Elected government broken by force
The constitutional fact of the day.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale20
Intensity55
Duration35
Tech shift15
Political impact68
Cultural memory62
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Are the scores a ranking of nations or armies?
No. Scores are browsing aids inside an era-bounded atlas — not live league tables of countries.
How many were killed?
Allende on the day; thereafter thousands killed or disappeared (Rettig and later updates) and tens of thousands tortured (Valech). Use commission ranges, not a single slogan integer.
Did the United States run the coup?
The US government opposed Allende and the declassified record shows covert political action and contacts. The operation on 11 September was executed by Chilean services. Historians argue about degrees of involvement; they do not treat it as a US amphibious landing.
How did Allende die?
The consensus of official investigations and most historians is suicide during the attack on La Moneda. Some memory camps still dispute the image. This page follows the mainstream historical account and names the dispute.
What was the Tanquetazo?
A 29 June 1973 failed armoured rising -- a warning rehearsal, not the September coup itself.
When did the dictatorship end?
The 1988 plebiscite rejected Pinochet's continuation; Patricio Aylwin took office in 1990. Pinochet remained army commander until 1998.
A one-day seizure with a seventeen-year occupation of the state. Teach both clocks.
The palace attack is a fact in the record -- described, not diagrammed as a method.
Principles
Commissioned truth
Rettig/Valech as a later state accounting.
1988 No
A peaceful electoral end to a violent beginning.
DINA
The dictatorship's secret police in the early years. Read as a 11 September 1973 (coup day; dictatorship 1973-1990) concept in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context.
Rettig / Valech
Official truth commissions on killing and torture. Not a present instruction.
Steps
- Allende elected
1970-09: A plurality; Congress confirms him.
A past political-military date in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context -- history of Chile 1973 coup, not a method for seizing a capital.
- Truckers' strike
1972-10: A long economic-political crisis marker.
A past political-military date in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context -- history of Chile 1973 coup, not a method for seizing a capital.
- Tanquetazo
1973-06-29: Failed armour revolt.
A past political-military date in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context -- history of Chile 1973 coup, not a method for seizing a capital.
- Prats resigns
1973-08: Constitutionalist commander out; Pinochet up.
A past political-military date in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context -- history of Chile 1973 coup, not a method for seizing a capital.
- The coup
1973-09-11: La Moneda; Allende dead; junta.
A past political-military date in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context -- history of Chile 1973 coup, not a method for seizing a capital.
- Stadium and DINA
1973-09+: Mass detention and the secret-police years.
A past political-military date in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context -- history of Chile 1973 coup, not a method for seizing a capital.
Diagrams
From Allende elected (1970-09) through Stadium and DINA (1973-09+) to Rettig / Valech (1991 / 2004) in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context. One sequence, not a staff overlay.
Salvador Allende (President) and Augusto Pinochet (Junta / dictator) sit at the centre of most English accounts; Henry Kissinger and Patricio Aylwin correct the usual photograph.
Limits
Source limits
Figures such as "Allende dead 11 Sep; later dictatorship killings and disappearances in the thousands (Rettig / Valech ranges)" stay in ranges because records are incomplete, political, or still closed. How many were killed? is answered as a band.
No how-to
Chile 1973 coup is political-military history. This page does not teach how to move units through a capital or how to seize a ministry.
Memory bias
English-language fame of Chile 1973 coup and local memory in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context are not the same map. Patricio Aylwin is often the correction the first photograph drops.
This section does not teach how to isolate a capital or bomb a palace.
The "campaign" after 11 September was repression and, later, a plebiscite.