Chile
According to the traditional theory, Brazil was named after brazilwood tree, an abundant species in the Brazilian coastline at the time Portuguese explorers first arrived. Its reddish wood was used to color clothes and fabrics. Another theory connects the name of the country to the Irish myth of Hy-Brazil, a phantom island similar to St. Brendan's Island.
Chile is divided into 13 regions, each of which is headed by an intendant appointed by the President. Every region is further divided into provinces, with a provincial governor also appointed by the President. Finally each province is divided into communes which are administered by municipalities, each with its own mayor and councilmen elected by their inhabitants for four years.
Each region is designated by a name and a Roman numeral, assigned from north to south. The only exception is the region housing the nation's capital, which is designated RM, that stands for Región Metropolitana (Metropolitan Region).
Two new regions were created in 2006: Arica-Parinacota in the north, and Los Ríos in the south. Both will become operative in October 2007.
Geography
A long and narrow coastal Southern Cone country on the west side of the Andes Mountains, Chile stretches over 4,630 kilometers (2,880 mi) north to south, but only 430 kilometers (265 mi) at its widest point east to west. This encompasses a remarkable variety of landscapes.
At 756,950 km² (292,240 mi²), Chile is the world's 38th-largest country. It is comparable in size to Zambia, and is about two times the size of Japan.
The northern Atacama Desert contains great mineral wealth, primarily copper and nitrates. The relatively small Central Valley, which includes Santiago, dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the historical center from which Chile expanded in the late nineteenth century, when it integrated the northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests, grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. The Andes Mountains are located on the eastern border. Chile is the longest (N-S) country in the world (over 4,200 km / 2,600 mi), and also claims 1,250,000 square kilometers (482,628 sq. mi) of Antarctica as part of its territory. However, this latter claim is suspended under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty, of which Chile is signatory.
Chile controls Easter Island and Sala y Gómez Island, the easternmost islands of Polynesia, which it incorporated to its territory in 1888, and Robinson Crusoe Island, more than 600 kilometers (375 mi) from the mainland, in the Juan Fernández archipelago. Easter Island is nowadays a province of Chile. Also controlled but only temporally habited (by some local fishermen) are the small islands of Sala y Gómez, San Ambrosio and San Felix, these islands are notable because they extend Chile's claim to territorial waters out from its coast into the Pacific.
Time zones
Although most of Chile uses UTC-4 most of the year and daylight saving time UTC-3, Easter Island, due to the large distance that separates it from the mainland uses UTC-6 and daylight saving time UTC-5.