Indigenous peoples in Chile in the context of Potatoes of Chiloé

Santiago (/ˌsæntiˈɑːɡoʊ/ SAN-tee-AH-goh, US also /ˌsɑːn-/ SAHN-, Spanish: [sanˈtjaɣo]), also known as Santiago de Chile (Spanish: [sanˈtjaɣo ðe ˈtʃile] ), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. Most of the city is situated between 500–650 m (1,640–2,133 ft) above sea level. Located in the Chilean Central Valley within the Santiago Basin, between the Andes to the east and the Chilean Coastal Range to the west, it anchors the Santiago Metropolitan Region and its conurbation of Greater Santiago, which comprises more than forty communes and concentrates over a third of the national population and around 45% of Chile’s GDP. Most of the city lies between 500 and 650 m (1,640–2,133 ft) above sea level, with recent urban growth extending into the Andean foothills.

The basin that Santiago occupies has been inhabited since at least the 10th millennium BC, with early agricultural villages established along the Mapocho River and later incorporated into the Inca sphere of influence. During the Spanish invasion of the Americas, conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founded the colonial city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo on 12 February 1541, laying out a grid plan around the Plaza Mayor (now Plaza de Armas). Despite early food shortages, Indigenous attacks, floods, and devastating earthquakes—notably in 1647—the city consolidated as the capital of the Captaincy General of Chile. Santiago remained the political center during the Chilean War of Independence, beginning with the First Government Junta in 1810 and culminating in patriot victory at the Battle of Maipú in 1818, and subsequently expanded through 19th-century railway construction, state-building projects, and the creation of major educational and cultural institutions.

Santiago (/ˌsæntiˈɑːɡoʊ/ SAN-tee-AH-goh, US also /ˌsɑːn-/ SAHN-, Spanish: [sanˈtjaɣo]), also known as Santiago de Chile (Spanish: [sanˈtjaɣo ðe ˈtʃile] ), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. Located in the Chilean Central Valley within the Santiago Basin, between the Andes to the east and the Chilean Coastal Range to the west, it anchors the Santiago Metropolitan Region and its conurbation of Greater Santiago, which comprises more than forty communes and concentrates over a third of the national population and around 45% of Chile’s GDP. Most of the city lies between 500 and 650 m (1,640–2,133 ft) above sea level, with recent urban growth extending into the Andean foothills.

The basin that Santiago occupies has been inhabited since at least the 10th millennium BC, with early agricultural villages established along the Mapocho River and later incorporated into the Inca sphere of influence. During the Spanish invasion of the Americas, conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founded the colonial city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo on 12 February 1541, laying out a grid plan around the Plaza Mayor (now Plaza de Armas). Despite early food shortages, Indigenous attacks, floods, and devastating earthquakes—notably in 1647—the city consolidated as the capital of the Captaincy General of Chile. Santiago remained the political center during the Chilean War of Independence, beginning with the First Government Junta in 1810 and culminating in patriot victory at the Battle of Maipú in 1818, and subsequently expanded through 19th-century railway construction, state-building projects, and the creation of major educational and cultural institutions.

Chileans (Spanish: Chilenos, pronounced [tʃiˈlenos]) are an ethnic group and nation native to the country of Chile and its neighboring insular territories. Most Chileans share a common culture, history, ancestry and language. The overwhelming majority of Chileans are the product of varying degrees of admixture between white ethnic groups (predominantly Basques and Spaniards) with peoples indigenous to Chile's modern territory (predominantly Mapuche). Chile is a multilingual and multicultural society, but an overwhelming majority of Chileans have Spanish as their first language and either are Christians (mainly Catholic) or have a Christian cultural background. There is a relatively large irreligious minority.

However, many Chileans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and allegiance to Chile. This has resulted due to immigration to Chile throughout its history, and thus the term "Chilean" can now also include people identifying with the country whose connection may not be ethnic, but cultural, historical, legal, or residential. For most modern Chileans, several or all of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their Chilean identity.

The economy of Chile has shifted substantially over time from the heterogeneous economies of the diverse indigenous peoples to an early husbandry-oriented economy and finally to one of raw material export and a large service sector. Chile's recent economic history (since 1973) has been the focus of an extensive debate, as it pioneered neoliberal economic policies.

Chile emerged into independence as a rural economy on what was the periphery of the Spanish Empire. A period of relative free trade that began with independence in the 1810s brought a modernizing development of certain sectors of the Chilean economy. This was accompanied by formation of a local business class, a novelty in Chile. Chile experienced its first modern economic crisis with the Long depression in the 1870s.