Chilean History

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Chilean History How can atrocities happen even in stable democracies? World History 2, Session 7

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Chilean History. How can atrocities happen even in stable democracies? World History 2, Session 7. Where is Chile?. Map of South America. 2,700 miles long. One long, skinny country. Chile covers a lot of degrees of latitude - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of Chilean History

Page 1: Chilean History

Chilean History

How can atrocities happen even in stable democracies?

World History 2, Session 7

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Where is Chile?

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Map of South America

2,700 miles long

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One long, skinny country

• Chile covers a lot of degrees of latitude• It runs the equivalent (in the northern

hemisphere) of from Mexico City to Vancouver BC.

• It is never more than 150 miles wide• Its eastern border is a nearly impassable wall

of mountains, many of which are over 22,000 feet (Mt. Rainier is 14, 410, Denali is 20,320)

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How do you think climate might be affected by the latitude in Chile??? What do you think the climate is like in northern Chile?

?? How will it change as you travel south?

How do you think climate might be affected by elevation above sea level in Chile?

?? What do you think the climate is like on the coast?

?? How do you think climate will change as you travel east?

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Some important things to know about Chile

• Chile is the most democratic country in South America

• Chile has been much more economically stable than Peru

• Chile has been less abusive of its native people, primarily because there were fewer of them – Spanish and Chileans did not have to compete with them for the land as much

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• Chile was less populated at the time of Spanish conquest (Peru was the center of the dominant empire and much more populated)

• Because there were essentially no cities when the Spanish invaded , crowd diseases (like measles, smallpox, and influenza) did not spread as quickly and fewer native Chileans died

• Chile had the same ethnic hierarchy as Peru (peninsulares, criollos, mestizos, and natives)

• Even with all of these pretty good things, Chile has still had a history of human rights abuses, primarily in the 1970’s

• The focus of our study of Chile will be to allow us to understand the authoritarian rule of Augusto Pinochet from 1973-1990

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Five Major Problems in Chilean History

• The role of the Catholic Church– The Spanish brought the Catholic faith to Chile in the

1500’s and it provided a unifying force in Chilean history BUT…

– Conservative and traditional Chileans want the Church to have political authority

– More liberal and modern Chileans wanted the Church to have no political authority

?? How might a conflict over religious authority affect the unity of a country?

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Regionalism

• Regionalism is a problem that many large nations have. The US has it too. Regionalism is the conflict between different regions of countries that have differing economic and political interests (i.e. US before Civil War).

• Chilean regionalism centers on the different economic activities in each region and who gets preferential treatment for their industry (mining, farming, etc.)

?? How would regionalism affect the unity of a country?

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Social Class

• The first governments (both Spanish and Chilean) only represented the upper classes - the peninsulares and the wealthiest criollos

• New political parties formed to represented the interests of middle class, then working class, then poor people

?? If political parties only represent one social class, how will this affect the unity of the nation if one party rules the country?

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Urban v. rural

• City dwellers and farmers had very different needs from government (city dwellers wanted cheap food and urban development, farmers wanted food prices to be high and to have transportation to be developed in rural areas to connect them to markets)

?? How would different needs of cities and farms affect the unity of a country?

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Militarism

• Chile has frequently used its military to resolve (or make worse!) its conflicts with native people, rebellious workers, and neighboring nations like Peru

?? What can go wrong if a country uses its military to solve issues that are really economic instead of self-defense?

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Key events in Chile’s history

1535-1810

• Spanish conquest of Chile. Spain ruled Chile as a source of land and minerals until 1810.

1810-1818

• Wars of independence. The Spanish king was deposed by Napoleon in 1810, so who was in charge of the colonies? Napoleon’s brother or the peninsulares? The peninsulares debated whether to become independent but the criollos, led by Bernardo O’Higgins, wanted independence and fought the peninsulares for control. The Spanish loyalists in Peru took advantage of the conflict and invaded. They ruled harshly until 1817.

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1817-1823

• Rule of Bernardo O’Higgins. He chased the Peruvians out but angered people by taking power from the Catholic Church to attract Protestant immigrants from Germany , ruling too harshly and without any input from others, and by proposing to take the land from the big landowners (made the problems of the role of the Church, social class, and urban v. rural worse). He also spent a lot of money to support Peru’s attempts to kick the Spanish out. He thought Chile could never really be free until Spain was out of western South America.

1823-1830

• Civil wars over the problems of the role of the church and regionalism.

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1830-1891

• “Aristocratic republicanism”. Chile’s government is dominated by a sort-of democratic government elected by the wealthiest peninsulares and criollos. Problems of population growth were less than in Peru because so much of Chile was empty. People moved out to the frontiers and claimed new land instead of fighting over the old land (very similar to US). The ruling class was unified and didn’t have to worry about rebellions from natives, mestizos, or poorer criollos. Economy grew with lots of exports and people rarely wanted to mess with the prosperity by demanding more rights. Stable and pretty similar to US between the Civil War and 1880’s.

• The main conflicts were around how much power the Church should have and how much to expand voting rights (not much!)

• The economy grew as Chile produced food and materials needed in the California and Australian gold rushes. Built ports and rail lines that boosted the economy but also brought in foreign investors who demanded a say in how things were run.

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1830-1891 continued

• Farms grew in the southern portion of Chile and expanded in size and number. Employed more and more peasants. These large farmers became wealthy are more powerful (contributing to urban v. rural issues). Farmers were not interested in government encouragement of industrial development since it might steal some of their cheap labor (remember that scarce labor means that wages go up).

• In 1851, people opposed to the power of large landowners rebelled against them and demanded industrial and urban development. Rebellion failed, but the government expanded schools, rail roads, banks, and telegraph lines. Encouraged immigration from Germany to open up more land to farming.

• Landowners did not want to pay taxes so the government had to raise money through taxing exports and imports (which made Chilean products more expensive to buy). This made Chilean landowners want to grow more and more for export (rather than consumption within Chile), which made Chile more and more dependent on exporting agricultural products and minerals and on importing manufactured goods (which isn’t good for economic development in the long run.)

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1879-1883

• War of the Pacific. A recession in 1873 had forced Peru, Chile, and Bolivia to look for new sources of income. The Atacama Desert, what was southern Peru (or maybe western Bolivia) was full of nitrates which are used in fertilizers and other chemicals. The three countries went to war over competing claims to the region. Chile’s military was WAY better than Peru’s or Bolivia’s and Chile won. 1883’s Treaty of Ancon awarded the whole region to Chile.

1882

• Defeat of the only still-strong group of natives, the Mapuche in southern Chile. The victory opened up a land rush among wealthy Chileans who moved in, cleared land, and claimed it for free. This land rush also attracted immigrants from Europe (Germany and Italy were pretty crummy places at the time and a lot of them wanted to immigrate).

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1880’s – 1920’s

• Nitrate boom. Chile’s government controlled the nitrates, sold rights to British and American mining companies and charged large export duties. 50% of government revenue came from this source. This meant that wealthy landowners still didn’t pay taxes and that local industries still weren’t being developed.

• The workers in these mining camps were mestizos and natives. The work was brutal, the pay was almost nothing, and they had no way to bargain with the mining companies. They began to create and join radical political parties (communists, anarchists, and syndicalists) that wanted to preserve all of Chile’s wealth for Chileans, not foreign corporations.

1891

• At the request of Chile’s congress, the military overthrew the president of Chile who had tried to raise the export duties Chile charged the American and British mining companies. At least one British mining company president backed the military coup. Congress became more powerful than the president.

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• Parliamentary Republic. Congress was more powerful than the president. Members of Congress’ power came from manipulating their constituents in their home districts. They bought votes with bribes and offers of jobs or favorable legislation. Did not try to solve any of Chile’s long term problems with the Church, regionalism, social class, urban v. rural, and militarism.

• As a result, cities grew out of control but did not have adequate services, resentment between the cities and the countryside grew, tensions between rich and poor grew, and the poor began to join new political parties.

1891-1925

• Military interventions due to rising chaos. Created bigger splits over regionalism, urban v. rural, and social class issues.

1925-1932

• Mass democracy. Chile was a fairly stable, left-leaning democracy during a period when a lot of other nations under economic and political stress went nuts and became militaristic, fascist, and communist.

1932-1973

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• Salvador Allende’s presidency. Head of the Popular Unity party (called UP by Chileans). He focused on nationalizing (taking over) the mines and factories from foreign owners (not popular with the foreign owners) and big businesses, banks, and farms.

• Land was turned over to peasant famers. And food production fell dramatically. This caused food prices to rise and food imports to increase.

• Allende raised wages to increase buying power of the middle and working classes. This lead to inflation.

• The Socialist Party wanted faster change, the Communist Party wanted slower change. The other parties wanted no change at all. No one was happy

• Allende’s government began to look for money and support from communist nations. Created alliances with Cuba, China, North Korea, Albania, and the Soviet Union. This really ticked off the United States.

1970-1973

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• Things got worse. Demand for food grew faster than the supply, no new investments entered the country, the debt grew, and copper sales shrank as the global economy stagnated. Inflation was at 500%. The government couldn’t do anything about it since their supporters were poor, they couldn’t get Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy, and no one would loan them money (including the Soviet Union)

• 1973 elections ended in a tie. No one party in Congress had enough votes to change policies. Both sides threatened violence.

• Massive strikes by both sides. The conservative side asked for military intervention.

1972-1973

• Chile’s military, under General Augusto Pinochet, attacked the presidential palace. Allende defended it with a machine gun and eventually committed suicide before he could be captured.

September 11, 1973

1973-1990 Rule of Augusto Pinochet

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Chile under Pinochet

• Read these sources to understand life under Pinochet.

• Library of Congress Country Studies – Chile: Military Rule 1973-1990

• Library of Congress Country Studies – Chile: Repression and Human Rights Violations

• Pinochet’s Troubling Legacy from the Council on Foreign Relations

To cite these articles in your summative assessment, just put parentheses around the titles. Example: (Library of Congress Country Studies – Chile: Military Rule 1973-1990)

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Should Augusto Pinochet have been tried for the murders committed by his soldiers?

Based on what you have read, what are the reasons to try Pinochet for murder?– List as many as you can identify

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• What are the reasons he was not tried?