Chile History

It is believed that Amerindians settled in the valleys and coastal areas of the territory about 10,000 years ago.  About a century before the Spaniards came, the Incas entered the northern part of Chile, but was resisted by the Mapuche tribe (part of the Araucanian group) there.  They stopped the advance into Chile of the Incas at the Maule River. 

The first Europeans arrive in 1535, when some Spaniards crossed over from Peru looking for gold and encountered a few hundred indigenous inhabitants.  In 1540, Spain colonized the territory and established the city of Santiago in the following year.  The colonists did not find much gold, but recognised the fertility of Chile’s central valley and began to form agricultural communities. 

Since then Chile was ruled by Spain through the Viceroyalty of Peru.  This lasted until 1808 during the Napoleonic era when Spain was overrun by France; this gave impetus for the Spanish inhabitants in Chile to clamour for self-rule.  In 1801, Chile proclaimed itself as a republic within the Spanish Empire, and this was followed by a further push for independence.  After 1815, when the Spanish throne was restored, Spain tried to reimpose Spanish rule in Chile, but this was resisted by Chilean nationalists who, together with Argentinian nationalist (who were also seeking independence at the same time), fought several wars against the royalists.  The wars ended in 1817 with the defeat of the royalists and Chile declared its independence in 1818.

Despite independence, the colonial era social structure remained unchanged, with power in the hands of wealthy landowners and the Roman Catholic Church.  Meanwhile, campaigned were launched to ruthlessly suppress the Mapuche community in the south.  The next few years also saw the expansion of Chilean territory, with Chile and Argentina signing a treaty confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellen, and defeat of Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific in 1979 - 1883, resulting in Chile gaining control over the Atacama region as well as valuable nitrite deposits.  Despite all these, there was growing discontent among the middle and working classes as power and wealth remained in the hands of the ruling class.  By 1920, there was fairly widespread support of the Marxist movement.  In the next few decades, Chile saw continuous struggle between the conservatives, sometimes aligned with the military, on the one hand, and the Marxists, communists and disenchanted democrats on the other.  In 1973, the armed forces  under General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte launched a coup to drive out the then elected Marxist president Salvador Allende. 

The country finally stabilized in 1989 after a democratically elected president came into power.