Chile officially the Republic of Chile (Spanish: República de Chile (help·info)),
is a country in western South America. It occupies a long, narrow
strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Chile covers an area of 756,096
square kilometres (291,930 sq mi) and has a population of 17.5
million as of 2017. The capital and largest city is Santiago and the national language is Spanish. Chile borders Peru
to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south.
Chilean territory includes the
Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres
(480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica under the Chilean Antarctic Territory.
Spain conquered and colonized the region in the mid-16th
century, replacing Inca rule, but failing to conquer the independent Mapuche who inhabited what is now south-central Chile. After declaring
independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a
relatively stable authoritarian republic. In the 19th century, Chile saw
significant economic and territorial growth, ending Mapuche resistance
in the 1880s and gaining its current northern territory in the War of the Pacific
(1879–83) after defeating Peru and Bolivia. In the 1960s and 1970s, the country
experienced severe left-right political polarization and
turmoil. This development culminated with the 1973 Chilean coup d'état
that overthrew Salvador Allende's
democratically elected left-wing Marxist government and instituted a 16-year
right-wing military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet that left more than 3,000 people dead or
missing. The regime ended in 1990 after a referendum in
1988 and was succeeded by a center-left coalition which ruled until 2010.
There are various theories about the origin
of the word Chile. According to 17th-century Spanish chronicler Diego de Rosales, the Incas
called the valley of the Aconcagua "Chili" by corruption
of the name of a Picunche tribal chief ("cacique") called Tili, who ruled the
area at the time of the Incan conquest in the 15th century. Another theory
points to the similarity of the valley of the Aconcagua with that of the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a town and valley named Chili.
Chile
has produced stamps for national use since 1853. The first stamps of Chile were
inscribed Colon Chile. In 1894, Chile was one of the few countries to issue a
stamp for the Avis de réception service.
covers sent by Alex from Valdivia, Chile. The covers posted on June 04, 2018 and I received them on July 10, 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.