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| 2. Chile |
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| The independence wars left Chile's agrarian social structure unaltered. With merchant interests, the Chilean aristocracy preserved the colonial hierarchy and excluded other sectors from power. Control over the land allowed them to compel rural workers, called inquilinos, to work hacienda lands and to offer domestic service in exchange for small plots. A centralist state triumphed over federalist proposals. | 1 |
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| 1818–23 |
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| Bernardo O'Higgins was named supreme director by a cabildo abierto. He abolished titles of nobility and supported religious tolerance. Such measures and the imposition of new taxes met with widespread resistance. Protectionist measures angered merchants. In 1822, the Chilean elite rejected a constitution sponsored by O'Higgins and forced him into exile. | 2 |
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| 1823–28 |
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| A national junta named Gen. Ramón Freire (1787–1851) chief executive. Freire expelled the last Spanish troops from Chilean territory (1826). Manuel Blanco Encalada became the first president of the republic. In Sept. he was succeeded by Augustín Eyzaguirre. | 3 |
| Conservative classes disliked federalism and liberalism, which they saw as threatening to the social hierarchy. Diego Portales (1793–1837) organized the conservative opposition in support of a centralized government and a strong executive. | 4 |
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| 1828–33 |
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| Gen. Francisco Antonio Pinto was elected president. Gen. Joaquín Prieto (1786–1854) organized a campaign against the government with the support of conservatives. In 1830, Prieto defeated the army led by Gen. Freire at Lircay (April 17). In 1831, a congress confirmed Gen. Prieto as president and made Portales vice president. | 5 |
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| 1830–32 |
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| Creation of itinerant commissions of justice to prosecute rural banditry. | 6 |
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| 1833 |
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| A new constitution created a powerful Senate drawn from landed aristocracy. It gave the executive the right to impose states of siege, which it declared in 1840, 1846, and 1858. The franchise was restricted to the propertied and the literate. | 7 |
| Recovery of agrarian economy allowed renewal of trade with Peru, Chile's main market in colonial times. | 8 |
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| 1835–39 |
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| Freire launched a failed invasion into Chile with Peruvian support. The Chilean government declared war on the Peru-Bolivian Confederation. Prieto established a state of siege, giving Portales wide powers to control liberals within the military. Col. José Antonio Vidaurre led a movement that ended with the assassination of Portales at Quillota (1837). Chilean forces, commanded by Gen. Manuel Bulnes (1799–1866), defeated Confederation armies at Yungay in 1839. | 9 |
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| 1841–46 |
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| Triumph against the Confederation secured the presidency for Gen. Bulnes. | 10 |
| New mining discoveries were made in the 1840s; exploitation of coal, copper, and silver occurred mainly in the northern regions. A new class of entrepreneurs emerged, and merchants benefited greatly from the mining boom. Symptoms of labor conflict appeared in cities. Tailors organized a strike against employers who hired women at lower salaries. The California gold rush attracted thousands of Chilean workers. | 11 |
| The elite's new prosperity fostered liberal and radical propensities expressed by the Generation of 1842. In 1844, Francisco Bilbao published his critical essay “Sociabilidad Chilena.” Bilbao was brought to trial, but a crowd of artisans and students liberated him. | 12 |
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| 1846–50 |
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| Reelection of Gen. Bulnes. The Conservative Party was divided between conciliatory and hard-line factions, the latter led by ultraconservative Manuel Montt (1809–80). In 1850, liberal reformers united in the Sociedad de la Igualdad. The government declared a state of siege in Santiago (Nov. 5, 1850) and banned the Sociedad. | 13 |
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| 1851 |
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| A civil war erupted in the northern mining districts to protest government fiscal policies and preference for British investors. Pedro Félix Vicuña Aguirre, a mine owner and liberal, led the revolt. | 14 |
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| 1851–61 |
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| Administration of Manuel Montt for two five-year terms. A treaty promising revolutionaries amnesty was nullified (1852). | 15 |
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| 1858 |
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| Conservatives and most liberals united against Montt's attempt to make minister Antonio Varas his successor. The government imprisoned opposition leaders. | 16 |
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