Chile (In South America) Report Essay, Research Paper

Jesse Rodriguez

Chile was once sparsely populated mainly by Araucanian Amerindians. In the early 15th century Chile came under the strong influence of the Incas. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Chile they tried to over take the Amerindians. The Amerindians of course resisted with force. Which resulted in battles between the Amerindians and the conquistadors. Eventually they started to lose their land to the Spanish. Chile also was one of Latin America?s first independence movements. The people of Chile first declared independence to the French usurpation of the Spanish Crown in 1810. They fought the Spanish troops and finally won in 1817. Finally they were free formally in 1818. In the next years there were two groups of political parties. There were the Conservative and the Liberal. The two groups fought making Chile go into a civil strife until 1830. That is when Jose Victor Portales assumed control of the political system. He was Chile?s dictator until 1837 when he was assassinated. So with Jose Victor Portales dead the Liberals were forced to share power with the Conservatives. Many of the legislative victories were won by the Liberals.

Chile is located along the southwestern coast of South America. It is roughly about 756,950 SQ KM. So it is just a bit smaller than Montana. It is divided into basically three general topographic regions. The lofty Andean cordillera on the east coast, the low coastal mountains of the west, and the fertile central valley between them both. The ethnicity of people there are mainly made up of 75% mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian) 20% white, and about 5 % Amerindian. Their religions consist of 88% Roman Catholic Church and 12% Protestant. The population in 1992 was 13,348,401 has risen since 1982 in which it contained 11,329,736 people. It is predicted that by the year 2000 the population there will be about 14,996,000. Its economy is storngly oriented toward industry and commerce. Even though some minerals are exported, mainly copper and iron ore. By the year of 1995 the chilean economy completed eleven consecutive years of strong and sustained expansion.