Chilean people, or simply Chileans, are the native citizens and long-term immigrants of Chile. Chileans are mainly a mixture of Spanish and Amerindian descent, with small but significant traces of 19th and 20th century European-origin immigrants. A strong correlation exists between the ancestry — or ethnicity — and socioeconomic situation of Chileans, with notable differences observed between the lower classes of high Amerindian ancestry and the upper classes of mainly European ancestry.
Post-independence immigrants have never comprised more than two percent of the total population, though their descendants are now hundreds of thousands, including Chileans of German, British, French, Croatian, Italian or Palestinian descent. Though the majority of Chileans reside in Chile, significant communities have been established in multiple countries, most noticeably Argentina and the United States. Other large Chilean communities are in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Sweden and Venezuela. Although small in number Chilean people make up a substantial part of the permanent population of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands.
Read more about Chilean People: Ethnic Structure, Indigenous Chileans, Religions, Culture, Emigration of Chileans
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“I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land; but something in that Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)