Late 1400’s: Inca Empire expands to include some parts of northern Chile
1520: Magellan passes into Pacific, explores some of Southern Chile’s coast
1532-35: Fall of the Inca Empire
1535: Diego de Almagro Expedition to Chile a disaster
1541: Pedro de Valdivia, veteran of the war against the Inca, founds Santiago
1553: Valdivia dies during a Mapuche attack
1578: Sir Francis Drake raids Valparaiso
1683: Slavery abolished, leading to slightly better relations with warlike Mapuche
1810: Chile declares independence from Spain
1818: Chile wins independence led by Bernardo O’Higgins
1832-1833: Naturalist Charles Darwin, on board the HMS Beagle, explores Tierra del Fuego and other parts of Chile
1881: A treaty with Argentina gives Chile the Strait of Magellan
1879-1883: The War of the Pacific pits Chile against an alliance of Bolivia and Peru: Chile wins, takes territories from both losers.
1891: Conflict between President Jose Manuel Balmaceda and Congress bring about Chilean Civil War; thousands die before Balmaceda loses.
1924: General Luis Altamirano stages a coup against civilian government: years of chaos follow
1964-1970: Moderate President Eduardo Frei Montalvo is unable to halt polarization of the nation between liberals and conservatives
1970: Socialist Salvador Allende elected: he socializes economy, alienates the upper class and cultivates close ties to communist nations, earning the enmity of Washington as well as Chilean elite.
September 11, 1973: Augusto Pinochet and other military leaders depose Allende, who commits suicide.
September-October, 1973: “The Caravan of Death” travels through Chile: Army officers kill up to 100 political prisoners, some of whom had voluntarily turned themselves in.
1970’s-1980’s: Up to 3,000 Chilean citizens are murdered by security forces in the name of counter-terrorism. Thousands more are tortured and held without any legal basis.
1990: Pinochet steps down but retains his title as commander-in-chief of the army, making accountability for war crimes difficult.
1998: Pinochet visits Britain, where he is arrested on a Spanish warrant for war crimes
2002: Pinochet declared incompetent to stand trial
2006: Michelle Bachelet elected first female president of Chile