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During the period of Spanish Rule, the colonial economy was driven by the extraction and exploitation of natural resources as the Spanish used laborers to harvest the counties natural resources, including its minerals, timber from the region’s vast forested areas and agricultural products. Exploitation of laborers played an important role in the demands of the Chilean people for independence from Spain.
Throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries, the Chilean economy remained dependent on mining. The mining rush of the 19th Century attracted thousands of workers to the country’s mines. Most miners lived in lawless shanty-towns on the outskirts of the mines with little or no access to social services. Workers and social activists concerned with the conditions in mines and other workplaces begin to organize and found labor unions in response to exploitation.
Recursos Naturales y los Trabajadores
Chuquicamata Copper Mine
Circa 1922
The Chuquicamata Mine was opened in 1882 and is currently the world’s largest open-pit copper mine.