Chile+History

Chile's Rich History





=Chile Timeline =

A chronology of key events:

1535 -  Indigenous Araucanian people successfully resist first Spanish invasion of Chile. 1541 - Pedro de Valdivia begins Spanish conquest and founds Santiago. 1553 -  Araucanians capture and kill Valdivia. 1810 - Junta in Santiago proclaims autonomy for Chile following the overthrow of the king of Spain by Napoleon. 1814 -  Spain regains control of Chile. 1817 -  Spanish defeated by Army of the Andes led by Jose de San Martin and Bernardo O'Higgins at the battles of Chacabuco and Maipu. 1818 - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Chile becomes independent with O'Higgins as supreme leader. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">1879-84 - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Chile increases its territory by one third after it defeats Peru and Bolivia in War of the Pacific. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">1891 - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Civil war over constitutional dispute between president and congress ends in congressional victory, with president reduced to figurehead. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">1927 - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> General Carlos Ibanez del Campo seizes power and establishes dictatorship. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">1938-46 - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Communists, Socialists and Radicals form Popular Front coalition and introduce economic policies based on US New Deal. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2000 onwards - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Chilean courts strip Gen Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution several times, but attempts to make him stand trial for alleged human rights offences fail, with judges usually citing concerns over the general's health. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2002 July - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Gen Pinochet resigns from his post as a lifelong senator. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2004 May - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> President Lagos signs a law giving Chileans the right to divorce, despite opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Manuel Contreras, former head of secret police, is jailed for 15 years over the disappearance and death of a journalist in 1974. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2005 May - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> 45 young soldiers perish in a blizzard, prompting calls for an end to compulsory military service. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2006 January - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Michelle Bachelet wins the second round of presidential elections to become Chile's first woman president and the fourth consecutive head of state from the centre-left Concertacion coalition. She takes office in March. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2007 January - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">President Bachelet signs a decree allowing the morning-after contraceptive pill to be given to girls as young as 14 without their parents' consent. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2008 May - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Unexpected eruption of Chaiten volcano which has been dormant for 9,000 years. Authorities order complete evacuation of two towns in Patagonian region. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2008 September - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Emergency declared in parts of southern Chile where eight people were killed in torrential rain and widespread flooding. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2009 February - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> President Bachelet makes the first visit to Cuba by a Chilean leader in almost four decades. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2010 February - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Hundreds die and widespread damage is caused as massive earthquake strikes central Chile. The 8.8 magnitude quake is the biggest to hit the country in 50 years. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2010 March - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> President Pinera is inaugurated, and pledges to tackle the consequences of the earthquake. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2010 October - <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> 33 miners trapped deep underground for 69 days are winched to safety, watched by TV audiences around the world.

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