Great Depression in Chile

[8] The crisis caused the authoritarian regime of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo to fall in July 1931 followed by a succession of short-lived governments until the election of Arturo Alessandri in December 1932.

[14] During this period of the Great depression, Chile's sluggish economic growth throughout 1929-1932 is further representative of the rising unemployment and decrease in the production of nitrate.

[8] More specifically, in the nitrate sector alone 50,000 workers were unemployed by 1932[15] High rates of unemployment, caused by a fragile export economy saw an increase in geographical mobility of the working class, exemplified between September 1930 to February in 1931 where 46,459 people left nitrate fields to the main cities of Chile, such as Santiago and other provincial cities.

[1] Thus, the working class was primarily subject to the social consequences, such as poverty, created by this rise in unemployment and deterioration of mining exports, in particular nitrate, during the Depression.

Working class struggle combined with economic decline lead to the printing of more money by Chile's president Juan Antonio Montero in April 1932.