Consulado General de Chile en Nueva York

History

The Spanish conquest of Chile began in 1536-37, when forces under Diego de Almagro, invaded the region as far south as the Maule River. Finding neither a high civilization nor gold, the Spaniards decided to return to Peru. The discouraging reports brought back by Almagro's men forestalled further attempts at conquest until 1540-41, when Pizarro granted Pedro de Valdivia a license to conquer and colonize the area. Valdivia, was accompanied by about 150 followers, including his mistress, lnés de Suárez (the only Spanish woman in the company). He entered Chile in late 1540 and founded Santiago (the capital of Chile) on Feb. 12, 1541.

At the start of the 19th century the remote colony was affected by developments elsewhere. The most significant of these were the achievement of independence by the 13 Anglo-American colonies and by Haiti, the French Revolution, and the inability of Spain to defend its system in America. Finally, the intervention of Napoleon in Spain, in 1808, left Chile and the other Hispanic colonies to their own resources and led them to take the first steps toward greater autonomy and self-government. In Chile the initial move toward independence was made on September 18, 1810, in a Cabildo Abierto (open town meeting) in Santiago, attended by representatives of privileged groups. The Cabildo accepted the resignation of the Governor and in his place elected a junta composed of local leaders.

After a period of war with Spain on February 12, 1817, the patriot forces defeated the royalists in Chacabuco. O'Higgins was proclaimed supreme director of Chile. Chile's independence was declared a year later (Feb. 12, 1818). The decisive defeat of Spain on the Chilean mainland (Spain held the island of Chiloé until 1826) did not come until the Battle of Maipú in the outskirts of Santiago, on April 5, 1818.

The period between 1823-30 was troubled by an internal political split between the oligarchy and the army; many successive governments held office, and a variety of political experiments were tried. Added to the political chaos were financial and economic disorder and an increase in lawlessness, strengthening the authoritarian members of the oligarchy.

During the period that goes from 1831 to 1871 and due to a compromise among the members of the oligarchy, Chile's political institutions were definitely established. Diego Portales played an important role in the compromise. A new Constitution was achieved in 1833, which remained until 1925. The Constitution created a strong and impersonal government. The establishment of this new political structure gave an impressive stability to Chile.

From 1831 to 1871 Chile lived the period known as "the decades”, during which Presidents Joaquín Prieto, Manuel Bulnes, Manuel Montt and José Joaquín Pérez were elected for two consecutive periods of five years. These governments were dedicated to develop the economy and reestablish the state finances. The discovery of gold in California (1848) and in Australia (1853) assured Chilean grain a vast market, as the populations of those two areas expanded. The production of silver and copper rose in response to European demand, thereby increasing the wealth of the country. Economic development helped overcome political disagreements and aided to the consolidation of domestic peace.

Political stability and economic prosperity opened the way to modernization. The construction of the first railroads began, new roads were opened, and the harbors were improved. The government tried also to develop education. The University of Chile was founded, and foreign scholars were recruited to foster geologic, botanical, and economic studies. The development of commerce attracted numerous foreign entrepreneurs (British, French, and North American), who dominated the import-export trade.

The increase of wealth that especially favored the oligarchy and foreign merchants also contributed to a diversification of the ruling class; the development of mining production in the north and of agriculture in the south created new fortunes, whose owners soon made their entry into the political world. A new development among younger members of the traditional oligarchy was the growth of liberalism.

From 1879 to 1883, Chile went to war against Peru and Bolivia. Measures taken against the Chilean migrant population and businessman working in nitrate mines in Antofagasta (at that time, Bolivian territory), caused the Chilean army to intervene. Chile defeated the Peruvian-Bolivian army and annexed the provinces of Antofagasta and Tarapacá.

In 1891 Chile had a bloody civil war. Conflict began like a political fight between the President José Manuel Balmaceda (1886-1891) and the National Congress. Congress repeatedly obstructed Balmaceda's initiatives and the President did not accept the prerogatives of the Congress. Parliament's position was supported by the Navy and in the Balmaceda's side was the Army. The forces of the President of Republic were defeated and he committed suicide. The Congressional victory had a deep impact in the Chilean political and constitutional history. Parliamentary government was imposed en Chile and since then and until 1925 the Legislature was predominant over the Executive.

The period between 1891 and 1920 was one of intense political activity that saw the formation of new political parties and tendencies that tried to express the political desires of the middle and lower classes. The development of a state bureaucracy and the growth of the railroads and of commerce, favored the formation of social groups with urban concerns, rarely linked to the landed oligarchy, and increasingly aware of their possible political rules.

In the decade following World War I, falling nitrate sales and rising inflation fueled dissatisfaction among the middle and working classes. They supported the election of reformist president Arturo Alessandri Palma in 1920. When the legislature blocked his initiatives, discontent spread to middle-class army officers. They intervened in 1924 to force parliamentary approval of his social reforms. Alessandri resigned but the military returned him to power in 1925. That same year the army backed Alessandri's enactment of a now constitution, which lasted until 1973. It established a presidential republic, separated church and state, and codified the new labor and welfare legislation.

The world depression of the 1930s was difficult for Chile's economy. International demand and the prices for nitrates and copper plummeted. Chile was forced to reduce imports, which in turn reduced national production. Incomes diminished, while public expenditures grew. This situation provoked a political instability until 1932.

The discontent of the workers and especially of the middle class was manifest in the 1938 presidential election. The Radical candidate, Pedro Aguirre Cerda (1938-41), won with the support of a leftist coalition. Aguirre Cerda represented the middle class. His triumph was due to the support of a popular front, which included the Radical, Socialist, and Communist parties. Aguirre Cerda's program included measures for increasing industrial output. The Development Corporation (Corporación de Fomento de la Producción -Corfo-) was created in 1939 to reduce imports and thus diminish the trade deficit by developing industry, mainly to produce consumer and intermediate goods.

After of Aguirre’s government the Presidency was held by Juan Antonio Ríos, Gabriel González Videla and Carlos lbáñez del Campo. In 1949 the vote was granted to women, and the electorate thus expanded from 631,257 in 1946 to about 1,000,000 in 1952.

Ibáñez was succeeded by the son of Arturo Alessandri Palma, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez (1958-64), who won with the support of the Conservative and Liberal parties (right wing parties). To satisfy popular demands without altering profoundly the structures of the country, he launched a public works program that helped absorb the masses of unemployed. Alessandri tried to reduce the high inflation rate (about 60-70 percent yearly), to augment productivity by reducing taxes on business enterprises, and to stimulate industrial growth by expanding the home market through public expenditure. However, he had little success in obtain these goals. At the end of Alessandri Rodríguez rule the right parties were so weakened that their electoral strength was practically cut in half.

Popular discontent helped revive the Marxist-inspired Socialist and Communist parties and produced an electoral loss of the right wing that corresponded with the rise of the left. At the same time the old political center (Radical Party) was displaced by an emergent new center, more ideological and with less disposition to form political alliances: the Christian Democratic Party (PDC). It was founded in 1957 and enjoyed an increase from 9 percent in 1957 to 15 percent in 1961.

In the presidential election of 1964 the Christian Democratic candidate, Eduardo Frei Montalva, won 56 percent of the votes. Frei's program, represented by the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," promised a series of reforms in order to develop the country by raising the incomes of the lower classes. Increased incomes would lead to a higher level of industrialization. To attain this aim, the Christian Democrat Government instituted a program of chilenization by which the state took control of copper mines, Chile's principal resource, acquiring 51 percent of the shares of the largest U.S. copper companies in Chile. In addition, a vast agrarian reform aimed at reducing the imports of agricultural products began and in the rural sector real wages rose by 40 per cent over a 6 years period. A quarter of a million new houses were built, mostly for the poorest sectors of society and the urban labour force doubled in the six years of PDC government. But social and political conflict increased in those years.

In the bi-polar world of the 50's and 60's the electoral base slowly splintered into three groupings, right, center and left. This situation isolated any group in power, and impeded the continuum of the governing forces. In fact after 1952, not a single government was succeeded by another capable of continuing its major projects.

Under these circumstances, a group of leftist parties formed the Popular Unity coalition in 1969 and designated Salvador Allende as its presidential candidate. Allende was elected President in 1970. His government envisioned an eventual transition to socialism, to be accomplished through the end of foreign control over mining and finance, expanded agrarian reform and a more equal distribution of income. The copper mines were nationalized, with total support from the opposition, in July 1971; and during the first year more than eighty enterprises from important commercial and industrial sectors were taken over. Land reform was also accelerated and almost as many farms were expropriated in the first year as in the whole period of PDC government, many as a result of land seizures. By late 1971 virtually the entire financial sector was under government control. Because of unused capacity in industry and stockpiles, government-led expansion produced a high rate of economic growth in 1971, but in the following years the economic situation got increasingly worse. In 1972 and 1973 capacity limits in industrial sectors, breakdown in the distribution market, the decline in private investment, the exhaustion of international reserves, uncontrolled monetary expansion, the growth of a black market and last but not least, the foreign pressure, specially from the American government, deeply struck the Chilean economy. In this period the general consensus about the validity of the constitutional system was broken. All aspects of life became politicized, and politics became polarized. The serious economic difficulties and extreme political polarization in the Chilean society in the 70’s caused the breakdown of the democratic process.

On September11, 1973 the armed forces overthrew the government of Salvador Allende, the democratic system and the rule of law. Immediately after the coup d’état thousands of Chileans were killed and in the later months as many as eighty thousand political prisoners were taken. This scale of repression did not continue, but torture of political suspects, imprisonment, exile and ever assassination continued in the following years.

On the other hand, a group of economists trained in the Catholic University of Chile and in the University of Chicago offered the military a complete restructuring of the Chilean economy and society, reducing the size of the public sector, opening the economy to free trade and foreign investment, and allowing market forces to regulate wage rates. By 1980 the State was owner of twenty-four enterprises (from three hundred in 1973) and in the agrarian sector about a third of the land was returned to its former owners. The state retreated from many areas where previously it had played an important role. An example of these changes was that pension funds were transferred to the private sector. Chilean markets open to foreign competition leading to deep change in the nation’s economic structure, particularly in the export sector.

In 1981 a new Constitution was established and finally in October 1988, in a constitutionally mandated plebiscite, voters decided against an additional eight-year term for General Pinochet, opening the way for the transition to democracy.

One year later, in December 1989, Chile held open and free presidential and legislative elections. The Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin Azócar, leader of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación Democrática) formed by Christian Democrats, Socialists, Radicals, the Party for Democracy and other smaller groups, was elected to a four-year term. The new government had to reinforce the democratic consensus and at the same time, try to smooth civil-military relations; it had to handle the delicate question arising from the human rights abuses of the year after 1973; and it had to maintain economic growth while attending to the social inequities left by the outgoing regime. Reinforcement of the democratic consensus was undoubtedly enhanced by economic success (the growth rate average was a 6% per cent in this period). The Coalition’s economic aims were summarized in the phrase “growth with equity”: its program accepted the market economy as a reality and stressed both the containment of inflation and the continued promotion of export.

In December 1993 Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle, leading the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, won the presidential election with a 58.5% of the votes. His main achievements were an educational reform, a deep improvement in the infrastructure of the country and the most important reform of justice system in 100 years. Also, between 1994 and 1997 the Chilean economy experimented a strong development with an annual average increased rate of 7,8% . In the last two years of Frei’s term Chile was affected by the Asian crisis and because of that economic development averaged 5,6% annually for his government.

On January, 16 , 2000 the governing coalition won a third consecutive presidential election when Ricardo Lagos defeated Joaquin Lavín (right wing candidate), 51.32 percent to 48.68 percent.

During the dictatorship Mr. Lagos spent much of his exile in the United States, where he was a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina. In the 1980's, he helped lead the opposition to General Pinochet and move the Socialist Party from its Marxist orientation to a social democratic one. After, Lagos was Ministry of Education (1990- 1994) and Ministry of Public Works (Infrastructure) during the Frei government

Link

History of Chile. 20th Century

History
	The Spanish conquest of Chile began in 1536-37, when forces under Diego de Almagro, invaded the region as far south as the Maule River. Finding neither a high civilization nor gold, the Spaniards decided to return to Peru. The discouraging reports brought back by Almagro's men forestalled further attempts at conquest until 1540-41, when Pizarro granted Pedro de Valdivia a license to conquer and colonize the area. Valdivia, was accompanied by about 150 followers, including his mistress, lnés de Suárez (the only Spanish woman in the company). He entered Chile in late 1540 and founded Santiago (the capital of Chile) on Feb. 12, 1541.
	At the start of the 19th century the remote colony was affected by developments elsewhere. The most significant of these were the achievement of independence by the 13 Anglo-American colonies and by Haiti, the French Revolution, and the inability of Spain to defend its system in America. Finally, the intervention of Napoleon in Spain, in 1808, left Chile and the other Hispanic colonies to their own resources and led them to take the first steps toward greater autonomy and self-government. In Chile the initial move toward independence was made on September 18, 1810, in a Cabildo Abierto (open town meeting) in Santiago, attended by representatives of privileged groups. The Cabildo accepted the resignation of the Governor and in his place elected a junta composed of local leaders.
	After a period of war with Spain on February 12, 1817, the patriot forces defeated the royalists in Chacabuco. O'Higgins was proclaimed supreme director of Chile. Chile's independence was declared a year later (Feb. 12, 1818). The decisive defeat of Spain on the Chilean mainland (Spain held the island of Chiloé until 1826) did not come until the Battle of Maipú in the outskirts of Santiago, on April 5, 1818.
	The period between 1823-30 was troubled by an internal political split between the oligarchy and the army; many successive governments held office, and a variety of political experiments were tried. Added to the political chaos were financial and economic disorder and an increase in lawlessness, strengthening the authoritarian members of the oligarchy.
	During the period that goes from 1831 to 1871 and due to a compromise among the members of the oligarchy, Chile's political institutions were definitely established. Diego Portales played an important role in the compromise. A new Constitution was achieved in 1833, which remained until 1925. The Constitution created a strong and impersonal government. The establishment of this new political structure gave an impressive stability to Chile.
	From 1831 to 1871 Chile lived the period known as "the decades”, during which Presidents Joaquín Prieto, Manuel Bulnes, Manuel Montt and José Joaquín Pérez were elected for two consecutive periods of five years. These governments were dedicated to develop the economy and reestablish the state finances. The discovery of gold in California (1848) and in Australia (1853) assured Chilean grain a vast market, as the populations of those two areas expanded. The production of silver and copper rose in response to European demand, thereby increasing the wealth of the country. Economic development helped overcome political disagreements and aided to the consolidation of domestic peace.
	Political stability and economic prosperity opened the way to modernization. The construction of the first railroads began, new roads were opened, and the harbors were improved. The government tried also to develop education. The University of Chile was founded, and foreign scholars were recruited to foster geologic, botanical, and economic studies. The development of commerce attracted numerous foreign entrepreneurs (British, French, and North American), who dominated the import-export trade.
	The increase of wealth that especially favored the oligarchy and foreign merchants also contributed to a diversification of the ruling class; the development of mining production in the north and of agriculture in the south created new fortunes, whose owners soon made their entry into the political world. A new development among younger members of the traditional oligarchy was the growth of liberalism.
	From 1879 to 1883, Chile went to war against Peru and Bolivia. Measures taken against the Chilean migrant population and businessman working in nitrate mines in Antofagasta (at that time, Bolivian territory), caused the Chilean army to intervene. Chile defeated the Peruvian-Bolivian army and annexed the provinces of Antofagasta and Tarapacá.
	In 1891 Chile had a bloody civil war. Conflict began like a political fight between the President José Manuel Balmaceda (1886-1891) and the National Congress. Congress repeatedly obstructed Balmaceda's initiatives and the President did not accept the prerogatives of the Congress. Parliament's position was supported by the Navy and in the Balmaceda's side was the Army. The forces of the President of Republic were defeated and he committed suicide. The Congressional victory had a deep impact in the Chilean political and constitutional history. Parliamentary government was imposed en Chile and since then and until 1925 the Legislature was predominant over the Executive.
	The period between 1891 and 1920 was one of intense political activity that saw the formation of new political parties and tendencies that tried to express the political desires of the middle and lower classes. The development of a state bureaucracy and the growth of the railroads and of commerce, favored the formation of social groups with urban concerns, rarely linked to the landed oligarchy, and increasingly aware of their possible political rules.
	In the decade following World War I, falling nitrate sales and rising inflation fueled dissatisfaction among the middle and working classes. They supported the election of reformist president Arturo Alessandri Palma in 1920. When the legislature blocked his initiatives, discontent spread to middle-class army officers. They intervened in 1924 to force parliamentary approval of his social reforms. Alessandri resigned but the military returned him to power in 1925. That same year the army backed Alessandri's enactment of a now constitution, which lasted until 1973. It established a presidential republic, separated church and state, and codified the new labor and welfare legislation.
	The world depression of the 1930s was difficult for Chile's economy. International demand and the prices for nitrates and copper plummeted. Chile was forced to reduce imports, which in turn reduced national production. Incomes diminished, while public expenditures grew. This situation provoked a political instability until 1932.
	The discontent of the workers and especially of the middle class was manifest in the 1938 presidential election. The Radical candidate, Pedro Aguirre Cerda (1938-41), won with the support of a leftist coalition. Aguirre Cerda represented the middle class. His triumph was due to the support of a popular front, which included the Radical, Socialist, and Communist parties. Aguirre Cerda's program included measures for increasing industrial output. The Development Corporation (Corporación de Fomento de la Producción -Corfo-) was created in 1939 to reduce imports and thus diminish the trade deficit by developing industry, mainly to produce consumer and intermediate goods.
	After of Aguirre’s government the Presidency was held by Juan Antonio Ríos, Gabriel González Videla and Carlos lbáñez del Campo. In 1949 the vote was granted to women, and the electorate thus expanded from 631,257 in 1946 to about 1,000,000 in 1952.
	Ibáñez was succeeded by the son of Arturo Alessandri Palma, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez (1958-64), who won with the support of the Conservative and Liberal parties (right wing parties). To satisfy popular demands without altering profoundly the structures of the country, he launched a public works program that helped absorb the masses of unemployed. Alessandri tried to reduce the high inflation rate (about 60-70 percent yearly), to augment productivity by reducing taxes on business enterprises, and to stimulate industrial growth by expanding the home market through public expenditure. However, he had little success in obtain these goals. At the end of Alessandri Rodríguez rule the right parties were so weakened that their electoral strength was practically cut in half.
	Popular discontent helped revive the Marxist-inspired Socialist and Communist parties and produced an electoral loss of the right wing that corresponded with the rise of the left. At the same time the old political center (Radical Party) was displaced by an emergent new center, more ideological and with less disposition to form political alliances: the Christian Democratic Party (PDC). It was founded in 1957 and enjoyed an increase from 9 percent in 1957 to 15 percent in 1961.
	In the presidential election of 1964 the Christian Democratic candidate, Eduardo Frei Montalva, won 56 percent of the votes. Frei's program, represented by the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," promised a series of reforms in order to develop the country by raising the incomes of the lower classes. Increased incomes would lead to a higher level of industrialization. To attain this aim, the Christian Democrat Government instituted a program of chilenization by which the state took control of copper mines, Chile's principal resource, acquiring 51 percent of the shares of the largest U.S. copper companies in Chile. In addition, a vast agrarian reform aimed at reducing the imports of agricultural products began and in the rural sector real wages rose by 40 per cent over a 6 years period. A quarter of a million new houses were built, mostly for the poorest sectors of society and the urban labour force doubled in the six years of PDC government. But social and political conflict increased in those years.
	In the bi-polar world of the 50's and 60's the electoral base slowly splintered into three groupings, right, center and left. This situation isolated any group in power, and impeded the continuum of the governing forces. In fact after 1952, not a single government was succeeded by another capable of continuing its major projects.
	Under these circumstances, a group of leftist parties formed the Popular Unity coalition in 1969 and designated Salvador Allende as its presidential candidate. Allende was elected President in 1970. His government envisioned an eventual transition to socialism, to be accomplished through the end of foreign control over mining and finance, expanded agrarian reform and a more equal distribution of income. The copper mines were nationalized, with total support from the opposition, in July 1971; and during the first year more than eighty enterprises from important commercial and industrial sectors were taken over. Land reform was also accelerated and almost as many farms were expropriated in the first year as in the whole period of PDC government, many as a result of land seizures. By late 1971 virtually the entire financial sector was under government control. Because of unused capacity in industry and stockpiles, government-led expansion produced a high rate of economic growth in 1971, but in the following years the economic situation got increasingly worse. In 1972 and 1973 capacity limits in industrial sectors, breakdown in the distribution market, the decline in private investment, the exhaustion of international reserves, uncontrolled monetary expansion, the growth of a black market and last but not least, the foreign pressure, specially from the American government, deeply struck the Chilean economy. In this period the general consensus about the validity of the constitutional system was broken. All aspects of life became politicized, and politics became polarized. The serious economic difficulties and extreme political polarization in the Chilean society in the 70’s caused the breakdown of the democratic process.
	On September11, 1973 the armed forces overthrew the government of Salvador Allende, the democratic system and the rule of law. Immediately after the coup d’état thousands of Chileans were killed and in the later months as many as eighty thousand political prisoners were taken. This scale of repression did not continue, but torture of political suspects, imprisonment, exile and ever assassination continued in the following years.
	On the other hand, a group of economists trained in the Catholic University of Chile and in the University of Chicago offered the military a complete restructuring of the Chilean economy and society, reducing the size of the public sector, opening the economy to free trade and foreign investment, and allowing market forces to regulate wage rates. By 1980 the State was owner of twenty-four enterprises (from three hundred in 1973) and in the agrarian sector about a third of the land was returned to its former owners. The state retreated from many areas where previously it had played an important role. An example of these changes was that pension funds were transferred to the private sector. Chilean markets open to foreign competition leading to deep change in the nation’s economic structure, particularly in the export sector.
	In 1981 a new Constitution was established and finally in October 1988, in a constitutionally mandated plebiscite, voters decided against an additional eight-year term for General Pinochet, opening the way for the transition to democracy.
	One year later, in December 1989, Chile held open and free presidential and legislative elections. The Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin Azócar, leader of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación Democrática) formed by Christian Democrats, Socialists, Radicals, the Party for Democracy and other smaller groups, was elected to a four-year term. The new government had to reinforce the democratic consensus and at the same time, try to smooth civil-military relations; it had to handle the delicate question arising from the human rights abuses of the year after 1973; and it had to maintain economic growth while attending to the social inequities left by the outgoing regime. Reinforcement of the democratic consensus was undoubtedly enhanced by economic success (the growth rate average was a 6% per cent in this period). The Coalition’s economic aims were summarized in the phrase “growth with equity”: its program accepted the market economy as a reality and stressed both the containment of inflation and the continued promotion of export.
	In December 1993 Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle, leading the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, won the presidential election with a 58.5% of the votes. His main achievements were an educational reform, a deep improvement in the infrastructure of the country and the most important reform of justice system in 100 years. Also, between 1994 and 1997 the Chilean economy experimented a strong development with an annual average increased rate of 7,8% . In the last two years of Frei’s term Chile was affected by the Asian crisis and because of that economic development averaged 5,6% annually for his government.
	On January, 16 , 2000 the governing coalition won a third consecutive presidential election when Ricardo Lagos defeated Joaquin Lavín (right wing candidate), 51.32 percent to 48.68 percent.
	During the dictatorship Mr. Lagos spent much of his exile in the United States, where he was a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina. In the 1980's, he helped lead the opposition to General Pinochet and move the Socialist Party from its Marxist orientation to a social democratic one. After, Lagos was Ministry of Education (1990- 1994) and Ministry of Public Works (Infrastructure) during the Frei government
Link History of Chile. 20th Century