Military government (1973-1989)

By early 1973, inflation was out of control. The crippled economy was further battered by prolonged and sometimes simultaneous strikes by physicians, teachers, students, truck owners, copper workers, and the small business class. A military coup overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace (Palacio de La Moneda), Allende committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime were marked by allegations of human rights violations. On October 1973, at least 72 people were murdered by the Caravan of Death. At least a thousand people were executed during the first six months of Pinochet in office, and at least two thousand more were killed during the next sixteen years, as reported by the Rettig Report. About 30,000 left the country, and tens of thousands of people were detained and tortured, as investigated by the 2004 Valech Commission. A new Constitution was approved by plebiscite characterized by the absence of registration lists, on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became president of the republic for an 8-year term. In the late 1980s, the government gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union and political activity. The government launched market-oriented reforms, which have continued ever since. Chile moved toward a free market economy that saw an increase in domestic and foreign private investment, although the copper industry and other important mineral resources were not opened for competition. In a plebiscite on October 5, 1988, General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president (56% against 44%).

After the coup, Chileans witnessed a large-scale repression, which started as soon as October 1973, with at least 70 persons murdered by the Caravan of Death. The four-man junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet abolished civil liberties, dissolved the national congress, banned union activities, prohibited strikes and collective bargaining, and erased the Allende administration's agrarian and economic reforms. The junta jailed, tortured, and executed thousands of Chileans. According to the Rettig commission and the Valech Report, close to 3,200 were executed or "disappeared" and at least 29,000 imprisoned and tortured. According to the Latin American Institute on Mental Health and Human Rights (ILAS), "situations of extreme trauma" affected about 200,000 persons. This figure includes individuals killed, tortured or exiled, and their immediate families.
Chilean (blue) and average Latin American (orange) GDP per capita (1950-2007).

The junta embarked on a radical program of liberalization and privatization, slashing tariffs as well as government welfare programs and deficits.[43] In 1973, Chile was in shambles - inflation was hundreds of percents, the country had no foreign reserves, and GDP was falling. In order to halt the ongoing economic collapse, economic reforms were drafted by a group of technocrats known as the Chicago boys because many of them had been trained or influenced by University of Chicago professors. The first reforms were implemented in three rounds - 1974-1983, 1985, and 1990.

After the economic crisis of 1982, Hernan Buchi became Minister of Finance from 1985 to 1989. He allowed the peso to float and reinstated restrictions on the movement of capital in and out of the country. He introduced banking legislation, simplified and reduced the corporate tax. Chile pressed ahead with privatizations, including public utilities plus the re-privatization of companies that had returned to the government during the 1982–1983 crisis. Under these new policies, the rate of inflation dropped from about 1,000% per year to about 10% per year. While this was still a high rate of inflation, it allowed the economy to start recovering. From 1984 to 1990, Chile's gross domestic product grew by an annual average of 5.9%, the fastest on the continent. Chile developed a good export economy, including the export of fruits and vegetables to the northern hemisphere when they were out of season, and commanded high prices.

An important initiative begun in 1981 and carried on until today, aimed at modernizing the use of Information and Communication technology, greatly contributed to disentangle the traditional bureaucratic and cumbersome clerical procedures in all dealings with branches of the government, from civil registry to import/export documentation, thereby fostering a more agile economy and a more efficient public administration.

The military junta began to change during the late 1970s. Due to problems with Pinochet, Leigh was expelled from the junta in 1978 and replaced by General Fernando Matthei. Due to the Caso Degollados ("slit throats case"), in which three Communist party members were assassinated, César Mendoza, member of the junta since 1973 and representants of the carabineros, resigned in 1985 and was replaced by Rodolfo Stange.[citation needed] The next year, Carmen Gloria Quintana was burnt alive in what became known as the Caso Quemado ("Burnt Alive case").

Problems with Argentina coming from the 19th century reached a high in 1978, with disagreements over the Beagle Canal. The two countries agreed to papal mediation over the canal. Chilean-Argentine relations remained bad, however, and Chile helped Britain during the Falklands War.

Chile's constitution was approved in a national plebiscite held in September 1980. It came into force in March 1981. It established that in 1988 there would be another plebiscite in which the voters would accept or reject a single candidate proposed by the Military Junta. Pinochet was, as expected, the candidate proposed, and he was denied a second 8 year term by 54.5% of the vote.

Assignment.

Write 10 things different between 2009 and 19 century.

A fun way to learn the Chilean History.

History of Chile... pictures.

Timeline of Chilean history.

This is a timeline of Chilean history. To read about the background to these events, see History of Chile. See also the list of governors and presidents of Chile.



15th century
Year Date Event
The Inca Emperor Túpac Yupanqui reached Itata River, where he met Mapuche resistance in the Battle of the Maule. All of Chile north of Maule River remains under the Inca Empire.
1492
Christopher Columbus discovers America, and claims it to the Kingdom of Castile.
16th century
Year Date Event
1510
Vasco Ñúñez de Balboa founds Santa María la Antigua del Darién in Panamá, the first Spanish settlement in South America.
1513
Ñuñez de Balboa discovers the Southern Sea (Pacific Ocean).
1520
Ferdinand Magellan is passing through the Straits of Magellan, and becomes the first European to describe Patagonia.
1532
Francisco Pizarro arrives to Peru from Panamá. He begins the Conquest of the Inca Empire and captures Emperor Atahualpa during the Battle of Cajamarca.
1536
Diego de Almagro arrives to Chile from Peru, passing over the Andes to the valley of Copiapó, and explores the central region of Chile as far as what will later become Santiago de Chile. An expedition sent southwards ends in the Battle of Reynogüelén with native mapuches, which is considered to be the first battle of the Arauco War.
1541
Pedro de Valdiviahello founds Santiago de Chile. In the following years, he (and others sent by him) founded La Serena and Concepción.
1546
Uprising of Michimalonco, Mapuche chief: Santiago destroyed. Mapuche military leader Lautaro is captured by the Spanish.
1552
Founding of Valdivia. Lautaro, after six years of imprisonment by the Spanish, escape and teaches his people military strategy, including riding horses.
1553
Mapuche uprising under Lautaro. Pedro de Valdivia is killed in the Disaster of Tucapel.
1557
Death of Lautaro, Caupolicán assumes as toqui (wartime chief).
1558
Caupolicán is captured and executed by impalement.
1564
Concepción is unsuccessfully sieged by native Mapuches.
1565
A Real Audiencia is established in Concepción. The Audiencia is abolished in 1575.
1567
Chiloé Island is claimed by Spain. Castro is founded on the island. The island becomes the southernmost European settlement by the time of the annexation.
1574
Spanish captain Juan Fernández discovers the Juan Fernández Islands.
1575
The 1575 Valdivia earthquake occurs. As in the 1960 Valdivia earthquake the Riñihue Lake dams.
1578
Francis Drake attacks the coasts of Chile, La Serena and other cities are plundered.
1583
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa founds the settlement Rey Don Felipe in the Strait of Magellan. In 1587 the settlement is in ruins.
1598
"Disaster of Curalaba". Governor Martín García Óñez de Loyola killed in a Mapuche ambush.
1599
The Real Situado, an annual payment from Potosí to Chile, is established.
17th century
Year Date Event
1602
General uprising of the Mapuches under Pelantaro. All cities south of the Bío-Bío River are destroyed, in what is now called Destruction of the Seven Cities.
1604
A fort established in 1602 at the ruins of Valdivia is abandoned.
1608
Jesuits arrive to Chiloé.
1612
Beginning of the Defensive War phase (promoted by Luis de Valdivia) in the Arauco War.
1619
A second smallpox epidemy affects the indigenous population of Chile. The epidemy last until 1623.
1639
The alcabala is reestablished after it had been suspended since the Disaster of Curalaba in 1598.
1643
Dutch occupation of Valdivia.
1645
Repopulation of Valdivia and construction of the Valdivian Fort System, Valdivia becomes part of Viceroyalty of Peru.
1647
Santiago is struck by an earthquake.
1655
A general insurrection moves for some years the frontier between the Spaniards and the mapuches from the Bío-Bío River north to the Maule River.
1664
The Viceroalty of Peru estimates 30,000 to 42,000 Spaniards to have died in Chile of witch the halft would have died by the direct consequences of the Arauco War.
1667
Governor Francisco de Meneses is destituted after accusations of immorality against him.
1672
The jesuits established in Chiloé Island founds a mission in the Nahuel Huapi Lake that last until 1717.
1680
Bartholomew Sharp destroy and pillages La Serena .
1681
By royal decree, the Atacama desert is declared to be the border between the Captain-Generalship of Chile and the Viceroyalty of Peru.
1687
Chilean wheat exports to Peru boost since Peru is affected by a major earthquake and plague.

18th century
Year Date Event
1709
Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, is rescued from the Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernández Archipelago.
1712
A Huilliche rebellion occurs in Chiloé Island.
1722
On 5 April that year Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is discovered by Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen.
1723
After 30 years of peace the War of Arauco continues with a mapuche uprising.
1740
Valdivia is reincorpored to the Captaincy General of Chile.
1749
A fort and prison is established in Robinson Crusoe Island of Juan Fernández Archipelago.[1]
1751
1751 Concepción earthquake affects all of Chile between Concepción and Talca.
1767
The Spanish empire exiles all Jesuits. Ancud is founded. Chiloé becomes part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
1770
A expedition from Perú claims Easter Island for Spain.
1771
The Fransiscan order assumes the religious functions of the Jesuits in Chiloé.
1776
The territories of Tucumán, previously governed as part of Chile, become part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. (See History of Argentina.)
1778
Direct commerce between Chile and Spain is allowed.
1789
Start of the French Revolution, which affected Europe and the Americas with its ideals.
1792
A Huilliche rebellion occurs in the surroundings of Río Bueno.
1793
The parliaments of Negrete and Las Canoas between Spanish and native Mapuche and Huilliche are celebrated. The native chiefs accepts the Spanish king as their de jure king, but their own independence is also confirmed.
1796
Osorno is officially re-populated after that works begun in 1792. The city had previously been destroyed by the indigenous mapuche in 1602.
19th century
Year Date Event
1808
Francisco Antonio García Carrasco, unpopular Governor of Chile. Spanish king Ferdinand VII is imprisoned by Napoleon during his invasion of Spain.
1810
Imitating the juntista movement of the rest of Latin America, the criollos (people of Spanish ancestry, but not born in Spain) of Santiago de Chile proclaim a governing Junta.
1811
Tired of being circumvented by political intrigues, José Miguel Carrera takes power by military means and initiates a dictatorship.
1812
Hostilities begin between the moderados, led by Bernardo O'Higgins, and the exaltados, led by Carrera. Carrera institutes the first Chilean national symbols (flag, coat of arms, and national anthem), and Fray Camilo Henríquez begins to publish the Aurora de Chile, the first Chilean newspaper. The Chilean Constitution of 1812 comes into effect. Founding of the Logia Lautaro.
1813
The Spanish send military expeditions (under Antonio Pareja and Gabino Gaínza) from the Viceroyalty of Peru. In the ensuing battles O'Higgins rises to be seen as a figure of great stature, overshadowing the continually less popular Carrera, who ultimately resigns. Francisco de la Lastra becomes Supreme Director.
1814
The "Disaster of Rancagua". Mariano Osorio, in command of a third Spanish expedition, defeats O'Higgins (October 1 – 2). Osorio reconquers Santiago for Spain. Exodus of Chilean patriots to Mendoza, Argentina, where they receive the support of José de San Martín. Those patriots who remain in Chile are captured by the Spaniards are deported to the Juan Fernandez Islands. Osorio is confirmed Governor of Chile by the Viceroy Fernando de Abascal of Peru. The talaveras, under the command of San Bruno, install a regime of terror extending to those merely suspected of sympathy for the Chilean cause.
1815
Guerrilla resistance against the Spanish begins, led by Manuel Rodríguez Erdoiza, and other spies such as Justo Estay. Increasing enmity between Osorio and Abascal leads Abascal to replace Osorio with Casimiro Marcó del Pont.
1817
Battle of Chacabuco. O'Higgins defeats Rafael Maroto, reconquering Santiago. Captain San Bruno, hated chief of the talaveras, is captured and — less than 24 hours later — executed by firing squad. O'Higgins becomes dictator.
1818
O'Higgins signs the Chilean Declaration of Independence (February 12). Shortly afterwards, in the Battle of Maipú, a new military expedition led by Mariano Osorio is defeated, and Chile definitively obtains independence (April 5). The rivalry between O'Higgins and Manuel Rodríguez ends with the ambush and assassination of the latter in Tiltil. The brothers Juan José and Luis Carrera are shot in Argentina, probably on the orders of O'Higgins or the Logia Lautaro.
1820
Valdivia is captured by Lord Thomas Cochrane who commands the chilean navy.
1821
José Miguel Carrera arrested as a montonero (mounted rebel/bandit) in Argentina, and executed in Mendoza.
1822
Military expedition to Peru. San Martín undertakes a prudent military campaign, enters Lima, but sees the impossibility of crushing the last Spanish redoubts, a job that is left for Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre.
The Chilean Constitution of 1822 comes into effect.
1823
Ramón Freire leads a military expedition from Concepción to Santiago and forces O'Higgins to resign. He goes into exile in Peru, where he dies in 1842. Freire assumes power.
1825
Taking advantage of the unsurveyed border, and ignoring the royal decree of 1681 and the principal uti possidetis, Simón Bolívar grants the port of Cobija to Bolivia. This gives Bolivia an outlet to the sea between Chile and Peru, which it will retain until the War of the Pacific.
1826
Freire incorporates Chiloé, the last area under Spanish control, into Chile. Later he resigns, initiating an interregnum know as The Anarchy. First attempt in Chile of federal (as against centralized) government, led by the first president of Chile Manuel Blanco Encalada, and the federalist José Miguel Infante.
1828
Francisco Antonio Pinto assumes power after the resignation of Encalada and his predecessors. Chilean Constitution of 1828.
1829
Chilean Civil War of 1829. After several battles, Joaquín Prieto defeats Ramón Freire in the Battle of Lircay.
1830
Diego Portales begins to remodel Chilean institutionality, converting it into an authoritarian republic.
1831
José Joaquín Prieto becomes president of Chile. He will serve two consecutive five-year terms. With him, the so-called decenios (decade-long reigns) begin, which continue until 1871. This 30-year Conservative Party hegemony is sometimes referred to as the Authoritarian Republic.
1832
Discovery of mineral deposits in Chañarcillo, and the beginning of the rise of silver in what was then el Norte Chico and now constitutes the Atacama and Coquimbo regions of Chile). The mining fortunes constitute an important source of power in the following decades.
1833
Chilean Constitution of 1833. "Portalian" — that is, inspired by Diego Portales — definitively fixed Chilean institutions.
1835
On February 20, southern Chile was affected by the worst earthquake in the area in several decades, event witnessed by Charles Darwin.[2]
1836
Mariano Egaña declares the war on the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation.
1837
Diego Portales is assassinated by mutinous soldiers in Quillota. A Chilean military expedition debarks in Perú, beginning the War of the Confederation.
1839
Battle of Yungay and defeat of the Confederation.
1840
The Vatican acknowledges the Independence of Chile
1841
Manuel Bulnes, victorious marshal of the Battle of Yungay, elected president of Chile.
1842
Important intellectual movement registered this year. A great number of teachers, thinkers, professors, and wise men arrive to the country and establish societies.
1843
University of Chile founded. It will become on of the country's two most prestigious university. along with the Catholic University of Chile, which was founded years later. Fort Bulnes established, the first Chilean presence on the Strait of Magellan.
1844
Spain recognizes the Independence of Chile
1848
Founding of Punta Arenas in the Strait of Magellan
1851
José María de la Cruz revolts in the southern provinces of Chile. Bulnes crushes the revolutionary attempt and signs the treaty of Purapel with the revolutionaries. Manuel Montt becomes the third of the decenal presidents.
1856
The Dispute of Sacristán ("Cuestión del Sacristán"). An apparently trivial question of ecclesiastical discipline divides the Conservative Party into secular and ultra-Catholic factions, which lays the ground for their political defeat in the elections of 1861.
1857
The Civil Code of Chile comes into effect; it will become a model for Latin American legal codes down to the present day.
1859
Chilean Revolution of 1859. Pedro León Gallo, radical revolutionary of Copiapó, and others are defeated by the government forces. However, as a consequence, Antonio Varas renounces to his candidature.
1861
José Joaquín Pérez of the Liberal Party elected president. His party will retain power until the Chilean Revolution of 1891.
1863
A French adventurer proclaims himself Orélie Antoine I, King of Araucanía. After a short time he is arrested by the Chileans and deported, but the incident meant the end of the Chilean preoccupation with occupying the remaining Mapuche, before some other power could do so and divide Chile in two. This intensification of activity is known as the Pacification of Araucanía.
1866
Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia at war with Spain. The port of Valparaíso is bombed by the Spanish. A treaty of limits (borders) of 1866 is signed with Bolivia.
1871
A constitutional reform prohibits re-election, resulting in the end of the decenios. Governments of five years duration persist until 1925, except for the premature death of Pedro Montt in 1910.
1874
Another treaty of limits is signed with Bolivia due to political tensions.
1879
In defense of the interests of the Chilean industrial oligarchy, Chilean soldiers occupy the Bolivian port of Antofagasta, precipitating the War of the Pacific against Peru and Bolivia. The Chilean cause is adopted by the general populace after the death of Captain Arturo Prat in the Naval battle of Iquique. The same day, May 21, Captain Carlos Condell sinks the powerful Independencia, which together with the capture of the Huáscar in the Naval battle of Angamos, eliminates Peruvian sea power and permits the Chileans to land troops at will along the coast throughout the military theater of operations.
1881
Chilean troops occupy and sack Lima, capital of Peru. The war will continue another three years, with the Peruvians retreating to the Sierra and successfully defending their mountainous redoubts. Argentina takes advantage of the military situation to impose upon Chile a settlement of their border disputes, granting all of oriental Patagonia to Argentina. The Mapuches also take advantage, with an armed rising against the increasing Chilean occupation of their territories, but are finally and definitively defeated for the first time in three centuries of combat.
1883
Law of Civil Matrimony adopted. This secularization was fiercely resisted by the Roman Catholic Church. The Treaty of Ancón is signed with Perú to end the war. The "Pacification of Araucanía" is considered finished, and with that according to some historians also the War of Arauco.
1884
War of the Pacific ends, allowing mining of saltpeter in the regions conquered from Peru and Bolivia, leading to great national prosperity for Chile. Treaty called "Pacto de Tregua".
1888
Policarpo Toro leads a naval expedition to annex Easter Island. The Catholic University of Chile is privately founded.
1890
The Malleco Viaduct is opened and railway traffic expands further south during the next decades.
1891
Chilean Revolution of 1891. The constitutional president José Manuel Balmaceda is overthrown by troops favorable to the National Congress. The beginning of "Parliamentarism" under which the Chilean oligarchy governed on its own behalf.
1895
Easter Island is rented to Compañía Explotadora de Isla de Pascua.
20th century
Year Date Event
1904
"Meat" Massacre in Santiago. The workers revolt against the central government due to an increase in the price of meat and the general soaring costs of living. The government responds sending the army. Two days of riots continue, where hundreds of civilians are killed on street fighting.
1907
Massacre of the Escuela Santa María de Iquique; soldiers fire on saltpeter workers and their unarmed associates. It will be years before the workers, terrorized by the brutal repression, resume the struggle for their rights.
1910
The centenary of independence is darkened by the death of President Pedro Montt, the only president between 1831 and 1925 who failed to complete his term of office.
1914
1 November 1914 Britain is defeated by German at the Battle of Coronel, off the coast of Chile
1920
Arturo Alessandri Palma elected president, indicating a rise to power by the Chilean middle class.
1924
Chile's first income tax levied.
1925
After intense political agitation the Chilean Constitution of 1925 is adopted, only slightly less authoritarian than that of 1833. The Impuesto Global Complementario, a graduated income tax, is introduced.
1927
Amidst great political instability, and by way of a bloodless coup, Carlos Ibáñez del Campo takes the presidency. He will govern as dictator, taking Benito Mussolini as his model, until 1931. Also in 1927, the corps of carabineros — militarized police — is founded.
1929
The economic crash of 1929 strikes Chile with more force than any other country on earth.
1931
The deep economic crisis obliges Ibáñez del Campo to step down. A series of civilian governments and military juntas follows, some of which last no more than a few days.
1932
The period of political anarchy ends with the return to power of Arturo Alessandri Palma.
1938
Massacre of Seguro Obrero.
1939
The Radical Party gains power, which they will keep until 1952.
1940
Pedro Aguirre Cerda, president of the nation, establishes internationally the first Chilean claims in Antarctica.
1945
Gabriela Mistral receives the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1946
Gabriel González Videla becomes president, backed by a broad alliance of parties, including the Radicals and Communists. Once in power, he acceded to pressure from the United States and promulgates the Law of Defense of Democracy, also known as the Ley Maldita ("accursed law"), which outlawed his former allies the Communists, some of whom were placed in concentration camps in Pisagua. Poet Pablo Neruda hounded into exile.
1952
Carlos Ibáñez del Campo returns to the presidency, this time via the ballot box, ending the era of the Radical Party. His emblem is the broom, with which he proposed (fruitlessly) to sweep away the Radicals' legacy of corruption.
1958
Argentine forces destroy a Chilean Lighthouse during the Snipe incident
1960
The Great Chilean Earthquake, with its epicenter near Valdivia, is the most intense earthquake ever recorded, rating a 9.5
1964
Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva becomes president, proclaiming the so-called "Revolution in Liberty".
1970
Salvador Allende elected president; his leftist orientation greatly displeases the government of the United States. See 1970 Chilean presidential election.
1971
Poet Pablo Neruda receives Nobel Prize for Literature.
1973
The Armed Forces, carabineros, and others stage a coup, overthrowing Allende, who dies in the course of the coup. Augusto Pinochet establishes himself as the head of a military junta. The subsequent repression of leftists and other opponents of the military regime results in approximately 130,000 arrests and at least 3,000 dead or "disappeared" over the next three years. See Chilean coup of 1973.
1976
The machinations of the United States oblige President Ferdinand Marcos, to cancel a scheduled visit by President Pinochet to the Philippines.
1977
Beagle conflict: The binding Beagle Channel Arbitration award the Picton, Nueva and Lennox islands to Chile
1978
Beagle conflict: Argentine began to challenge the Chilean commitment to defend the territory and started the Operation Soberania
1980
The military government promulgates the Chilean Constitution of 1980, which is adopted by plebiscite. Economic policy begins to be significantly influenced by the ideas of the Chicago School and of Neoliberalism.
1982
Support for British Forces in the Falkland War
1984
Beagle conflict: Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina signed
1988
Pinochet loses the plebiscite foreseen by the constitution, which brings about, by agreement of all, elections the following year.
1990
Patricio Aylwin takes office as President. Transition to democracy begins.
1991
Mount Hudson erupts.
1994
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is elected President.
1998
During a visit to London for medical reasons, Augusto Pinochet is arrested in accord with the orders of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, beginning an international struggle between his supporters and detractors. He returns to Chile the following year, and the charges against him are later thrown out on the basis of his ostensibly deteriorated mental state. Chile suffers greatly from the world economic crisis, resulting in years of inflation and unemployment.
2000
In the second round of voting, in a tight contest with right wing candidate Joaquín Lavín, Ricardo Lagos Escobar is elected President.
21st century
Year Date Event
2002
A general census is performed all over the country.
2004
The Chilean Supreme Court declares that Pinochet is mentally competent to stand trial.
2005
The Pinochet trial continues. The presidential election of December 11 puts Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera into a second round.
2006
In the second round of the presidential election the socialist leader Michelle Bachelet emerges the winner. 790,000 students adhere to the 2006 student protests in Chile. Death of Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (10 December 2006)
2007
Los Ríos Region and Arica-Parinacota Region are created.

History of Chile

The territory of present-day Chile has been populated since at least 12,000 BC. In the 16th century Spanish conquistadors began to subdue and colonize the region of present-day Chile, and the territory became a colony from 1540 to 1818, when it gained independence from Spain. Chile's economic development was successively marked by the export of first agricultural produce, then saltpeter and later copper until the 1980s. The wealth of raw materials led to an economic upturn, but also led to dependency, and even wars with neighboring states. The country was governed during most of its first 150 years of independent life by different forms of restricted democracy, where the electorate was carefully vetted and controlled by an elite. Failure to address the economic and social disparities and increasing political awareness of the less-affluent population, as well as indirect intervention and economic funding to the main political groups by both the KGB and the CIA , as part of the Cold War, led to a political polarization under socialist President Salvador Allende which in turn resulted in the Chilean coup of 1973 and the government of General Augusto Pinochet. The 17-year military-led government was marked by severe human-rights violations and deep market-oriented economic reforms. In 1988, Chile made a peaceful