Brief History of Chilean Journalism

From the 16th century, Spain forbade its competitors from trading with the Spanish colonies in South American coast. While professing neutrality in Chile's fight for independence from Spain, Britain had long sought trading rights, so British merchants were on the spot as soon as Chile claimed independence on September 18, 1810.

Before independence, printed materials like newspapers were generally produced in Spain and imported into Chile. After independence, Chile gained freedom of speech and of print.

The first newspaper to be published in Chile was the aptly-named Aurora de Chile (dawn of Chile), launched on February 13, 1812 and changing its name to El Monitor Araucano on April 1, 1813. The longest-running daily newspaper in Chile, El Mercurio, was founded by Pedro Félix Vicuña on September 12, 1827. The Chilean press quickly flourished, charting the development of the new republic and reflecting a multiplicity of voices and national cultures.

Among these voices were those of the British colonists. From its beginnings with just a few merchants in the 1810s and '20s, the British colony developed rapidly over the first half of the nineteenth century. From the 1840s, the colony began to produce newspapers written in English and edited by the British inhabitants in Chile, although often published through Chilean printing houses like that of the Mercurio alongside the more widely-distributed national press.