history of Chile

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The topic history of Chile is discussed in the following articles:

major treatment

  • TITLE: Chile
    SECTION: History

20th-century political developments

  • TITLE: history of Latin America
    SECTION: Broadening of political participation
    ...of 1912 that made universal male suffrage effective for the first time and paved the way for the Radical Civic Union party, with strong middle-class support, to take power four years later. In Chile a reformist coalition won the election of 1920, but strife between president and parliament brought a relapse into instability and short-lived military dictatorship. By the time Chile returned...
  • TITLE: history of Latin America
    SECTION: Christian Democracy
    ...offered a program of moderate reform inspired by Roman Catholic social teachings. Most were small splinter groups, but Christian Democrats eventually achieved power in Venezuela, El Salvador, and Chile. In Venezuela they alternated with the social democratic AD and in their policies became almost indistinguishable from it. In El Salvador in the 1980s they were enmeshed in a preexisting...
  • TITLE: history of Latin America
    SECTION: A shift to neoliberalism
    One of the last countries to return to democracy was Chile, where the Pinochet dictatorship had been more successful than most in economic management. After first imposing harsh readjustments and committing its share of mistakes, it had launched the country on a steady course of economic growth that made it a much-admired model in Latin America and continued even after the dictator finally...

Antarctic Treaty

  • TITLE: Antarctic Treaty (1959)
    ...made a demilitarized zone to be preserved for scientific research. The treaty resulted from a conference in Washington, D.C., attended by representatives of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Later other nations acceded to the treaty.
  • TITLE: Antarctica
    SECTION: The Antarctic Treaty
    ...final draft was reached within six weeks of negotiations, and the Antarctic Treaty was signed on Dec. 1, 1959. With final ratification by each of the 12 governments (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States), the treaty was enacted on June 23, 1961.

Araucanian wars

  • TITLE: Araucanian wars (Chilean history)
    series of conflicts between the Araucanian Indians of Chile and the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century, and one battle between the Araucanians and independent Chile in the 19th century.


  • TITLE: Argentina
    SECTION: Galtieri and the Falklands War
    ...the Falklands had been precipitated in 1977, when Argentina’s claim to another archipelago—the three Beagle Channel islands—was refused by the International Court of Justice in favour of Chile. (In 1979 the matter had again gone into negotiation, this time under Vatican auspices, and in 1984 Chile was awarded sovereignty.) In February 1982 Argentina increased pressure on the United...


  • TITLE: Bolivia
    SECTION: Foundation and early national period

boxing history

  • TITLE: boxing (sport)
    SECTION: Latin America
    ...occurred in 1903 between combatants identified as Paddy McCarthy and Abelardo Robassio. Thereafter British seamen organized local tournaments, and the first official boxing federation was founded in Chile in 1912. Heavyweight champion Jack Johnson fought two exhibitions in Buenos Aires in December 1914 and one more the following month before losing his title to Jess Willard in Cuba on April 5,...

Chile mine rescue of 2010

  • TITLE: Chile mine rescue of 2010
    ...the San Jose gold and copper mine on October 13, 2010, 69 days after the mine’s collapse on August 5. The mine, owned by the San Esteban Primera Mining Company, was located in the Atacama Desert of Chile, approximately 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the town of Copiapó and approximately 500 miles (800 km) north of Santiago.


  • TITLE: history of Latin America
    SECTION: The Spanish fringe
    ...a scale without parallel in the centre. Something of the same effect is observable even in situations where indigenous society was somewhat more like that of the centre, as in the central valley of Chile. The Spaniards dealt with the Indians directly, in small groups or as individuals, so that the distinction between encomienda Indians and naborías, so clear in the centre, hardly...

Deception Island

  • TITLE: Deception Island (island, Antarctica)
    ...for British claims in the Antarctic since 1910. The island has also served as a whaling and seal-hunting station from 1906 to 1931 and, during World War II, as a British military base. Argentina, Chile, and the United Kingdom, each of which claims the island, all have operated stations there. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes disturbed the island in 1967 and thereafter.

development of transportation and utilities

  • TITLE: William Wheelwright (American businessman and promoter)
    ...of the seaways off the South American coast. Between 1835 and 1840 he raised the necessary capital in England to form a steamship line, the Pacific Mail Steam Company, which linked Valparaiso, Chile, with what is now Panama and then connected with a line that went from Panama to England. In 1851 he also built the first railroad in Chile, which connected Copiapó, a mining town, with...

earthquake of 1964

  • TITLE: Chile earthquake of 1960
    the largest earthquake recorded in the 20th century. Originating off the coast of southern Chile on May 22, 1960, the temblor caused substantial damage and loss of life both in that country and—as a result of the tsunamis that it generated—in distant Pacific coastal areas.


  • TITLE: football (soccer)
    SECTION: South America
    ...Uruguay, British railway workers were the first to play, and in 1891 they founded the Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club (now the famous Peñarol), which played both cricket and football. In Chile, British sailors initiated play in Valparaíso, establishing the Valparaíso FC in 1889. In Paraguay, Dutchman William Paats introduced the game at a school where he taught physical...

Itata and Baltimore incidents

Latin American architecture

  • TITLE: Latin American architecture
    SECTION: Architecture of the new independent republics, c. 1810–70
    Among the new institutions built in Bolivia were José Núñez del Prado’s Municipal Theatre (1834–45) and his Government Palace (1845–52). In Chile the Santiago School of Architecture was founded in 1849 by the Frenchman François Brunet de Baines. In both the school’s pedagogy and its architecture, Brunet introduced to Santiago the influence of the French...
  • TITLE: Latin American architecture
    SECTION: Contemporary architecture, c. 1965–the present
    Chile has produced a refined architecture that combines a respect for early Modernism with a sensitivity to materials and construction techniques. The work of Christian de Groote is rooted in the landscape at the particular conditions of the site. His Fuenzalida House (1984) in Santiago is a long and narrow house that is framed by two parallel brick walls, which establish a horizontal line...


  • TITLE: Peru
    SECTION: Struggle for power

Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation

  • TITLE: Peruvian–Bolivian Confederation (South American history)
    ...France, and the United States recognized the confederation, but its South American neighbours feared and opposed the powerful new state. In 1836 fighting broke out between the confederation and Chile, whose relations with independent Peru had already been strained by economic problems centring on rivalry between their ports of Callao (near Lima) and Valparaíso, Chile. In 1837 Santa...
  • TITLE: Diego Portales (Chilean politician)
    Chilean politician and for seven years virtual dictator who was instrumental in establishing political order and instituting economic progress in Chile. Disliked by some Chileans during his lifetime, he became a symbol of Chilean unity after his death.
revolutionary movements
  • TITLE: history of Latin America
    SECTION: The southern movement in South America
    ...success on the Pacific coast. In 1817 San Martín, a Latin American-born former officer in the Spanish military, directed 5,000 men in a dramatic crossing of the Andes and struck at a point in Chile where loyalist forces had not expected an invasion. In alliance with Chilean patriots under the command of Bernardo O’Higgins, San Martín’s army restored independence to a region whose...
  • O’Higgins

    San Martín

    superpower politics

    • TITLE: 20th-century international relations (politics)
      SECTION: Marxism and the Cuban role
      ...not afford such massive aid to other clients. This limitation appeared to be crucial even when Communists had a chance of prevailing in one of the largest, most developed South American states, Chile. The Communist party there was a charter member of the 1921 Comintern and had strong ties to the Chilean labour movement. The party was outlawed until 1956, whereupon it formed an electoral...

    War of the Pacific

    • TITLE: War of the Pacific (South American history)
      (1879–83), conflict involving Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, which resulted in Chilean annexation of valuable disputed territory on the Pacific coast. It grew out of a dispute between Chile and Bolivia over control of a part of the Atacama Desert that lies between the 23rd and 26th parallels on the Pacific coast of South America. The territory contained valuable mineral resources, particularly...


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