Chile

Northern Chile lay at the edge of the Inca Empire, while the Mapuche people of the south fiercely resisted outside rule for centuries. Spain founded Santiago in 1541 and colonised the central valley, though the Mapuche held out far longer. Chile won its independence from Spain in 1818, in a struggle led by Bernardo O'Higgins and aided by the liberator Jose de San Martin. The young republic expanded north after winning the War of the Pacific and grew wealthy on nitrates and, later, copper.

Chile's geography is defined by its extreme length and narrowness. In the north lies the Atacama, the driest desert in the world, where some places have never recorded rain. The fertile central valley, with its Mediterranean climate, holds most of the population and the vineyards. Further south the land grows wetter and wilder, breaking into forests, lakes, volcanoes, and finally the icy fjords of Patagonia. The Andes wall off the country to the east along its entire length.

The flag of Chile has two horizontal bands, white over red, with a blue square bearing a single white star in the upper hoist. The white is said to represent the snow of the Andes, the red the blood of those who fought for independence, and the blue the sky and the Pacific. The lone star, which gives the flag its nickname, the lone star, stands as a guide to honour and progress.

Chile has historically been a Roman Catholic country, and the faith remains an important part of its culture, festivals, and traditions, even as the society has become notably more secular in recent decades. The share of people identifying as Catholic has fallen, evangelical Protestant churches have grown, and a significant portion of the population now reports no religion. Indigenous beliefs endure among the Mapuche and other native peoples.

Chilean cuisine draws on its long coast and fertile valleys. With thousands of kilometres of Pacific shoreline, seafood is central, from fish and shellfish to seaweed. The empanada, a baked or fried pastry filled with meat, is a national favourite, and dishes like pastel de choclo, a corn and meat pie, reflect the country's agricultural heart. Chilean wines, produced in the central valleys, are renowned worldwide and a great source of national pride.

Chile's varied climate, and its position in the Southern Hemisphere, make it a major agricultural exporter, able to supply fresh fruit to the Northern Hemisphere in its winter. The country is a leading exporter of grapes, cherries, and other fruit, as well as one of the world's great wine producers. Salmon farming in the cold southern waters is another major industry. Above all, however, Chile's economy rests on copper, of which it is the largest producer in the world.

The conquest and the long Mapuche resistance shaped colonial Chile, and independence in 1818 founded the modern republic. The War of the Pacific in the late nineteenth century won Chile its mineral-rich northern deserts. The country's most traumatic modern event came in 1973, when a military coup overthrew the elected socialist president Salvador Allende and installed the long dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, before a return to democracy in 1990.

Chile has a population of around 20 million people, most of mixed European and Indigenous descent, along with Indigenous communities, the largest being the Mapuche. The population is overwhelmingly urban, concentrated in the central valley and above all in the capital, Santiago, which sits in a basin beneath the Andes. Chile enjoys one of the higher standards of living in Latin America, though debates over inequality have driven significant social and political change.