Founded | 1863Valparaiso, Chile | in
---|---|
Defunct | 2000 |
Fate | Non-motor business sold off by parent Inchcape, company continued as Williamson Balfour Motors |
Successor | Williamson Balfour Motors S.A. |
Parent |
|
Subsidiaries | Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua |
The Williamson-Balfour Company (or Williamson, Balfour and Company) was a Scottish owned Chilean company. Its successor company, Williamson Balfour Motors S.A., is a subsidiary of the British company Inchcape plc.
The company was founded in Valparaiso in 1863 as a subsidiary of the Liverpool shipping company Balfour Williamson (founded by the Scots Alexander Balfour and Stephen Williamson). The company was involved in the export of nitrates and wool to England, and later the west coast of the United States. The company diversified into railways, oil, minerals and other activities.
When the Chilean government annexed Easter Island in 1888, it was leased to Enrique Merlet, who sold his control to the Williamson-Balfour Company; they in turn created a subsidiary called Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua (CEDIP), which ran Easter Island as a sheep farm. The company constructed a boundary wall around Hanga Roa and sheep rearing structures. During the company's rule and for several years after, the Rapa Nui people were confined to Hanga Roa, which they were not allowed to leave without permission.
In 1953, the Chilean government refused to renew their lease and transferred the island to the Chilean Navy and the sheep farming operations ceased. In 1966, the Rapa Nui of Easter Island gained full Chilean citizenship.
On the Chilean mainland the company operated a number of flour mills, and was involved in the import of machinery and other activities. In 1965 the company sold its milling operations, and was itself acquired by the Bank of London and South America (BOLSA). In 1972 BOLSA was acquired by Lloyds Bank, which in 1981 sold the Williamson-Balfour companies to Inchcape plc. [1] In the late 1990s Inchcape decided to concentrate on the distribution of motors, and the non-motor businesses, including Williamson Balfour Agrocomercial Ltda, were sold to Sigdo Koppers in 2000. [2] Williamson Balfour Motors S.A. is still owned by Inchcape, and is now the importer and distributor of BMW [3] and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in Chile. [4]
Easter Island is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
Hanga Roa is the main town, harbour and seat of Easter Island, a municipality of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau. The population of 3,304 comprises 42.63 percent of the total population of the island.
Katherine Maria Routledge, née Pease, was an English archaeologist and anthropologist who, in 1914, initiated and carried out much of the first true survey of Easter Island.
Rapa Nui National Park is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located on Easter Island, Chile. Rapa Nui is the Polynesian name of Easter Island; its Spanish name is Isla de Pascua. The island is located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern extremity of the Polynesian Triangle. The island was taken over by Chile in 1888. Its fame and World Heritage status arise from the 887 extant stone statues known by the name "moai", whose creation is attributed to the early Rapa Nui people who inhabited the island around 300 AD. Much of the island has been declared as Rapa Nui National Park which, on 22 March 1996, UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site under cultural criteria (i), (iii), & (v). The Rapa Nui National Park is now under the administrative control of the Ma´u Henua Polynesian Indigenous Community, which is the first autonomous institute on the island. The indigenous Rapa Nui people have regained authority over their ancestral lands and are in charge of the management, preservation and protection of their patrimony. On the first of December 2017, the ex-President Michelle Bachelet returned ancestral lands in the form of the Rapa Nui National Park to the indigenous people. For the first time in history, the revenue generated by the National Park is invested in the island and used to conserve the natural heritage.
Easter Island was traditionally ruled by a monarchy, with a king as its leader.
The Hanga Roa Stadium is a football stadium in Hanga Roa, the capital Easter Island a territory of Chile. It is the home ground of the CF Rapa Nui, the Easter Island football team. The stadium holds about 1,000 people.
Maunga Puna Pau is a small crater or cinder cone and prehistoric quarry on the outskirts of Hanga Roa in the south west of Easter Island. Puna Pau gives its name to one of the seven regions of the Rapa Nui National Park.
Geologically one of the youngest inhabited territories on Earth, Easter Island, located in the mid-Pacific Ocean, was, for most of its history, one of the most isolated. Its inhabitants, the Rapa Nui, have endured famines, epidemics of disease and cannibalism, civil war, environmental collapse, slave raids, various colonial contacts, and have seen their population crash on more than one occasion. The ensuing cultural legacy has brought the island notoriety out of proportion to the number of its inhabitants.
Father Sebastian Englert OFM Cap., was a Capuchin Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest, missionary, linguist and ethnologist from Germany. He is known for his pioneering work on Easter Island, where the Father Sebastian Englert Anthropological Museum is named after him.
The Father Sebastian Englert Anthropological Museum is a museum in the town of Hanga Roa on Rapa Nui in Chilean Polynesia. Named for the Bavarian missionary, Fr. Sebastian Englert, OFM Cap., the museum was founded in 1973 and is dedicated to the conservation of the Rapa Nui cultural patrimony.
Juan Edmunds Rapahango was a Rapa Nui politician, the former Mayor of Hanga Roa, the municipality of Rapa Nui, in Chilean Polynesia. He is the son of Henry Percy Edmunds, director of the Williamson-Balfour Company, and Victoria Rapahango, an important native respondent for early ethnologists visiting the island. He is the father of the former mayor Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa. As mayor, Edmunds Rapahango promoted tourism to the island and helped to develop the island's infrastructure. He collaborated closely with William Mulloy and supported the American archaeologist's restoration projects. Edmunds Rapahango saw that Rapa Nui archaeology would play an important role the future of the island's economy.
Scottish Chileans are Chileans of Scottish descent who came from Scotland and in some cases, Scots-Irish people from Northern Ireland. A large proportion of Scottish Chileans are sheep farmers in the Magallanes region of the far south of the country, and the city of Punta Arenas has a large Scottish foundation dating back to the 18th century.
CF Rapa Nui is an association football team from Chile which represents the territory of Easter Island in association football. Their home games are played at the Estadio de Hanga Roa, which has a capacity of approximately 2,500 people.
The Holy Cross Church, also known as Hanga Roa Church or simply Catholic Church of Hanga Roa is the name of the religious building affiliated with the Catholic Church in the "Te Pito Te Henua" Street in the city of Hanga Roa, the capital and greater city of the Easter Island, a Territory of Chile in the Pacific Ocean.
Siméon or Timeone Riro ʻa Kāinga Rokoroko He Tau was the last ‘ariki (king) of Rapa Nui from 1892 until his death. He ruled the island during a brief period of indigenous autonomy between Chile's initial annexation in 1888 and the country's reassertion of colonial authority in 1896. Riro died unexpectedly during a diplomatic trip to Chile to discuss the island's sovereignty with colonial authorities, leading to suspicions that he had been poisoned. Such theories were never proven, although Historians in Santiago Chile keep secret evidence apprehended in the investigation of his death 1898.
Atamu Tekena or Atamu te Kena, full name Atamu Maurata Te Kena ʻAo Tahi was the penultimate ‘Ariki or King of Rapa Nui from 1883 until his death. He was appointed as the ruler in 1883 by the French Picpus missionaries in the island to represent their interest after a two decade interval in the native kingship caused by the disruptions of Westernization. Although a member of the Miru clan, traditionally associated with the native kingship, he was not a royal of the traditional patrilineal line of kings. In 1888, he signed a treaty of annexation ceding Easter Island to Chile in a ceremony officiated by Captain Policarpo Toro. His name is translated as "Adam the Gannet".
Angata, full name María Angata Veri Tahi ʻa Pengo Hare Koho was a Roman Catholic Rapa Nui religious leader from Easter Island during the late 19th and early 20th century. After experiencing a prophetic vision in which God instructed her to retake the land and livestock, she led an unsuccessful rebellion on the island against the Williamson-Balfour Company, intending to create a theocracy centered on Roman Catholicism and Rapa Nui spiritual values.
Jacobo Hey Paoa is the first Rapa Nui male to earn a law degree and become an attorney.
Enrique Ika a Tuʻu Hati was elected ‘ariki (king) of Rapa Nui in 1900 and led a failed rebellion. He was one of the last Rapa Nui to claim the traditional kingship in the early 20th-century. However, he is generally not remembered as the last king instead his predecessor Riro Kāinga is generally regarded as the last king, although neither held much power.
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the Chilean island and special territory of Easter Island in March 2020.