"From natives to settlers to immigrants", a series of posts to tell the brief history of Latin American cities through a diversity, money, density, and creativity lens, borrowing the model from the Museum of the City of NY.
Although the city already had inhabitants in the Mapocho River as far as 10,000 A.C., the first communities were the Incas in the 15th century when they conquered the region.
Santiago is named after the biblical figure Saint James (ca. A.D. 3-44), patron saint of Spain, revered in Galicia; "Santiago" derives from the local Galician evolution of the Vulgar Latin "Sanctu Iacobu"; Valparaiso derives from the Spanish "Valle Paraiso" meaning "Paradise Valley"
Upon arrival to Santiago, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia encountered the Picunche Indians. Spanish settlers placed the tribe under their rule. The city of Santiago was founded as Santiago del Nuevo Extremo (Santiago of the New Frontier) in 1541. The city lies on the canalized Mapocho River, which was later drained and converted into a public promenade "Alameda Bernardo O'Higgins".
By 1580, the 126 planned colonial blocks had been completely populated and the surrounding lands were also developing.
Plan de la ville de Santiago, mapa de Santiago de Chile durante el siglo XVIII. François Frezier / Jacques N. Bellin, 1712.
In the beginning of the 17th century, the city almost disappeared due to a series of events such as indigenous fights, earthquakes, and several floods. The city recovered and continued a constant growth.
Chile followed the revolutionary processes in America during the 19th century, and in 1810 the country's process of independence started. After years of war, Chile becomes independent from Spain in 1818. By 1820, the city had 46,000 people and by 1865 it reached 115,337.
19th century Santiago experienced a lot of institutional development, with urban developments such as the University of Chile, and other art institutions, but the main growth was in hydrology, with studies conducted to verify the canalization of the Mapocho River which finalized in 1865.
Plano de Santiago, 1895, del «Álbum de planos de la principales ciudades y puertos de Chile» publicados por Nicanor Boloña. [Santiago] : Dir. General de Obras Públicas, Of. de Geografía y Minas, 1896.
The impact of industrial development became clearer in the 20th century, with electricity, public lighting, and the tramway debut in 1900. In 1910 several railway branches were built, allowing a better connection between the city and the suburbs.
By 1920, Santiago had a total population of 507,296 or 13.6% of the country's population. The city had been experiencing annual population growth of 3.3% every year since 1907 (3 times the country's growth rate). This growth was mainly due to farmers coming from the south to work in factories or build railways. This growth, experienced in the outskirts, was enabled by the expansion of electric tramways connecting with the city and lower cost of recently built housing in the periphery.
Middle and upper class citizens in the city center, started migrating East of the city - further away from the polluted metropolis and closer to the rural areas, which allowed them to acquire low cost agricultural products. Many European immigrants, a big part of the professional class, installed themselves closer to nature, and started opening up sports clubs.
Map of Santiago de Chile, 1929. Ufficio cartografico del Touring Club Italiano.
The city center started to consolidate as a commercial neighborhood, where many shops called "portales" emerged; it became the administrative center of the country. Middle class citizens started populating the San Miguel sector, a dormitory city, and the marginalized neighborhoods, where the penitentiary and the municipal slaughterhouse, acted as barriers to incoming wealthier families. Both in San Miguel and in middle class neighborhoods, new houses were built as bungalows, inspired by British construction trends, while the working class lived in "villas." Wealthy and middle classes contrasted deeply with the lower class.
During the first two decades of the 20th century, the arrival of farmers was the driver of growth in poorer areas of the city, but actual demographic explosion took place in 1929. The Great Depression caused the collapse of the saltpeter industry in the north, with over 60,000 unemployed - totaling over 300,000 unemployed nationwide due to the consequential decline in agricultural exports.
The main cities seemed to be the only way to survive for Chileans, and many arrived to Santiago with nothing; thousands had to survive in the streets, diseases spread and tuberculosis took the life of hundreds of homeless, with 25.3 in every 10,000 dying - the highest mortality rate of this disease globally. Cost of living surged in the city and salaries decreased while unemployment increased.
The city's economic recovery was led by CORFO, the Production Development Corporation, a Chilean governmental organization. During this time, aristocracy lost a lot of the power it had sustained for centuries, and the middle class, formed by merchants, bureaucrats, and professionals, the ones leading national politics. In this framework, Santiago starts developing to the masses, while wealthier people are in the higher neighborhoods of the city.
In 1940 Santiago had over 900,000 people, it reached 1.3 million in 1952 and 1.9 million by 1960. This growth was especially experienced in the urbanization of the rural communities near the center, where lower to middle class families settled. After mid 20th century, the growth was explosive in the peripheries of the city: Barrancas, Conchali, La Cisterna, and La Granja. Wealthier classes started approaching the pre-mountain range area towards Las Condes and La Reina. The city center, on the other hand, lost people, leaving space for commerce, banking, and governmental activities.
Proyecto Tercera Etapa Metro Santiago 1965 (Chiletrenes).
Nowadays:, Santiago has a population of 5.6 million, and its cultural life is cosmopolitan. Although its institutions exhibit strong European and North American influences, there has been a resurgence of mestizo artisanship in music, theatre, painting, and literature.
Google Maps, 2023.
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Sources
Britannica, Santiago Chile.
CIA World Factbook, Chile.
Biblioteca Nacional de Chile. Memoria Chilena, La Familia Obrera 1900-1950.
Wikipedia, Historia de Santiago de Chile.
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