Editing History of Chile (section)

==Republican era (1818–1891)==

===Constitutional organization (1818–1833)===
{{see also|Chilean Civil War of 1829|Chilean Constitution of 1833}}

[[File:Escena Patriótica-Rugendas.jpg|thumb|Chilean patriots, by [[Johann Moritz Rugendas]]]]
[[File:Johann Moritz Rugendas-el rapto.jpg|thumb|The [[Arauco War]]. The painting depicts a woman being kidnapped during a [[malón]]]]
From 1817 to 1823, Bernardo O'Higgins ruled Chile as [[President of Chile#Supreme Directors (1814)|supreme director]]. He won plaudits for defeating royalists and founding schools, but civil strife continued. O'Higgins alienated liberals and provincials with his authoritarianism, conservatives and the church with his anticlericalism, and landowners with his proposed reforms of the land tenure system. His attempt to devise a constitution in 1818 that would legitimize his government failed, as did his effort to generate stable funding for the new administration. O'Higgins's dictatorial behavior aroused resistance in the provinces. This growing discontent was reflected in the continuing opposition of partisans of [[José Miguel Carrera|Carrera]], who was executed by the Argentine regime in Mendoza in 1821, as were his two brothers three years earlier.

Although opposed by many liberals, O'Higgins angered the Roman Catholic Church with his liberal beliefs. He maintained Catholicism's status as the official state religion but tried to curb the church's political powers and to encourage religious tolerance as a means of attracting Protestant immigrants and traders. Like the church, the landed aristocracy felt threatened by O'Higgins, resenting his attempts to eliminate noble titles and, more important, to eliminate entailed estates.

O'Higgins's opponents also disapproved of his diversion of Chilean resources to aid San Martín's liberation of Peru. O'Higgins insisted on supporting that campaign because he realized that Chilean independence would not be secure until the Spaniards were routed from the Andean core of the empire. However, amid mounting discontent, troops from the northern and southern provinces forced O'Higgins to resign. Embittered, O'Higgins departed for Peru, where he died in 1842.

After O'Higgins went into exile in 1823, civil conflict continued, focusing mainly on the issues of anticlericalism and regionalism. Presidents and constitutions rose and fell quickly in the 1820s. The civil struggle's harmful effects on the economy, and particularly on exports, prompted conservatives to seize national control in 1830.

In the minds of most members of the Chilean elite, the bloodshed and chaos of the late 1820s were attributable to the shortcomings of liberalism and federalism, which had been dominant over conservatism for most of the period. The political camp became divided by supporters of [[Bernardo O'Higgins|O'Higgins]], [[José Miguel Carrera|Carrera]], liberal [[Pipiolos]] and conservative [[Pelucones]], the two last being the main movements that prevailed and absorbed the rest. The abolition of slavery in 1823—long before most other countries in the Americas—was considered one of the Pipiolos' few lasting achievements. One Pipiolo leader from the south, [[Ramón Freire]], rode in and out of the presidency several times (1823–1827, 1828, 1829, 1830) but could not sustain his authority. From May 1827 to September 1831, with the exception of brief interventions by Freire, the presidency was occupied by [[Francisco Antonio Pinto]], Freire's former vice president.

In August 1828, Pinto's first year in office, Chile abandoned its short-lived federalist system for a [[unitary state|unitary]] form of government, with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. By adopting a moderately liberal constitution in 1828, Pinto alienated both the federalists and the liberal factions. He also angered the old aristocracy by abolishing estates inherited by primogeniture (mayorazgo) and caused a public uproar with his [[anticlericalism]]. After the defeat of his liberal army at the Battle of Lircay on April 17, 1830, Freire, like O'Higgins, went into exile in Peru.

===Conservative Era (1830–1861)===
{{Main|Conservative Republic}}
[[File:DPortales.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Diego Portales]]]]
Although never president, [[Diego Portales]] dominated Chilean politics from the cabinet and behind the scenes from 1830 to 1837. He installed the "autocratic republic", which centralized authority in the national government. His political program enjoyed support from merchants, large landowners, foreign capitalists, the church, and the military. Political and economic stability reinforced each other, as Portales encouraged economic growth through free trade and put government finances in order. Portales was an agnostic who said that he believed in the clergy but not in God. He realized the importance of the Roman Catholic Church as a bastion of loyalty, legitimacy, social control and stability, as had been the case in the colonial period. He repealed Liberal reforms that had threatened church privileges and properties.

The "Portalian State" was institutionalized by the [[Chilean Constitution of 1833]]. One of the most durable charters ever devised in Latin America, the Portalian constitution lasted until 1925. The constitution concentrated authority in the national government, more precisely, in the hands of the president, who was elected by a tiny minority. The chief executive could serve two consecutive five-year terms and then pick a successor. Although the Congress had significant budgetary powers, it was overshadowed by the president, who appointed provincial officials. The constitution also created an independent judiciary, guaranteed inheritance of estates by primogeniture, and installed Catholicism as the state religion. In short, it established an autocratic system under a republican veneer.

Portales also achieved his objectives by wielding dictatorial powers, censoring the press, and [[electoral fraud|manipulating elections]]. For the next forty years, Chile's armed forces would be distracted from meddling in politics by skirmishes and defensive operations on the [[La Frontera, Chile|southern frontier]], although some units got embroiled in domestic conflicts in [[Revolution of 1851|1851]] and 1859.

The Portalian president was General [[Joaquín Prieto]], who served two terms (1831–1836, 1836–1841). President Prieto had four main accomplishments: implementation of the 1833 constitution, stabilization of government finances, defeat of provincial challenges to central authority, and victory over the Peru-Bolivia Confederation. During the presidencies of Prieto and his two successors, Chile modernized through the construction of ports, railroads, and telegraph lines, some built by United States entrepreneur William Wheelwright. These innovations facilitated the export-import trade as well as domestic commerce.

[[File:Una chingana - Chile.jpg|thumb|[[Fiestas Patrias (Chile)|Fiestas Patrias of Chile]], 1854]]
Prieto and his adviser, Portales, feared the efforts of Bolivian general [[Andrés de Santa Cruz]] to unite with Peru against Chile. These qualms exacerbated animosities toward Peru dating from the colonial period, now intensified by disputes over customs duties and loans. Chile also wanted to become the dominant South American military and commercial power along the Pacific. Santa Cruz united Peru and Bolivia in the [[Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] in 1836 with a desire to expand control over Argentina and Chile. Portales got Congress to declare war on the Confederation. Portales was killed by traitors in 1837. The general [[Manuel Bulnes]] defeated the Confederation in the [[Battle of Yungay]] in 1839.

After his success Bulnes was elected president in 1841. He served two terms (1841–1846, 1846–1851). His administration concentrated on the occupation of the territory, especially [[Chilean colonization of the Strait of Magellan|the Strait of Magellan]] and the [[Araucanía (historic region)|Araucanía]]. The Venezuelan [[Andrés Bello|Andres Bello]] made important intellectual advances in this period, most notably the creation of the [[University of Santiago, Chile|University of Santiago]]. But political tensions, including a liberal rebellion, led to the [[1851 Chilean Revolution|Chilean Civil War of 1851]]. In the end the conservatives defeated the liberals.

The last conservative president was [[Manuel Montt]], who also served two terms (1851–1856, 1856–1861), but his poor administration led to the liberal rebellion in 1859. Liberals triumphed in 1861 with the election of [[José Joaquín Perez|Jose Joaquin Perez]] as president.

[[File:Borders Chile 1879 and 2006.png|thumb|upright|Map showing changes of territory due to the [[War of the Pacific]]]]

===Liberal era (1861–1891)===
{{Main|Liberal Republic}}
The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics and the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. A strong presidency eventually emerged, but wealthy landowners remained powerful.<ref name="USDoS">{{Cite web
| url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm
| title=Background Note: Chile
| work=[[United States Department of State]], Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, January 2008
| access-date=2019-05-23
| archive-date=2017-01-21
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121153101/https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm
| url-status=live
}}</ref>

[[File:Territorial losses of the Republic of Chile de jure.svg|300px|thumb|Territorial losses of the Republic of Chile de jure (by law) according to Chilean historiography.]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by persistently suppressing the [[Mapuche]] during the [[Occupation of the Araucanía]]. In 1881, it signed the [[Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina]] confirming Chilean sovereignty over the [[Strait of Magellan]], but conceding all of oriental [[Patagonia]], and a considerable fraction of the territory it had during colonial times. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with [[Peru]] and [[Bolivia]] (1879–1883), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable [[nitrate]] deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence.

In the 1870s, the church influence started to diminish slightly with the passing of several laws that took some old roles of the church into the State's hands such as the registry of births and marriages.

[[File:JoseManuelBalmaceda.JPG|thumb|upright|left|[[José Manuel Balmaceda]]]]
In 1886, [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] was elected president. His economic policies visibly changed the existing liberal policies. He began to violate the [[constitution]] and slowly began to establish a dictatorship. Congress decided to depose Balmaceda, who refused to step down. [[Jorge Montt]], among others, directed an armed conflict against Balmaceda, which soon extended into the [[1891 Chilean Civil War]]. Defeated, Balmaceda fled to Argentina's embassy, where he committed suicide. Jorge Montt became the new president.