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At the time of the Spanish conquest of Chile in the mid-16th century, at least 500,000 Indians inhabited the region. Nearly all of the scattered tribes were related in race and language, but they lacked any central governmental organization. The groups in northern Chile lived by fishing and by farming in the oases. In the 15th century they fell under the influence of expanding civilizations...
...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...
in Latin America, history of: 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...
in Latin America, history of: 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...
...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.
in Antarctica: 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...
...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...
...became known as one of the more backward of the new republics. It rapidly lost its economic standing within Spanish America to such previously marginal areas as the Río de la Plata region and Chile, which were forging ahead on the basis of meat and cereal production. Bolivia, on the other hand, was a net importer of basic foods, even those consumed exclusively by its Indian population....
...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,...
...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...
...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.
...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 originating off the coast of Chile on May 22, 1960, with a moment magnitude of 9.5. The fault-displacement source of this earthquake, the largest in the world in the 20th century, extended over a distance of about 680 miles (1,100 km) along the southern Chilean coast. The cause was major underthrusting of the Pacific Plate under South America. Casualties included about 5,700 killed...
...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...
(1891), two serious occurrences involving the United States and Chile, the first taking place during and the second shortly after the Chilean civil war of 1891.
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...
in Latin American architecture: 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...
...Paz, was backed by influential groups in Peru and maintained the political union. But his hopes were shattered at the Battle of Yungay in 1839 by a joint force of nationalist-minded Peruvians and of Chileans fearing a threat to the balance of power in the Pacific.
...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...
in Portales, Diego )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.
...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...
(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...
...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...
Argentine soldier, statesman, and national hero who helped lead the revolutions against Spanish rule in Argentina (1812), Chile (1818), and Peru (1821).
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