CHILE SALTPETRE

sodium nitrate, a deliquescent crystalline sodium salt that is found chiefly in northern Chile (see sodium). The economy The Chilean economy is based on the exploitation of agricultural, fishing, forest, and mining resources. Chile developed historically on the basis of a few agricultural and mineral exports, as was common in Latin America. Many manufactured products had to be imported, and land, wealth, and power were concentrated in the hands of a small aristocracy. Although there have been land reforms and development of manufacturing, many of Chile's economic problems in the 20th century are related to the country's early economic structure. During the 19th century the Chilean economy grew on the basis of exported agricultural products, copper, and nitrates. After the nitrate market dropped during World War I, Chile's economy took a sharp downturn, intensifying the effect on the country of the Great Depression. These events turned Chile toward more socialistic programs that featured strong government control of the economy. An attempt was made to develop import substitution industries so as to lessen dependence on imported products. Industrial growth was placed in the hands of the Corporacin de Fomento de la Produccin (Corfo; the Development Corporation). Agrarian reforms were instituted, and the government assumed greater control of industry, especially during the administrations of Pedro Aquirre Cerda (1938-41) and Salvador Allende Gossens (1970-73), when many banks, copper mines, and business firms were nationalized. The economy at first improved under these policies, inflation going down and the gross domestic product increasing. The government, however, was unable to establish a sound tax base to match the expanding economy; by 1973 conditions were deteriorating rapidly and a military coup overthrew the government. The new regime instituted more conservative, free-market programs and reversed many of the previous governments' acts. The country has continued to face severe economic problems, reflected in periodic high inflation, fluctuating trade policies, unemployment, and heavy dependence on a single major export, copper, in an unstable market. Resources A geographically varied country, Chile is rich in mineral deposits, natural forests, sea resources, and energy sources. The land Relief The major landforms of Chile are arranged as three parallel north-south units: the Andes mountains to the east; the intermediate depression, or longitudinal valley, in the centre; and the coastal ranges to the west. These landforms extend lengthwise through the five latitudinal geographic regions into which the country is customarily subdivided. From north to south, with approximate boundaries, these are Norte Grande (extending to 27 S); the north-central region, Norte Chico (27 to 33 S); the central region, Zona Central (33 to 38 S); the south-central region, La Frontera and the Lake District (38 to 42 S); and the extreme southern region, Sur (42 S to Cape Horn). The people The Chileans are racially a mixture of Europeans and American Indians. The first miscegenation occurred during the 16th and 17th centuries between the indigenous tribes, including the Atacameos, Diaguitas, Picunches, Araucanians (Mapuches), Huilliches, Pehuenches, and Cuncos, and the conquistadores from Spain. Basque families who migrated to Chile in the 18th century vitalized the economy and joined the old Castilian aristocracy to become the political elite that still dominates the country. Few blacks were brought to Chile as slaves during colonial times because a tropical plantation economy, common in much of the New World, did not develop. After independence and during the republican era, English, Italian, and French merchants established themselves in the growing cities of Chile and incidentally joined the political or economic elites of the country. The official encouragement of German and Swiss colonization in the Lake District during the second half of the 19th century was exceptional. The censuses of the late 19th century showed that foreigners-principally Spaniards, Argentines, French, Germans, and Italians-formed scarcely more than 1 percent of the total population. At the turn of the century, small numbers of displaced eastern European Jews and Christian Syrians and Palestinians fleeing the Ottoman Empire arrived in Chile. Today they spearhead financial and small manufacturing operations. The population displays a strong sense of cultural identity, which can be traced to the predominance of the Spanish language, the Roman Catholic religion, and the comparative isolation of Chile from the rest of South America. The Araucanian Indians form the only significant ethnic minority. The trend of age-group distribution of Chile's more than 12,000,000 people, with increasingly larger numbers in the older brackets, reflects a progressive maturing of the population. Life expectancy rose from 57 years in 1960 to about 70 years by the early 1980s. These demographic changes reflect both improved health-care conditions and modernization of the life-style by the predominantly urban population. Also ascribed to thesame factors is the dramatic decline during the late 20th century in infant mortality and in the fertility rate. Chile's crude death rate is lower than that of most of its South American neighbours. The large cities and the industrial centres of central Chile attract a steady flow of internal migrants. Most of them head for the capital city of Santiago, with the rest going primarily to Valparaso-Via del Mar and to Concepcin-Talcahuano. These migrants emanate mostly out of the rural regions of the Central Valley and north-central Chile. The northern coastal cities receive some migrants from Santiago and Valparaso and also from the small villages in the far north. Chilo has been losing its population to Punta Arenas and the agrarian areas of the Lake District, and even to Argentina, where Chilotes work on estancias or in the mines of Patagonia. After 1973, hundreds of thousands of Chileans left the country for political reasons to live in exile.