Immigration to Chile
Encyclopedia
Over the centuries, Chile
has received a number of immigrants mainly from Europe
followed by the Americas
and Asia
. Today, millions of their descendants still live in the country and are found in all areas of the community.
Much of the immigration to Chile occurred during the 19th and 20th centuries, from various foreign communities. Today, the main immigrant groups are those originating in neighboring countries, due to the interaction of their relations with Chile. The largest immigrant group is from Argentina
, followed by Peru
. One of the main factors that have led this migration has been the country's relatively stable political history, compared with the rest of Latin America and, more recently, the significant growth of the Chilean economy in recent decades. Similarly, immigration from other Latin American countries beyond its borders has also been of great importance. For example, one of the founders of the famous Universidad de Chile, was the Venezuelan Andrés Bello
. Copper and nitrate mines in the Atacama depend on Bolivia
n contract workers from neighboring Bolivia.
Maritime commerce prompted the creation of British, French, Italian, Dutch
, Greek
, Portuguese
and Scandinavia
n settlements. The Palestinians, Syrians
and Lebanese
arrived in large number in the 1920s.
In addition to migration from other former Spanish colonies during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, a number of settlers from Europe came from Spain
, Italy
, France
, Croatia
, Austria
, Germany
, Great Britain
and Ireland
, and refugees from the Spanish Civil War
in the 1930s.
Today, the principal immigrant groups correspond to the countries bordering Chile. The largest colony is the Argentine, followed the Peruvian. One of the principal factors producing this immigration has been the important growth of the Chilean economy during the past decades. Immigration from other Latin American countries has also been important.
An important ethnic group(s) in the construction of Chilean society has been the immigrants originating from Europe. Since Independence and throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, new groups of European immigrants arrived in Chile, principally being from: Spain
, France
, Great Britain
, Italy
, Germany
, Croatia
, The Netherlands, Russia
, Greece
, Austria
, Belgium
, Switzerland
, Armenia
, Poland
, Hungary
, Portugal
, Israel
and Malta
among other countries. Also from Europe came Ashkenazi Jews
, who were scattered throughout many European countries. All of these immigrant groups had an important social, cultural, and economic impact on the country. The immigrant communities were distributed throughout the territory. Thus, those of German origin have a great influence in the regions of Araucanía
, Los Ríos
, and Los Lagos
; Croatians in the cities of Antofagasta
, Iquique
and Punta Arenas; and the British in Santiago
, Punta Arenas, Valparaíso
, and in other coastal cities due to their close relationship with the Chilean Navy
.
Although the majority of European-origin immigrants came from Western Europe, there exist certain communities of smaller significance whose members come from Eastern Europe and the Caucasus
, arriving in Chile primarily to escape persecutions against them during the first half of the 20th century. Those immigrants coming from Eastern Europe were principally Jews arriving in the mid-20th century and coming from the Soviet Union
, Poland, Hungary, Romania
, Bulgaria
; and the former nations of Yugoslavia
and Czechoslovakia
. They arrived in Chile escaping Nazism
and Communism between the 1930s and 1950s.
In the same way, some immigrants from the Caucasus, principally from Armenia
, established themselves in Chile during the first decades of the 20th century due to the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Ottoman Empire
in some Eastern areas of Turkey
, Syria
, and Lebanon
.
The largest ethnic group in Chile arrived from Spain
and the Basque regions in the south of France
. Estimates of the number of descendants from Basques in Chile range from 10% (1,600,000) to as high as 27% (4,500,000).
In 1848 an important and substantial German immigration
took place, laying the foundation for the German-Chilean
community. Sponsored by the Chilean government for the colonization of the southern region, the Germans (including German-speaking Swiss, Silesians
, Alsatians
and Austrians
), strongly influenced the cultural and racial composition of the southern provinces of Chile.
Other historically significant immigrant groups include: Croatia
whose number of descendants today is estimated to be 380,000 persons, the equivalent of 2.4% of the population. Other authors claim, on the other hand, that close to 4.6% of the Chilean population must have some Croatian ancestry
. Over 700,000 Chileans may have British (English
, Scottish
and Welsh
) origin. 4,5% of Chile's Population., Chileans of Greek descent are estimated 90,000 to 120,000. Most of them live either in the Santiago
area or in the Antofagasta area. Chile is one of the 5 countries with the most descendants of Greeks in the world. The descendants of Swiss add 90,000, an estimated that about 5% of the Chilean population
has some French ancestry
.
and 600,000 to 800,000 Italians. Other groups of European descendants have followed, but are found in smaller numbers. They did transform the country culturally, economically and politically.
European immigration, and to a lesser degree from the Middle East, produced during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries large "waves" in America. After the Atlantic coasts of the Southern Cone
(that is, Argentina, Uruguay
and Brazil
), Chile was the most significant Latin American destination and was favored mainly by the intense traffic through the extreme south of the country until the opening of the Panama Canal
in 1920, although other groups came from Argentina across the Cordillera.
and Puerto Montt
. More than 6,000 families arrived in Chile during this period alone.
The German immigrants succeeded in creating vigorous villages and communities in virtually uninhabited regions, completely changing the landscape of the southern zones. Carlos Anwandter
left evidence of this great spirit of building, proclaiming to all the colonists: We will be Chileans, as honorable and hardworking as ever there were, we will defend our adopted country united in the ranks of our new compatriots, against all foreign oppression and with the resolve and fortitude of the man that defends his country, his family, and his interests. This country that we have adopted as sons will never have reason to repent of its enlightened, humane, and generous gesture... (18 November 1851).
Later years brought a new, great wave of German immigrants who settled throughout the country, especially in Temuco
, Santiago
, and in the country's principal commercial zones. During World War II, many German Jews settled in Chile, fleeing the Holocaust. After the war, many leaders and collaborators from Nazi Germany
sought to take refuge in the southern region of the country, fleeing justice against them. Paul Schäfer
even founded Colonia Dignidad
(Dignity Colony), a German enclave in Region VII, where human rights violations were carried out.
Among many distinguished descendants of the Germans in Chile are counted the commander Fernando Matthei Aubel, the architect Mathias Klotz
, tennis players Gabriel Silberstein and Hans Gildemeister
, the athletes Sebastián Keitel
and Marlene Ahrens Ostertag, the musicians Patricio Manns
and Emilio Körner, the economist Ernesto Schiefelbein, the politicians Miguel Kast
and Evelyn Matthei
, the entrepreneurs Jürgen Paulmann and Carlos Heller
, the painters Uwe Grumann and Rossy Ölckers, television presentors Karen Doggenweiler
and Margot Kahl, writer César Müller, and the actors Gloria Münchmeyer, Antonia Zegers, Aline Kuppenheim, and Bastian Bodenhofer.
It is difficult to tabulate the full number of German descendants in Chile today because of the large quantity of time that has passed and because they have mixed with the Chilean population for more than 150 years. Because many areas of the Chilean South are sparsely populated, the traces of German immigration are rather obvious. In reality, the descendants of these first immigrants mostly live in the big cities. According to the 2002 census, approximately 6,000 German immigrants resided in Chile at that time.
ean refugees in Prussia
n Silesia
, who had taken advantage of the same immigration opportunities given the German population by the Chilean state in accordance with the "Law of Selective Immigration" of 1845. These immigrants settled, almost in totality, on the banks of Lake Llanquihue
. In 1875, Austrian colonists from Bohemia
founded Nueva Braunau near Puerto Varas, named in honor of their previous city, "Brumov" in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic
).
After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Austrian immigration continued during the entire period between the wars. Beginning in 1938, Chile became the destination of many Austrian emigrants of Jewish origins abandoning the country after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. In 1940, in Santiago, Austrian immigrants founded the association Austria Libre (Free Austria), which quickly counted 2,000 members and was in contact with other Austrian groups in exile in the Americas. Iin 1943, Austria Libre incorporated into the Comité Central Austríaco de América Latina (Central Austrian Committee of Latin America) with its headquarters in Montevideo
.
It is estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 Austrians settled in Chile over the course of the 20th century. According to the 2002 census, 576 Austrian immigrants resided in Chile at that time.
and Chile.
In Valparaíso they established their largest and most important settlement, bringing with them neighbourhoods of British character, schools, social and sports clubs, business organizations, and periodicals. Even today their influence is apparent in unique areas, such as the bank and the national navy, as well as in certain social activities, such as football (soccer), horse racing, and the generalized consumption of tea.
The English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish eventually numbered more than 32,000 during the port of Valparaíso's boom period during the saltpeter
bonanza at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The British colonial influence is important to understand the boom and bust of the port of Valparaíso.
The English immigration and influence was also important in the northern regions of the country during the saltpeter boom, in the ports of Iquique
and Pisagua
. The King of Saltpeter, John Thomas North
, was the principal backer of nitrate mining. The British legacy was reflected in the streets of the historic district of the city of Iquique, with the foundation of various institutions, such as the Club Hípico (Racing Club). Nevertheless, said presence came to an end with the saltpeter crisis during the 1930s.
An important contingent of British immigrants, principally Welsh, also settled in the present-day region of Magallanes
. In the same way, they established British families in other areas of the country, such as Santiago, Coquimbo
, the Araucanía
, and Chiloé
.
Today the descendants of British and Irish immigrants are found dispersed throughout the entire nation. Well-known descendants of the British and Irish colonies include: Patricio Aylwin, Gustavo Leight, Alberto Blest Gana
, Joaquín Edwards
, Carlos Condell de la Haza, Juan Williams
, Patricio Lynch Solo de Zaldívar, Jorge O'Ryan, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna
, Bernardo Leighton
, Enrique Mac Iver, and Bernardo O'Higgins.
British descendants in Chile are estimated to number between 350,000 and 420,000 people. According to the 2002 census, 1,815 immigrants from Great Britain and 140 from Ireland resided in Chile at that time.
. Outside of Bosnia, Chile is the second-ranked country in the world for number of Croatian descendants.
The first Croatian immigrants came from the region of Dalmatia
, arriving in the mid-19th century in escape from the wars unleashed in that region or from pestilence on the islands in the Adriatic Sea
. The major concentrations of Croations can be found in Santiago, Antofagasta, and Punta Arenas, but a large concentration also exists in Viña del Mar
, Porvenir, and La Serena. Many descendants of Croatian immigrants who settled in the north and south of Chile later moved to the capital.
Arturo Givovich is considered to be the first Croatian in Chile, having arrived in the 17th century on an English pirate ship belonging to Sir Francis Drake. Givovich jumped ship in Chile, abandoning the Navy and staying on land for the sake of love. In the mid-19th century, three sailors from the Dalmatian-Croatian coast—Antonio Letic, Antonion Zupicic, and Esteban Costa (Kosta)—were hired by the Chilean Navy and sent to the Straits of Magellan. They arrived in October 1843 with a relief and resupply mission for Fort Búlnes, which had been erected only months before.
Without a doubt, the lion's share of Croatian immigrants totaling approximately 58,000 arrived in Chile in the decades spanning the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, up until World War I. Consequently, the Croatian colony in Chile was officially considered Austro-Hungarian.
The Croatian immigrants dedicated themselves to business. In Punta Arenas, they dedicated themselves to the estates, or the exploitation of gold, that is primarily found in Cañón Baquedano. In the north of Chile, they dedicated themselves to the exploitation of saltpeter. Various institutions created by the Croatian colony have persisted, such as clubs, schools, stadiums, gymnasiums, charity institutions, among others. The cities of Punta Arenas and Antofagasta are sister cities of the city of Split
in Dalmatia
.
Croatian immigration in Punta Arenas was a crucial development in the region of Magallanes
and the city in particular. Currently, you can see this influence in the names of shops and many buildings. According to some references to 50% of the population of Punta Arenas would be descendants of Croats.
was conquered by Dutch pirate Sebastian de Cordes. He left the city after some months. Then in 1642 the VOC and the WIC sent a fleet of some ships to Chile to conquer the city of Valdivia and the goldmines of the Spanish. The expedition was conducted by Hendrik Brouwer
, a Dutch general. In 1643 Brouwer conquered the Chiloé Archipelago
and the city of Valdivia. Brouwer died on 7 August of 1643, and the vice-general Elias Herckmans took control.
The second emigration
from the Netherlands
to Chile was in 1895. The so-called "Inspector General of Colonization and Chilean Immigration" a dozen Dutch families settled between 1895 and 1897 in Chiloé
, particularly in Mechaico, Huillinco
and Chacao. In the same period Hageman Egbert arrived in Chile. with his family, 14 April 1896, settling in Rio Gato, near Puerto Montt
. In addition, family Wennekool which inaugurated the Dutch colonization of Villarrica
.
In the early 20th century, arrived in Chile a large group of Dutch people from South Africa, which had been established where they worked mainly in construction of the railway. When the Boer War
, which would eventually lead to the British annexation of both republics in 1902, these emigrants decided to return to their country of origin, many of them, after a long stay in camps. Shortly after his return to the Netherlands, were presented with the opportunity to emigrate to Chile with the help of the Chilean government.
On 4 May 1903, a group of over 200 Dutch emigrants sailed on the steamship "Oropesa" shipping company "Pacific Steam Navigation Company, from La Rochelle (La Pallice) in France
. The majority of migrants were born in the Netherlands: 35% was from North Holland and South Holland
, 13% of North Brabant
, 9% of Zealand and equal number of Gelderland. Only a dozen children had been born in South Africa (Pretoria
, Johannesburg
, Valkrust, Roode Koog, Muurfontein, Platrand, Watersaltoon and Cape Town
/Kaapstad). Among the emigrants was a small group of singles, but the others were all married couples with children (some even had 5 children).
On June 5, arrived by train to their final destination, the city of Pitrufquén
, located south of Temuco
, near the hamlet of Donguil. Another group of Dutchmen arrived shortly after to Talcahuano, in the "Oravi" and the "Orissa". The Netherlands colony in Donguil was christened "New Transvaal Colony. There were established more than 500 families in order to start a new life. Between 7 February 1907 and February 18, 1909 above the last group of families Boers.
It is currently estimated at about 50,000 descendants of Dutch
, mostly located in Malleco
, Gorbea
, Pitrufquén
, Faja Maisan and around Temuco
.
spurred some 3,000 people to immigrate to Chile at the end of the 1930s, primarily being Catalan
and Basque. The majority embarked for Chile on the ship Winnipeg thanks to Pablo Neruda
, the Chilean delegate sent to France to take care of the pertinent negotiations. Almost 11,000 Spaniards also arrived in Araucanía
between 1883 and 1901, after the Occupation of Araucanía. These colonists were given lands in the Chilean Central Valley
and their descendants are principally found in Temuco, Concepción, and Ercilla.
Today, the Spanish colony continued to be the most significant in the country, having its own football (soccer) club, Unión Española
and more than 80 institutions of varying purpose throughout Chile (charitable, sports, philanthropic, social, etc.). It is estimated that some 400,000 Chileans are descendants of Spanish immigrants who came to Chile during the 20th century, more than 100,000 descending from the Spanish who settled in Auracanía. According to the 2002 Census, 9,531 Spanish immigrants resided in Chile at that time.
corridor between Spain
and Chile, one that is large, visible, and continues over time. Basque immigration can be divided into historical periods: discovery, foundation, and colonial period; the wave of immigration of the 18th century; and the recent immigrants (19th and 20th centuries). The differences from other regions originate with the group that arrived between 1750 and 1800 as traders. These Basque immigrants began to prosper and married the daughters of the old commissioned officers who originated in the south of Spain, making them landlords of economic, social, and political power. This has given them a certain preeminence.
The Basque presence in Chile began in the conquistador
period, for in the armies of the first colonizers came a contingent from the Basque Provinces and from Navarra. In the 16th century, of the 157 Peninsular families that settled in Chile, 39 had Basque surnames. This number progressively grew, as reflected in the number of governors of Basque origin.
During the 18th century, the country experimented with a mass immigration coming from the Basque provinces and Navarra, by the end of the 18th century comprising 27% of the Chilean population
. This raised the Basques to being the most important regional group in the population, displacing the natives and descendants of those born in New Castile
, Old Castile
, and Andalucía. These immigrant families initially dedicated themselves to their preferred form of business, and in successive years produced many alliances with families of Castilian origin possessing lands and titles, giving birth to a new social group known in Chilean history as the "Castilian-Basque Aristocracy."
In the second half of the 19th century came a new wave of Basque immigration, this time as much from the Spanish regions as the French. This migratory flood extended, with varying intensity, almost until the end of the Spanish Civil War
.
To describe the Basque-Chilean relationship, we cite Miguel de Unamuno
, who said: "There are at least two things that clearly can be attributed to Basque ingenuity: the Society of Jesus
and the Republic of Chile."
The largest ethnic group in Chile arrived from Spain
and the Basque regions in the south of France
. Estimates of the number of descendants from Basques in Chile range from 10% (1,600,000) to as high as 27% (4,500,000).
has some French ancestry
.
The French
came to Chile in the 18th century, arriving at Concepción
as merchants, and in the mid-19th century to cultivate vines in the haciendas of the Central Valley, the homebase of world-famous Chilean wine
. The Araucanía Region
also has an important number of people of French ancestry, as the area hosted settlers arrived by the second half of the 19th century as farmers and shopkeepers. With akin Latin culture
, the French immigrants quickly assimilated into mainstream Chilean society.
From 1850 to 1900, around 25,000 Frenchmen immigrated to Chile. 80% of them were coming from Southwestern France, especially from Basses-Pyrénées
(Basque country
and Béarn
), Gironde
, Charente-Inférieure
and Charente
and regions situated between Gers
and Dordogne
.
In World War II, a group of over 10,000 Chileans of French descent, the majority have French relatives joined the Free French Forces
and fought the Nazi occupation of France
.
Former Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet
is of French origin. Former dictator Augusto Pinochet
is another Chilean of French descent. A large percentage of politicians, businessmen, professionals and entertainers in the country are of French ancestry.
The French Chilean community earned a reputation to South Americans, it is remarked that they made Chile into a Nueva Franca ("New France") or Pequena Franca ("Little French") when it comes to being a somewhat strong influence in Chilean culture.
area or in the Antofagasta area, mostly. Chile is one of the 5 countries with the most descendants of Greeks in the world.
The Greek community has great importance in Chile. The first immigrants arrived during the 16th century from Crete
, so named "Candia" in honor of the island's capital, the current Heraklion
. The surname, although at present, is very disconnected from its ancient origins. The majority of Greek immigrants arrived in Chile at the beginning of century
, some as part of their spirit of adventure and escape from the rigors of the World War
and the catastrophe of Smyrna
in Asia Minor
, although many Greeks had already settled in Antofagasta, a city in northern Chile, including crews of the ships commanded by Arturo Prat
for the Pacific War
(1879–1883) in naval battle of Iquique (boatswain Constantine Micalvi). It is very likely that the good climate of the area has been a major attraction for immigrants Greeks. However, the chronicles of the time show that most attracted by the reputation he had acquired the northern Chilean operation of salt
and the wealth they had in the country.
According to El Mercurio
of Antofagasta
, between the years 1920 and 1935 there were about 4,000 Greeks in the city and other 3,000 in offices saltpeter.
The majority of Greek immigrants arrived in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century for his spirit adventurer. However, the chronicles of the time show that most attracted by the reputation he had acquired the north by the operation of nitrate. The country was plunging into an economic boom that lasted a very large period in which the Chileans did not pay taxes. Salitre fever attracted thousands of foreigners who came from Europe and some of the United States
. The "nitrate" or city offices located close to the mineral operations were a glorious time. Furniture, curtains, carpets were imported from France
or England
and foreigners also imported European governesses to educate their shoots.
Amid this flood of foreigners who populated northern Chilean appeared Greece
. Was an numerous Collectivité Hellenic whose records were listed in two sources. One of these was the extensive collaboration that gave the Chilean press through its pages in the newspaper El Mercurio
. The other end of the fire under the rubble of the first home that housed the proto-Hellenes of Chile.
In 1926 the first women's association for excellence, filóptoxos (friends of the poor) which was chaired by Xrisí Almallotis. Since then to date there have been about four or five generations of descendants of Greeks. Some have moved south and are grouped mainly in Santiago and Valparaíso
. Others returned to the motherland after the first war but most of the immigrants stayed in their new country and founded numerous Greek-Chilean families. The main member of this community the employer is Constantino Kochifas, owner of the ships Skorpios in Puerto Montt
.
, the Chilean government encouraged Italian emigration
especially after the formation of the Italian Republic in the 1860's and 1870's, but without getting the results from the nearby Argentina.
However, there was a substantial flow of migration from Liguria
to the area of Valparaíso
, which came to control 70% of the city. These immigrants founded the 'Body of Fire' (called "Cristobal Colon") of the city and its 'Italian School', whose building has been declared by the Government of Chile "Monumento Histórico Nacional".
In comparison, larger numbers of Italian immigrants to Chile were from the rural agrarian southern regions such as Abruzzo
, Calabria
, Campania
, Napoli, Puglia, Sardinia
and Sicily
than the well documented Northern
Italians.
Italian Chileans along with French Chilean
s contributed to the development, cultivation and ownership of the world-famous Chilean wines from haciendas in the Central Valley ever since the first wave of Italians arrived to colonial Chile in the early 19th century.
At the end of the 19th century many Italian merchants are rooted in the northern part of Arica
, where they began exploiting the rich mines of saltpetre
. Meanwhile, many Italian families settled in the capital Santiago
, Concepción
, Viña del Mar
, La Serena and Punta Arenas.
Although being just a fraction of the size of the migration to Argentina, Italian immigration to Chile has been present since the arrival of the first Spaniards into the country, like captain Giovanni Battista Pastene
who helped Pedro de Valdivia
's expedition. Thence, with akin Latin culture
, Italians have helped forge the nation, with architects (Gioacchino Toesca
), painters (Camilo Mori
), businessmen (Anacleto Angelini
), Economists (Vittorio Corbo
) and statesmen (Arturo Alessandri
) among others.
The first Russians came Chile in the early 19th century as part of naval expeditions circumnavigating the globe, among them captains Otto Kotsebu, Fyodor Litke, and Vasili Golovnin. However, they were just temporary visitors; the earliest Russian migrants came in 1854. The immigrants of that time belonged to different ethnic groups of the Russian Empire, particularly to minorities. Among them were seafarers and traders as well as medical professionals such as Alexei Sherbakov, who served as a surgean in the Chilean Navy
during the War of the Pacific
. In the period between World War I and World War II, political motivations for migration came to the forefront; the number of White emigres in Chile grew to about 90%. In the 1950s, their numbers were further bolstered by arrivals from among the Russian expatriate community in Harbin
. The Russian Cemetery was founded in 1954 to provide a separate space for burials for the community.
The number of Swiss in Chile is minor, despite having a relatively large number of members. This is because their linguistic and cultural characteristics are commonly confused with Germans, Italians and French
. Swiss migration to Chile took place at the end of 19th century, between 1883 and 1900, particularly in the area of Araucanía, especially in Victoria
and Traiguén. It is estimated that more than 8,000 thousand families received grants of land.
In the 19th century, opening up new lands in the New World and the economic crisis in Europe that was mobilized to the most impoverished sectors of society to migrate mainly to United States
in North America, Australia, Brazil
, Uruguay
, Argentina and Chile. It was organized exodus and limited duration. As economic immigration, the State assumed a regulatory role by granting or denying requests for leave.
With regard to the interests of migrants into Chile, began formally in 1853, when they meet in Bern, capital of Switzerland, the first reports about experience colonization in the southern to Chile.
Through official reports of the Swiss Consulate in Valparaiso
, highlighting the advantages or disadvantages that Chile offered to migrants in Europe.
Only 28 years after the commencement of the German colonization in the souther to Chile, the Federal Council in 1881 authorized the specialized agencies to operate in Switzerland
to recruit migrants.
The Federal Council after years of examining the advantages and disadvantages that would authorize the removal of migrants, poses as a premise the assumption that the Chilean authorities insist on peace Araucanía whose possession for Chileans, it was not yet in those years fully accomplished.
The first contingent departed in November 1883, would be the pilot and its success would depend on subsequent authorizations.
The first group was composed of 1311 families who landed in Chilean port, a December 19, 1883.
Between 1883 and 1886 were shipped to the territory of Araucanía 12,602 people, representing 7% of emigration Switzerland
overseas. The operations continued to evolve until 1890, when it recorded 22,708 Swiss in the heart of the Araucania.
Later during 1915 to 1950 was the last recorded mass exodus of Swiss to Chile recorded 30,000 residents installed in the central area of the country, primarily in Santiago
and Valparaiso
.
Swiss nationals whom immigrated to Chile are mainly of German-speaking, but also some are of Francophone and Italian backgrounds.
during the First World War
. Many Armenians who arrived in the early 20th century left Syria
and Lebanon
, then provinces of the Ottoman Empire
.
The Armenian community of Chile is one of the most important in Latin America. Chile is one of the countries with largest number of Armenians descent in the world.
, the country inhabited by Dutch-Flemish
and Franco-Walloon
peoples. In the 19th century, there was notable immigration of West Flemish
peoples from the Nord departement of France, somewhat in the tens of thousands, were sent to the Los Lagos Region
of Chile. To this day, West Flemish ethnic/cultural organizations in Belgium and Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France maintain some ties with their Chilean counterparts. Coincidentally, the very areas the Dutch and Flemish settled in Chile was known as Nuevo Flandres (New Flanders
) named for the province during the Spanish colonial era, in part of the Spanish Netherlands which included the Flanders province of Belgium.
n community in Chile, about 20,000 thought to be of Bulgarian ancestry, mainly concentrated in Santiago.
) and Australia
. Most Hungarian immigrants to Australia came from South America during the first half of the 20th century. According to 2001 census estimates, there are around 40,000 people of Hungarian descent living in Chile, the main concentration are in Santiago
.
when WWII ended, tens of thousands of Lithuanians
and Latvians
fled Communist Soviet rule to Chile. They managed to prosper and preserve Baltic culture, when their homelands struggled to break free from Russia by 1990.
. In early 20th century, there were around 300 Poles in Chile. After World War II, around 4,000 Poles, mostly former soldiers, settled in Chile and in 1949 the Association of Poles in Chile was founded. An estimate of 50,000 ethnic Poles live in Chile, most live in Santiago. One of the notable Polish Chileans is Ignacy Domeyko
.
to Chile was comparably small than most other European nations, but the Portuguese had influenced the country in some ways. An estimated 50,000 Portuguese descendants live in Chile, a great many were employed in the country's fishing and maritime trade industries and settled primarily in coastal cities such as Valparaiso
.
, Norway
and Sweden
were known to settled in Chile.
was under Russian
rule until the 1910s and again, during the Soviet
era from 1917 to 1991. The number of Ukrainian Chileans are from 2,500 to 5,000.
ns, Ecuador
ians, Colombia
ns, Brazil
ians, Venezuela
ns, Mexicans
, Canadians
, Central Americans, Uruguay
ans, Caribbean
islanders (recently the small wave of Haitians) and Paraguay
ans. Also United States
citizens have also entered. They have found reception in the country, being employed in diverse branches of the Chilean economic task.
is a longstanding phenomenon that goes back to Chilean independence and the time of the Army of the Andes. The first Argentines arrived when the Organization of the Republic of Chile was launched in 1823 after Independence
, as was the case with both Manuel Blanco Encalada
and Bartolomé Mitre
. The Argentine population was always important. In the mid 1990s, when the first symptoms of the Argentine economic and social crises began to be noted, and especially when the crisis exploded at the end of 2001, it produced a migration of over 100,000, such that in early 2005 they succeeded in becoming the first true foreign colony in the country.
The Argentine colony is shared between the IV Region of Coquimbo and La Araucanía Region IX, and have great influence in the region of Patagonia due to the proximity of the various peoples and the disappearance of the geographic barrier of the Andes
.
vian communities in Chile, but it is not unimportant with more than 20,000 immigrants in the year 2008. This is due primarily to the tense relations that have existed between both countries, primarily since the War of the Pacific
. The continuous diplomatic conflicts between Chile and Bolivia have resulted in the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries since the mid-1970s. In spite of that, thousands of Bolivians entered Chile, settling primarily in Arica
and Calama
during the 1960s and since the end of the 1990s in search of better economic situations.
On the other hand, it is important to emphasize the immigration of the Bolivian elite, primarily for academic ends. Many of the principal political and economic figures in Bolivia
have studied in Chile for a great part of their lives.
had been considered a friend of Chile. The Ecuadoran immigrants are largely professionals, principally in the medical fields, and skilled laborers who engage in a various trades.
first formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru
then was the Captaincy General of Chile, independent from 1798. After the War of the Pacific that pitted Chile against the Bolivian-Peruvian alliance between 1879 and 1883, Chile incorporated the Peruvian territories of the Department of Tarapacá
and the provinces of Arica
, Tacna
(until 1929) and Tarata
(until 1925). In these zones in the north of Chile, which were Chile-ized since 1910, they maintained relations primarily of an economic, cultural and even familial nature.
At the end of the 20th century, Chile's economic prosperity began to produce a rapid growth in Peruvian immigration
to the central zone of the country. Although many Peruvian immigrants were professionals and held important positions in companies, the majority were of low socioeconomic origin in search of new opportunities for their families. Consequently, they took low-paying positions in the beginning, such as laborers or domestics, and sent their small remittances to their families in their home countries. Many of these immigrants also entered the country illegally. Nevertheless, the Asian financial crisis that affected Chile beginning in 1998 provoked a rise in unemployment figures, surpassing 12%, while Peruvian immigration was increasing. These events caused the public to begin discussing the situation of the Peruvian colony in Chile, with many people claiming that the immigrants were "stealing" Chilean jobs.
In reality, the Peruvian immigrants formed one of the principal foreign colonies in Chile. Some groups of Peruvians have named one of the principal locations of the Peruvian colony "Little Lima" (Pequeña Lima). It is located in the vicinity of the Plaza de Armas
in Santiago
, which has motivated some groups to question the Chilean authorities for permitting the use of the historic district and symbol of the city by the immigrants. The number of Peruvians in Chile is estimated at 85,000, principally residing in Santiago.
) as well to Canada aware of the opportunities provided in North America in the 19th and 20th centuries. Perhaps a large number of Cherokee
Indian descendants live in Chile and across South America, a rarity among the world's demographic history for Native American populations to form a community throughout the Americas. An estimated 10,000 to 90,000 Cherokee descendants live in Chile, but the high rate of cultural assimilation hasn't ended the genealogical search for their roots.
, more than 10,000 people from the United States have immigrated to Chile, most of whom initially arrived to work for multinational corporations and possess professional degrees and are well situated economically.
According to the same report (2002), more than 9,000 Colombia
ns, 8,900 Brazil
ians, and 5,000 Venezuela
ns had settled in Chile. These communities had arrived in the country seeking better economic and academic opportunities, but in general had assimilated into general society. They do not suffer from xenophobia
and are, in the majority, well received by the Chileans and are employed in diverse labor activities and have established local businesses.
Along the same lines, more than 3,000 Cuba
ns have settled in Chile, the majority holding professional degrees. The number of medical centers operated by Cubans has increased in the past few years and they have proven to be great successes as a result of their low costs.
may be included. A small number of Turks came to Chile, they formed a sizable proportion of the country's miniscule Islamic community (see Islam in Chile
).
Chile is home to a large population of immigrants, mostly Christian, from the Levant
. Roughly 500,000 Palestinian descendants
are believed to reside in Chile. And the effects of their migration are widely visible. The earliest such migrants came in the 1850s, with others arriving during World War I and later the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
. The Club Palestino is one of the most prestigious social clubs in Santiago. They are believed to form the largest Palestinian community outside of the Arab world
. Aside from these migrants of previous decades, Chile has also taken in some Palestinian refugees in later years, as in April 2008 when they received 117 from the Al-Waleed refugee camp
on the Syria
-Iraq
border near the Al-Tanf crossing. The situation in Gaza
has caused tensions even thousands of miles away between the Israeli and Palestinian communities in Chile.
In recent years, Chile had enlarged East Asian populations: considerably from China
with a more recent wave from Japan
(see Japanese Chilean
) and South Korea
(see Koreans in Chile). The earliest wave of East Asian immigration took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly Chinese and Japanese contract laborers. There are under 100,000 East Asians in Chile, about one percent of the population. A small community of Indians in Chile
also exists.
s. These slaves (and their descendants) constituted 1.5% of the national population at the beginning of the 19th century. Later on, their descendants—called "pardos" by the Spanish—were partially "absorbed" into the general population through crossbreeding. Others became part of the Ejército Libertador (Liberation Army) of Peru, their ethnic differences practically disappearing.
Less than 0.1 percent of Chileans have African ancestry, mostly concentrated in the province of Arica near the Peruvian border. They are descendants of imported slaves into the country in the 18th century, but slavery never became a major contributor to agricultural development in Chile unlike in other Latin American countries. A smaller wave of sub-Saharan Africa
n and Moroccan
immigrants are beginning to appear in the 2000s either to study or find work, but they are minuscule in population.
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
has received a number of immigrants mainly from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
followed by the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Today, millions of their descendants still live in the country and are found in all areas of the community.
Much of the immigration to Chile occurred during the 19th and 20th centuries, from various foreign communities. Today, the main immigrant groups are those originating in neighboring countries, due to the interaction of their relations with Chile. The largest immigrant group is from Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, followed by Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. One of the main factors that have led this migration has been the country's relatively stable political history, compared with the rest of Latin America and, more recently, the significant growth of the Chilean economy in recent decades. Similarly, immigration from other Latin American countries beyond its borders has also been of great importance. For example, one of the founders of the famous Universidad de Chile, was the Venezuelan Andrés Bello
Andrés Bello
Andrés de Jesús María y José Bello López was a Venezuelan humanist, poet, lawmaker, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute an important part of Spanish American culture...
. Copper and nitrate mines in the Atacama depend on Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
n contract workers from neighboring Bolivia.
Maritime commerce prompted the creation of British, French, Italian, Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n settlements. The Palestinians, Syrians
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Lebanese
Lebanese people
The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
arrived in large number in the 1920s.
In addition to migration from other former Spanish colonies during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, a number of settlers from Europe came from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and refugees from the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
in the 1930s.
Today, the principal immigrant groups correspond to the countries bordering Chile. The largest colony is the Argentine, followed the Peruvian. One of the principal factors producing this immigration has been the important growth of the Chilean economy during the past decades. Immigration from other Latin American countries has also been important.
European immigration
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, The Netherlands, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
among other countries. Also from Europe came Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
, who were scattered throughout many European countries. All of these immigrant groups had an important social, cultural, and economic impact on the country. The immigrant communities were distributed throughout the territory. Thus, those of German origin have a great influence in the regions of Araucanía
Araucanía Region
The IX Araucanía Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions and comprises two provinces: Malleco in the north and Cautín in the south....
, Los Ríos
Los Ríos
Los Ríos may refer to:*Los Ríos Region in Chile*Los Ríos Province in Ecuador*Los Rios historic district in San Juan Capistrano, California* Los Rios Community College District...
, and Los Lagos
Los Lagos, Chile
Los Lagos is a Chilean city and commune in Valdivia Province, Los Ríos Region.-Demographics:According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Los Lagos spans an area of and has 20,168 inhabitants . Of these, 9,479 lived in urban areas and 10,689 in rural areas...
; Croatians in the cities of Antofagasta
Antofagasta
Antofagasta is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2002 census, the city has a population of 296,905...
, Iquique
Iquique
Iquique is a port city and commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Atacama Desert and the Pampa del Tamarugal. It had a population of 216,419 as of the 2002 census...
and Punta Arenas; and the British in Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, Punta Arenas, Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, and in other coastal cities due to their close relationship with the Chilean Navy
Chilean Navy
-Independence Wars of Chile and Peru :The Chilean Navy dates back to 1817. A year before, following the Battle of Chacabuco, General Bernardo O'Higgins prophetically declared "this victory and another hundred shall be of no significance if we do not gain control of the sea".This led to the...
.
Although the majority of European-origin immigrants came from Western Europe, there exist certain communities of smaller significance whose members come from Eastern Europe and the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, arriving in Chile primarily to escape persecutions against them during the first half of the 20th century. Those immigrants coming from Eastern Europe were principally Jews arriving in the mid-20th century and coming from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Poland, Hungary, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
; and the former nations of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. They arrived in Chile escaping Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Communism between the 1930s and 1950s.
In the same way, some immigrants from the Caucasus, principally from Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, established themselves in Chile during the first decades of the 20th century due to the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in some Eastern areas of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, and Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
.
The largest ethnic group in Chile arrived from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and the Basque regions in the south of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Estimates of the number of descendants from Basques in Chile range from 10% (1,600,000) to as high as 27% (4,500,000).
In 1848 an important and substantial German immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
took place, laying the foundation for the German-Chilean
German-Chilean
German Chileans are an important ethnic group in Chile; they are Chileans of German descent deriving their German ethnicity from one or both parents – they also include a minority of German citizens holding permanent residency in Chile...
community. Sponsored by the Chilean government for the colonization of the southern region, the Germans (including German-speaking Swiss, Silesians
Silesians
Silesians , are the inhabitants of Silesia in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. A small diaspora community also exists in Karnes County, Texas in the USA....
, Alsatians
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
and Austrians
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
), strongly influenced the cultural and racial composition of the southern provinces of Chile.
Other historically significant immigrant groups include: Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
whose number of descendants today is estimated to be 380,000 persons, the equivalent of 2.4% of the population. Other authors claim, on the other hand, that close to 4.6% of the Chilean population must have some Croatian ancestry
Croatian diaspora
Croatian diaspora refers to the Croatian communities that have formed outside Croatia.Estimates on its size are only approximate because of incomplete statistical records and naturalization, but estimates suggest that the Croatian diaspora numbers between a third and a half of the total number of...
. Over 700,000 Chileans may have British (English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
and Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
) origin. 4,5% of Chile's Population., Chileans of Greek descent are estimated 90,000 to 120,000. Most of them live either in the Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
area or in the Antofagasta area. Chile is one of the 5 countries with the most descendants of Greeks in the world. The descendants of Swiss add 90,000, an estimated that about 5% of the Chilean population
Demographics of Chile
This article is about the demographic features of Chile, including population density, ethnicity, economic status and other aspects of the population....
has some French ancestry
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
and 600,000 to 800,000 Italians. Other groups of European descendants have followed, but are found in smaller numbers. They did transform the country culturally, economically and politically.
European immigration, and to a lesser degree from the Middle East, produced during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries large "waves" in America. After the Atlantic coasts of the Southern Cone
Southern Cone
Southern Cone is a geographic region composed of the southernmost areas of South America, south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Although geographically this includes part of Southern and Southeast of Brazil, in terms of political geography the Southern cone has traditionally comprised Argentina,...
(that is, Argentina, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
), Chile was the most significant Latin American destination and was favored mainly by the intense traffic through the extreme south of the country until the opening of the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
in 1920, although other groups came from Argentina across the Cordillera.
German immigration
The origin of the massive immigration of Germans to Chile is found in the so-called "Law of Selective Immigration" of 1845. The "law's" objective was to bring middle and upper-class people to colonize regions in the south of Chile, between ValdiviaValdivia, Chile
Valdivia is a city and commune in southern Chile administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia and Cau-Cau Rivers, approximately east of the coastal towns of Corral and Niebla...
and Puerto Montt
Puerto Montt
Puerto Montt is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region. The commune spans an area of and had a population of 175,938 in 2002. It is located 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago...
. More than 6,000 families arrived in Chile during this period alone.
The German immigrants succeeded in creating vigorous villages and communities in virtually uninhabited regions, completely changing the landscape of the southern zones. Carlos Anwandter
Carlos Anwandter
Carlos Anwandter was a German political exile that emigrated to Valdivia, Chile in 1850 after participating in the Revolutions of 1848...
left evidence of this great spirit of building, proclaiming to all the colonists: We will be Chileans, as honorable and hardworking as ever there were, we will defend our adopted country united in the ranks of our new compatriots, against all foreign oppression and with the resolve and fortitude of the man that defends his country, his family, and his interests. This country that we have adopted as sons will never have reason to repent of its enlightened, humane, and generous gesture... (18 November 1851).
Later years brought a new, great wave of German immigrants who settled throughout the country, especially in Temuco
Temuco
Temuco is a city and commune, capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The name comes from the Mapudungun language, meaning "temu water"; "temu" is a tree used by Mapuches for medicinal purposes. The city is located 670 km south of Santiago...
, Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, and in the country's principal commercial zones. During World War II, many German Jews settled in Chile, fleeing the Holocaust. After the war, many leaders and collaborators from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
sought to take refuge in the southern region of the country, fleeing justice against them. Paul Schäfer
Paul Schäfer
Paul Schäfer Schneider was the founder and former leader of a sect and agricultural commune of German immigrants called Colonia Dignidad —later renamed Villa Baviera—located in the south of Chile, about 340 km south of Santiago...
even founded Colonia Dignidad
Colonia Dignidad
Villa Baviera , formerly known as Colonia Dignidad is a hamlet in Parral Commune, Linares Province, Maule Region, Chile. Located in an isolated area of central Chile, it lies 35 km southeast of the city of Parral, on the north bank of the Perquilauquén River. It was founded by a group of German...
(Dignity Colony), a German enclave in Region VII, where human rights violations were carried out.
Among many distinguished descendants of the Germans in Chile are counted the commander Fernando Matthei Aubel, the architect Mathias Klotz
Mathias Klotz
Mathias Klotz Germain is a Chilean architect, born in Viña del Mar on 13 April 1965. Studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he graduated in 1991...
, tennis players Gabriel Silberstein and Hans Gildemeister
Hans Gildemeister
Hans Gildemeister Bohner , is a former Chilean tennis player of German ancestry, who won four singles and 23 doubles titles during his professional career. He is the brother of Heinz and Fritz Gildemeister, who are also tennis players...
, the athletes Sebastián Keitel
Sebastián Keitel
Sebastián Keitel Bianchi is a Chilean sprinter who competed mostly in the 200 metres. He was coached by renowned Chilean coach Pedro Soto Acuna, who has since been living in Singapore....
and Marlene Ahrens Ostertag, the musicians Patricio Manns
Patricio Manns
Patricio Manns is a Chilean composer, author, writer, and journalist.-Infancy and youth:Patricio Manns was born in the rural town of Nacimiento, in the south of Chile on 3 August 1937. He is the son of a primary school teacher and an agricultural engineer of German descent...
and Emilio Körner, the economist Ernesto Schiefelbein, the politicians Miguel Kast
Miguel Kast
Miguel Kast Rist was a German born Chilean economist of the Chicago Boys group. He was most known for his role in public policies, where he promoted a greater focus of resources toward the needy....
and Evelyn Matthei
Evelyn Matthei
Evelyn Rose Matthei Fornet is a Chilean economist and politician.Matthei entered Chilean politics in the late '80s and early '90s, as part of the National Renewal party's youth group called Patrulla Juvenil, along the future President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, and future fellow senator and...
, the entrepreneurs Jürgen Paulmann and Carlos Heller
Carlos Heller
Carlos Heller is an Argentine executive, cooperative banking leader, and politician.-The cooperative movement:Carlos Heller was born in rural Villa Dominguez , in 1940, to a Jewish family. The Hellers relocated to Buenos Aires in 1950, and Carlos completed his secondary schooling in a vocational...
, the painters Uwe Grumann and Rossy Ölckers, television presentors Karen Doggenweiler
Karen Doggenweiler
Karen Sylvia Doggenweiler Lapuente is a popular Chilean journalist and TV presenter.Doggenweiler is the daughter of Félix Doggenweiler Heim, of Swiss-German descent and Silvia Lapuente, of Spanish-Aragonese descent. She is married to the Chilean politician Marco Enríquez-Ominami. The marriage...
and Margot Kahl, writer César Müller, and the actors Gloria Münchmeyer, Antonia Zegers, Aline Kuppenheim, and Bastian Bodenhofer.
It is difficult to tabulate the full number of German descendants in Chile today because of the large quantity of time that has passed and because they have mixed with the Chilean population for more than 150 years. Because many areas of the Chilean South are sparsely populated, the traces of German immigration are rather obvious. In reality, the descendants of these first immigrants mostly live in the big cities. According to the 2002 census, approximately 6,000 German immigrants resided in Chile at that time.
Austrian immigration
The first Austrian immigrants that arrived in Chile were TyrolCounty of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
ean refugees in Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
, who had taken advantage of the same immigration opportunities given the German population by the Chilean state in accordance with the "Law of Selective Immigration" of 1845. These immigrants settled, almost in totality, on the banks of Lake Llanquihue
Lake Llanquihue
Lake Llanquihue is the second largest lake in Chile with an area of about . It is situated in the southern Los Lagos Region in the Llanquihue and Osorno provinces. The lake's fan-like form was created by successive piedmont glaciers during the Quaternary glaciations...
. In 1875, Austrian colonists from Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
founded Nueva Braunau near Puerto Varas, named in honor of their previous city, "Brumov" in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
).
After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Austrian immigration continued during the entire period between the wars. Beginning in 1938, Chile became the destination of many Austrian emigrants of Jewish origins abandoning the country after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. In 1940, in Santiago, Austrian immigrants founded the association Austria Libre (Free Austria), which quickly counted 2,000 members and was in contact with other Austrian groups in exile in the Americas. Iin 1943, Austria Libre incorporated into the Comité Central Austríaco de América Latina (Central Austrian Committee of Latin America) with its headquarters in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
.
It is estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 Austrians settled in Chile over the course of the 20th century. According to the 2002 census, 576 Austrian immigrants resided in Chile at that time.
British and Irish immigration
Since the Port of Valparaíso opened its coasts to free trade in 1811, the English began to congregate in Valparaíso. The first to arrive brought with them tools, articles of china, wool and cotton, with instructions to return with copper and hemp. This was the first exchange of what would become a deep-rooted commercial relationship between Great BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and Chile.
In Valparaíso they established their largest and most important settlement, bringing with them neighbourhoods of British character, schools, social and sports clubs, business organizations, and periodicals. Even today their influence is apparent in unique areas, such as the bank and the national navy, as well as in certain social activities, such as football (soccer), horse racing, and the generalized consumption of tea.
The English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish eventually numbered more than 32,000 during the port of Valparaíso's boom period during the saltpeter
Sodium nitrate
Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula NaNO3. This salt, also known as Chile saltpeter or Peru saltpeter to distinguish it from ordinary saltpeter, potassium nitrate, is a white solid which is very soluble in water...
bonanza at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The British colonial influence is important to understand the boom and bust of the port of Valparaíso.
The English immigration and influence was also important in the northern regions of the country during the saltpeter boom, in the ports of Iquique
Iquique
Iquique is a port city and commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Atacama Desert and the Pampa del Tamarugal. It had a population of 216,419 as of the 2002 census...
and Pisagua
Pisagua
Pisagua is a Chilean port on the Pacific Ocean, located in Huara comuna , in Tarapacá Region, northern Chile. In 2007, the new province of El Tamarugal was established and the comuna of Huara, previously within the province of Iquique, was incorporated to the newly created province.-Early...
. The King of Saltpeter, John Thomas North
John Thomas North
John Thomas North was a British investor and businessman. North was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, the son of a coal merchant and a churchwarden. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to millwrights and engineers before working for several years as a mechanic. He moved to Chile in South America...
, was the principal backer of nitrate mining. The British legacy was reflected in the streets of the historic district of the city of Iquique, with the foundation of various institutions, such as the Club Hípico (Racing Club). Nevertheless, said presence came to an end with the saltpeter crisis during the 1930s.
An important contingent of British immigrants, principally Welsh, also settled in the present-day region of Magallanes
Magallanes
-Chile:* Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region** Magallanes Province, within this region** Punta Arenas or Magallanes, the main city in the region and province-Philippines:* Magallanes, Agusan del Norte* Magallanes, Cavite* Magallanes, Sorsogon...
. In the same way, they established British families in other areas of the country, such as Santiago, Coquimbo
Coquimbo
Coquimbo is a port city, commune and capital of the Elqui Province, located on the Pan-American Highway, in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. Coquimbo lies in a valley south of La Serena, with which it forms Greater La Serena with more than 400,000 inhabitants. The commune spans an area around the...
, the Araucanía
Arauco, Chile
Arauco is a city and commune in Chile, located in Arauco Province in the Biobio Region. The meaning of Arauco means Chalky Water in Mapudungun. The region was a Moluche aillarehue...
, and Chiloé
Chiloé Island
Chiloé Island , also known as Greater Island of Chiloé , is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago off the coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean...
.
Today the descendants of British and Irish immigrants are found dispersed throughout the entire nation. Well-known descendants of the British and Irish colonies include: Patricio Aylwin, Gustavo Leight, Alberto Blest Gana
Alberto Blest Gana
Alberto Blest Gana was a Chilean novelist and diplomat, considered the father of Chilean novel. Blest Gana was of Irish and Basque descent....
, Joaquín Edwards
Joaquín Edwards Bello
Joaquín Edwards Bello was a Chilean writer and journalist. He was of British descent.-Life:Edwards Bello was born in Valparaíso, one of the most important ports in Chile. His family, the Edwards, is still one of the most influential in the country.Joaquín studied at The Mackay School and later at...
, Carlos Condell de la Haza, Juan Williams
Juan Williams Rebolledo
Juan Williams Rebolledo was a Chilean rear admiral who was the organizer and commander-in-chief of the Chilean navy at the beginning of the War of the Pacific.-Early life:...
, Patricio Lynch Solo de Zaldívar, Jorge O'Ryan, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna
Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna
Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna was a Chilean writer, journalist, historian and politician. Vicuña Mackenna was of Irish and Basque descent.-Biography:...
, Bernardo Leighton
Bernardo Leighton
Bernardo Leighton Guzmán was a Chilean Christian Democrat who was targeted by Operation Condor.In 1937, President Arturo Alessandri Palma appointed him as Employment minister....
, Enrique Mac Iver, and Bernardo O'Higgins.
British descendants in Chile are estimated to number between 350,000 and 420,000 people. According to the 2002 census, 1,815 immigrants from Great Britain and 140 from Ireland resided in Chile at that time.
Croatian immigration
One of the most important groups of European immigrants in Chile is the Croatians, whose number of descendants today (2009) is estimated to be 380,000 persons, the equivalent of 2.4% of the population. Other authors claim, on the other hand, that close to 4.6% of the Chilean population must have some Croatian ancestryCroatian diaspora
Croatian diaspora refers to the Croatian communities that have formed outside Croatia.Estimates on its size are only approximate because of incomplete statistical records and naturalization, but estimates suggest that the Croatian diaspora numbers between a third and a half of the total number of...
. Outside of Bosnia, Chile is the second-ranked country in the world for number of Croatian descendants.
The first Croatian immigrants came from the region of Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, arriving in the mid-19th century in escape from the wars unleashed in that region or from pestilence on the islands in the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
. The major concentrations of Croations can be found in Santiago, Antofagasta, and Punta Arenas, but a large concentration also exists in Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar , is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Its long stretches of white sandy beaches are a major attraction for national and international tourists. The city is Chile's main tourist attraction. Known as "La Ciudad Jardín" , Viña del Mar is a Chilean Municipality located...
, Porvenir, and La Serena. Many descendants of Croatian immigrants who settled in the north and south of Chile later moved to the capital.
Arturo Givovich is considered to be the first Croatian in Chile, having arrived in the 17th century on an English pirate ship belonging to Sir Francis Drake. Givovich jumped ship in Chile, abandoning the Navy and staying on land for the sake of love. In the mid-19th century, three sailors from the Dalmatian-Croatian coast—Antonio Letic, Antonion Zupicic, and Esteban Costa (Kosta)—were hired by the Chilean Navy and sent to the Straits of Magellan. They arrived in October 1843 with a relief and resupply mission for Fort Búlnes, which had been erected only months before.
Without a doubt, the lion's share of Croatian immigrants totaling approximately 58,000 arrived in Chile in the decades spanning the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, up until World War I. Consequently, the Croatian colony in Chile was officially considered Austro-Hungarian.
The Croatian immigrants dedicated themselves to business. In Punta Arenas, they dedicated themselves to the estates, or the exploitation of gold, that is primarily found in Cañón Baquedano. In the north of Chile, they dedicated themselves to the exploitation of saltpeter. Various institutions created by the Croatian colony have persisted, such as clubs, schools, stadiums, gymnasiums, charity institutions, among others. The cities of Punta Arenas and Antofagasta are sister cities of the city of Split
Split (city)
Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
in Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
.
Croatian immigration in Punta Arenas was a crucial development in the region of Magallanes
Magallanes
-Chile:* Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region** Magallanes Province, within this region** Punta Arenas or Magallanes, the main city in the region and province-Philippines:* Magallanes, Agusan del Norte* Magallanes, Cavite* Magallanes, Sorsogon...
and the city in particular. Currently, you can see this influence in the names of shops and many buildings. According to some references to 50% of the population of Punta Arenas would be descendants of Croats.
Dutch immigration
In 1600 , the Chilean city of ValdiviaValdivia, Chile
Valdivia is a city and commune in southern Chile administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia and Cau-Cau Rivers, approximately east of the coastal towns of Corral and Niebla...
was conquered by Dutch pirate Sebastian de Cordes. He left the city after some months. Then in 1642 the VOC and the WIC sent a fleet of some ships to Chile to conquer the city of Valdivia and the goldmines of the Spanish. The expedition was conducted by Hendrik Brouwer
Hendrik Brouwer
Hendrik Brouwer was a Dutch explorer, admiral, and colonial administrator both in Japan and the Dutch East Indies....
, a Dutch general. In 1643 Brouwer conquered the Chiloé Archipelago
Chiloé Archipelago
Chiloé Archipelago consists of several islands lying off the coast of Chile. It is separated from mainland Chile by Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and Gulf of Corcovado to the southeast. All of the archipelago except Desertores Islands, which are part of Palena...
and the city of Valdivia. Brouwer died on 7 August of 1643, and the vice-general Elias Herckmans took control.
The second emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
to Chile was in 1895. The so-called "Inspector General of Colonization and Chilean Immigration" a dozen Dutch families settled between 1895 and 1897 in Chiloé
Chiloé Archipelago
Chiloé Archipelago consists of several islands lying off the coast of Chile. It is separated from mainland Chile by Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and Gulf of Corcovado to the southeast. All of the archipelago except Desertores Islands, which are part of Palena...
, particularly in Mechaico, Huillinco
Cucao and Huillinco
Cucao and Huillinco are two lakes in central Chiloé Island, Chile, linked by a strait forming one hydrologic lake. The two lakes are orinted in west-east fashion cutting of the Chilean Coast Range in Chiloé Island into two ranges; Piuchén to north and Pirulil to the south...
and Chacao. In the same period Hageman Egbert arrived in Chile. with his family, 14 April 1896, settling in Rio Gato, near Puerto Montt
Puerto Montt
Puerto Montt is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region. The commune spans an area of and had a population of 175,938 in 2002. It is located 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago...
. In addition, family Wennekool which inaugurated the Dutch colonization of Villarrica
Villarrica, Chile
Villarrica is a city and commune in southern Chile located on the western shore of Villarrica Lake in the Province of Cautín, Araucanía Region south of Santiago and close to the Villarrica Volcano ski center to the south east. Residents of Villarrica are known as Villarriquences.Tourism, grain and...
.
In the early 20th century, arrived in Chile a large group of Dutch people from South Africa, which had been established where they worked mainly in construction of the railway. When the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
, which would eventually lead to the British annexation of both republics in 1902, these emigrants decided to return to their country of origin, many of them, after a long stay in camps. Shortly after his return to the Netherlands, were presented with the opportunity to emigrate to Chile with the help of the Chilean government.
On 4 May 1903, a group of over 200 Dutch emigrants sailed on the steamship "Oropesa" shipping company "Pacific Steam Navigation Company, from La Rochelle (La Pallice) in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The majority of migrants were born in the Netherlands: 35% was from North Holland and South Holland
South Holland
South Holland is a province situated on the North Sea in the western part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is The Hague and its largest city is Rotterdam.South Holland is one of the most densely populated and industrialised areas in the world...
, 13% of North Brabant
North Brabant
North Brabant , sometimes called Brabant, is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country, bordered by Belgium in the south, the Meuse River in the north, Limburg in the east and Zeeland in the west.- History :...
, 9% of Zealand and equal number of Gelderland. Only a dozen children had been born in South Africa (Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
, Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, Valkrust, Roode Koog, Muurfontein, Platrand, Watersaltoon and Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
/Kaapstad). Among the emigrants was a small group of singles, but the others were all married couples with children (some even had 5 children).
On June 5, arrived by train to their final destination, the city of Pitrufquén
Pitrufquén
Pitrufquén is a Chilean city and commune in Cautín Province, Araucanía Region. The city is located 30 km south of Temuco and lies immediately south of the Toltén River, along Chile Highway 5.-History:...
, located south of Temuco
Temuco
Temuco is a city and commune, capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The name comes from the Mapudungun language, meaning "temu water"; "temu" is a tree used by Mapuches for medicinal purposes. The city is located 670 km south of Santiago...
, near the hamlet of Donguil. Another group of Dutchmen arrived shortly after to Talcahuano, in the "Oravi" and the "Orissa". The Netherlands colony in Donguil was christened "New Transvaal Colony. There were established more than 500 families in order to start a new life. Between 7 February 1907 and February 18, 1909 above the last group of families Boers.
It is currently estimated at about 50,000 descendants of Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
, mostly located in Malleco
Malleco
Malleco Province is one of two provinces in the southern Chilean region of Araucanía . Its estimated population is 223,184 , and it covers an area of...
, Gorbea
Gorbea, Chile
Gorbea is a Chilean city and commune located in Cautín Province, Araucanía Region.-Demographics:According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Gorbea spans an area of and has 15,222 inhabitants . Of these, 9,413 lived in urban areas and 5,809 in rural areas...
, Pitrufquén
Pitrufquén
Pitrufquén is a Chilean city and commune in Cautín Province, Araucanía Region. The city is located 30 km south of Temuco and lies immediately south of the Toltén River, along Chile Highway 5.-History:...
, Faja Maisan and around Temuco
Temuco
Temuco is a city and commune, capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The name comes from the Mapudungun language, meaning "temu water"; "temu" is a tree used by Mapuches for medicinal purposes. The city is located 670 km south of Santiago...
.
Spanish immigration
Clearly, Spanish immigration was the most important during the colonial period. Since Chile became an independent republic, Spanish immigration is estimated at 40,000 people settling between 1880 and 1940. The Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
spurred some 3,000 people to immigrate to Chile at the end of the 1930s, primarily being Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
and Basque. The majority embarked for Chile on the ship Winnipeg thanks to Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, the Chilean delegate sent to France to take care of the pertinent negotiations. Almost 11,000 Spaniards also arrived in Araucanía
Arauco, Chile
Arauco is a city and commune in Chile, located in Arauco Province in the Biobio Region. The meaning of Arauco means Chalky Water in Mapudungun. The region was a Moluche aillarehue...
between 1883 and 1901, after the Occupation of Araucanía. These colonists were given lands in the Chilean Central Valley
Chilean Central Valley
The Central Valley , Intermediate Depression or Longitudinal Valley is the depression between the Chilean Costal Range and the Andes Mountains. The central valley should not be confused with Central Chile that encompasses part of the valley...
and their descendants are principally found in Temuco, Concepción, and Ercilla.
Today, the Spanish colony continued to be the most significant in the country, having its own football (soccer) club, Unión Española
Unión Española
Club Unión Española S.A.D.P is a professional Chilean football based in Independencia, Santiago de Chile. Founded by a Spanish immigrants on 18 May 1897, Unión Española have participated in the top-tier of Chilean football for all of their existence but two seasons in the late '90s .Unión Española...
and more than 80 institutions of varying purpose throughout Chile (charitable, sports, philanthropic, social, etc.). It is estimated that some 400,000 Chileans are descendants of Spanish immigrants who came to Chile during the 20th century, more than 100,000 descending from the Spanish who settled in Auracanía. According to the 2002 Census, 9,531 Spanish immigrants resided in Chile at that time.
Basque immigration
The Basques form a large population in Chile, as the country itself forms a regional immigrationImmigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
corridor between Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Chile, one that is large, visible, and continues over time. Basque immigration can be divided into historical periods: discovery, foundation, and colonial period; the wave of immigration of the 18th century; and the recent immigrants (19th and 20th centuries). The differences from other regions originate with the group that arrived between 1750 and 1800 as traders. These Basque immigrants began to prosper and married the daughters of the old commissioned officers who originated in the south of Spain, making them landlords of economic, social, and political power. This has given them a certain preeminence.
The Basque presence in Chile began in the conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
period, for in the armies of the first colonizers came a contingent from the Basque Provinces and from Navarra. In the 16th century, of the 157 Peninsular families that settled in Chile, 39 had Basque surnames. This number progressively grew, as reflected in the number of governors of Basque origin.
During the 18th century, the country experimented with a mass immigration coming from the Basque provinces and Navarra, by the end of the 18th century comprising 27% of the Chilean population
Demographics of Chile
This article is about the demographic features of Chile, including population density, ethnicity, economic status and other aspects of the population....
. This raised the Basques to being the most important regional group in the population, displacing the natives and descendants of those born in New Castile
New Castile
New Castile is a historic region of Spain. It roughly corresponds to the southern part of the Castile, taken during the Reconquista of the peninsula by Christian kings from Muslim rulers. Some notable achievements in this reconquest were the capture of Toledo in 1085, ending the Taifa's Kingdom of...
, Old Castile
Old Castile
Old Castile is a historic region of Spain, which included territory that later corresponded to the provinces of Santander , Burgos, Logroño , Soria, Segovia, Ávila, Valladolid, Palencia....
, and Andalucía. These immigrant families initially dedicated themselves to their preferred form of business, and in successive years produced many alliances with families of Castilian origin possessing lands and titles, giving birth to a new social group known in Chilean history as the "Castilian-Basque Aristocracy."
In the second half of the 19th century came a new wave of Basque immigration, this time as much from the Spanish regions as the French. This migratory flood extended, with varying intensity, almost until the end of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
.
To describe the Basque-Chilean relationship, we cite Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.-Biography:...
, who said: "There are at least two things that clearly can be attributed to Basque ingenuity: the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
and the Republic of Chile."
The largest ethnic group in Chile arrived from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and the Basque regions in the south of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Estimates of the number of descendants from Basques in Chile range from 10% (1,600,000) to as high as 27% (4,500,000).
French immigration
Figures estimates speak that about 5% of the Chilean populationDemographics of Chile
This article is about the demographic features of Chile, including population density, ethnicity, economic status and other aspects of the population....
has some French ancestry
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
The French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
came to Chile in the 18th century, arriving at Concepción
Concepción, Chile
Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Biobío Region or Region VIII. Greater Concepción is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants...
as merchants, and in the mid-19th century to cultivate vines in the haciendas of the Central Valley, the homebase of world-famous Chilean wine
Chilean wine
Chilean wine is wine made in the South American country of Chile. The region has a long viticultural history for a New World wine region dating to the 16th century when the Spanish conquistadors brought Vitis vinifera vines with them as they colonized the region. In the mid-19th century, French...
. The Araucanía Region
Araucanía Region
The IX Araucanía Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions and comprises two provinces: Malleco in the north and Cautín in the south....
also has an important number of people of French ancestry, as the area hosted settlers arrived by the second half of the 19th century as farmers and shopkeepers. With akin Latin culture
Latin culture
Latin culture may refer to:*Latin **Latin literature**Classics*Latin Europe**Spanish culture**Portuguese culture**French culture**Italian culture**Romanian culture**Moldovan culture*Latin America**Latin American culture...
, the French immigrants quickly assimilated into mainstream Chilean society.
From 1850 to 1900, around 25,000 Frenchmen immigrated to Chile. 80% of them were coming from Southwestern France, especially from Basses-Pyrénées
Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques is a department in the southwest of France which takes its name from the Pyrenees mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.- History :...
(Basque country
Northern Basque Country
The French Basque Country or Northern Basque Country situated within the western part of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques constitutes the north-eastern part of the Basque Country....
and Béarn
Béarn
Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the...
), Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
, Charente-Inférieure
Charente-Maritime
Charente-Maritime is a department on the west coast of France named after the Charente River.- History :Previously a part of Saintonge, Charente-Inférieure was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...
and Charente
Charente
Charente is a department in southwestern France, in the Poitou-Charentes region, named after the Charente River, the most important river in the department, and also the river beside which the department's two largest towns, Angoulême and Cognac, are sited.-History:Charente is one of the original...
and regions situated between Gers
Gers
The Gers is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River.Inhabitants are called les Gersois or Gersoises.-History:...
and Dordogne
Dordogne
Dordogne is a départment in south-west France. The départment is located in the region of Aquitaine, between the Loire valley and the High Pyrénées named after the great river Dordogne that runs through it...
.
In World War II, a group of over 10,000 Chileans of French descent, the majority have French relatives joined the Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
and fought the Nazi occupation of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Former Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet
Michelle Bachelet
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Social Democrat politician who was President of Chile from 11 March 2006 to 11 March 2010. She was the first woman president of her country...
is of French origin. Former dictator Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
is another Chilean of French descent. A large percentage of politicians, businessmen, professionals and entertainers in the country are of French ancestry.
The French Chilean community earned a reputation to South Americans, it is remarked that they made Chile into a Nueva Franca ("New France") or Pequena Franca ("Little French") when it comes to being a somewhat strong influence in Chilean culture.
Greek immigration
The Greek community in Chile are estimated to number from 90,000 to 120,000 and reside either in the SantiagoSantiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
area or in the Antofagasta area, mostly. Chile is one of the 5 countries with the most descendants of Greeks in the world.
The Greek community has great importance in Chile. The first immigrants arrived during the 16th century from Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, so named "Candia" in honor of the island's capital, the current Heraklion
Heraklion
Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....
. The surname, although at present, is very disconnected from its ancient origins. The majority of Greek immigrants arrived in Chile at the beginning of century
Century
A century is one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...
, some as part of their spirit of adventure and escape from the rigors of the World War
World war
A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....
and the catastrophe of Smyrna
Smyrna
Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
in Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, although many Greeks had already settled in Antofagasta, a city in northern Chile, including crews of the ships commanded by Arturo Prat
Arturo Prat
Agustín Arturo Prat Chacón was a Chilean navy officer. He was killed shortly after boarding the Peruvian armored monitor Huáscar at the Naval Battle of Iquique after the ship under his command, the Esmeralda, was rammed by the Peruvian monitor...
for the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
(1879–1883) in naval battle of Iquique (boatswain Constantine Micalvi). It is very likely that the good climate of the area has been a major attraction for immigrants Greeks. However, the chronicles of the time show that most attracted by the reputation he had acquired the northern Chilean operation of salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
and the wealth they had in the country.
According to El Mercurio
El Mercurio
El Mercurio is a conservative Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's paper-of-record and its Valparaíso edition is the oldest daily in the Spanish language currently in circulation. El Mercurio is owned by El Mercurio S.A.P...
of Antofagasta
Antofagasta
Antofagasta is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2002 census, the city has a population of 296,905...
, between the years 1920 and 1935 there were about 4,000 Greeks in the city and other 3,000 in offices saltpeter.
The majority of Greek immigrants arrived in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century for his spirit adventurer. However, the chronicles of the time show that most attracted by the reputation he had acquired the north by the operation of nitrate. The country was plunging into an economic boom that lasted a very large period in which the Chileans did not pay taxes. Salitre fever attracted thousands of foreigners who came from Europe and some of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The "nitrate" or city offices located close to the mineral operations were a glorious time. Furniture, curtains, carpets were imported from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
or England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and foreigners also imported European governesses to educate their shoots.
Amid this flood of foreigners who populated northern Chilean appeared Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. Was an numerous Collectivité Hellenic whose records were listed in two sources. One of these was the extensive collaboration that gave the Chilean press through its pages in the newspaper El Mercurio
El Mercurio
El Mercurio is a conservative Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's paper-of-record and its Valparaíso edition is the oldest daily in the Spanish language currently in circulation. El Mercurio is owned by El Mercurio S.A.P...
. The other end of the fire under the rubble of the first home that housed the proto-Hellenes of Chile.
In 1926 the first women's association for excellence, filóptoxos (friends of the poor) which was chaired by Xrisí Almallotis. Since then to date there have been about four or five generations of descendants of Greeks. Some have moved south and are grouped mainly in Santiago and Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
. Others returned to the motherland after the first war but most of the immigrants stayed in their new country and founded numerous Greek-Chilean families. The main member of this community the employer is Constantino Kochifas, owner of the ships Skorpios in Puerto Montt
Puerto Montt
Puerto Montt is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region. The commune spans an area of and had a population of 175,938 in 2002. It is located 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago...
.
Italian immigration
After independenceIndependence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
, the Chilean government encouraged Italian emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
especially after the formation of the Italian Republic in the 1860's and 1870's, but without getting the results from the nearby Argentina.
However, there was a substantial flow of migration from Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
to the area of Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, which came to control 70% of the city. These immigrants founded the 'Body of Fire' (called "Cristobal Colon") of the city and its 'Italian School', whose building has been declared by the Government of Chile "Monumento Histórico Nacional".
In comparison, larger numbers of Italian immigrants to Chile were from the rural agrarian southern regions such as Abruzzo
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
, Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
, Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
, Napoli, Puglia, Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
and Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
than the well documented Northern
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
Italians.
Italian Chileans along with French Chilean
French Chilean
A French Chilean is an Chilean citizen of full or partial French ancestry. Between 1840 and 1940, 20,000 to 25,000 French people immigrated to Chile...
s contributed to the development, cultivation and ownership of the world-famous Chilean wines from haciendas in the Central Valley ever since the first wave of Italians arrived to colonial Chile in the early 19th century.
At the end of the 19th century many Italian merchants are rooted in the northern part of Arica
Arica
Arica is a city in northern Chile. "Arica" may also refer to:Places* Arica and Parinacota Region, Chile* Arica Airport , Chile* Arica, Amazonas, town in Colombia* Rio Aricá-açu, tributary of the Cuiabá River south of Cuiabá, BrazilOther...
, where they began exploiting the rich mines of saltpetre
Sodium nitrate
Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula NaNO3. This salt, also known as Chile saltpeter or Peru saltpeter to distinguish it from ordinary saltpeter, potassium nitrate, is a white solid which is very soluble in water...
. Meanwhile, many Italian families settled in the capital Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, Concepción
Concepción, Chile
Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Biobío Region or Region VIII. Greater Concepción is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants...
, Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar , is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Its long stretches of white sandy beaches are a major attraction for national and international tourists. The city is Chile's main tourist attraction. Known as "La Ciudad Jardín" , Viña del Mar is a Chilean Municipality located...
, La Serena and Punta Arenas.
Although being just a fraction of the size of the migration to Argentina, Italian immigration to Chile has been present since the arrival of the first Spaniards into the country, like captain Giovanni Battista Pastene
Juan Bautista Pastene
Giovanni Battista Pastene was a Genoese maritime explorer who while in the service of the Spanish crown, explored the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile as far south as to the archipelago of Chiloé....
who helped Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, where he served as lieutenant under Francisco Pizarro in Peru, acting as his second in command...
's expedition. Thence, with akin Latin culture
Latin culture
Latin culture may refer to:*Latin **Latin literature**Classics*Latin Europe**Spanish culture**Portuguese culture**French culture**Italian culture**Romanian culture**Moldovan culture*Latin America**Latin American culture...
, Italians have helped forge the nation, with architects (Gioacchino Toesca
Joaquín Toesca
Joaquín Toesca y Ricci , born Gioacchino Toesca, was an Italian architect who worked for the king and governors of the Spanish Empire, especially in colonial Chile....
), painters (Camilo Mori
Camilo Mori
Camilo Mori Serrano was a painter and a founder of the Grupo Montparnasse....
), businessmen (Anacleto Angelini
Anacleto Angelini
Anacleto Angelini Fabbri was an Italian born, Chilean businessman. At the time of his death, he was South America's wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of USD $6 billion. He was chairman at Antarchile, one of Latin America's largest conglomerates.-Life:Angelini was born in Ferrara,...
), Economists (Vittorio Corbo
Vittorio Corbo
Vittorio Corbo Lioi is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, who held the post since May 2003 until December 2007.Corbo studied economics at the University of Chile in 1967 and has a PhD in economics from MIT which he gained in 1971. He taught at Concordia University in Canada between...
) and statesmen (Arturo Alessandri
Arturo Alessandri
Arturo Fortunato Alessandri Palma was a Chilean political figure and reformer, who served twice as the President of Chile, first between 1920 and 1924, and then again in 1925, and finally from 1932 until 1938....
) among others.
Russian immigration
According to the 2001 Chilean Census, about 5,500 Russians live in the country, but other demographic estimates of Chileans with Russian descent climb to over 60,000.The first Russians came Chile in the early 19th century as part of naval expeditions circumnavigating the globe, among them captains Otto Kotsebu, Fyodor Litke, and Vasili Golovnin. However, they were just temporary visitors; the earliest Russian migrants came in 1854. The immigrants of that time belonged to different ethnic groups of the Russian Empire, particularly to minorities. Among them were seafarers and traders as well as medical professionals such as Alexei Sherbakov, who served as a surgean in the Chilean Navy
Chilean Navy
-Independence Wars of Chile and Peru :The Chilean Navy dates back to 1817. A year before, following the Battle of Chacabuco, General Bernardo O'Higgins prophetically declared "this victory and another hundred shall be of no significance if we do not gain control of the sea".This led to the...
during the War of the Pacific
War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific took place in western South America from 1879 through 1883. Chile fought against Bolivia and Peru. Despite cooperation among the three nations in the war against Spain, disputes soon arose over the mineral-rich Peruvian provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica, and the...
. In the period between World War I and World War II, political motivations for migration came to the forefront; the number of White emigres in Chile grew to about 90%. In the 1950s, their numbers were further bolstered by arrivals from among the Russian expatriate community in Harbin
Harbin Russians
The term Harbin Russians or Russian Harbinites refers to several generations of Russians who lived in the city of Harbin, a major junction city on the Chinese Eastern Railway , from approximately 1898 to the mid-1960s....
. The Russian Cemetery was founded in 1954 to provide a separate space for burials for the community.
Swiss immigration
There are currently 5,000 Swiss citizens residing in Chile and 90,000 with Swiss descendants.The number of Swiss in Chile is minor, despite having a relatively large number of members. This is because their linguistic and cultural characteristics are commonly confused with Germans, Italians and French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
. Swiss migration to Chile took place at the end of 19th century, between 1883 and 1900, particularly in the area of Araucanía, especially in Victoria
Victoria, Chile
Victoria is a city and commune in Malleco Province of Araucanía Region, Chile. It is the second most populous city in the province of Malleco, and is the gateway to the area known as Araucanía Andina, with attractions such as the Tolhuaca National Park , the Baths of Tolhuaca Malalcahuello National...
and Traiguén. It is estimated that more than 8,000 thousand families received grants of land.
In the 19th century, opening up new lands in the New World and the economic crisis in Europe that was mobilized to the most impoverished sectors of society to migrate mainly to United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in North America, Australia, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Argentina and Chile. It was organized exodus and limited duration. As economic immigration, the State assumed a regulatory role by granting or denying requests for leave.
With regard to the interests of migrants into Chile, began formally in 1853, when they meet in Bern, capital of Switzerland, the first reports about experience colonization in the southern to Chile.
Through official reports of the Swiss Consulate in Valparaiso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, highlighting the advantages or disadvantages that Chile offered to migrants in Europe.
Only 28 years after the commencement of the German colonization in the souther to Chile, the Federal Council in 1881 authorized the specialized agencies to operate in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
to recruit migrants.
The Federal Council after years of examining the advantages and disadvantages that would authorize the removal of migrants, poses as a premise the assumption that the Chilean authorities insist on peace Araucanía whose possession for Chileans, it was not yet in those years fully accomplished.
The first contingent departed in November 1883, would be the pilot and its success would depend on subsequent authorizations.
The first group was composed of 1311 families who landed in Chilean port, a December 19, 1883.
Between 1883 and 1886 were shipped to the territory of Araucanía 12,602 people, representing 7% of emigration Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
overseas. The operations continued to evolve until 1890, when it recorded 22,708 Swiss in the heart of the Araucania.
Later during 1915 to 1950 was the last recorded mass exodus of Swiss to Chile recorded 30,000 residents installed in the central area of the country, primarily in Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
and Valparaiso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
.
Swiss nationals whom immigrated to Chile are mainly of German-speaking, but also some are of Francophone and Italian backgrounds.
Armenian immigration
The community of Armenia Chile is composed of Armenian immigrants and their descendants. Most arrived in Chile produced product of genocide by the Ottoman TurksOttoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...
during the First World War
World war
A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....
. Many Armenians who arrived in the early 20th century left Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, then provinces of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
.
The Armenian community of Chile is one of the most important in Latin America. Chile is one of the countries with largest number of Armenians descent in the world.
Belgian immigration
Some immigration came from BelgiumBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, the country inhabited by Dutch-Flemish
Flemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
and Franco-Walloon
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
peoples. In the 19th century, there was notable immigration of West Flemish
West Flemish
West Flemish , , , Fransch vlaemsch in French Flemish) is a group of dialects or regional language related to Dutch spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France....
peoples from the Nord departement of France, somewhat in the tens of thousands, were sent to the Los Lagos Region
Los Lagos Region
Los Lagos Region is one of Chile's 15 regions, which are first order administrative divisions, and comprises four provinces: Chiloé, Llanquihue, Osorno and Palena. The region contains the country's second largest island, Chiloé, and the second largest lake, Llanquihue.Its capital is Puerto Montt;...
of Chile. To this day, West Flemish ethnic/cultural organizations in Belgium and Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France maintain some ties with their Chilean counterparts. Coincidentally, the very areas the Dutch and Flemish settled in Chile was known as Nuevo Flandres (New Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
) named for the province during the Spanish colonial era, in part of the Spanish Netherlands which included the Flanders province of Belgium.
Bulgarian immigration
There is a small BulgariaBulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n community in Chile, about 20,000 thought to be of Bulgarian ancestry, mainly concentrated in Santiago.
Hungarian immigration
In South America, more Hungarians settled in Argentina and Brazil. But Chile was a major point of passage for Hungarians to other countries in North America (the USA or CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Most Hungarian immigrants to Australia came from South America during the first half of the 20th century. According to 2001 census estimates, there are around 40,000 people of Hungarian descent living in Chile, the main concentration are in Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
.
Lithuanian immigration
After the Nazi German occupation and Soviet annexation of the Baltic StatesBaltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
when WWII ended, tens of thousands of Lithuanians
Lithuanians
Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
and Latvians
Latvians
Latvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...
fled Communist Soviet rule to Chile. They managed to prosper and preserve Baltic culture, when their homelands struggled to break free from Russia by 1990.
Polish immigration
A small number of Poles came to Chile, with first of them coming during the Napoleonic warsNapoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. In early 20th century, there were around 300 Poles in Chile. After World War II, around 4,000 Poles, mostly former soldiers, settled in Chile and in 1949 the Association of Poles in Chile was founded. An estimate of 50,000 ethnic Poles live in Chile, most live in Santiago. One of the notable Polish Chileans is Ignacy Domeyko
Ignacy Domeyko
Ignacy Domeyko or Domejko was a 19th-century geologist, mineralogist and educator who was born in Nesvizh, Imperial Russia , into a Polish-Lithuanian family...
.
Portuguese immigration
The immigration of PortuguesePortuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
to Chile was comparably small than most other European nations, but the Portuguese had influenced the country in some ways. An estimated 50,000 Portuguese descendants live in Chile, a great many were employed in the country's fishing and maritime trade industries and settled primarily in coastal cities such as Valparaiso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
.
Scandinavian immigration
Persons from the Northern European nations of DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
were known to settled in Chile.
Ukrainian immigration
Ukrainians were known to immigrated in Chile when UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
was under Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
rule until the 1910s and again, during the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
era from 1917 to 1991. The number of Ukrainian Chileans are from 2,500 to 5,000.
American immigration
Though during all its history, Chile has received immigrants from other American countries. The economic and political stability of the last decade has been one of the determinant factors in the growing entrance of immigrants of said origin to the country. Although the majority come from Argentina and Peru due to those countries' proximity, a good number of BoliviaBolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
ns, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
ians, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
ns, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ians, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
ns, Mexicans
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Canadians
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Central Americans, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
ans, Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
islanders (recently the small wave of Haitians) and Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
ans. Also United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
citizens have also entered. They have found reception in the country, being employed in diverse branches of the Chilean economic task.
Argentine immigration
Argentine immigrationImmigration to Argentina
Immigration in Argentina, can be divided in several major stages:* Spanish colonization starting in the 16th century, integrating the indigenous inhabitants ....
is a longstanding phenomenon that goes back to Chilean independence and the time of the Army of the Andes. The first Argentines arrived when the Organization of the Republic of Chile was launched in 1823 after Independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
, as was the case with both Manuel Blanco Encalada
Manuel Blanco Encalada
Manuel José Blanco y Calvo de Encalada was a Vice-Admiral in the Chilean Navy, a political figure, and Chile's first President .-Biography:...
and Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.-Life and times:...
. The Argentine population was always important. In the mid 1990s, when the first symptoms of the Argentine economic and social crises began to be noted, and especially when the crisis exploded at the end of 2001, it produced a migration of over 100,000, such that in early 2005 they succeeded in becoming the first true foreign colony in the country.
The Argentine colony is shared between the IV Region of Coquimbo and La Araucanía Region IX, and have great influence in the region of Patagonia due to the proximity of the various peoples and the disappearance of the geographic barrier of the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
.
Bolivian immigration
Bolivian immigration is much more minor in comparison to the Argentine and PeruPeru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian communities in Chile, but it is not unimportant with more than 20,000 immigrants in the year 2008. This is due primarily to the tense relations that have existed between both countries, primarily since the War of the Pacific
War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific took place in western South America from 1879 through 1883. Chile fought against Bolivia and Peru. Despite cooperation among the three nations in the war against Spain, disputes soon arose over the mineral-rich Peruvian provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica, and the...
. The continuous diplomatic conflicts between Chile and Bolivia have resulted in the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries since the mid-1970s. In spite of that, thousands of Bolivians entered Chile, settling primarily in Arica
Arica
Arica is a city in northern Chile. "Arica" may also refer to:Places* Arica and Parinacota Region, Chile* Arica Airport , Chile* Arica, Amazonas, town in Colombia* Rio Aricá-açu, tributary of the Cuiabá River south of Cuiabá, BrazilOther...
and Calama
Calama, Chile
Calama is a city and commune in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It is the capital of El Loa Province, part of the Antofagasta Region. Calama is one of the driest cities in the world with average annual precipitation of just . The River Loa, Chile's longest, flows through the city...
during the 1960s and since the end of the 1990s in search of better economic situations.
On the other hand, it is important to emphasize the immigration of the Bolivian elite, primarily for academic ends. Many of the principal political and economic figures in Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
have studied in Chile for a great part of their lives.
Ecuadoran immigration
In reality, approximately 15,000 Ecuadorans live in Chilean territory, a number that has risen exponentially during the late 1990s. For many years, EcuadorEcuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
had been considered a friend of Chile. The Ecuadoran immigrants are largely professionals, principally in the medical fields, and skilled laborers who engage in a various trades.
Peruvian immigration
Although Peruvian immigrants have been one of the principal groups of Latin American origin that have settled in Chile, their importance has risen in recent years. The ties between the two regions have been strong since the colonial period: the Kingdom of ChileKingdom of Chile
The General Captaincy of Chile or Gobernacion de Chile, was an administrative territory of the Viceroyalty of Peru in the Spanish Empire from 1541 to 1818, the year in which it declared itself independent, becoming the Republic of Chile...
first formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru
Viceroyalty of Peru
Created in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled South America, governed from the capital of Lima...
then was the Captaincy General of Chile, independent from 1798. After the War of the Pacific that pitted Chile against the Bolivian-Peruvian alliance between 1879 and 1883, Chile incorporated the Peruvian territories of the Department of Tarapacá
Tarapacá
Tarapacá may refer to:*Tarapacá Province, Chile, a former province, now divided into**Tarapacá Region**Arica-Parinacota Region*Tarapacá Department , a former department of Peru...
and the provinces of Arica
Arica
Arica is a city in northern Chile. "Arica" may also refer to:Places* Arica and Parinacota Region, Chile* Arica Airport , Chile* Arica, Amazonas, town in Colombia* Rio Aricá-açu, tributary of the Cuiabá River south of Cuiabá, BrazilOther...
, Tacna
Tacna
- Rail :Tacna is served by a cross-border standard gauge railway to Arica, Chile.It is also the location of the National Railway Museum of Peru.-Air:Tacna is served by the Crnl. FAP...
(until 1929) and Tarata
Tarata
Tarata is a city in the Tacna Region in southern Peru. It is the capital of Tarata Province....
(until 1925). In these zones in the north of Chile, which were Chile-ized since 1910, they maintained relations primarily of an economic, cultural and even familial nature.
At the end of the 20th century, Chile's economic prosperity began to produce a rapid growth in Peruvian immigration
Immigration to Peru
Immigration to Peru started with the arrival of Spanish settlers during the Colonial Period. Peru is a multiethnic nation formed by the combination of different groups over five centuries. Amerindians inhabited Peruvian territory for several millennia before Spanish Conquest in the 16th century....
to the central zone of the country. Although many Peruvian immigrants were professionals and held important positions in companies, the majority were of low socioeconomic origin in search of new opportunities for their families. Consequently, they took low-paying positions in the beginning, such as laborers or domestics, and sent their small remittances to their families in their home countries. Many of these immigrants also entered the country illegally. Nevertheless, the Asian financial crisis that affected Chile beginning in 1998 provoked a rise in unemployment figures, surpassing 12%, while Peruvian immigration was increasing. These events caused the public to begin discussing the situation of the Peruvian colony in Chile, with many people claiming that the immigrants were "stealing" Chilean jobs.
In reality, the Peruvian immigrants formed one of the principal foreign colonies in Chile. Some groups of Peruvians have named one of the principal locations of the Peruvian colony "Little Lima" (Pequeña Lima). It is located in the vicinity of the Plaza de Armas
Plaza de Armas
The Plaza de Armas is the name for the main square in many Latin American cities. In Mexico this space is known as El Zócalo, and in Central America as Parque Central...
in Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, which has motivated some groups to question the Chilean authorities for permitting the use of the historic district and symbol of the city by the immigrants. The number of Peruvians in Chile is estimated at 85,000, principally residing in Santiago.
North American immigration
Americans and Canadians have long came to Chile among other South American countries. Many Chilean miners, ranchers and businessmen immigrated to the United States (see also Chilean AmericanChilean American
Chilean Americans are United States citizens or residents of Chilean origin. They number about 124,116 in 2009.In 2000, close to 14,000 lived in the states of Florida and California, while around 16,330 lived in the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other New England states...
) as well to Canada aware of the opportunities provided in North America in the 19th and 20th centuries. Perhaps a large number of Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
Indian descendants live in Chile and across South America, a rarity among the world's demographic history for Native American populations to form a community throughout the Americas. An estimated 10,000 to 90,000 Cherokee descendants live in Chile, but the high rate of cultural assimilation hasn't ended the genealogical search for their roots.
Other American immigrants
Although they do not have the importance of the aforementioned colonies, there exist an important number of immigrants coming from other countries in the Americas. According to the 2002 report of the International Organization for MigrationInternational Organization for Migration
The International Organization for Migration is an intergovernmental organization. It was initially established in 1951 as the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration to help resettle people displaced by World War II....
, more than 10,000 people from the United States have immigrated to Chile, most of whom initially arrived to work for multinational corporations and possess professional degrees and are well situated economically.
According to the same report (2002), more than 9,000 Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
ns, 8,900 Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ians, and 5,000 Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
ns had settled in Chile. These communities had arrived in the country seeking better economic and academic opportunities, but in general had assimilated into general society. They do not suffer from xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
and are, in the majority, well received by the Chileans and are employed in diverse labor activities and have established local businesses.
Along the same lines, more than 3,000 Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
ns have settled in Chile, the majority holding professional degrees. The number of medical centers operated by Cubans has increased in the past few years and they have proven to be great successes as a result of their low costs.
Middle East and Asian immigration
It is estimated that near the 4% of the Chilean population is of Asian origin, who are Asian immigrants and descendants, chiefly of the Middle East. There are a large community of Arab Chileans (i.e. Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and Middle East Armenians), and the total number are around 800,000. Note that Israelis, both Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of the nation of IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
may be included. A small number of Turks came to Chile, they formed a sizable proportion of the country's miniscule Islamic community (see Islam in Chile
Islam in Chile
The statistics for Islam in Chile estimate a total Muslim population of approximately 4,000, representing less than 0.1% of the population. There are a number of Islamic organizations in Chile, including the "Muslim Society of Chile and As-Salam Mosque" in Santiago, Chile, "Bilal Mosque" in...
).
Chile is home to a large population of immigrants, mostly Christian, from the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
. Roughly 500,000 Palestinian descendants
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
are believed to reside in Chile. And the effects of their migration are widely visible. The earliest such migrants came in the 1850s, with others arriving during World War I and later the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
. The Club Palestino is one of the most prestigious social clubs in Santiago. They are believed to form the largest Palestinian community outside of the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
. Aside from these migrants of previous decades, Chile has also taken in some Palestinian refugees in later years, as in April 2008 when they received 117 from the Al-Waleed refugee camp
Al-Waleed (camp)
Al-Waleed is a makeshift Palestinian refugee camp in Iraq, near the border with Syria and the al-Tanf Crossing. It was set up in 2006 by Palestinian refugees stranded at the Iraqi-Syrian border The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has two field staff stationed in the camp...
on the Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
-Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
border near the Al-Tanf crossing. The situation in Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
has caused tensions even thousands of miles away between the Israeli and Palestinian communities in Chile.
In recent years, Chile had enlarged East Asian populations: considerably from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
with a more recent wave from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
(see Japanese Chilean
Japanese Chilean
Japanese Chilean is a Chilean with ethnic origin from Japan. The first Japanese in Chile were 126 immigrants hired to work in the mining industry in 1903.-History:The number of Japanese settlers in Chile never went above 900 between 1910 and 1940...
) and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
(see Koreans in Chile). The earliest wave of East Asian immigration took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly Chinese and Japanese contract laborers. There are under 100,000 East Asians in Chile, about one percent of the population. A small community of Indians in Chile
Indians in Chile
Indians in Chile form one of the smaller populations of the Indian diaspora. A few Indians had gone to Chile in the 1920s. Later more Indians migrated there about 30 years ago - not only from India, but also from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines and Singapore.-History:Some...
also exists.
African immigration
From the beginning, small numbers of African slaves arrived with the ConquistadorConquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s. These slaves (and their descendants) constituted 1.5% of the national population at the beginning of the 19th century. Later on, their descendants—called "pardos" by the Spanish—were partially "absorbed" into the general population through crossbreeding. Others became part of the Ejército Libertador (Liberation Army) of Peru, their ethnic differences practically disappearing.
Less than 0.1 percent of Chileans have African ancestry, mostly concentrated in the province of Arica near the Peruvian border. They are descendants of imported slaves into the country in the 18th century, but slavery never became a major contributor to agricultural development in Chile unlike in other Latin American countries. A smaller wave of sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
n and Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
immigrants are beginning to appear in the 2000s either to study or find work, but they are minuscule in population.