Chile & Easter Island Posters, Charts, Photographs & Maps
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geography > South America > CHILE < social studies

The Republic of Chile is located in southern South America on a long and narrow coastal strip between the southern Pacific Ocean to the west and the Andes Mountains on the east. Bordering countries are Argentina to the east, Bolivia to the northeast, and Peru to the north. Easter Island, Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas are Chilean territories in the Pacific.

Because of its length of 2,700 miles Chile has a variety of climates: the north is the driest desert on the Earth, the Atacama; a fertile central valley with a Mediterranean climate; and cool and damp in the south with fjords, islands, and peninsulas. The summer season in Chile is from December to March, opposite of the Northern Hemisphere.

Santiago, Chile, Metropolitan Cathedral in Plaza de Armas and New Office Tower, Photographic Print

Santiago, located in the central valley is the capital and largest city of Chile. It was founded by Spanish Conquistadors on February 12, 1541, and despite floods and earthquakes has developed into a modern, industrial city.

Chile is in the Pacific Ring of Fire: In May of 2009 Chaitén Volcano in southern Chile erupted for the first time in 9,400 years, and on February 27, 2010 an 8.8 magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of the Maule Region of Chile along the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates.
FYI - The strongest recorded earthquake in the world, a magnitude 9.5, occured in the same region in 1960. The 2010 Chilean quake was 500 times more forceful than the 7.0 Haiti earthquake in January 2010.

Before the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, northern Chile was under Inca rule while the indigenous Mapuche inhabited central and southern Chile. Chile declared its independence from the Spanish in 1810, and achieved a decisive victory in 1818. Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific (1879-83), winning its present northern regions which are some of the richest copper deposits in the world. The Mapuche Indians were completely subjugated in the 1880s.

Today Chile is considered a stable, democratic nation after a period of unrest in the second half of the 20th century. The three-year-old Marxist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in 1973 in a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet, who ruled until a freely elected president was installed in 1990.