Chile - national flag
Chile's flag was adopted in 1817, ie. the year before independence. It is
designed jointly by a Chilean and a visiting American officer and is clearly
inspired by the United States flag, Stars and Stripes. The white color
symbolizes the snow in the Andes, the blue sky over the Andes and the red blood
sacrificed for freedom. The white star points the way to progress and honor.
- Countryaah:
What does the flag of Chile look like? Follow this link, then you will see
the image in PNG format and flag meaning description about this country.
Chile - history
Unlike Mexico and Peru, there were neither highly developed Native American
cultures nor large gold and silver deposits in Chile. Only in northern Chile did
the Atacama and Diaguita Indians create interesting pottery. Domestication of
llamas and cultivation of corn and potatoes they probably learned from
approximately 1460 AD as subjects of the Incas, see also Incas.
-
AbbreviationFinder: Check three-letter abbreviation for each country in
the world, such as CHL which represents the official name of Chile.
When Diego de Almagro reached Chile in 1536 after a bitter voyage through the
Andes that cost 10,000 Auxiliary Indians their lives, he met no significant
resistance and returned to Peru. In 1540, Pedro de
Valdivia conquered the country without much difficulty and called it Nueva
Extremadura. The capital Santiago was founded in 1541.

First, the Mapuche Indians between the Bío-Bío and Toltén rivers offered
severe resistance. Mapuche did not form a centralized state, but were scattered
in independent local tribes under chiefs such as Lautaro (d. 1557), who led
exhausting wars and in late 1553 captured and executed Valdivia.
According to a2zgov, the Spaniards fought in Chile not so much because of silver and gold, but
because the country was lush with good climatic conditions similar to those of
the Spanish and allowed the cultivation of Spanish crops. The Picunche and
Huilliche Indians supplied the labor. Unlike other parts of the New World, the
Spaniards in Chile were less divided among themselves and stood firmly together
against the Mapuche. The meager welfare came from gold, silver, wheat as well as
cattle breeding and its by-products.
Heads of State (selected) |
Commander-in-Chief Sort |
1817-23 |
Bernardo O'Higgins |
1823-26 |
Ramón Freire |
presidents |
1831-41 |
Joaquín Prieto |
1841-51 |
Manuel Bulnes |
1851-61 |
Manuel Montt |
1861-71 |
José Joaquín Pérez |
1871-76 |
Federico Errázuriz Zañartu |
1876-81 |
Aníbal Pinto |
1881-86 |
Domingo Santa María |
1886-91 |
Manuel Balmaceda |
1891-96 |
Jorge Montt |
1896-1901 |
Federico Errázuriz |
1901-06 |
Germán Riesco |
1906-10 |
Pedro Montt |
1910-15 |
Ramón Barros Luco |
1915-20 |
Juan Luis Sanfuentes |
1920-24 |
Arturo Alessandri Palma |
1925 |
Arturo Alessandri Palma |
1927-31 |
Carlos Ibañez del Campo |
1932-38 |
Arturo Alessandri Palma |
1938-41 |
Pedro Aguirre Cerda |
1942-46 |
Juan Antonio Ríos |
1946-52 |
Gabriel González Videla |
1952-58 |
Carlos Ibañez del Campo |
1958-64 |
Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez |
1964-70 |
Eduardo Frei Montalva |
1970-73 |
Salvador Allende |
1973-89 |
Military junta under the command of Augusto Pinochet |
1990-94 |
Patricio Aylwin |
1994-2000 |
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle |
2000-06 |
Ricardo Lagos |
2006-10 |
Michelle Bachelet |
2010-14 |
Sebastián Piñera |
2014- |
Michelle Bachelet |
In the late 1700's. a general desire for independence arose in Chile,
supported in part by Enlightenment ideas and failed administrative and economic
reforms, and in part by Napoleon's invasion of Spain, which led to the Spanish
formation of provisional local governments, junta.
On September 18, 1810, a Chilean junta was elected government, and after a
long war of liberation, independence was signed by Bernardo O'Higgins
on February 12, 1818. A decade followed with bloody civil wars between the
liberals and the conservatives and between centralists and federalists. The
period ended with the victory of the Conservatives in 1830.
The powerful minister Diego Portales organized the nation state, solidly
supported by the conservative agricultural and trade oligarchy, the Catholic
Church and by the army. Portales was the architect behind the Constitution of
1833, which legitimized an authoritarian and centralized political system that
created the greatest political stability and economic development in Latin
America and was among the preconditions for Chile's victory in the war against
the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation in 1836-39 and in the war. against Spanish
intervention in Peru 1865-66.
Peace and order reigned, interrupted only by the liberals' uprisings and coup
attempts in 1851 and 1859. The military was deployed against the gang and the
rebellious Mapuche Indians, who were finally defeated in 1882.
The liberals ruled Chile 1861-91 and helped to promote industrialization and
mining and modernize the infrastructure with railways, ports, telegraphs, roads,
etc. The liberal government did away with the church's position of power through
a secularization policy with introduction of civil marriage, establishment
of population registers, civilian cemeteries, education reforms, etc. Chile
became the world's largest exporter of silver and copper.
After the victory in the Nitrogen War 1879-83 against Peru and Bolivia, Chile
became the world's largest Nitrous producer when the territories of Atacama and
Tarapacá were conquered from, respectively. Peru and Bolivia. The disagreements
between Parliament and Liberal President Balmaceda over, among other
things, reform policy and national budget brought the country into a civil war
that ended with the victory of Congress and the introduction of a parliamentary
system.
Already in the late 1800-t. Chilean society became more disparate due to the
emergence of a working class, especially at the salt mines, and at the emergence
of the middle classes in the big cities. Social issues were raised by protest
movements demanding better living conditions, freedom of association, etc.
vis-à-vis those in power who responded with bloody repression. At that time, the
first workers' parties, the first trade unions and the first LO, FOCH were
formed . The social struggle against the oligarchic state was waged
within the framework of the system.
A broad left-liberal election coalition gave A. Alessandri Palma
the presidency in 1920 with the support of the middle classes and part of the
working class. Alessandri Palma pursued a policy of social reform, and in 1925 a
new constitution was drafted, which was valid until the coup in 1973. In the
period 1924-32, the armed forces became involved in politics through a series of
military interventions, which ended with part of the air force in 1932
established a short-lived socialist republic.
The takeover of government power by the Popular Front in the presidential
election of 1938 marked the beginning of a long period of political stability,
in which changing political coalitions took turns. The working class with the
Communist and Socialist parties and the middle classes with the Radical Party as
mouthpieces occupied key positions in the system of compromise and negotiation
which laid the foundation for the "compromise state". It enabled both increased
industrialization in order to limit imports of goods and a strengthening of the
public education system.
The Christian Democrats' election victory in 1964 caused the so-called
"Revolution in Freedom", supported by the Progress Alliance, which broke the
first cracks in the compromise state and in the system of social alliances and
consensus on which it was based. The Christian Democrats ruled without forming
coalitions, and their reform policies were strongly opposed from both the right
and the left. This led to increasing social mobilization among peasants, slum
dwellers, workers and students, which pressured the government for a more
comprehensive reform policy.
The People's Unity's election victory in 1970, led by Salvador Allende,
continued the reform process with e.g. nationalization of copper mines and of up
to 100 companies and banks, and the Christian-Democratic land reform was
implemented. The opposition, which had a majority in parliament, blocked the
government's bill and forced Allende to govern through legislative
decrees. Society was split into two irreconcilable groups, and the parties of
the People's Unity could not come together on a common strategy. The political
crisis escalated in 1972-73 and created the conditions for the coup on
9/11/1973.
A military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet declared a state of
emergency, and thousands of supporters of the People's Unity were summarily
executed, imprisoned or forced into exile. All political and professional
activities were banned while the junta government dismantled the rule of law and
pursued an extremely liberal economic policy.
Within a few years, inflation was brought down drastically, production
increased, state-owned enterprises were privatized, foreign investment flowed
in, and the country began to settle its foreign debt. These positive economic
traits created the "Chilean miracle" whose negative social costs were high
unemployment, extreme poverty and continued oppression.
Thanks to the efforts of the Catholic Church, the social movements and the
first national protests against the regime resurfaced. Elections were held
within the framework of the 1980 dictatorship of the dictatorship, and Patricio
Aylwin was elected president in 1989 of the Democratic Association, which
consisted mainly of Christian Democrats, Socialists and Left Liberals.
Aylwin insisted on a market-oriented economic policy that enabled continued
economic growth, while the government aimed for a more equitable distribution of
income and on aid programs for the benefit of the poor. The rule of law was
improved, but the army's veto power and Pinochet's position of power in
government prevented the criminals of the dictatorship from being brought to
justice. In March 1994, the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (b. 1942)
was elected president.
Chile slowly emerged from the shadow of the dictatorship in the 1990's. The
country's presidents had to work within the constraints that Pinochet had laid
down in his constitution, and which, among other things, meant that Pinochet,
after his departure, continued as army commander for eight years. After being
placed under house arrest in London, Pinochet returned to Chile in 2000. After
years of tug-of-war in 2005, the desiccator was placed under house arrest in
Chile, accused of human rights violations; he had also been accused of tax fraud
and corruption.
In 2000, Ricardo Lagos, as a candidate for the Party Coalition for Democracy,
La Concertación, narrowly won the presidency ahead of the right-wing
candidate. Lagos became the first socialist president since Salvador
Allende. Among other things, he eliminated the military's right to receive
special subsidies from the copper mining industry and installed a female party
colleague, Michelle Bachelet, as Secretary of Defense. Under Lagos, Chile
became one of the most prosperous countries in South America, but relations with
Bolivia and Argentina in particular became more difficult.
Michelle Bachelet became the left-wing candidate in the 2005/06 presidential
election; she won the second round and thus became Chile's first female
president. Half of the members of the new government were women.
Bachelet was replaced in 2010 as president by the conservative
businessman Sebastián Piñera, who in 2005/06 had competed with Bachelet for the
presidency. Sebastián Piñera's first major task as president was to rebuild the
parts of Chile that were hit in February 2010 by a powerful earthquake with
epicenter near the country's second largest city, Concepción. Next, Piñera
promised a penal reform after a fire in a prison in Santiago claimed 81 lives.
Following the 2013 presidential election, Michelle Bachelet won the post
again, taking office in March 2014.
|