Home > Antofagasta Region of Chile

Region II of Antofagasta is the second region of Chile, from north to south.

1 History

Antofagasta's history is divided, as the territory, in two sections, the coastal region and the highlands plateau or altiplano around the Andes. In precolumbian times, the coastline was populated by fishers-gathered nomadic clans of changos indians, of whom very little is know, since the had very few contact with spanish conquistadors.

The inland, in the other hand, was populated by the atacaman culture around the great Atacama Salar ( dry salt lake), the Loa river basin and valleys and oasis across the altiplano, the most important the modern village of San Pedro de Atacama.

The atacaman culture was deeply influenced by Tiwanaku culture and later fell under Inca rule. Atacaman harvested mainly corn and beans and developed trade as far as AmazonThe name Amazon may refer to several concepts: The legendary Amazons, women renowned in antiquity for their prowess in battle. The Amazon River, Amazon Rainforest, and Amazon Basin through which it flows. The river was so named because early Portuguese ex basin and Pacific shores, the arrivals of the Spaniards in 16th century did not destroy the culture but transformed deeply throw the process of mestizaje , in which both cultures enriched. Into the spanish rule, Atacaman territory (the inlands), was put under administration of Charcas Audience and at the time of independence general BolivarBolivar is derived from Simon Bolivar, one of the heroes of the Latin American wars of independence; Bolivia is named after him, as are a number of other things in the Western Hemisphere: Places: United States Bolivar, Missouri ( Polk County) Bolivar, New integrated (both inlands and cost side) into the new Republic of BoliviaThe Republic of Bolivia is a landlocked country in western South America. It is bordered by Brazil in the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina in the south, and Chile and Peru in the west. History Main article: History of Bolivia Bolivia has long been i, under the name of " Litoral ". This adjudication was contested by Chilean Goverment and several treaties were signed between the two nations, meantime, chileans explorers as Juan López and José Santos Ossa had discovered rich nitrateNitrates are the salts of nitric acid. The nitrate ion is the polyatomic ion with chemical formula N O−; it is the conjugate base of nitric acid. The nitrate ion is planar and has the following structure: O O− \\ / N+ | O− A nitrate salt and guanoGuano (from the Quechua 'wanu') is the name given to the collected droppings of seabirds and bats. It can be used as an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of nitrogen. Soil that is deficient in organic matter can be made much more productive by a deposits which drove to a massive chilean colonization of the costline. The tensions between the new (and almost only) settleres and bolivian authorities grew until 1879 when the War of the Pacific erupted. Antofagasta was permanently annexed to Chile at the end of the war.

Colonization by chileans follows mainly from the "Little North" (the moderns regions of Atacama and Coquimbo , aka III and IV regions), into the new territories of Antofagasta and Tarapacá , nicknamed Great North, also settlers came from Europe (mainly croats, spaniards, britons and greeks) and from arab countries, China, Peru and Bolivia, this inmigration flows joint with the culture of the altiplano region creating modern culture of the north of Chile, which presents both more andean and european features than the central valley (and mainstream chilean culture).

Base of workers movements in early 20th century, the region lived mostly od nitrate industry until in crack down in 1920's being replaced by cooper explotation, (two of the major open sky mines in the world are located in Antofagasta: La Escondida and Chuquicamata).