CountryReport Part. 1By: Twyla Gollery

Geography: Simple Facts• From North to South Chile is 2,880

miles long

• From East to West Chile, at it's widest part is only 265 miles wide.

• Altogether it contains 292,260 squire miles of land, and a wide variety of climate zone, terrain, animals, and plants

• The Atacama Desert is known for the rich amount of minerals found within it

• A well known volcano is the Parinacota Volcano

Geography:Climate• There are, within Chile's borders

seven different subtypes of climate.

• This is because of it's large geographic scale

• Chile spans anywhere from deserts to alpine tundra's to tropical climates and anywhere in the middle.

• It's climates allow a vast variety of plants and animals to inhabit Chile.

Geography:Biodiversity• Animals- many Latin American

animals have adapted to live in Chile

• A wide variety of birds, whales, and fish have been found to thrive there

• Plants-Chile has a wide botanical variety because of it's wide climate range.

• In some areas plants flourish and grow rapidly

• In other areas it's either to cold and rugged or to hot and dry for hardly anything to survive

People: Indigenous Communities• Are about 4.6 % of the total

population

• 691,000 people as of 2002 registered people from indigenous orgins

• Indigenous people include the Mapuches, Aymara, Atacamerio, Rapa Nui, and the Kawaskhar

• The Mapuches make up about 85% of the indegenous people from Chile today

People: Immigration• Many people immigrated from

Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, Greece, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Stotland, Croatia, and the Middle East during the 16th century

• Spain had the most people immigrating into Chile at the time

• Today people immigrate frome Europe, America, and Asia

• People now mainly Immigrate from Argentina and Peru

People: Religion and Languages• There are many religions in Chile

• Most people identify themselves as Catholics, about 70% of the country

• Spanish is spoken in Chile but it's accent and dialect are different depending on the regions

• The "s" sound is dropped and other consontents are spoken softly, this is unique to the Spanish spoken in Chile

History: Colonization• About 10,000 years ago Native

Americans settled in what is now Chile

• The Mapuches were the largest inhabitants of Chile

• In 1540 the conquest of Chile began and was lead by Pedro de Valdivia

• He founded the city of Santiago on February 12, 1541

• Because of the agricultural potienial of Chile, it became part of the Spanish Empire

History: 19th and 20th Centuries• Chile was proclaimed an

independent republic on February 12, 1818

• The social structure of Chile, however, didn't change much

• It's social structure was influenced mainly on family politics and the Roman Catholic church

• During the beginning of the 20th century Chile was politically unstable

• It chenged hands of some ten different governments

History: 20th Century• In 2000 Ricardo Lagos won the

Chilean election to presidency

• In 2006 Michelle Bachelet Jeria was elected, Chile's first female president

• In 2010 Sabastian Pinera was elected, he was the first rightest President to be elected in twenty years

• On February 27, 2010 Chile was hit by an 8.8 earthquake, it's estimated about 500 people died, buildings were destroyed and severly damaged

Sources:

WIKIPEDIA-CHILE