The pre-European history

The Santiago area has been inhabited by local Native American tribes for thousands of years, thereby exaggerating the area before the arrival of Europeans.

The earliest people were hunter-gatherers who lived between the sea and the Andes. A little later, around the year 800, an actual settlement of crop cultivation began around the Mapocho River. Beans, corn and potatoes were mainly grown.

A few centuries later, the Incas dominated the South American continent with their Incarceration. Thus, in the late 1400s and early 1500s, the Incas also controlled the region of present-day Santiago.

Pedro de Valdivia’s founding

In the Spanish conquest of large parts of South America, the Peruvian territory was a starting point for much of the administration, and so it was from this that Francisco Pizarro sent the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia to the south to new territories.

De Valdivia reached the Mapocho Valley in 1540, and he settled on the hill of Tupahue with his men. The Spanish expedition soon invited the chiefs of the Picunche Indians to a meeting, where Pedro de Valdivia told of the plans to establish a new city on behalf of the Spanish king, Carlos I. The city should be the administrative seat of the Nueva Extramadura region.

The Indians accepted Pedro de Valdivia’s plans, and they pointed to a favorable area on an island in the Mapocho River on the hill of Huelén as a suitable location for the new city.

On February 12, 1541, Pedro de Valdivia founded the city, officially named Santiago del Nuevo Extremo. On the same occasion, the Spaniards renamed Huelén to Cerro Santa Lucia, and the city received the Spanish patron saint, Saint Jacob, as its patron saint.

At its founding, Santiago was the outermost outpost of the Spanish empire, and after its founding, a Spanish city was to rise with the institutions typical of the Spanish colonial rule.

Pedro de Valdivia gave the task of laying out the city to Pedro de Gamboa, who designed a right-angle street network with a central square, Plaza de Armas, where plots were reserved for, among other things, a cathedral and a governor’s residence.

After a few months, Pedro de Valdivia went south, again to new territories, and he fought against the Arauco Indians. In Santiago there was a fort and a smaller garrison left, and they were attacked by local Indians in September 1541. The Indians destroyed the new city, but the garrison forced the Indians to flee so that settlers could begin a reconstruction of Santiago.

Natural disasters and new developments

After the destruction in 1541, the city slowly began to spring up, but that would soon change. In 1561, the foundation stone was laid for Santiago’s cathedral, and the construction of the Iglesia de San Francisco began in 1572. They, together with other major buildings, marked that Santiago was rapidly changing. Economic development also occurred due to a large animal husbandry in the vicinity of Santiago.

Throughout the 16th to 16th centuries, Pedro de Valdivia’s city was repeatedly hit by disasters. Earthquakes, diseases and repeated floods slowed the city’s development, but did not stop it. Santiago was in 1607 became the local seat of the Spanish court’s representation, and it emphasized the city’s role as a kind of capital for the region.

It was also a time when the Indian tribe picunche helped the Spanish colonists erect buildings in the area south of the Mapocho River. However, peaceful coexistence with all Native Americans was not of a lasting nature for the Spanish settlers who came mainly from Andalusia. The clashes with local tribes lasted all the way into the 19th century.

By the end of the 1600s, there were approximately 200 houses in Santiago, which numbered 700 Spanish inhabitants and some Native American labor. The population had grown steadily, but had also been reduced several times since 1541 with the earthquake in 1647 as the largest event.

End of the 18th century

Santiago was established as a local metropolis in the 18th century, but there were still major challenges, including flooding and difficult development north of the Mapocho River. In 1767, the construction of the Calicanto Bridge over Mapocho was initiated, and it came to bind Santiago together in a new way. In the same period, a large-scale plant of fixed banks began on the Mapochos run through the city, and with the opening of these in 1798, the constant risk of water destruction in Santiago had been overcome.

The late 18th century architecturally also became an expansive period in the city’s development. Governor Agustín de Jáuregui hired Italian architect Joaquín Toesca for major construction work. These spoke a new facade of Santiago Cathedral, a new government building, the San Carlos Canal and more. In 1791, the road to the port city of Valparaíso was inaugurated, and it was also helping to strengthen Santiago’s growth.

Chilean independence

During central Spanish rule, central and northern parts of Chile were ruled from Peru, but as the total population of the elongated country grew and broke local roots, opposition to the colonial power increased.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the wishes for independence increased, and on September 18, 1810, the so-called first junta was established. It became the starting point for independent Chile.

In 1810 Chile was declared an independent nation, but after a time of multiple settlements and changing political systems, Chile again became Spanish in 1814 after their victory at the Battle of Rancagua. However, the struggle for independence continued, bringing together Argentine and Chilean troops led by Bernardo O’Higgens and José de San Martín across the Andes from Argentina.

José de San Martín’s Andean troops defeated the Spanish forces at the Battle of Chacabuco, ending the royal rule in Santiago. Santiago again became the capital of an independent Chile, and in 1818 San Martín again overcame Spain’s colonial forces, thereby finally securing Chilean independence. Bernardo O’Higgins was the country’s first president.

During Chile’s independence struggle in the period 1810-1818, Santiago was only slightly damaged; among others during the Battle of Maipú, which took place southwest of the city in 1818.

Patria Nueva

Santiago flourished in time after independence, and Bernardo O’Higgins was at the forefront of what was called the New Fatherland / Patria Nueva. During this time, formerly closed institutions were reopened, new neighborhoods were built, and several initiatives were taken to enable new growth.

Throughout the 19th century, Santiago’s population grew significantly. Fewer than 30,000 lived in the country’s independence, and just a few decades later, the city had more than 100,000 inhabitants.

There were some large and beautiful buildings from the Spanish era, such as the Palacio de la Moneda and a number of churches and monasteries. Starting with Patria Nueva, new buildings, streets and parks were expanded. For example, the Parque Quinta Normal was used as a recreation area and Mapocho’s southern arm was transformed into the street Alameda de las Delicias.

Nineteenth-century Santiago

New institutions were established in the growing capital. The Teatro Municipal was built as the city’s new cultural center, and later in the 19th century the city’s art museum opened as the country’s first. Educational institutions were also founded with the city’s university as the spearhead.

In terms of trade and logistics, the infrastructure was also continuously developed. Several bridges were built across the Mapocho River, enabling greater urban development in new areas close to the historic center. Santiago was also better connected to the Pacific through the Valparaíso railway line.

It was in 1857 that the first railway line was built from Santiago and the capital became the country’s railway hub. Earlier in the 1850s, Santiago had also been connected to Valparaíso by a telegraph line. In the decades that followed, the city’s tram lines were also constructed.

From 1879 to 1883, Chile waged war against Bolivia and Peru on territorial rights to the present northern Chile, rich in raw materials. Chilean troops prevailed and the formal integration of the territories created increased prosperity in Chile.

Beginning of the 20th Century

With the end of the 19th century, Chile was still a relatively young country, but the growing wealth enabled a larger investment in buildings worthy of a capital, and for the 100th anniversary of the country’s independence, a new art museum and a national library.

During this period, Santiago had also become the industrial and financial center of the country; the role of the port city of Valparaíso had in part previously been.

After 1910, the large-scale expansion continued, and Santiago’s center around the historic Palacio de la Moneda was expanded to a modern metropolis through an ambitious urban plan initiated in the 1930s. With the plan, the area was built closer and higher, and a number of new institutions were founded within the cultural and financial world, among others.

At the same time, the city’s population began to rise seriously due to increased immigration from the north and south of Chile. Around 1920, the population numbered 500,000, which was a 52% growth since 1907. The depression of 1929 led to high unemployment in many of Chile’s regions, and many looked for Santiago’s industries in the hope of a job. It provided more inhabitants, and in 1940 there were 950,000 living in the capital.

1950 to the present day

Santiago’s population growth continued into the latter part of the 20th century, when in 1952, 1,350,000 people lived in the city. The number rose to 1,900,000 in 1960, and the many new inhabitants settled for many in the growing suburbs of the capital. During these decades, several agricultural areas around Santiago were developed into residential neighborhoods to accommodate the many migrants.

Much of the development happened without coherent planning, and it was not until 1958 that an inter-municipal coordination with overall plans for traffic years, population growth and so on was undertaken. One of the highlights of the time was the holding of the seventh World Cup in soccer, played in Chile from May 30 to June 17, 1962. The final between Brazil and Czechoslovakia was played in Santiago with Brazil as winners with the digits 3-1.

The 1960s offered several major infrastructure projects. The city’s new airport was opened in 1967, and two years later construction of the Santiago metro system started. The first line of the subway opened in 1975, and the extension continued.

Politically, there were long periods of democracy in Chile during the 1900s. In 1973, it came to a military takeover under the leadership of Augusto Pinochet. Fighting in connection with the change of system was hectic around the palace of the government, Palacio de la Moneda, which was exposed to aerial bombardment, among other things. It was also in this building and at the event that Marxist President Salvador Allende elected in 1970 shot himself.

In the 1970s, a new economic boom was created in Chile, and in Santiago several major construction projects were carried out, which started the city again.

In 1990, the transition to democracy began, and at that time many of the city’s three million inhabitants lived in southern Santiago. New areas were subsequently developed, including Las Condes and Vitacura. The financial district, nicknamed Sanhattan, also emerged at this time with the construction of several skyscrapers with Gran Torre as the tallest building in the city and South America.

As a visitor, you today meet a modern city where you can clearly see the many projects that have been invested in recent decades. A modern multi-line subway has been constructed, and new neighborhoods, high-rise buildings, hotels and shopping centers have been opened up in several places, taking into account the city’s historic buildings and neighborhoods from previous centuries.