State and economic-social configuration of a productive mining space in Chile: Taltal, 1870-1930

Abstract

The region is analyzed before the process of capitalistic expansion and the transformations that occurred due to the mine exploitation of the region, generating a reticular expansion from the port to the interior. This process has been explained exclusively through the concept of saltpeter canton, with the proposal in this work being that the reality of Taltal and it's hinterland were marked by the existence of a set of mine exploitations of guano, copper, silver, gold and saltpeter, this extraction attracted workforce into the region, with the consequent increase of the population in the port, saltpeter offices, service villages, mine exploitations and inns that were transformed in nodes of this extensive net that occupied the territory that had state and private intervention.