| Year |
Date |
Event |
| 1510 |
|
Vasco Ñúñez de Balboa founds Santa María la Antigua del Darién in Panamá, the first Spanish settlement in South America. |
| 1513 |
|
Ñuñez de Balboa discovers the Southern Sea (Pacific Ocean). |
| 1520 |
|
Ferdinand Magellan is passing through the Straits of Magellan, and becomes the first European to describe Patagonia. |
| 1532 |
|
Francisco Pizarro arrives to Peru from Panamá. He begins the Conquest of the Inca Empire and captures Emperor Atahualpa during the Battle of Cajamarca. |
| 1536 |
|
Diego de Almagro arrives to Chile from Peru, passing over the Andes to the valley of Copiapó, and explores the central region of Chile as far as what will later become Santiago de Chile. An expedition sent southwards ends in the Battle of Reynogüelén with native mapuches, which is considered to be the first battle of the Arauco War. |
| 1541 |
|
Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de Chile. In the following years, he (and others sent by him) founded La Serena and Concepción. |
| 1546 |
|
Uprising of Michimalonco, Mapuche chief: Santiago destroyed. Mapuche military leader Lautaro is captured by the Spanish. |
| 1552 |
|
Founding of Valdivia. Lautaro, after six years of imprisonment by the Spanish, escape and teaches his people military strategy, including riding horses. |
| 1553 |
|
Mapuche uprising under Lautaro. Pedro de Valdivia is killed in the Disaster of Tucapel. |
| 1557 |
|
Death of Lautaro, Caupolicán assumes as toqui (wartime chief). |
| 1558 |
|
Caupolicán is captured and executed by impalement. |
| 1564 |
|
Concepción is unsuccessfully sieged by native Mapuches. |
| 1565 |
|
A Real Audiencia is established in Concepción. The Audiencia is abolished in 1575. |
| 1567 |
|
Chiloé Island is claimed by Spain. Castro is founded on the island. The island becames the southernmost European settlement by the time of the annexation. |
| 1574 |
|
Spanish captain Juan Fernández discovers the Juan Fernández Islands. |
| 1575 |
|
The 1575 Valdivia earthquake occurs. As in the 1960 Valdivia earthquake the Riñihue Lake dams. |
| 1578 |
|
Francis Drake attacks the coasts of Chile, La Serena and other cities are plundered. |
| 1583 |
|
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa founds the settlement Rey Don Felipe in the Strait of Magellan. In 1587 the settlement is in ruins. |
| 1598 |
|
"Disaster of Curalaba". Governor Martín García Óñez de Loyola killed in a Mapuche ambush. |
| 1599 |
|
The Real Situado, an annual payment from Potosí to the Captaincy General of Chile, is established. |
| Year |
Date |
Event |
| 1808 |
|
Francisco Antonio García Carrasco, unpopular Governor of Chile. Spanish king Ferdinand VII is imprisoned by Napoleon during his invasion of Spain. |
| 1810 |
|
Imitating the juntista movement of the rest of Latin America, the criollos (people of Spanish ancestry, but not born in Spain) of Santiago de Chile proclaim a governing Junta. |
| 1811 |
|
Tired of being circumvented by political intrigues, José Miguel Carrera takes power by military means and initiates a dictatorship. |
| 1812 |
|
Hostilities begin between the moderados, led by Bernardo O'Higgins, and the exaltados, led by Carrera. Carrera institutes the first Chilean national symbols (flag, coat of arms, and national anthem), and Fray Camilo Henríquez begins to publish the Aurora de Chile, the first Chilean newspaper. The Chilean Constitution of 1812 comes into effect. Founding of the Logia Lautaro. |
| 1813 |
|
The Spanish send military expeditions (under Antonio Pareja and Gabino Gaínza) from the Viceroyalty of Peru. In the ensuing battles O'Higgins rises to be seen as a figure of great stature, overshadowing the continually less popular Carrera, who ultimately resigns. Francisco de la Lastra becomes Supreme Director. |
| 1814 |
|
The "Disaster of Rancagua". Mariano Osorio, in command of a third Spanish expedition, defeats O'Higgins (October 1 – 2. Osorio reconquers Santiago for Spain. Exodus of Chilean patriots to Mendoza, Argentina, where they receive the support of José de San Martín. Those patriots who remain in Chile are captured by the Spaniards are deported to the Juan Fernandez Islands. Osorio is confirmed Governor of Chile by the Viceroy Fernando de Abascal of Peru. The talaveras, under the command of San Bruno, install a regime of terror extending to those merely suspected of sympathy for the Chilean cause. |
| 1815 |
|
Guerrilla resistance against the Spanish begins, led by Manuel Rodríguez Erdoiza, and other spies such as Justo Estay. Increasing enmity between Osorio and Abascal leads Abascal to replace Osorio with Casimiro Marcó del Pont. |
| 1817 |
|
Battle of Chacabuco. O'Higgins defeats Rafael Maroto, reconquering Santiago. Captain San Bruno, hated chief of the talaveras, is captured and — less than 24 hours later — executed by firing squad. O'Higgins becomes dictator. |
| 1818 |
|
O'Higgins signs the Chilean Declaration of Independence (February 12). Shortly afterwards, in the Battle of Maipú, a new military expedition led by Mariano Osorio is defeated, and Chile definitively obtains independence (April 5). The rivalry between O'Higgins and Manuel Rodríguez ends with the ambush and assassination of the latter in Tiltil. The brothers Juan José and Luis Carrera are shot in Argentina, probably on the orders of O'Higgins or the Logia Lautaro. |
| 1820 |
|
Valdivia is captured by Lord Thomas Cochrane who commands the chilean navy. |
| 1821 |
|
José Miguel Carrera arrested as a montonero (mounted rebel/bandit) in Argentina, and executed in Mendoza. |
| 1822 |
|
Military expedition to Peru. San Martín undertakes a prudent military campaign, enters Lima, but sees the impossibility of crushing the last Spanish redoubts, a job that is left for Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre.
The Chilean Constitution of 1822 comes into effect.
|
| 1823 |
|
Ramón Freire leads a military expedition from Concepción to Santiago and forces O'Higgins to resign. He goes into exile in Peru, where he dies in 1842. Freire assumes power. |
| 1825 |
|
Taking advantage of the unsurveyed border, and ignoring the royal decree of 1681 and the principal uti possidetis, Simón Bolívar grants the port of Cobija to Bolivia. This gives Bolivia an outlet to the sea between Chile and Peru, which it will retain until the War of the Pacific. |
| 1826 |
|
Freire incorporates Chiloé, the last area under Spanish control, into Chile. Later he resigns, initiating an interregnum know as The Anarchy. First attempt in Chile of federal (as against centralized) government, led by the first president of Chile Manuel Blanco Encalada, and the federalist José Miguel Infante. |
| 1828 |
|
Francisco Antonio Pinto assumes power after the resignation of Encalada and his predecessors. Chilean Constitution of 1828. |
| 1829 |
|
Chilean Revolution of 1829. After several battles, Joaquín Prieto defeats Ramón Freire in the Battle of Lircay. |
| 1830 |
|
Diego Portales begins to clandestinely remodel Chilean institutionality, converting it into an authoritarian republic. |
| 1831 |
|
José Joaquín Prieto becomes president of Chile. He will serve two consecutive five-year terms. With him, the so-called decenios (decade-long reigns) begin, which continue until 1871. This 30-year Conservative Party hegemony is sometimes referred to as the Authoritarian Republic. |
| 1832 |
|
Discovery of mineral deposits in Chañarcillo, and the beginning of the rise of silver in what was then el Norte Chico and now constitutes the Atacama and Coquimbo regions of Chile). The mining fortunes constitute an important source of power in the following decades. |
| 1833 |
|
Chilean Constitution of 1833. "Portalian" — that is, inspired by Diego Portales — definitively fixed Chilean institutions. |
| 1835 |
|
On February 20, southern Chile was affected by the worst earthquake in the area in several decades, event witnessed by Charles Darwin.[2] |
| 1836 |
|
Mariano Egaña declares the war on the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation. |
| 1837 |
|
Diego Portales is assassinated by mutinous soldiers in Quillota. A Chilean military expedition debarks in Perú, beginning the War of the Confederation. |
| 1839 |
|
Battle of Yungay and defeat of the Confederation. |
| 1840 |
|
The Vatican acknowledges the Independence of Chile |
| 1841 |
|
Manuel Bulnes, victorious marshal of the Battle of Yungay, elected president of Chile. |
| 1842 |
|
Important intellectual movement registered this year. A great number of teachers, thinkers, professors, and wise men arrive to the country and establish societies. |
| 1843 |
|
University of Chile founded. It will become on of the country's two most prestigious university. along with the Catholic University of Chile, which was founded years later. Fort Bulnes established, the first Chilean presence on the Strait of Magellan. |
| 1844 |
|
Spain recognizes the Independence of Chile |
| 1848 |
|
Founding of Punta Arenas in the Strait of Magellan |
| 1851 |
|
José María de la Cruz revolts in the southern provinces of Chile. Bulnes crushes the revolutionary attempt and signs the treaty of Purapel with the revolutionaries. Manuel Montt becomes the third of the decenal presidents. |
| 1856 |
|
The Dispute of Sacristán ("Cuestión del Sacristán"). An apparently trivial question of ecclesiastical discipline divides the Conservative Party into secular and ultra-Catholic factions, which lays the ground for their political defeat in the elections of 1861. |
| 1857 |
|
The Civil Code of Chile comes into effect; it will become a model for Latin American legal codes down to the present day. |
| 1859 |
|
Chilean Revolution of 1859. Pedro León Gallo, radical revolutionary of Copiapó, and others are defeated by the government forces. However, as a consequence, Antonio Varas renounces to his candidature. |
| 1861 |
|
José Joaquín Pérez of the Liberal Party elected president. His party will retain power until the Chilean Revolution of 1891. |
| 1863 |
|
A French adventurer proclaims himself Orélie Antoine I, King of Araucanía. After a short time he is arrested by the Chileans and deported, but the incident meant the end of the Chilean preoccupation with occupying the remaining Mapuche, before some other power could do so and divide Chile in two. This intensification of activity is known as the Pacification of Araucanía. |
| 1866 |
|
Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia at war with Spain. The port of Valparaíso is bombed by the Spanish. A treaty of limits (borders) of 1866 is signed with Bolivia. |
| 1871 |
|
A constitutional reform prohibits re-election, resulting in the end of the decenios. Governments of five years duration persist until 1925, except for the premature death of Pedro Montt in 1910. |
| 1874 |
|
Another treaty of limits is signed with Bolivia due to political tensions. |
| 1879 |
|
In defense of the interests of the Chilean industrial oligarchy, Chilean soldiers occupy the Bolivian port of Antofagasta, precipitating the War of the Pacific against Peru and Bolivia. The Chilean cause is adopted by the general populace after the death of Captain Arturo Prat in the Naval battle of Iquique. The same day, May 21, Captain Carlos Condell sinks the powerful Independencia, which together with the capture of the Huáscar in the Naval battle of Angamos, eliminates Peruvian sea power and permits the Chileans to land troops at will along the coast throughout the military theater of operations. |
| 1881 |
|
Chilean troops occupy and sack Lima, capital of Peru. The war will continue another three years, with the Peruvians retreating to the Sierra and successfully defending their mountainous redoubts. Argentina takes advantage of the military situation to impose upon Chile a settlement of their border disputes, granting all of oriental Patagonia to Argentina. The Mapuches also take advantage, with an armed rising against the increasing Chilean occupation of their territories, but are finally and definitively defeated for the first time in three centuries of combat. |
| 1883 |
|
Law of Civil Matrimony adopted. This secularization was fiercely resisted by the Roman Catholic Church. The Treaty of Ancón is signed with Perú to end the war. The "Pacification of Araucanía" is considered finished, and with that according to some historians also the War of Arauco. |
| 1884 |
|
War of the Pacific ends, allowing mining of saltpeter in the regions conquered from Peru and Bolivia, leading to great national prosperity for Chile. Treaty called "Pacto de Tregua". |
| 1888 |
|
Policarpo Toro leads a naval expedition to annex Easter Island. The Catholic University of Chile is privately founded. |
| 1890 |
|
The Malleco Viaduct is opened and railway traffic expands further south during the next decades. |
| 1891 |
|
Chilean Revolution of 1891. The constitutional president José Manuel Balmaceda is overthrown by troops favorable to the National Congress. The beginning of "Parliamentarism" under which the Chilean oligarchy governed on its own behalf. |
| 1895 |
|
Easter Island is rented to Compañía Explotadora de Isla de Pascua. |
| Year |
Date |
Event |
| 1904 |
|
"Meat" Massacre in Santiago. The workers revolt against the central government due to an increase in the price of meat and the general soaring costs of living. The government responds sending the army. Two days of riots continue, where hundreds of civilians are killed on street fighting. |
| 1907 |
|
Massacre of the Escuela Santa María de Iquique; soldiers fire on saltpeter workers and their unarmed associates. It will be years before the workers, terrorized by the brutal repression, resume the struggle for their rights. |
| 1910 |
|
The centenary of independence is darkened by the death of President Pedro Montt, the only president between 1831 and 1925 who failed to complete his term of office. |
| 1920 |
|
Arturo Alessandri Palma elected president, indicating a rise to power by the Chilean middle class. |
| 1924 |
|
Chile's first income tax levied. |
| 1925 |
|
After intense political agitation the Chilean Constitution of 1925 is adopted, only slightly less authoritarian than that of 1833. The Impuesto Global Complementario, a graduated income tax, is introduced. |
| 1927 |
|
Amidst great political instability, and by way of a bloodless coup, Carlos Ibáñez del Campo takes the presidency. He will govern as dictator, taking Benito Mussolini as his model, until 1931. Also in 1927, the corps of carabineros — militarized police — is founded. |
| 1929 |
|
The economic crash of 1929 strikes Chile with more force than any other country on earth. |
| 1931 |
|
The deep economic crisis obliges Ibáñez del Campo to step down. A series of civilian governments and military juntas follows, some of which last no more than a few days. |
| 1932 |
|
The period of political anarchy ends with the return to power of Arturo Alessandri Palma. |
| 1938 |
|
Massacre of Seguro Obrero. |
| 1939 |
|
The Radical Party gains power, which they will keep until 1952. |
| 1940 |
|
Pedro Aguirre Cerda, president of the nation, establishes internationally the first Chilean claims in Antarctica. |
| 1945 |
|
Gabriela Mistral receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. |
| 1946 |
|
Gabriel González Videla becomes president, backed by a broad alliance of parties, including the Radicals and Communists. Once in power, he acceded to pressure from the United States and promulgates the Law of Defense of Democracy, also known as the Ley Maldita ("accursed law"), which outlawed his former allies the Communists, some of whom were placed in concentration camps in Pisagua. Poet Pablo Neruda hounded into exile. |
| 1952 |
|
Carlos Ibáñez del Campo returns to the presidency, this time via the ballot box, ending the era of the Radical Party. His emblem is the broom, with which he proposed (fruitlessly) to sweep away the Radicals' legacy of corruption. |
| 1960 |
|
The Great Chilean Earthquake, with its epicenter near Valdivia, is the most intense earthquake ever recorded, rating a 9.5 |
| 1964 |
|
Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva becomes president, proclaiming the so-called "Revolution in Liberty". |
| 1970 |
|
Salvador Allende elected president; his leftist orientation greatly displeases the government of the United States. See 1970 Chilean presidential election. |
| 1971 |
|
Poet Pablo Neruda receives Nobel Prize for Literature. |
| 1973 |
|
The Armed Forces, carabineros, and others stage a coup, overthrowing Allende, who dies in the course of the coup. Augusto Pinochet establishes himself as the head of a military junta. The subsequent repression of leftists and other opponents of the military regime results in approximately 130,000 arrests and at least 3,000 dead or "disappeared" over the next three years. See Chilean coup of 1973. |
| 1976 |
|
The machinations of the United States oblige President Ferdinand Marcos, to cancel a scheduled visit by President Pinochet to the Philippines. |
| 1978 |
|
Beagle conflict: Almost gone to War against Argentina for the Beagle Channel |
| 1980 |
|
The military government promulgates the Chilean Constitution of 1980, which is adopted by plebiscite. Economic policy begins to be significantly influenced by the ideas of the Chicago School and of Neoliberalism. |
| 1982 |
|
Support for British Forces in the Falkland War |
| 1984 |
|
Argentina and Chile Peace and Friendship Treaty signed |
| 1988 |
|
Pinochet loses the plebiscite foreseen by the constitution, which brings about, by agreement of all, elections the following year. |
| 1990 |
|
Patricio Aylwin takes office as President. Transition to democracy begins. |
| 1991 |
|
Mount Hudson erupts. |
| 1994 |
|
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is elected President. |
| 1998 |
|
During a visit to London for medical reasons, Augusto Pinochet is arrested in accord with the orders of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, beginning an international struggle between his supporters and detractors. He returns to Chile the following year, and the charges against him are later thrown out on the basis of his ostensibly deteriorated mental state. Chile suffers greatly from the world economic crisis, resulting in years of inflation and unemployment. |
| 2000 |
|
In the second round of voting, in a tight contest with right wing candidate Joaquín Lavín, Ricardo Lagos Escobar is elected President. |
