Iquique, Chile

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Iquique (IPA /i'kike/) is a city in northern Chile, capital of Tarapacá Region, on the Pacific coast, just west of the Atacama Desert. It is located at 20°13′S 70°10′W and has a population of 221,400 (2004). The city's name comes from the Aymara word "Ique-ique", which translates to "laziness", but can also mean "sleep" or "bed."

Iquique has one of the largest commercial port centers (or Zona Franca) of South America and has been traditionally called Zofri. There are around 2.4 km² of warehouses, banking branches, and restaurants.

[edit] History

Naval Battle of Iquique during the War of the Pacific (1879-1884).

Although the city was founded in the sixteenth century, there is evidence of habitation in the area by the Chango people as early as 7000 BC. During colonial times, Iquique was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru as much of South America was at the time and remained part of Peruvian territory until the end of the 19th century. Iquique's early development was due in large part to the discovery of mineral riches, particularly the presence of large deposits of sodium nitrate (Chilean saltpeter, locally called salitre) in the Atacama Desert (then part of Bolivian territory). Later territorial disputes triggered the War of the Pacific in 1879. The outcome of the war gave Chile the territory. Over the years there was much emigration from other parts of Chile to the area which they called the Norte Grande. In subsequent years the further exportation of Chilean saltpeter (mainly to European countries) significantly helped in the development of the city, attracting foreigners and rapidly expanding housing projects.

Municipal Theater of Iquique

In 1907, the city was marred by a massacre when the army, under the command of Gen. Roberto Silva-Renard, opened fire on thousands of saltpeter miners, their wives and children, assembled inside the Santa María School. The workers had marched into town to protest their working conditions and wages. Somewhere between 500 and 2,000 were killed. The folk group Quilapayún recorded an album in remembrance of the event (Cantata Santa María de Iquique) in 1970. Iquique was also the cultural capital of the year 2001 in the Americas

[edit] Trivia

In 1835, Charles Darwin, during his voyage on the Beagle, travelled to Iquique and described a town very much in want of everyday necessities, such as water and firewood. These had to be brought in from a considerable distance. Darwin also visited the saltpeter works.

In 1868 and again in 1877, the then Peruvian city was devastated by earthquakes. The 13 June 2005 there was yet another earthquake, with an 8.1 on the scale of Richter.

The Battle of Iquique was fought in the harbour of Iquique on May 21, 1879, now commemorated as Navy Day, an annual public holiday in Chile.

The most recent accident involving a spacecraft RTG was the failure of the Russian Mars 96 probe launch on 16 November 1996. The two RTGs onboard carried in total 200 g of plutonium and are assumed to have survived reentry (as they were designed to do). They are thought to now lie somewhere in a northeast-southwest running oval 320 km long by 80 km wide which is centred 32 km east of Iquique, Chile.