Angol is a commune and

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...

of the

Malleco Province Malleco Province ( es, Provincia de Malleco) is one of two provinces in the southern Chilean region of La Araucanía (IX). Its population as of the 2017 census is 205,124, and it covers an area of . The provincial capital is the city of Angol. ...

in the Araucanía Region of southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

. It is located at the foot of the Nahuelbuta Range and next to the Vergara River, that permitted communications by small boats to the Bío-Bío River and Concepción. This strategic position explains the successive foundations of this city during the

Arauco War The Arauco War was a long-running conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people, mostly fought in the Araucanía. The conflict began at first as a reaction to the Spanish conquerors attempting to establish cities and force Mapuche ...

. It was first founded in 1553 as a "

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

of ''Confines'', the fort was later destroyed and rebuilt several times and it was not until the Pacification of Araucania in the late 19th century that it was rebuilt with the name of Angol. The city has a current population of approximately 53,000. Within the

electoral divisions of Chile Chile has two distinct electoral division systems: * To elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate, Chile is divided into several electoral divisions, namely electoral districts and senatorial constituencies. * To elect members of t ...

, it belongs to the 48th

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

and the 14th senatorial circumscription.

History

Modern Angol was first founded in 1553 as the

fort of ''Los Confines'' by

Pedro de Valdivia Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, wh ...

, the fort was later that year abandoned and destroyed by the Mapuche after the Battle of Tucapel. In 1560, the city was established by Governor

García Hurtado de Mendoza García or Garcia may refer to: People * García (surname) * Kings of Pamplona/Navarre ** García Íñiguez of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 851/2–882 ** García Sánchez I of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 931–970 ** García Sánchez II of Pamp ...

with the name of ''San Andrés de Angol'', after his father the viceroy of Peru, the location to the north of the site of the old fort. It was commonly called ''Ciudad de Los Infantes'' for the infantrymen that had been assigned to build the city. It was attacked and destroyed in 1599, by the Mapuches following the

Disaster of Curalaba The Battle of Curalaba ( es, Batalla de Curalaba, links=no ) is a 1598 battle and ambush where Mapuche people led by Pelantaru soundly defeated Spanish conquerors led by Martín García Óñez de Loyola at Curalaba, southern Chile. In Chilean ...

. In 1611 the city was rebuilt by Luis Merlo de la Fuente a little more to the south with the name of ''San Luis de Angol'' but it did not prosper. In 1637 Governor Francisco Laso de la Vega, refounded it with the name of ''San Francisco de la Vega'', but in 1641, it was abandoned by the terms of the Peace of Quillin with the Mapuche. It was repopulated by Tomás Marín de Poveda in 1695, with the name of ''Santo Tomás de Colhue'', but it was attacked and destroyed again in the Mapuche Rising of 1723 and one last time in their rising in 1766, from which it never recovered. The present city of Angol was founded definitively by

Cornelio Saavedra Rodríguez Cornelio Saavedra Rodríguez (1821 – April 7, 1891) was a Chilean politician and military figure who played a major role in the Occupation of the Araucanía. His parents were Manuel Saavedra Cabrera, son of the president of the First Governme ...

, on 6 December 1862 as a fortress and base for his campaign for the Pacification of Araucania. Declared a city in 1871, it was connected by railroad with Santiago in 1876. In 1881 it was the base for the final campaign of pacification. Subsequently, it was the economic and administrative center and departure point for the Chilean and foreign colonists that occupied the lands around it. Angol was affected by the 8.8 magnitude 27 February 2010 earthquake. A US military field hospital was deployed to the city to treat casualties from the tremblor and subsequent tsunami.UKPA
"Foreign hospitals help out Chile"
''6 March 2010'' (accessed 6 March 2010)

Líder Líder (Spanish for ''Leader'') is a Chilean hypermarket chain originally owned and operated by Distribución y Servicio (DyS) but sold to US American corporation Walmart in 2009.

will be the first hypermarket to open business in the city while

Cencosud Cencosud S.A. is a publicly traded multinational retail company. It's the largest retail company in Chile and the third largest listed retail company in Latin America, competing with the Brazilian Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição and the M ...

's Santa Isabel supermarkets is also considering entering the market.Dentro de los próximos días se inician obras de construcción del supermercado Lider de Angol
, Canaldenoticias

Demographics

According to the 2002

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

by the National Statistics Institute (''INE''), Angol spans and at that time had 48,996 inhabitants; of these, 43,801 (89.4%) lived in

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...

s and 5,195 (10.6%) in

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descr ...

s. At that time, there were 23,770 men and 25,226 women. The population grew by 6.0% (2,770 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Administration

As a commune, Angol is a third-level

administrative division of Chile The administrative division or territorial organization of Chile exemplifies characteristics of a unitary state. State administration is functionally and geographically decentralized, as appropriate for each authority in accordance with the law. ...

administered by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

, headed by an

alcalde Alcalde (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) ...

who is directly elected every four years. The 2008-2012 alcalde is Enrique Neira Neira (ILE). Within the

, Angol is represented in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

by Nicolas Ardiles (

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People * Udi Gal (born 1979), Israeli Olympic sailor * Udi Vaks (born 1979), Israeli Olympic judoka ...

) and Mario Venegas ( PDC) as part of the 48th electoral district, together with Renaico, Collipulli, Ercilla, Los Sauces, Purén,

Lumaco Lumaco is a town and commune in Malleco Province in the Araucanía Region of Chile. Its name in Mapudungun means "water of '' luma''". Lumaco is located to northeast of Temuco and from Angol. It shares a boundary to the north with the comm ...

and

Traiguén Traiguén () is a Chilean city and commune in the Malleco Province, Araucanía Region. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Traiguén spans an area of and has 19,534 inhabitants (9,734 men and 9,800 ...

. The commune is represented in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

by Alberto Espina Otero ( RN) and Jaime Quintana Leal ( PPD) as part of the 14th senatorial constituency (Araucanía-North).

References

Sources

* Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos
Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile (Geographic dictionary of the Republic of Chile), New York, D. Appleton, 1899. pg. 36-37 "Angol (Ciudad de)" and "Angol Antigua, ó Los Confines (Ciudad de)"

External links

*
The community on internet
{{Authority control Communes of Chile Capitals of Chilean provinces Populated places established in 1553 Destroyed cities 1599 disestablishments 1611 establishments in South America Populated places in Malleco Province 1553 establishments in the Spanish Empire