Chile is the western bottom of South America, divided from the eastern portion (Argentina) by a series of mountains including the last of the Andes. It’s about the size of Texas with a popularion of 16½ million.

Chile declared independence from Spain in 1810, but a revolutionary war continued until 1818. For most of its time since then it has been governed by military juntas. In the late 1970s a democratically elected and very leftist government came to power, which was overthrown with the help of the U.S. That military regime ended in 1990. Since then the country has enjoyed a vibrant democracy with a robust economy.

Considerably less agricultural than its neighbor on the other side of the Andes, Chile has a healthy fishing and mining industry and a recently developed but rapidly growing IT industry as well.