funding for elementary and middle schools.
In October , student representatives attempted to negotiate with government representatives led by Felipe Bulnes, the education minister.
However, the students withdrew from the negotiations, reporting that Bulnes attacked a student representative, David Urrea. Bulnes reportedly accused Urrea of trying to break up the negotiations. A spokesperson for the government blamed extremists within the student movement for the breakdown of negotiations.
Bulnes was replaced by Harald Beyer as education minister two months later. Although the student protestors did not get all their demands met, they did influence a huge drop in President Piera's approval rating.
As of January , Piera's approval rating hovered around 26? The northern Chilean desert contains great mineral wealth, principally copper.
The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. The Andes Mountains are located on the eastern border.
Most have Spanish ancestry. A small, yet influential number of Irish and English immigrants came to Chile during the colonial period. German immigration began in and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of Valdivia, Llanquihue, and Osorno show a strong German influence.
Other significant immigrant groups are Italian, Croatian, Basque, and Palestinian. About , Native Americans, mostly of the Mapuche tribe, reside in the south-central area.
The Aymara and Diaguita groups can be found mainly in Chile?? About 10, years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first Europeans to arrive in Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies.
These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in and was carried out by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarro's lieutenants, who founded the city of Santiago on February 12, Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in A national junta in the name of Ferdinand--heir to the deposed king--was formed on September 18, However, some argue that Chile's economic policies are overly cautious and the government should do more to encourage growth.
In , conservative forces led by Diego Portales succeeded in asserting control over the country. The Portales constitution established a strong central government dominated by the chief executive. For most of the nineteenth century, the president presided over a gradual institutionalization of representative practices and expansion of suffrage.
These developments were accompanied by growing challenges to executive authority by the political parties sitting in the National Congress. The struggle for power between different governing branches escalated into a brief civil war in that was won by congressional forces and paved the way for a parliamentary republic.
New and radical parties flourished, on both left and right sides of the political spectrum. The constitution largely followed the classical liberal and democratic lines of its predecessor, thus allowing for institutional continuity. The government was divided into four branches: the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, and the comptroller general. In the wake of the Cuban Revolution of , politics in Chile became increasingly polarized between left-wing and right-wing factions.
Centrist parties were no longer able to mediate the agreements and compromises that had previously enabled the smooth functioning of Chilean politics.
The March congressional elections, which each side had hoped would give it a clear governing mandate, provided the catalyst—inconclusive results led to an escalation of the confrontation, with violent street demonstrations and threats of insurgency. On September 11, , a military junta composed of the heads of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the national police led a coup to overthrow the Allende government, alleging constitutional violations, and to impose military rule.
Days after the coup, the junta appointed a commission to begin crafting a new constitutional order that could legitimize the military.
The transitional articles would apply during the transitional period of military rule, with Pinochet as President and the junta holding constituent and legislative power. In , the junta was to appoint a Presidential candidate to be approved by plebiscite to lead Chile for the next eight years. Beginning in , the Chilean political opposition accepted that the Pinochet regime could not be overthrown by popular revolt or guerilla warfare, but had to be challenged from within the constitutional system that the military government had itself created.
Under the constitution, this meant that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held in December In the period between the plebiscite and the presidential elections, three-way negotiations over constitutional reform were held between the military government, moderate right-wing parties that supported the government, and the center-left opposition.
There was no public discussion or participation. The military succeeded in including a provision that laws that dealt with the armed forces would be governed by an organic constitutional law, increasing the difficulty of amending such laws.
Important changes have included: allowing for the direct election of municipal councilors; Supreme Court and criminal justice reform, and the enshrining of gender equality. The amendments are considered to be the greatest steps toward democracy in Chile, reducing the presidential term from 6 to 4 years, reducing military influence in politics—by transforming the National Security Council into an advisory body to the President, eliminating appointed senatorial seats, and giving the President the power to dismiss the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces and the national police—and removing the current electoral system from the constitution in order to open the process to future reform.
In , Michelle Bachelet, of the socialist party, was elected to a second presidential term—the first being from to , as the Constitution prohibits consecutive terms. Opposition politicians raised concerns that changing the Constitution would create uncertainty, which could have a negative impact on foreign investment and the economy as a whole.
Also, because of the large Catholic population in the country Less than a fortnight after Bachelet took office, over , Chileans from more than 40 civil organizations participated in The Protest of All Protests , calling for the Constitutional changes that had been promised during the campaign. Protesters claimed that the march was not in opposition to the President but rather to inform the politicians that the people have demands. Those demands include self-determination for the indigenous people, egalitarian marriage with child adoption, and healthcare.
The executive branch is headed by the President of the Republic, who serves a four year term and is not eligible for consecutive re-election. The President must be at least 35 years of age and a citizen of Chile.
The Ministers of State, appointed by the President, must grant their approval of any Presidential regulations or decrees. The Ministers must be at least 21 years of age. The legislature of Chile is a bicameral system composed of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Members of each branch are elected during the same election cycle as the president. They must be at least 21 years old, have completed a secondary education, and have resided in their respective electoral district for no less than two years before the date of the election.
The 38 members of the Senate are elected by direct vote in 19 two-member circumscriptions for eight year terms, half renewed alternately every four years. Senators must be at least 35 years of age and have completed a secondary education. Members of both branches may serve additional terms. The Courts of Chile address civil and criminal matters.
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