History of agriculture in Chile

Indigenous peoples practised varying types of agriculture, from the oases of the Atacama Desert to as far south as the Guaitecas Archipelago (43° S).

[3][4] [Chile] is rich in pastures and cultivated fields, in which all kind of animals and plants can be breed or grown, there is plenty of very beautiful wood for making houses, and plenty of firewood, and rich gold mines, and all land is full of them...The arrival of the Spanish disrupted in many places local agriculture as indigenous populations shrunk and mining rose to prominence.

[7] Spanish agriculture, centered on the hacienda, absorbed most of the scattered and declining indigenous populations of Central Chile.

[8] On the contrary open fields in southern Chile were overgrown as indigenous populations declined due to diseases introduced by the Spanish and warfare.

Dispossessed Mapuches were marginalized to small plots or mountainous terrain where their husbandry operations caused severe soil erosion.

Despite the development of irrigation canals,[14] limited introduction of wage labour[15][16] and apiculture[14] much of Chilean agriculture remained backward in relation to other economic sectors.

[19] As part of a policy of industrialization Chilean state invested in the late 1950s and early 1960s into dairy plants, refrigerated slaughterhouses, sugar refineries and transport infrastructure.

As the military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet initiated a partial counter-reform in 1973 agriculture became increasingly run by large private enterprises and individuals who concentrated land ownership.

At the time of the arrival of the first Spaniards to Chile the largest indigenous population concentration was in the area spanning from Itata River to Chiloé Archipelago.

In Chile Spanish settlers managed to continue to exploit indigenous labour under slave like conditions despite the implementation of the encomienda.

[27] The initial Spanish settlers of Chiloé Archipelago (conquered in 1567[28]) attempted to base their economy on gold extraction and a "hispanic-mediterranean" agricultural model.

[29] The collapse of the Spanish cities in the south following the battle of Curalaba (1598) meant for the Spaniards the loss of both the main gold districts and the largest indigenous labour sources.

[30] After those dramatic years the colony of Chile became concentrated in the central valley which became increasingly populated, explored and economically exploited.

[33] To deal with the poor and landless population a policy of founding cities[note 1] and granting lands in their surroundings was implemented.

[38] Initially Chilean latifundia could not meet the wheat demand due to a labour shortage, so had to incorporate temporal workers in addition to the permanent staff.

The Guerra a muerte phase was particularly destructive for the Biobío area and ended only to see a period of outlaw banditry (e.g. Pincheira brothers) occur until the late 1820s.

[44] The "cycle" came to an end in the late 1870s due to the increased technification of agriculture in the United States and Argentina plus the competition of Russia and Canada.

Until the mid-19th century more than 80% of Chilean population remained rural working in agriculture or mining and was to a large degree self-sufficient to produce articles of consume.

[53] Chilean wine exports to Argentina were hampered by the lack of effective land transport and a series of war scares.

This situation changed after the Pactos de Mayo were signed in 1902 and the inauguration of the Transandine Railway in 1909, making war unlikely and trade across the Andes easy.

Argentine winegrowers association, Centro Vitivinícola Nacional, dominated by European immigrants protested vigorously against the free trade agreement since Chilean wines were considered a threat to the local industry.

The complaints of Argentine wine growers in conjunction with that of Chilean cattle farmers represented in Sociedad Nacional de la Agricultura ended up tearing down the plans for a free trade agreement.

[54] Tierra del Fuego and much of Magallanes Region did also experienced a fast growth of the sheepherding industry since the 1880s accompanied by colonization of the sparsely populated Patagonian grasslands.

[17] McBride, a British who visited Chile in the 1930s, is reported to have been "astounded" to see haciendas with "agricultural methods that reminds of ancient Egypt, Greece or Palestine.

[61] That plan allowed CORFO to develop investments in dairy plants, refrigerated slaughterhouses, sugar refineries and transport infrastructure.