FREE ESSAY ON CHILE

CHILE

Chile
The first European to visit what is now Chile was the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand
Magellan, who landed at Chiloe Island following his voyage, in 1520, through the strait
that now bears his name. The region was then known to its native population as Tchili, a
Native American word meaning snow. At the same time of Magellan's visit, most of Chile
south of the Rapel River was dominated by the Araucanians, a Native American tribe
remarkable for its fighting ability. The tribes occupying the northern portions of Chile
had been subjugated during the 15th century by the Incas of Peru. In 1535, after the
Spanish under Francisco Pizarro had completed their conquest of Peru, Diego de Almagro,
one of Pizarro's aides, led a gold-hunting expedition from that country overland into
Chile. The expedition spent nearly three fruitless years in the country and then withdrew
to Peru.
Chile is a republic in southwestern South America, bounded on the north by Peru, on the
east by Bolivia and Argentina, and on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. It has an
extreme northern-southern length of approximately 4270 km (about 2650 mi), but its
average width is less than 180 km (less than 110 mi). Archipelagoes extend along the
southern Chilean coast from Chiloe Island to Cape Horn, the southernmost point of the
South American continent. Among these are the Chonos Archipelago, Wellington Island, and
the western portion of Tierra del Fuego. Other islands belonging to Chile include the
Juan Fernandez Islands, Easter Island, and Sala y Gomez, all of which lie in the South
Pacific. The country has a total area of 756,626 sq km (292,135 sq mi). Chile also claims
a section of Antarctica. The country's capital and largest city is Santiago.
Two lively and contrasting cultural strains predominate in Chile: the cosmopolitan
culture of the affluent urban population and the popular culture of the peasants, which
is predominantly Spanish but contains traces of Araucanian heritage. The latter
influences are strongest in Chilean music and dance. Chile has a flourishing literary
tradition and has produced two Nobel Prize winners in literature, Gabriela Mistral and
Pablo Neruda, both poets.