Editing Chile (section)

===Spanish colonization===
{{main|Conquest of Chile|Colonial Chile}}
[[File:Captaincy General of Chile, 1775.svg|thumb|upright|[[Kingdom of Chile]] in 1775 according to Chilean historiography. The next year the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]] was created and the territories of the cities of [[Mendoza, Argentina|Mendoza]] and [[San Juan, Argentina|San Juan]] got transferred from Chile to the new entity.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Eyzaguirre, Jaime |title=Breve historia de las fronteras de Chile |date=1967 |publisher=Editorial Universitaria}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lagos Carmona |first1=Guillermo |title=Los Títulos Históricos: Historia de Las Fronteras de Chile |date=1985 |publisher=Andrés Bello |quote=(p. 197) We note that the Loa river is at 22 degrees and that Baleato, in 1793, indicated 21.5 degrees for the beginning of the Kingdom of Chile, with the Loa at its mouth in the Pacific. (...) (p. 540) According to the Map of Cano y Olmedilla, the limit of the Kingdom of Chile "(...) through the desert of Atacama (...) From here it turns to the S., S.E., S.E., and S., keeping in general this last course until near the 29° parallel, from where it takes a S.E. direction. SE. and S., generally keeping this last course until the vicinity of the 29° parallel, from where it takes a S.E. direction, skirting to the east the 'Province of Cuyo' which, of course, appears to be included in the territory of the Kingdom of Chile. In the latitude of 32°30' the line turns to the S.W. until reaching the Quinto river, which, as the legend says 'communicates by channels with the Saladillo in time of floods'. It follows the river down to the meridian 316°, counting to the E. of Tenerife, where it turns a stretch until it reaches the Hueuque-Leuvu river (or Barrancas river) at 371/2° latitude. From here it runs along the river for a stretch to the S.E., and then turns to the E. and falls into the Atlantic Sea in the vicinity of parallel 37° between Cape Lobos and Cape Corrientes", "a little north of the current Mar del Plata". (...) (p. 543) In this document it is seen that those of the province of Cuyo end to the south at the source of the Diamante River, and that from that point to the east, the dividing line goes to the point where the Quinto River crosses the road that goes from Santiago to Buenos Aires.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Amunátegui |first1=Miguel Luis |title=Títulos de la República de Chile a la soberanía i dominio de la Estremidad |date=1985 |url=https://libros.uchile.cl/files/presses/1/monographs/128/submission/proof/36/ |access-date=14 November 2022 |archive-date=12 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112070737/https://libros.uchile.cl/files/presses/1/monographs/128/submission/proof/36/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Morla Vicuña |first1=Carlos |title=Estudio histórico sobre el descubrimiento y conquista de la Patagonia y de la Tierra del Fuego |publisher=F. A. Brockhaus |location=Leipzig |date=1903}}</ref>]]

In 1520, while attempting to circumnavigate the globe, [[Ferdinand Magellan]] discovered the southern passage now named after him (the [[Strait of Magellan]]) thus becoming the first European to set foot on what is now Chile. The next Europeans to reach Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of [[Conquistador|Spanish conquistadors]], who came from [[Peru]] in 1535 seeking gold. The Spanish encountered various cultures that supported themselves principally through [[slash-and-burn]] agriculture and hunting.<ref name="countrystudies"/>

The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of Santiago on 12 February 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the [[Spanish Empire]].<ref name="countrystudies"/>

Conquest took place gradually, and the Europeans suffered repeated setbacks. A massive [[Mapuche]] insurrection that began in 1553 resulted in Valdivia's death and the destruction of many of the colony's principal settlements. Subsequent major insurrections took place in 1598 and in 1655. Each time the Mapuche and other native groups revolted, the southern border of the colony was driven northward. The abolition of [[slavery]] by the Spanish crown in 1683 was done in recognition that enslaving the Mapuche intensified resistance rather than cowing them into submission. Despite royal prohibitions, relations remained strained from continual colonialist interference.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/storiadellaguer00caivgoog|title=Storia della guerra d'America fra Chilì, il Perù e la Bolivia|first=Tommaso |last=Caivano|date=1 April 1882|place=Torino|publisher =Ermanno Loescher|via=Internet Archive|language=it}}</ref>{{verify source|date=August 2024|reason="page 66" was deleted from this citation by a user of the ReFill script at one point, but page 66 of this source does not seem to support this claim. the reference previously pointed to a djvu of the source, so pagination may have differed, but the djvu is no longer available via archive.org}}

Cut off to the north by desert, to the south by the Mapuche, to the east by the Andes Mountains, and to the west by the ocean, Chile became one of the most centralized, homogeneous territories in Spanish America. Serving as a sort of frontier [[garrison]], the colony found itself with the mission of forestalling encroachment by both the Mapuche and Spain's European enemies, especially the [[Kingdom of England|English]] and the [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]]. [[Buccaneer]]s and [[Piracy|pirates]] menaced the colony in addition to the Mapuche, as was shown by [[Francis Drake|Sir Francis Drake]]'s 1578 raid on Valparaíso, the colony's principal port. Chile hosted one of the largest standing armies in the Americas, making it one of the most militarized of the Spanish possessions, as well as a [[Real Situado|drain on the treasury of the Viceroyalty of Peru]].<ref name="hudson"/>
[[Image:Fundacion de Santiago.jpg|thumb|left|[[Pedro Lira]]'s 1888 painting of the founding of [[Santiago]] by [[Pedro de Valdivia]] at [[Santa Lucía Hill|Huelén Hill]]]]

The first general census was conducted by the government of [[Agustín de Jáuregui]] between 1777 and 1778; it indicated that the population consisted of 259,646 inhabitants: 73.5% of [[White Latin American|European descent]], 7.9% [[mestizo]]s, 8.6% [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]] and 9.8% blacks. Francisco Hurtado, Governor of the province of [[Chiloé Province|Chiloé]], conducted a census in 1784 and found the population consisted of 26,703 inhabitants, 64.4% of whom were whites and 33.5% of whom were natives. The Diocese of [[Concepción, Chile|Concepción]] conducted a census in areas south of the [[Maule river]] in 1812, but did not include the indigenous population or the inhabitants of the province of Chiloé. The population is estimated at 210,567, 86.1% of whom were [[Spanish Chilean|Spanish]] or of European descent, 10% of whom were indigenous and 3.7% of whom were mestizos, blacks and [[mulatto]]s.<ref>{{Cite book | url= https://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-8952.html | page= 370 | via= Biblioteca Nacional de Chile | last= Silva Castro | first= Raúl | title= Censo de 1813 | publisher= Imprenta Chile | place= Santiago | date= 1953 | archive-date= 18 August 2024 | access-date= 18 August 2024 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240818150256/https://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-8952.html | url-status= live }}</ref>

A 2021 study by [[Jörg Baten|Baten]] and Llorca-Jaña shows that regions with a relatively high share of North European migrants developed faster in terms of [[numeracy]], even if the overall number of migrants was small. This effect might be related to [[Externality|externalities]]: the surrounding population adopted a similar behavior as the small non-European immigrant group, and new schools were created. Ironically, there might have been positive [[spillover effects]] from the educational investment made by migrants, at the same time numeracy might have been reduced by the greater inequality in these regions. However, the positive effects of immigration were apparently stronger.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Baten|first1=Joerg|last2=Llorca-Jaña|first2=Manuel|date=2021|title=Inequality, Low-Intensity Immigration and Human Capital Formation in the Regions of Chile, 1820–1939|journal=Economics and Human Biology|volume=43|page=101030|doi=10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101030|pmid=34171763|s2cid=219382958|url=https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8177.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8177.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|issn=1570-677X}}</ref>