The history of Santiago dates back to the early habitants of the Maipo river’s basin, approximately in the 10th milennium b.C. However, only in the 15th century with the conquest of the region by the Inca Empire would exist the first communities in the area.
Santiago of the new extremadura would be founded by the spanish Pedro de Valdivia, the february 12th, 1541. Since that date, the first city founded in Chile would be in interruption.
At present, Santiago is a large conurbation, which, in the year 2002, stretched on a surface of 641,4 km2 and had a population 5.428.590 habitants, in the year 2006 would reached, according to estimates from the National Institute of Statistics, 6.269.629 habitants, which, is equivalent to about 40% of the total population of the country.