Human population started living in Chile about 10000 years ago. These were Native Americans who settled in fertile valley along the coast. The Incas settled empire in northern Chile. In 1520 Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan reached the southern Chile. Diego de Almagro with his crew reached Chile in 1535 in seeks of Gold. Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarro's lieutenants founded the city of Santiago on February 12, 1541.Mapuche insurrection started in 1553 caused Valdivia's death and the destruction of many of the colony's principal settlements. Massive insurrections took place in 1598 and in 1655.
The slavery system ended in 1683, which allows increased trade between colonists and the Mapuche. The movement for independence from Spain was started by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national junta in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy.
In 1817 an army troop led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership. Chile recognized an independent nation on April 25, 1844.
The Constitution of Chile was approved in September 1980 under the military government of Augusto Pinochet. The constitution was amended in 1988 after the defeat of Pinochet. In September 2005, President Ricardo Lagos signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.
Chile's administration is divided into 13 regions; each region is governed by an intendant appointed by president. Regions are divided into provinces governed by provincial governor. Further provinces are divided into communes and municipalities with mayor and councilman as administrator. Residents elect both Mayor and councilman.
Post independence the Chile's economic growth was quite impressive but in 1999 Chile started experiencing economic problems due to unfavorable global economic scenarios which mainly owes to Asian financial crisis started in 1997. Until 2003, Chilean economy was slow when it achieved 4% GDP growth rate. In 2004, the growth rate was 6%. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. Year 2006 was a record year for Chilean trade; the trade was increased upto 31 % when compared to trade in 2005. The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion).
Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile has completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries.
