Industrial electrification in Chile: 1895-1955

Abstract

This research deals with the electrification trajectory of Chilean industries between 1895 and 1955, as an example of those peripheral countries of late industrialization that failed to join the group of high-income countries. Using unpublished data on industrial mechanical power, it is argued that the disorders generated by the World Wars caused difficulties in the process of industrial modernization, motivating a return to the use of primary motors over electric ones. This study shows that the transition to the electric motor was not without conflicts and that such problems could have affected the increases in industrial productivity.