Officially established as a republic with the signing of a constitution in 1833, Chile derives its name from chilli - a word used by its original inhabitants, the Mapuche, to describe where the land ends.
It's a name that suits: Chile is a remarkably long country that stretches from the southernmost tip of South America, and follows the Pacific coast northward to the Peruvian border more than 4,000 kilometres away.
Politically, Chile has been, for the most part, a stable democracy. From 1970 to 1990, however, the country's stability was shaken.
First came the election of Salvador Allende as president in 1970. Allende's Unidad Popular - a democratic-socialist party - drew the ire of the United States when it began to redistribute land ownership and nationalize business interests. To make things worse, the Chilean leadership established relations with communist Cuba, China, North Korea and North Vietnam.
Allende's term did not last long, though, as his own military - led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet and supported by the CIA - attacked the presidential palace in 1973, leaving Allende dead. Pinochet assumed the leadership and ruled Chile with an iron fist for 17 years. His regime has been implicated in more than 2,000 political executions.
Into the 1980s, Pinochet acted on the advice of a group of Chileans who had graduated from the University of Chicago's business school, and de-nationalized many business interests, returning power to private hands. The move breathed new life into the nation's economy, but didn't buy him much popularity.
Pinochet lost the presidential election of 1989 to moderate democrat Patricio Aylwin, who went on to strengthen Chile's economy into one of the strongest in Latin America.
TRADE WITH CANADA:
On July 7, 1997, Canada became the first industrialized nation to sign a free trade agreement with Chile. At the time, bilateral trade between the two countries was worth $718 million. By 2001, trade had grown to a record high $1 billion before dipping to just under $950 million in 2002.
| Top five Canadian exports to and imports from Chile | ||
| Exports to Chile ($ million) | Imports from Chile ($million) | |
| 1. | Wheat (durum) $41.67 | Fruit $176.73 |
| 2. | Machinery $40.81 | Copper articles $113.32 |
| 3. | Paper $26.95 | Ores $112.34 |
| 4. | Electrical machinery $26.08 | Wood $63.5 |
| 5. | Coal $20.88 | Wine $58.41 |
| (Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) | ||
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Quick Facts
Population: 15,498,930
Capital: Santiago
Government type: Republic
President/chief of state: Ricardo Lagos Escobar
Ambassador to Canada: Alvaro Zuniga
Major languages: Spanish
Major religions: Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 11%
Location: Southern South America, bordering on Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and the South Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans
Area total: 756,950 sq. km
Natural resources: copper, timber, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, molybdenum, hydropower
Source: CIA World Factbook
