Chile

Chile

Brief History of Chile

• Chile was first settled as many as 10,000 years ago.
• Tribal people gathered in Chile's fertile valleys and on the country's long Pacific Coast. For a short period of time, the Incan civilization entered Chile, but the north was too barren and they did not expand into Chile for long.
• In 1536 the Europeans discovered Chile. The first to arrive was the Spanish headed by Diego de Almagro. Soon the Spanish began to conquer Chile.
• In 1810, the Chileans decided to fight for their independence from Spain. The war that followed was called the Reconquista. In 1817 armies led by famed Chilean patriot Bernardo O'Higgins and the hero of Argentina, Jose de San Martin defeated the Spanish. They crossed over the Andes to attack. Chile declared independence on February 12, 1818. Bernardo O'Higgins was the first leader of independent Chile.

The blue square of the flag represents the sky, the white stripe represents the snow of the Andes mountains, and the red symbolizes the blood that was spilled fighting for freedom.The single star represents the powers of the government.

Random Interesting Fact:

Easter Island

Geographic Landmarks of Chile:

• The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday (5 April) in 1722.
• The “Moai” island off the coast of Chile, was annexed by the country in 1888. During the 1900s it was a sheep farm and was managed by the Chilean Navy.
• The Easter Island heads are known as Moai by the Rapa Nui people who carved the figures in the tropical South Pacific directly west of Chile. The Moai monoliths, carved from stone found on the island, are between over 1000 years old!
• Did you know that the Easter Island Heads also have bodies?

• Chile is home to the worlds largest swimming pool!
• In Algarrobo city in the Pacific coast, we find the most impressive artificial paradise that was named by the Guinness Book of Records as the World’s largest swimming pool with a length of 1,000 yards, an area of 20 acres and a maximum depth of 115-feet. It holds over 66 million gallons of crystal clear seawater.
• The pool was opened in December 2006, and it took five years of construction work with a cost of nearly 1 billion dollars ($US), and an annual maintenance cost of about 2 million.

Elephant Seal

Guanaco

• General Carrera Lake or Lake Buenos Aires is a lake located in Patagonia and shared by Argentina and Chile. Both names are internationally accepted. The lake is of glacial origin and is surrounded by the Andes mountain range.

• ILLUSTRATED ON A CHILEAN HILLSIDE known as Cerro Unitas and surrounded by thousands of smaller geoglyphs, the Atacama Giant, a massive image of a deity used to calculate the movements of the moon, stands as one of the largest geoglyphs ever discovered.

The Atacama Desert

Puma

• At 7,500 feet, Chile’s Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth with a landscape of surreal beauty.
• Some parts of the region have never received a drop of rain and the Desert is probably also the oldest desert on earth.
• The desert runs through a 1,000 kilometer long strip of land between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, spreading out over an area of 363,000 square kilometers.

Blue Whale