Many Basques arrived in Chile in the 16th17th18th19th and early 20th century from their homeland in northern Spain (see Basque Provinces) and parts of southwestern France as conquistadors soldiers sailors merchants priests and labourers. Due to their traditional hard work and entrepreneurship many of them rose to the top of the social scale and intermarried into the Chilean elites formed by Basques giving birth to the new Basque-Chilean aristocracy in Chile.
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