Tarapacá region

Tarapacá I. Region of Tarapacá
Symbols
flag coat of arms
Basic data
Country	Chile
Capital	Iquique
surface	42,200.5 km²
Residents	330,558 (referendum 2017)
density	7.8 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	CL-TA
Website	www.goretarapaca.cl
politics
Intendant	Claudia Rojas Campos
View of the city of Iquique

Coordinates: 20 ° 14 ′  S , 70 ° 6 ′  W

Tarapacá is a region in northern Chile (I. Region).

Tarapacá became very well known as early as 1800 for its huge saltpeter and guano deposits in the Atacama Desert . The Atacama Desert is one of the driest areas on earth.

Geography and climate

Tarapacá is located on the Pacific Ocean . The Atacama Desert begins just behind the coast . To the east are the volcanoes of the Western Cordillera in the central Andes . The region is extremely dry, there is hardly any rainfall. Only the Andes feed the rivers, many of which end in the desert or in salt lakes .

The Tarapacá region covers 41,800 km² and is relatively sparsely populated with around 330,000 people. The largest cities are the two provincial capitals Iquique and Pozo Almonte . The capital Iquique has around 227,000 inhabitants. The main attractions here are the long Pacific beach, the history of saltpetre and prehistoric finds from the time of the Incas .

history

Large-scale mining of saltpeter began as early as 1809 ; it was used for the production of explosives and as fertilizer. From 1853 onwards, the dismantling was greatly accelerated by using steam engines .

In order to speed up the transport, a railway line was built in 1871 from the port of Iquique to the La Noria area , followed by the Pozo Almonte railway line to the port of Pisagua . The southernmost railway stretched to Lagunas . One saltpeter works lined up after another along the entire route. Peru itself mined guano in the area and used it to finance large parts of its national budget. But it turned out that saltpetre was a much more powerful fertilizer. Peru could not get rid of its guano from 1877, more than 650,000 tons were in the ports.

There was a dispute between the Chilean saltpeter works and the Bolivian government in 1879. The Bolivian government had introduced high taxes on saltpetre, which the Chileans refused to pay. Bolivia then confiscated the saltpeter works. The Chilean army then occupied the Bolivian ports, such as the city of Antofagasta .

Chile fought Bolivia and Peru in the Saltpeter War from 1879 to 1883. After the Chileans had occupied the Bolivian port cities, the Bolivian dictator Hilarión Daza sent his troops from Arica to support Peru in April 1879 . The advance ended miserably, the troops almost died of thirst in the Atacama desert and had to turn back. Failure led to Daza's dismissal. The naval battles at Iquique and Punta Gruesa on May 21, 1879 had brought the preliminary decision for the achievement of Chilean naval supremacy.

The province of Tarapacá finally fell from Peru to Chile in the Treaty of Ancón in 1883.

The cities of Arica and Tacna remained occupied by Chile for a long time. It was not until 1929 that Arica Chile was struck, and Tacna remained with Peru.

The region was often hit by severe earthquakes and tsunamis , which caused much destruction (e.g. in Arica in 1868). The last time there was a severe earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale was on November 14, 2007 . The town of Tocopilla and the town of María Elena near the epicenter about 170 kilometers northeast of Antofagasta were hardest hit . On the evening of April 1, 2014, a tremor with a magnitude of 8.2 occurred off the coast of the city of Tarapacá .

On October 8, 2007, the northernmost provinces of Arica and Parinacota were separated to create a new region, the XV. Region or Región de Arica y Parinacota , at the same time the province of El Tamarugal was created, which until then was part of the province of Iquique.

Administrative division

Tarapacá consists of the two provinces of Iquique and Tamarugal, which are divided into a total of seven municipalities.

Provinces	Capital	Commune
Iquique	Iquique	1 Alto Hospicio
		2 Iquique
Tamarugal	Pozo Almonte	3 Camiña
		4 colchans
		5 Huara
		6 pica
		7 Pozo Almonte

Attractions

Iquique Theater

The coastal town of Iquique offers extensive beaches and many historical sites.

The dilapidated Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works 50 kilometers east of Iquique since 2005 World Heritage Site of UNESCO . These ghost towns are a popular destination in the Atacama Desert.

"Ghost Town" Humberstone

economy

Mining is the main economic activity. The ports therefore play an important role, as they are used to export ore, sulfur and saltpetre . Fishing and the processing of petroleum also play a role. Because of the long beaches, tourism also plays an important role.

Web links

Commons : Región de Tarapacá  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ GFZ Potsdam , accessed on April 2, 2014.