INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN CHILE: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2025

The Industrial R evolution in Chile took place during the 19th century, when it took advantage of the novelties that were appearing in Europe to change its economic base and modernize some of its infrastructures.

The changes caused by the Industrial Revolution in the old continent caused it to begin to need more imported products. On the one hand, their factories needed raw materials to be able to function at the rate that new inventions and methods needed.

Saltpeter workers assembling a railway line - Source: Roxboop at en.wikisource under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Chile license

On the other, there was a population explosion in most European countries. For this reason, it was necessary for food imports to grow, so they resorted to buying more cereals abroad. Chile was one of the countries that gained an advantage as an exporter of raw materials and food.

As a result, it modernized its transportation, strengthened its mining and extraction industry, and had to develop new areas of the country to make them more economically profitable. As for industrialization itself, it did not come until the beginning of the 20th century.

Causes

There were several historical circumstances that led to the first Industrial Revolution. This, which took place in Great Britain, was the end of a series of events that had occurred in Europe since the end of the Middle Ages.

The main ones were the development of science, the inventions that improved the transportation and colonization of America, Africa and Asia.

One of the inventions that had the greatest impact on the Industrial Revolution was that of the steam engine. In a short time, this new machine gave a huge boost to industrial production, making it more efficient. In addition, it also represented a great advance in transport, both land and sea.

Although this first stage of the Industrial Revolution was limited to England, in the following decades it expanded throughout the rest of Europe and the United States. While this was happening, Chile had just become an independent country and was trying to stabilize its political and economic situation.

The fundamental base of the Chilean economy was agriculture and livestock, with very little industrial development. However, it was able to take advantage of the needs created in the great European powers to make an economic leap and become an exporting country.

Need for raw materials in Europe

As has been pointed out, the European industry that emerged from the Revolution was more efficient. However, this meant an increase in demand for raw materials, especially minerals. Chile had large deposits, which made the country one of the main exporters, especially of coal and copper.

In the case of this second mineral, the growth of its demand caused a sharp increase in prices. This encouraged the search for new deposits outside Europe, since theirs were running out. The Chilean territory was very rich in this material and, in a short time, it became the main producer in the world.

To achieve this position, he began to use some technical advances, such as the reverberatory oven) and improved his transportation.

On the other hand, Chile also became an export power of another product highly demanded by Europeans: nitrate. During the second half of the 19th century, the sales of this material increased enormously.

Population increase in Europe

The improvement of living conditions in Europe, plus the advances in its agriculture, caused its population to multiply in a short time. This resulted in a greater need for food. To meet this demand, Chile increased its production of wheat and other cereals.

All this accumulation of capital obtained by exports, brought with it the possibility of obtaining foreign credits and dedicating them to modernize the country. Furthermore, foreign investment began to grow.

Consequences

Both population growth and the growing demand for raw materials in Europe were a strong stimulus for the Chilean economy. Although the creation of its own industry was slow in coming, the country took advantage of the circumstances to undertake some changes in many sectors.

Incorporation of technological advances

The new transportation systems arrived in Chile very soon. Thus, steamships began to be used in 1835, introduced by the American businessman William Wheelwright. He founded a company that became a great export advantage: Pacific Steam Navigation.

The same happened with land transport, especially with rail. The railway infrastructure built was designed to link the mining and agricultural regions with the shipping ports. The first railway between Caldera and Copiapó was inaugurated in 1851, with the participation of Wheelwright, now together with Enrique Meiggs.

Development of new areas of the country

The demand for food intended for export led to the occupation of new regions to grow wheat, such as Araucanía. There, irrigation canals were built, steam engines were brought in and the construction of the railway was favored.

All this supposed a great modernization of the agricultural activity with the purpose of being able to trade with the European markets.

Raw Materials

As with food, the need for raw materials also led to the modernization of the extraction activity. Copper became one of the most important products for the Chilean economy. In fact, the taxes that the trade in this metal produced contributed half of the country's budget.

Copper extraction stimulated other economic areas. It was necessary to build foundries to process the metal and ports to ship it. Similarly, Chile had to buy new ships and the production of coal, necessary for the copper production process, increased.

On the other hand, the demand for nitrate made Chilean businessmen invest in its extraction. This not only happened in the country's territory, but also in Bolivia, in an area that, after the War of the Pacific, was incorporated into Chile.

The so-called white gold became, for a few decades, the most important product in the country. During the latter part of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, its export sustained the Chilean accounts.

Small advances in industrialization

After the University of Chile was created, almost in the middle of the 19th century, the Chilean government began to bring in foreign experts to promote knowledge and industrial development.

However, it was not until the end of that century that Chile began its own industrialization process. It is then that SOFOCA is founded, an organization that sought to promote its development. In this way, the metalworking, food or textile industry began to appear.

Country-city migration

Although later than in Europe, Chile also experienced a process of migration from the countryside to the city. It could even be higher if not for the high infant mortality rate, frequent famines and some epidemics.

Social conflict

The changes in the economic and labor structures caused by the Industrial Revolution had a great impact on social relations and politics. With industrialization a new class appeared, the proletariat, made up of the workers. Their living conditions were very bad, with no labor rights.

To try to improve these conditions, the workers grouped themselves into unions and political parties, many of them of socialist ideology. Their main weapons were strikes and demonstrations, to which the State responded, many times, with great violence.

In Chile, as in the rest of the world, many social conflicts arose, known as the “Social Question”. At the beginning of the 20th century, the workers' struggle obtained some victories, with the promulgation of laws that better regulated their rights against the bosses.

References

1. Educational Portal. Industrial revolution and its impact in Chile. Obtained from portaleducativo.net
2. Online teacher. Impact of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution in Chile. Obtained from profesorenlinea.cl
3. Leibbrandt, Alexander. Industrial Revolution. Obtained from mch.cl
4. US Library of Congress. Evolution of the Economy. Retrieved from countrystudies.us
5. Evans, C., Saunders, O. A world of copper: globalizing the Industrial Revolution, 1830–70. Recovered from cambridge.org
6. s Pregger-Roma, Charles. Nineteenth-Century Chile: A Case Study. Recovered from pucsp.br