Chile
The Chilean people are predominantly homoge-
neous, descended from the Spaniards and the
indigenous population and later European immi-
grants. Among Chile’s population, intermarriage
has created a society European in outlook and rel-
atively free from racial prejudice. There are few
pure Indians left, perhaps 300,000, among them
the Araucanian Indians of the south, who have
tried to preserve their way of life against the
encroachments of modernisation.
Chile’s riches in metals and minerals made it,
by the 1990s, one of the most developed and
urbanised nations in Latin America. In the course
of the twentieth century the towns absorbed most
of the population. Agriculture played a significant
but decreasing role in the economy, with the
traditional structures of large estates in the fertile
valleys of central Chile worked by a poor landless
peasantry surviving into recent times. The close
ties between wealthy landholders and wealthy
industrial magnates enabled these conservative
groups to wield political power far in excess of
their numerical strength. Industrialisation and
urbanisation in the twentieth century created a
relatively large working class, born in Chile and
playing an important role in Chilean politics. The
authoritarian Pinochet regime that ruled for two
decades (1973–90) concealed what had been one
of the distinguishing features of Chilean politics
in Latin America, its traditional constitutional and
parliamentary system, with the military accepting
their subordinate though highly respected posi-
tion. Escalating political conflict, the result of
violent clashes of economic and social interests in
the 1970s, a national economy in deep trouble as
a result of failed socialist measures and of a denial
of assistance from the West, especially the US, led
in 1973 to a military coup and, as few had
expected, to a prolonged, ruthless dictatorship.
Before the 1920s the Chilean economy was
dependent on the world price of a single com-
modity, nitrates; since then it has been copper.
Prices fluctuated violently and so impeded con-
sistent internal development. Politics, too, were
volatile. It is all the more remarkable that from
1891, after the end of a short but bloody civil
war, until 1973, with the exception of a short
period (1927–31) of suspended civic liberties and
military rule, the parliamentary system survived,
with regular national elections and peaceful trans-
fers of power from one ruling political coalition
to another. Throughout these years political for-
tunes were heavily dependent on the economic
health of the state, which in turn was dependent
on the economies of the industrialised West.
What made Chilean progress even more prob-
lematical was that its prime export-earner, copper,
was owned by foreigners. US companies trans-
ferred the bulk of the profits home and did not
invest them in the less favourable conditions of
Chile. The one issue on which all political parties
were agreed was resentment of the US, and when
the copper companies were eventually nation-
alised in 1971 by Salvador Allende, the measure
uniquely received unanimous support in the
Chilean Congress.
Characteristic of the period of politics in Chile
from 1891 to 1927 was the emerging alliance
between the conservative landowner–merchant
elite and a middle class alarmed at the rising
demands of trade unions whose members were
struggling in the inflation-ridden economy to
maintain their living standards. The government
response was more often repression and impris-
onment of union leaders than concession and
legalisation of union activities. At the same time
efforts were made to reduce workers’ militancy by
means of welfare legislation. The military took
over in 1927, but the impact of the depression
made government a thankless task and the gen-
erals handed control back to the civilian politi-
cians and Congress in 1931. Copper prices, which
had fallen precipitously, recovered very gradually
after 1932; the economy was so managed that
Chile escaped the scourge of the 1930s, mass
unemployment, at the cost of low wages and
inflation. As the decade drew to a close, Chilean
politics had become polarised. Working-class
politics and union strength had greatly increased
and a popular front was formed, a coalition that
was no more than mildly socialist in its policies,
and inherently unstable when in office. At no time
did it pose a threat to the Chilean tradition of
parliamentary government.
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