The English, Welsh, Scots and Irish came to be more than 20,000 in the port city of Valparaiso and had a thousand more shared by the rest of the country, mostly during the salt boom in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The influence of the British colony is crucial to understanding the rise and fall of the main port.
In the early nineteenth century, Valparaíso was little more than a creek, but over the decades since independence first begin to establish British merchants. After the defeat of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, Valparaiso has become the largest port in the Pacific Ocean since 1840 and in 1845, Chile became one of the leading suppliers of food to California during the Gold Rush. It is at this time when the British immigrants increase explosively. By 1870 growth was such that port about the size of Santiago and also enjoys many more advances to be an obligatory route to California by vessels of the United States and Australia by the British. By 1890, Valparaíso reached the 190 000 inhabitants, of whom 10 000 were British and 25 thousand of different European nations.
With the opening of the Canal of Panama and the Suez Canal, just Valparaiso's prosperity, so many British merchants moved or Santiago, Australia or New Zealand, as in the case of Chris Watson.
The British colony also had great significance in the north of the country during the nitrate boom in the ports of Iquique and Pisagua. John Thomas North, the "King of salt", was the main business of mining of nitrates, but as with Valparaíso, many left the country with the wealth to nitrate, during the 1930s.
In the South Zone and Southern British immigrants also arrived in La Araucanía in the first colonization to populate this area (1883 - 1901), reached over 2,500, who settled in the Central zone of the Region of La Araucanía (Temuco, Carahue, Galvarino), in Magallanes, the Welsh were the most numerous, although several groups of Scots, English and Irish also settled in Magallanes. Chiloé received nearly 500 British, who were granted land in the north of the island, but most soon left to other places in the country.
Currently, the colony in Chile is very fragmented in the territory, but many have managed to reach the top of the social ladder alongside the Basque-Chilean. The descendants of Britons have several schools and exclusive clubs. Personality and Patricio Aylwin, Joaquín Edwards Bello Carlos Condell, Juan Williams Rebolledo, Patrick Lynch, Mackenna, Bernardo Leighton, Enrique Mac Iver and Bernardo O'Higgins stand out as some of the most descendants of the British and Irish colonies in the country .
The British bourgeoisie came to Valparaiso in their new home, saw an opportunity to make wealth without losing their traditions. The districts of the colony were a replica of his homeland, they brought their cigars, clothing, tea, practiced their sport and continued to sea lions, this time from the Chilean Navy. No, to them was Valparaiso, Chile, but Valparéiso Britain.
Just the Port opened its costs to free trade in 1811, recently reached the Chilean Independence, the English-before-offered their smuggling began to dock in Valparaiso. The first to arrive were the brothers John and Joseph Fly Crosbie in the brig. They brought tools, articles of pottery, wool and cotton, hemp returned instruction and copper. It was the first exchange of what would be a strong commercial relationship between Britain and Chile.
Until 1814 the eight foreign ships anchored in the harbor, five were British. The Spanish conquest slowed this movement, but in 1819 already saw some signs in English crowning stores shopping streets.
There are numerous testimonies of visitors amazed by the dominance of Anglo-Saxon culture in the port. For Gilbert Farquhar Mathison, who was here in 1822, if not for the tiny and miserable appearance of the place, a foreigner may have imagined that just arrived in a British possession.Indeed, the Cerro Alegre-rather Merry Hill, was a kind of British ghetto. Their wooden houses, most of two floors, clean and sober colors ornamental gardens, the fifth differed from the district El Almendral, where the farms used to have instead of flowers. In 1832, ten years after settlement the Cerro Alegre, one of the most powerful English Valparaíso, Joshua Waddington, lot and sells one of its properties, the Cerro Concepción, which would be inhabited by English and German. In 1854 the British constructed where the Anglican Church of Saint Paul, which until now housed in the body polychrome donated in honor of Queen Victoria in 1901. From the heights of the hills by the British bourgeoisie could see the streets where he had his business plan. One of the oldest and most successful store was the home of London founded by Antonio Gibbs in 1826. The truth is that the British controlled the trade, industry and financial activity of Valparaiso in the second half of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth.In 1917 they formed their own chamber of commerce, bringing together companies and banks in Anglo-Saxon origin. Proof of this splendor was the Bank of London building in Calle Prat, which was decorated with bronze and marble imported from England. A. Bank Edwards, which still exists today, began as a financial agency in 1845, thanks to Augustin Ossandón Edwards, a Chilean of British descent. And Banco Anglo - South America, created in 1889, driving the large accounts that gave the salt. In Prat Street breathed the severity of the financial houses. Some of its walls still testify to the opulence of those days.
On the streets could hear the English ladies blondes Riddell House would buy their silk suits brought from England, then went to London for their creams Botica and before storing in the home, passed the House in calle Loutit Condell where they bought their favorite English magazine. Once at home came to tea. The British passing through the Port suffered when they were invited by the Creoles, who offered them mate. The idea of sharing the single bulb of the infusion container with the other attendees were shaking. The snub that caught Buenos Aires society and decided to adopt the British tradition. Drinking mate became a sign of bad manners and poor hygiene. Even the El Mercurio newspaper published an article in 1846 in favor of tea, which stressed that when taken mate, the first test was to be the oldest of the meeting, which is not always possessing the purest mouth.
Englishmen, longing for their homeland, in 1842 founded the Union Club. There was distracted in the library reading the South Pacific Mail, a newspaper that circulated every Thursday since 1909 or smoking cigarettes and West Minster Turkish Capstan in the canteen, enjoying a social gathering in the meeting rooms or playing billiards.
The children of English families went to schools founded by his countrymen, the oldest being the Mackay School 1857 - with British teachers of the stature of Thomas Sommerscales, the great painter who settled in Valparaiso. The internship was at the Cerro Alegre and classrooms on Santa Isabel street. Besides academic excellence, they instilled the cult of youth sports: tennis, cricket, golf, rugby, hockey and of course football, which became popular among locals. In 1892 he formed the Club de Deportes Santiago Wanderers, the oldest still active Chile, founded by Chileans under British influence in 1895 was born Valparaiso Wanderers, formed only by the English.
Another customs were inherited from the British horse racing in the English that were made in Placilla, the association formed in 1865 Spring Meeting Valparaiso. The way they play might be European, but then was held at the Chilean picnics, local traditional food and much alcohol. On one occasion Huemul Chilean horse won the Kentucky and the British newspaper The Progress published burlesque: Many of the most respected English are strongly attacked the port of spleen, devastating disease that only children suffer from the nebula England.
But not only taught the English new games. Known as the masters of the sea, were the masters of the Navy of Chile. In 1818, when Manuel Blanco Encalada was Commanding General of the Navy, most of his principal officers were British. That same year he Valparaíso Lord Cochrane, a descendant of an illustrious line of British sailors. In 1819 he was in command of the Chilean fleet, requiring relentless duty with the duty of the British. Under his command ship commanders were all British, except an American. These form Chilean family, starting a line of seamen. It is the case for Robert Simpson, who arrived at the Port in 1821 as a lieutenant and reached the maximum level of Vice - Admiral, his sons were also officers in the Navy.
The Chilean government sent to do their big ships, instruments of war and other things to England Morrison and Co. The company, based in Valparaiso, was representing the British shipbuilder Armstrong, known for its quality. In 1910 the government of Ramón Barros Luco commissioned the construction of the battleships Latorre and Cochrane. Even the official uniform until the nineteenth century was equal to that of the British, except instead of a crow's eye was the star national. The British and Irish colony according to the same colony and the British Embassy would be more than approximately 700 000 descendants.
