Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was a civilization located along the Lower Nile, reaching from the Nile Delta in the north to as far south as Jebel Barkal at the time of its greatest extension (15th century BC). It lasted for three millennia, from circa 3200 BC to 343 BC, ending when Artaxerxes III conquered Egypt. As a civilization based on irrigaton it is the quintessential example of a hydraulic empire.

Background

Khafre's Pyramid ( 4th dynasty) and Great Sphinx of Giza (c. 2600 BC or perhaps earlier)



Egypt is a transcontinental nation located mostly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula lying in Asia. The country has shorelines on the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Suez; it borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip, Palestine and Israel to the east. Ancient Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper and Lower Egypt. The Nile river flows northward from a southerly point to the Mediterranean. The Nile river, around which much of the population of the country clusters, has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since the Stone Age and Naqada cultures.

The area around the Nile was called Kemet ("the black land", in Ancient Egyptian Kmt), the name for the dark soil deposited by the Nile floodwaters. In contrast, the desert was called Deshret ("the red land", in Ancient Egyptian Dsrt), c.f. Herodotus: "Egypt is a land of black soil.... We know that Libya is a redder earth" (Histories, 2:12). The vowels within the consonants K-M-T are not known with certainty. Coptic, however, provides some indication.

Nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along the Nile during the Pleistocene. Traces of these early peoples appear in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. By about 6000 B.C., organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley.

People

Map of Ancient Egypt












Many theories have b ee n proposed regarding the origins of early Egyptians, a subject still imbued with controversy today. Controversy over race of Ancient Egyptians has more information about this subject.

Egyptian society was a merging of North and Northeast African as well as Southwest Asian peoples. Modern genetics reveals that the Egyptian population today is characterized by paternal lineages common to North Africans primarily, and to some Near Eastern peoples. Studies based on the maternal lineages closely links modern Egyptians with people from modern Ethiopia, . The ancient Egyptians themselves traced their origin to a land they called Ethiopian Hig Punt, or "Ta Nteru" ("Land of the Gods"), which most Egyptologists locate in the area encompassing the hlands.

A recent bioanthropological study on the dental morphology of ancient Egyptians confirms dental traits most characteristic of North African and to a lesser extent Southwest Asian populations. The study also establishes biological continuity from the predynastic to the post-pharaonic periods. Among the samples included is skeletal material from the Hawara tombs of Fayum, which was found to most closely resemble the Badarian series of the predynastic , . A

study based on stature and body proportions suggests that Nilotic or tropical body characteristics were also present in some later groups as the Egyptian empire expanded southward.

Champollion the Younger, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone, claimed in Expressions et Termes Particuliers that kmt referred to a 'negroid' popula

tion. Modern day professional Egyptologists, anthropologists, and linguists, however, overwhelmingly agree that the term referred to the dark soil of the Nile Valley rather than the people, which contrasted with dSrt or the "red land" of the Sahara desert.

Although an

alyzing the hair of ancient Egyptian mummies from the Late Middle Kingdom has revealed evidence of a stable diet , mummies from circa 3200 BC show signs of severe anemia and hemolitic disorders .

Quoting extant literary sources

• c. 450 BC: Herodotus wrote,

"the Colchians are Egyptians... on the fact that they are swarthy (melanchrôs) and wooly-haired (oulothrix)" (Histories Book 2:104).

• c. 800 BC: Homer refers to the "Ethiopian origin of Thebes" ( Iliad). Melanchros was also used by Homer to describe the sunburnt complexion of Odysseus (Od. 16.176).

History

Colossus of Memnon.

Egyptian culture was remarkably stable and changed little over a period of nearly 3000 years. This includes religion, customs, art expression, architecture and social structure.

The history of ancient Egypt proper starts with Egypt as a unified state, which occurred sometime around 3000 BC. Narmer, who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, was the first pharaoh; though archaeological evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society existed for a much longer period (see Predynastic Egypt).

Along the Nile, in 10th millennium BC, a -grain grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had been replaced by another culture of hunters, fishers, and gathering peoples using stone tools. Evidence also indicates human habitation in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, eventually forming the Sahara (c. 2500 BC), and early tribes naturally migrated to the Nile river where they developed a settled agriculture economy and more centralized society (see Nile: History). There is evidence of pastoralism and cultivation of cereals in the East Sahara in the 7th millennium BC. By 6000 BC ancient Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and constructing large buildings. Mortar (masonry) was in use by 4000 BC. The Predynastic Period continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Naqada culture. Some authorities however begin the Predynastic Period earlier, in the Lower Paleolithic (see Predynastic Egypt).

Egypt unified as a single state circa 3000 BC. Egyptian chronology involves assigning beginnings and endings to various dynasties beginning around this time. The conventional Egyptian chronology is the accepted developments during the 20th century, but do not include any of the major revision proposals that have also been made in that time. Even within a single work, often archeologists will offer several possible dates or even several whole chronologies as possibilities. Consequently, there may be discrepancies between dates shown here and in articles on particular rulers. Often there are also several possible spellings of the names. Typically, Egyptologists divide the history of pharaonic civilization using a schedule laid out first by Manetho's Aegyptaica.

• List of pharaohs: The pharaohs stretch from before 3000 BC to around 30 BC.
• Dynasties (see also: List of Egyptian dynasties):
  • Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (1st to 2nd Dynasties; until ca. 27th century BC)
  • Old Kingdom (3rd to 6th Dynasties; 27th to 22nd centuries BC)
  • First Intermediate Period (7th to 11th Dynasties)
  • Middle Kingdom of Egypt (11th to 14th Dynasties; 20th to 17th centuries BC)
  • Second Intermediate Period (14th to 17th Dynasties)
    • Hyksos (15th to 16th Dynasties)
  • New Kingdom of Egypt (18th to 20th Dynasties; 16th to 11th centuries BC)
  • Third Intermediate Period (21st to 25th Dynasties; 11th to 7th centuries BC)
  • Late Period of Ancient Egypt (26th to 31st Dynasties; 7th century BC to 332 BC)
    • Achaemenid Dynasty
  • Graeco-Roman Egypt ( 332 BC to AD 639)
    • Ptolemaic Dynasty
    • Roman Empire

Taxation

The Egyptian government imposed a number of different taxes upon its people. As there was no known form of currency during that time period, taxes were paid for "in kind" (with produce or work). The Vizier controlled the taxation system through the departments of state. The departments had to report daily on the amount of stock availible, and how much was expected in the future. Taxes were paid for depending on a persons craft or duty. Landowners paid their taxes in grain and other produce grown on their property. Craftsmen paid their taxes in the goods that they produced. Hunters and fishermen paid their taxes with produce from the river, marshes, and desert. One person from every household was required to pay a labor tax by doing public work for a few weeks every year, such as digging canals or mining. However, a richer noble could hire a poorer man to do his labor tax.

Language

Ancient Egyptian constitutes an independent branch of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. Its closest relatives are the Berber, Semitic, and Beja groups of languages. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC, making it one of the oldest and longest documented languages. Scholars group Egyptian into six major chronological divisions:

• Archaic Egyptian (before 3000 BC)

Consists of inscriptions from the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic period. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing appears on Naqada II pottery vessels.

• Old Egyptian (3000–2000 BC)

The language of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. The Pyramid Texts are the largest body of literature written in this phase of the language. Tomb walls of elite Egyptians from this period also bear autobiographical writings representing Old Egyptian. One of its distinguishing characteristics is the tripling of ideograms, phonograms, and determinatives to indicate the plural. Overall, it does not differ significantly from the next stage.

• Middle Egyptian (2000–1300 BC)

Often dubbed Classical Egyptian, this stage is known from a variety of textual evidence in hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts dated from about the Middle Kingdom. It includes funerary texts inscribed on sarcophagi such as the Coffin Texts; wisdom texts instructing people on how to lead a life that exemplified the ancient Egyptian philosophical worldview (see the Ipuwer papyrus); tales detailing the adventures of a certain individual, for example the Story of Sinhue; medical and scientific texts such as the Edwin Smith Papyrus and the Ebers papyrus; and poetic texts praising a god or a pharaoh, like the Hymn to the Nile. The Egyptian vernacular already began to change from the written language as evidenced by some Middle Kingdom hieratic texts, but classical Middle Egyptian continued to be written in formal contexts well into the Late Dynastic period (sometimes referred to as Late Middle Egyptian).

• Late Egyptian (1300–700 BC)

Records of this stage appear in the second part of the New Kingdom, considered by many as the "Golden Age" of ancient Egyptian civilization. It contains a rich body of religious and secular literature, comprising such famous examples as the Story of Wenamun and the Instructions of Ani. It was also the language of Ramesside administration. Late Egyptian is not totally distinct from Middle Egyptian, as many "classicisms" appear in historical and literary documents of this phase. However, the difference between Middle and Late Egyptian is greater than that between Middle and Old Egyptian. It's also a better representative than Middle Egyptian of the spoken language in the New Kingdom and beyond. Hieroglyphic orthography saw an enormous expansion of its graphemic inventory between the Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic periods.

• Demotic Egyptian (7th century BC–4th century AD)

• Coptic (3rd–17th century AD)

Writing

For many years, the earliest known hieroglyphic inscription was the Narmer Palette, found during excavations at Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar) in the 1890s, which has been dated to c. 3200 BC. However recent archaeological findings reveal that symbols on Gerzean pottery, c. 4000 BC, resemble the traditional hieroglyph forms . Also in 1998 a German archeological team under Gunter Dreyer excavating at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) uncovered tomb U-j, which belonged to a Predynastic ruler, and they recovered three hundred clay labels inscribed with proto-hieroglyphics dating to the Naqada IIIA period, circa 33rd century BC , .

Egyptologists refer to Egyptian writing as hieroglyphs, today standing as the world's earliest known writing system. The hieroglyphic script was partly syllabic, partly ideographic. Hieratic is a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs and was first used during the First Dynasty (c. 2925 BC – c. 2775 BC). The term Demotic, in the context of Egypt, came to refer to both the script and the language that followed the Late Ancient Egyptian stage, i.e. from the Nubian 25th dynasty until its marginalization by the Greek Koine in the early centuries AD. After the conquest of Amr ibn al-A'as in the 7th century AD, the Coptic language survived as a spoken language into the Middle Ages. Today, it continues to be the liturgical language of the Christian minority.

Beginning from around 2700 BC, Egyptians used pictograms to represent vocal sounds -- both vowel and consonant vocalizations (see Hieroglyph: Script). By 2000 BC, 26 pictograms were being used to represent 24 (known) main vocal sounds. The world's oldest known alphabet (c. 1800 BC) is only an abjad system and was derived from these uniliteral signs as well as other Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The hieroglyphic script finally fell out of use around the 4th century AD. Attempts to decipher it began after the 15th century (see Hieroglyphica).

Literature

• c. 1800 BC: Story of Sinuhe
• c. 1800 BC: Ipuwer papyrus
• c. 1600 BC: Westcar Papyrus
• c. 1180 BC: Papyrus Harris I
• c. 1000 BC: Story of Wenamun

Culture

The Egyptian religions, embodied in Egyptian mythology, were a succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt, as early as predynastic times and all the way until the coming of Christianity and Islam in the Graeco-Roman era. These were conducted by Egyptian priests or magicians, but the use of magic and spells is questioned.

Every animal portrayed and worshipped in ancient Egyptian art, writing and religion is indigenous to Africa, all the way from the predynastic until the Graeco-Roman eras, over 3000 years. The Arabian camel, domesticated first in Arabia, first appears in Egypt (and North Africa) beginning in the 2nd millennium BCE.

The religious nature of ancient Egyptian civilization influenced its contribution to the arts of the ancient world. Many of the great works of ancient Egypt depict gods, goddesses, and pharaohs, who were also considered divine. Ancient Egyptian art in general is characterized by the idea of order.

Evidence of mummies and pyramids outside ancient Egypt indicate reflections of ancient Egyptian belief values on other prehistoric cultures, transmitted in one way over the Silk Road. Ancient Egypt's foreign contacts included Nubia and Punt to the south, the Aegean and ancient Greece to the north, the Levant and other regions in the Near East to the east, and also Libya to the west.

Some scholars have speculated that Egypt's art pieces are sexually symbolic.

Ancient achievements

Louvre Museum antiquity

See Predynastic Egypt for inventions and other significant achievements in the Sahara region before the Protodynastic Period.

The art and science of engineering was present in Egypt, such as accurately determining the position of points and the distances between them (known as surveying). These skills were used to outline pyramid bases. The Egyptian pyramids took the geometric shape formed from a polygonal base and a point, called the apex, by triangular faces. Hydraulic Cement was

first invented by the Egyptians. The Al Fayyum Irrigation (water works) was one of the main agricultural breadbaskets of the ancient world. There is evidence of ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of the Fayyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry seasons. From the time of the First dynasty or before, the Egyptians mined turquoise in Sinai Peninsula.

The earliest evidence (circa 1600 BC) of traditional empiricism is credited to Egypt, as evidenced by the Edwin Smith and Ebers papyri. The roots of the Scientific method may be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians are also credited with devising the world's earliest known alphabet, decimal system and complex mathematical formularizations, in the form of the Moscow and Rhind Mathematical Papyri. An awareness of the golden ratio seems to be reflected in many constructions, such as the Egyptian pyramids.

The art of glass making is of very ancient origin with the Egyptians, as is evident from the glass jars, figures and ornaments discovered in the tombs. The paintings on the tombs have been interpreted as descriptive of the process of glass blowing. These illustrations representing smiths blowing their fires by means of reeds tipped with clay. Therefore it can be concluded that glass-blowing is apparently of Egyptian origin.

Chile

History

About 10,000 years ago, migrating Native Americans settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's remoteness and the fierce opposition of the native population prevented extensive settlement.

In 1520, while attempting to circumnavigate the earth, the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan, discovered the southern passage now named after him, the Straits of Magellan. The next Europeans to reach Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru in 1535 seeking gold but were turned back by the local population. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The first permanent European settlement, Santiago, was founded in 1541 by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarro's lieutenants. 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 Viceroyalty of Peru.

Conquest of the land that is today called Chile took place only gradually, and the Europeans suffered repeated setbacks at the hands of the local population. 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 in 1683 defused tensions on the frontier between the colony and the Mapuche land to the south, and permitted increased trade between colonists and Mapuches.

The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated 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. A movement for total independence soon won a wide following. Spanish attempts to reimpose arbitrary rule during what was called the Reconquista led to a prolonged struggle.

Bernardo O'Higgins

The movement toward independence began in 1810 under the leadership of Juan Martínez de Rozas and Bernardo O'Higgins. The first phase (1810–14) ended in defeat at Rancagua, largely because of the rivalry of O'Higgins with José Miguel Carrera and his brothers. In 1817, José de San Martín, with incredible hardship, brought an army over the Andes from Argentina to Chile. The following year he won the decisive battle of Maipú over the Spaniards.

Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by ruthlessly suppressing the Mapuche Indians, finally completing the conquest begun more than three centuries earlier. In 1881, the government signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan. As a result of the War of the Pacific with Peru and Bolivia ( 1879– 83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third, eliminating Bolivia's access to the Pacific, and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. The Chilean Civil War in 1891 brought about a redistribution of power between the President and Congress, and Chile established a parliamentary style democracy. However, the Civil War had also been a contest between those who favored the development of local industries and powerful Chilean banking interests, particularly the House of Edwards who had strong ties to foreign investors. Hence the Chilean economy partially degenerated into a system protecting the interests of a ruling oligarchy By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, Arturo Alessandri Palma, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. Alessandri Palma's reformist tendencies were partly tempered later by an admiration for some elements of Mussolini's Italian Corporate State. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.

A military coup led by General Luis Altamirano in 1924 set off a period of great political instability that lasted until 1932. The longest lasting of the ten governments between those years was that of General Carlos Ibáñez, who briefly held power in 1925 and then again between 1927 and 1931 in what was a de facto dictatorship, although not really comparable in harshness or corruption to the type of military dictatorship that has often bedeviled the rest of Latin America, and certainly not comparable to the violent and repressive regime of Augusto Pinochet decades later. By relinquishing power to a democratically elected successor, Ibáñez del Campo retained the respect of a large enough segment of the population to remain a viable politician for more than thirty years, in spite of the vague and shifting nature of his ideology. When constitutional rule was restored in 1932, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy. In 1952, voters returned Ibáñez, now reincarnated as a sort of Chilean Perón, to office for another 6 years. Jorge Alessandri succeeded Ibáñez in 1958, bringing Chilean conservatism back into power democratically for another term.

The 1964 presidential election of Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

In 1970, Senator Salvador Allende Gossens, a Marxist physician and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the " Popular Unity" (UP or "Unidad Popular") coalition of the Socialist, Communist, Radical, and Social-Democratic Parties, along with dissident Christian Democrats, the Popular Unitary Action Movement ( MAPU), and the Independent Popular Action, won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest. Despite pressure from the government of the United States, the Chilean Congress, keeping with tradition, conducted a runoff vote between the leading candidates, Allende and former president Jorge Alessandri and chose Allende by a vote of 153 to 35. Frei refused to form an alliance with Alessandri to oppose Allende, on the grounds that the Christian Democrats were a workers party and could not make common cause with the oligarchs.

Allende's program included advancement of workers' interests; a thoroughgoing implementation of agrarian reform; the reorganization of the national economy into socialized, mixed, and private sectors; a foreign policy of "international solidarity" and national independence; and a new institutional order (the "people's state" or "poder popular"), including the institution of a unicameral congress. The Popular Unity platform also called for nationalization of foreign (U.S.) ownership of Chile's major copper mines.

An economic depression that began in 1967 peaked in 1970, exacerbated by capital flight, plummeting private investment, and withdrawal of bank deposits by those opposed to Allende's socialist program. Production fell and unemployment rose. Allende adopted measures including price freezes, wage increases, and tax reforms, which had the effect of increasing consumer spending and redistributing income downward. Joint public-private public works projects helped reduce unemployment. Much of the banking sector was nationalized. Many enterprises within the copper, coal, coaliron, nitrate, and steel industries were expropriated, nationalized, or subjected to state intervention. Industrial output increased sharply and unemployment fell during the Allende administration's first year.

Other reforms undertaken during the early Allende period included redistribution of millions of hectares of land to landless agricultural workers as part of the agrarian reform program, giving the armed forces an overdue pay increase, and providing free milkto children. The Indian Peoples Development Corporation and the Mapuche Vocational Institute were founded to address the needs of Chile's indigenous population.

The nationalization of U.S. and other foreign-owned companies led to increased tensions with the United States. The Nixon administration brought international financial pressure to bear in order to restrict economic credit to Chile. Simultaneously, the CIA funded opposition media, politicians, and organizations, helping to accelerate a campaign of domestic destabilization. By 1972, the economic progress of Allende's first year had been reversed and the economy was in crisis. Political polarization increased, and large mobilizations of both pro- and anti-government groups became frequent, often leading to clashes.

By early 1973, inflation was out of control. The crippled economy was further battered by prolonged and sometimes simultaneous strikes by physicians, teachers, students, truck owners, copper workers, and the small business class. A military coup overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace (Palacio de La Moneda), Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime were marked by serious human rights violations. On October 1973, at least 70 persons were murdered by the Caravan of Death. At least a thousand people were executed during the first six months of Pinochet in office, and at least two thousand more were killed during the next sixteen years, as reported by the Valech Report. Some 30,000 were forced to flee the country. A new Constitution was approved by a highly irregular and undemocratic plebiscite characterized by the absence of registration lists, on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. In the late 1980s, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union and limited political activity. The right-wing military government pursued decidedly laissez-faire economic policies. During its nearly 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that saw an increase in domestic and foreign private investment, although the copper industry and other important mineral resources were not returned to foreign ownership. In a plebiscite on October 5, 1988, General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans elected a new president and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress on December 14, 1989. Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin, the candidate of a coalition of 16 political parties called the Concertación, received an absolute majority of votes. President Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994, in what was considered a transition period.

In December 1993, Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the son of previous president Eduardo Frei Montalva, led the Concertación coalition to victory with an absolute majority of votes. President Frei's administration was inaugurated in March 1994.

A presidential election was held on December 12, 1999, but none of the six candidates obtained a majority, which led to an unprecedented runoff election on January 16, 2000 between Ricardo Lagos and Joaquín Lavín of the rightist Alliance for Chile. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party led the Concertación coalition to a narrow victory, with 51.31% of the votes. He was sworn in March 11, 2000, for a 6-year term.

Chile's current president-elect is the former health and later defense minister Michelle Bachelet, daughter of Alberto Bachelet, an air force general who was captured and tortured in the military coup of 1973 and died shortly after. Ms. Bachelet continues the center-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy government in their fourth term. She is the first and so far the only woman president in the country's history. She won the 2006 runoff election against center-right candidate Sebastián Piñera after none of the four main candidates obtained the necessary 50% of the votes in the first round of voting. Bachelet will be sworn in for a four-year term, instead of a six-year term, following reforms to the Constitution in 2005.

República de Chile

Flag

Coat of arms

Motto: Por la Razón o la Fuerza

( Spanish: "By right or might")

Anthem: Himno Nacional

Capital	Santiago1 33°26′ S 70°40′ W
Largest city	Santiago
Official language(s)	Spanish
Government • President	Democratic republic Ricardo Lagos
Independence • Initiated • Declared • Recognized	From Spain September 18, 1810 February 12, 1818 April 25, 1844
Area • Total • Water (%)	756,950 km² ( 38th) {{{areami²}}} mi² 1.07%2%
Population • June 2005 est. • 2002 census • Density	16,136,137 ( 60th) 15,116,435 21/km² ( 153rd) {{{population_densitymi²}}}/mi²
GDP ( PPP) • Total • Per capita	2004 estimate $183,286 million ( 42nd) $11,300 ( 59th)
HDI ( 2003)	0.854 ( 37th) – high
Currency	Peso ( CLP)
Time zone • Summer ( DST)	— ( UTC-4) — ( UTC-3)
Internet TLD	.cl
Calling code	+56
1 The legislative body operates in Valparaíso 2 Includes Easter Island and Isla Sala y Gómez; does not include 1,250,000 km² of claimed territory in Antarctica