The 11 September 1973 military overthrow of Salvador Allende that opened Pinochet's dictatorship -- political-military history, not a how-to.
Educational history. Casualty figures are documented ranges. This is not operational advice, a ranking of nations, or a how-to for weapons or coups.
On 11 September 1973 the Chilean armed forces overthrew the elected government of Salvador Allende. Hawker Hunters struck La Moneda; Allende died in the palace -- suicide in the official and most historical accounts, a contested image in some memory camps. A junta headed in fact by General Augusto Pinochet closed Congress and began a dictatorship that lasted until 1990.
The coup followed three years of polarisation: Allende's Unidad Popular programme, economic crisis, the October 1972 strike, the Tanquetazo of June 1973, and a fractured military. US hostility to Allende (Track I/II in declassified files) is part of the context; it is not a complete remote-control explanation of 11 September. Chilean officers made the day.
Rettig and Valech commissions later documented thousands killed or disappeared and tens of thousands tortured. English-language memory arrives through Missing, The Battle of Chile, and 9/11 date-confusion with 2001. This page is political-military history -- causes, named actors, documented crimes -- not a manual for seizing a palace.
Deep introduction
11 September was a day; the regime was seventeen years; the memory fight is still open in Chilean streets and US archives.
Allende won a plurality in 1970. Land reform, nationalisations, and a Cold War reading in Washington and in the Chilean right produced a pre-coup crisis, not a sudden whim.
The military's constitutionalist commander, General Prats, resigned in August 1973; Pinochet's rise was inside that vacuum.
Navy, air force, and army moved. La Moneda was isolated and attacked. Allende's last broadcast is a primary source. This paragraph names a sequence; it does not teach one.
Foreign journalists and the stadium as a detention site entered the first week's record.
DINA, exile, the 1980 constitution, the 1988 plebiscite that Pinochet lost -- a long afterlife of 11 September.
The 1990 concertacion transition left Pinochet as army commander for years -- an unfinished civilian control story.
US declassifications (especially 1999-2000s) thickened the embassy-and-Track file without erasing Chilean agency. Guzman's Battle of Chile remains the documentary canon in English art houses.
Archives and film stays dated: 1973-08 (Prats resigns) in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context. Jose T. Merino (Navy) is a named witness -- A junta principal; the navy's role on 11 September is part of the services' shared act. Cost band: Allende dead 11 Sep; later dictatorship killings and disappearances in the thousands (Rettig / Valech ranges). Encyclopedia, not a method.
Dated history of Chile 1973 coup (11 September 1973 (coup day; dictatorship 1973-1990)) in Santiago and Chilean armed services; US political context.
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02Historical forces and institutions of Chile 1973 coup -- not a live order of battle.
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03How Chile 1973 coup unfolded as historical sequence, not instruction.
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04Human and material cost of Chile 1973 coup, as documented ranges.
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05People and debates around Chile 1973 coup.
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06Afterlives and unresolved questions of Chile 1973 coup.
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07Maps, portrayals and rituals of Chile 1973 coup.
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