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The Chile Portal

The flag of Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Chile had a population of 17.5 million as of the latest census in 2017 and has a territorial area of 756,102 square kilometers (291,933 sq mi), sharing borders with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. The country also controls several Pacific islands, including Juan Fernández, Isla Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island, and claims about 1,250,000 square kilometers (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica as the Chilean Antarctic Territory. The capital and largest city of Chile is Santiago, and the national language is Spanish.

Spain conquered and colonized the region in the mid-16th century, replacing Inca rule, but failed to conquer the autonomous tribal Mapuche people who inhabited what is now south-central Chile. Chile emerged as a relatively stable authoritarian republic in the 1830s after their 1818 declaration of independence from Spain. During the 19th century, Chile experienced significant economic and territorial growth, putting an end to Mapuche resistance in the 1880s and gaining its current northern territory in the War of the Pacific (1879–83) by defeating Peru and Bolivia. In the 20th century, up until the 1970s, Chile underwent a process of democratization and experienced rapid population growth and urbanization, while relying increasingly on exports from copper mining to support its economy. During the 1960s and 1970s, the country was marked by severe left-right political polarization and turmoil, which culminated in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that overthrew Salvador Allende's democratically elected left-wing government. This was followed by a 16-year right-wing military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet, in which the 1980 Chilean Constitution was made with the consultancy of the Ortúzar Commission as well as several political and economic reforms, and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths or disappearances. The regime ended in 1990, following a referendum in 1988, and was succeeded by a center-left coalition, which ruled until 2010.

Chile is a high-income economy and is one of the most economically and socially stable nations in South America. Chile also performs well in the region in terms of sustainability of the state and democratic development. Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and the Pacific Alliance, and joined the OECD in 2010. (Full article...)

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Agustín Ross Cultural Centre in 2017.

Agustín Ross Cultural Centre (Spanish, Centro Cultural Agustín Ross), previously known as Casino Ross (Ross Casino), is the cultural center of the city of Pichilemu in Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, Chile. It was constructed between 1906 and 1909 at the request of politician Agustín Ross Edwards. The structure of the cultural center is very similar to that of the Grand Trianon in Versailles, France.

It is best known for housing one of the first casinos of Chile; a casino operated in the building between 1917 and 1931. After 1931 all casinos, except the newly opened Casino de Viña del Mar, were declared illegal. The building has also been used as a post office, a store selling imported goods, a hotel, a discotheque, and a bar. There were two attempts by the local government to purchase the building; the first time in 1982 failed while the second in 1995 succeeded. The former casino was declared a National Monument of Chile along with the Agustín Ross Park in February 1988. (Full article...)

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Neruda in 1963

Pablo Neruda (/nəˈrdə/ nə-ROO-də; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpaβlo neˈɾuða] ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924).

Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions in various countries during his lifetime and served a term as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When President Gabriel González Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest. Friends hid him for months, and in 1949, he escaped through a mountain pass near Maihue Lake into Argentina; he would not return to Chile for more than three years. He was a close advisor to Chile's socialist president Salvador Allende, and when he got back to Chile after accepting his Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Allende invited him to read at the Estadio Nacional before 70,000 people. (Full article...)

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Huaso in a Chilean wheat field, 1940. The picture illustrates two of Chile's historically most important agriculture products; cattle farming and wheat.

Agriculture in Chile has a long history dating back to the Pre-Hispanic period. Indigenous peoples practised varying types of agriculture, from the oases of the Atacama Desert to as far south as the Guaitecas Archipelago (43° S). Potato was the staple food in the populous Mapuche lands. Llama and chilihueque herding was practised by various indigenous groups.

The arrival of the Spanish disrupted in many places local agriculture as indigenous populations shrunk and mining rose to prominence. Mapuches in south-central Chile adopted sheep, wheat and the horse from the Spanish. Further south in Chiloé apple trees and pigs proved successful introductions into local potato-based agriculture. As the Spanish were repulsed from much of southern Chile, Central Chile became increasingly populated and exploited with husbandry becoming the most prominent agricultural activity in Spanish-ruled areas in the 17th century. In parallel to husbandry vineyards did also become more important. Spanish agriculture, centered on the hacienda, absorbed most of the scattered and declining indigenous populations of Central Chile. Much land in Central Chile was cleared with fire during this period. On the contrary open fields in southern Chile were overgrown as indigenous populations declined due to diseases introduced by the Spanish and warfare. (Full article...)

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