Chilean War of Independence
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (October 2009) |
Chilean War of Independence | |||||||||
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Part of the Spanish American wars of independence | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Mapuche allies:
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Mapuche allies:
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Chilean Army Chilean Navy and privateers Army of the Andes Mapuche warriors |
Mapuche warriors | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Unknown | Unknown |
It developed in the context of the
Traditionally, Chilean historiography covers this period between the establishment of the First Government Junta of Chile (September 18, 1810) and the resignation of
A declaration of independence was officially issued by Chile on February 12, 1818 and formally recognized by Spain in 1844, when full diplomatic relations were established.[1]
Background
At the start of 1808, the Captaincy General of Chile—one of the smallest and poorest colonies in the Spanish Empire—was under the administration of Luis Muñoz de Guzmán, an able, respected and well-liked Royal Governor. In May 1808 the overthrow of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII, their replacement by Joseph Bonaparte and the start of the Peninsular War plunged the empire into a state of agitation. In the meantime, Chile was facing its own internal political problems. Governor Guzmán had suddenly died in February of that year and the crown had not been able to appoint a new governor before the invasion. After a brief interim regency by Juan Rodríguez Ballesteros, and according to the succession law in place at the time, the position was laid claim to and assumed by the most senior military commander, who happened to be Brigadier Francisco García Carrasco.
García Carrasco took over the post of
Brigadier García Carrasco was a man of crude and authoritarian manners, who managed in a very short time to alienate the
In 1809, Governor García Carrasco himself was implicated in a flagrant case of corruption (the
Inspired by the
Count Toro Zambrano was, by all standards, a very unorthodox selection. He was a very old man already (82 years old at the time) and moreover a
Patria Vieja
History of Chile |
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Timeline • Years in Chile |
First Junta
From the very beginning, the juntistas took the political initiative. As soon as the Cabildo was called, they were able to place their members in the committee charged with sending the invitations, thus manipulating the attendance lists to their own advantage. At the September 18 session, they grabbed center stage with shouts of "¡Junta queremos! ¡junta queremos!" ("We want a junta! We want a junta!"). Count Toro Zambrano, faced with this very public show of force, acceded to their demands by depositing his ceremonial baton on top of the main table and saying "Here is the baton, take it and rule."
The Government Junta of the Kingdom of Chile, also known as the First Junta, was organized with the same powers as a Royal Governor. Their first measure was to take a loyalty oath to Ferdinand VII as legitimate King. Count Toro Zambrano was elected President, and the rest of the positions were distributed equally among all parties, but the real power was left in the hands of the secretary, Juan Martínez de Rozas. The Junta then proceeded to take some concrete measures that had been long-held aspirations of the colonials: it created a militia for the defense of the kingdom, decreed freedom of trade with all nations that were allied to Spain or neutrals, a unique tariff of 134% for all imports (with the exception of printing presses, books and guns which were liberated from all taxes) and in order to increase its representativity, ordered the convocatory of a National Congress. Immediately, political intrigue began amongst the ruling elite, with news of the political turbulence and wars of Europe all the while coming in. It was eventually decided that elections for the National Congress, to be composed of 42 representatives, would be held in 1811.
Three political factions started to coalesce: the Extremists (
By March 1811, 36 representatives had already been elected in all major cities with the exception of
On April 1, Royalist colonel
Carrera dictatorship
During this time, a well-connected young man and a veteran of the
Meanwhile, a provisional Constitution of 1812 was promulgated with a marked liberal character. An example of this is the stipulation that "no order that emanates from outside the territory of Chile will have any effect, and anyone who tries to enforce such an order will be treated as a traitor." Carrera also created patriotic emblems for the Patria Vieja such as the flag, shield, and insignia. Also during his government, the first Chilean newspaper, the
Spanish invasions
The triumph of rebellions—both in Chile and Argentina—disquieted the
After the attempt by Gaínza, the two sides had signed the
Reconquista
The viceroy Abascal confirmed Mariano Osorio as governor of Chile, although a later disagreement between the two would result in Osorio's removal and the installation of
A large group of patriots (among them Carrera and O'Higgins) decided to flee to
While San Martín and O'Higgins organized an army to recross the Andes and recapture Santiago, they charged the lawyer
The liberating Army of the Andes was prepared by 1817. After a difficult crossing the Andes, royalist forces led by Rafael Maroto were encountered on the plain of Chacabuco, to the north of Santiago. The resulting Battle of Chacabuco, on February 12, 1817, was a decisive victory for the independence forces. As a result, the patriots re-entered Santiago. San Martín was proclaimed Supreme Director, but he declined the offer and put O'Higgins in the post, where he would remain until 1823. On the first anniversary of the Battle of Chacabuco, O'Higgins formally declared independence.
Patria Nueva
During the preceding time,
Then, on April 5, 1818, San Martín inflicted a decisive defeat on Osorio the Battle of Maipú, after which the depleted royalists retreated to Concepcion, never again to launch a major offensive against Santiago. Independence was all but secured, and worries about internal divisions were allayed when O'Higgins saluted San Martín as savior of the country, a moment which came to be known as the Embrace of Maipú.
Total war
To further secure Chilean independence, San Martín launched a series of actions against armed bands in the mountains, consisting of assorted outlaws, royalists, and Indians who had taken advantage of the chaos of military expeditions and forced recruitments to pillage and sack the countryside. This time of irregular warfare was later called the Guerra a muerte (Total war) for its merciless tactics, as neither the guerillas nor the government soldiers took prisoners. Only after the band of Vicente Benavides was liquidated in 1822 was the region around Concepcion finally pacified.
Incorporation of Valdivia and Chiloé
As San Martín worked to establish internal stability, O'Higgins also looked to defend the country against further external threats by the Spanish and continue to roll back imperial control. He developed the Chilean navy as a line of defense against seaborne attacks, placing the
In any case, San Martín and O'Higgins were in agreement that the danger would not be passed until the Viceroyalty of Peru itself was independent from Spain. Thus, a fleet and army was prepared for an expedition to the country, and in 1820, San Martín and Cochrane set off for Peru. However, the audacious and daring character of Cochrane conflicted with the excessive prudence of San Martín. San Martín let escape a number of opportunities to land the decisive blow against the viceroy,[citation needed] and in the end it was Simón Bolívar who launched the final offensive after coming down from Colombia, Peruvian independence was secured after the Battle of Ayacucho on December 9, 1824, in which forces led by Antonio José de Sucre—a lieutenant of Bolívar—defeated the royalist army for good.
In Chilean historiography, the Patria Nueva generally ends in 1823, with the resignation of O'Higgins. However, the last Spanish territory in Chile, the archipelago of Chiloé, was not conquered until 1826, during the government of Ramón Freire, O'Higgins' successor.
Economic impact
The independence wars in Chile (1810–1818) and Peru (1809–1824) had a negative impact on the Chilean wheat industry. Trade was disrupted and armies in Chile pillaged the countryside. The Guerra a muerte phase was particularly destructive and ended only to see a period of outlaw banditry (e.g. Pincheira brothers) occur until the late 1820s.[2] Trade with Peru did not fully recover after the independence struggles.[2] Being isolated from Central Chile by hostile Mapuche-controlled territory and dependent upon seaborne trade with the port of Callao in Peru the city of Valdivia was particularly badly hit by the decline of the trade with Peru. The fortune of this city would not shift until the arrival of German settlers in the late 1840s.[3]
Much of the war effort was financed with silver from
In 1822 Bernardo O'Higgins government obtained a large loan in London to finance the independence struggle. The resulting Chilean independence debt took decades to regularize, ending the default in 1840s thanks to the efforts of the Ministers of Finance Manuel Rengifo and Joaquín Tocornal plus the favourable international markers for Chilean silver, copper and wheat.[8][9]
See also
- Argentine War of Independence
- Antonio de Quintanilla
- Antonio Pareja
- Antonio José de Sucre
- Bernardo O'Higgins
- Camilo Henríquez
- Charlotte Joaquina
- Francisco García Carrasco
- Francisco Marcó del Pont
- Ferdinand VII
- Founding of Talca
- Gabino Gaínza
- Juan Albano Pereira Márquez
- Georges Beauchef
- Logia Lautaro
- Lord Thomas Cochrane
- Manuel Rodríguez
- Mariano Osorio
- Mateo de Toro Zambrano
- Joaquín de la Pezuela
- Luisa Recabárren de Marin
- José de San Martín
- José Fernando de Abascal
- José Miguel Carrera
- José Miguel Infante
- Juan Martínez de Rozas
- Ramón Freire
- Rafael Maroto
- Simón Bolívar
- Vicente Benavides
- Vicente San Bruno
- William Miller
References
- ^ "Chile". World Statesmen. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ^ a b (in Spanish) Villalobos, Sergio; Silva, Osvaldo; Silva, Fernando and Estelle, Patricio. 1974. Historia De Chile. Editorial Universitaria, Chile. pp. 406–413.
- ^ Bernedo Pinto, Patricio (1999), "Los industriales alemanes de Valdivia, 1850–1914" (PDF), Historia, 32: 5–42
- ^ Cortés Lutz, Guillermo (2017). Chañarcillo, cuando de las montañas brotó la plata (PDF). Cuadernos de Historia (in Spanish). Vol. II. Museo Regional de Atacama. p. 25.
- ^ (in Spanish) Historia contemporánea de Chile III. La economía: mercados empresarios y trabajadores. 2002. Gabriel Salazar and Julio Pinto. pp. 19–20.
- ^ (in Spanish) La Hacienda (1830–1930). Memoria Chilena.
- ^ (in Spanish) Villalobos, Sergio; Silva, Osvaldo; Silva, Fernando and Estelle, Patricio. 1974. Historia De Chile. Editorial Universitaria, Chile. pp. 481–485.
- Biblioteca Nacional de Chile. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
- ISBN 978-84-9123-174-5.
Further reading
- Barros Arana, Diego (1850). Estudios históricos sobre Vicente Benavides i las campañas del Sur: 1818–1822 (in Spanish). Santiago: Imprenta de Julio Belin i Compañia.
- Barros Arana, Diego (1855). Historia Jeneral de la Independencia de Chile (in Spanish). Vol. I–IV. Santiago: Imprenta del Ferrocarril.
- ISBN 978-0598482358.
- Castedo, Leopoldo (1954). Resumen de la Historia de Chile de Francisco Antonio Encina (in Spanish). Vol. 2. Santiago: Empresa Editora Zig-Zag.
- Encina, Francisco Antonio (1940–1952). Historia de Chile: desde la prehistoria hasta 1891 (in Spanish). Vol. I–XX. Santiago: Editorial Nascimento.
- Gay, Claudio (1856). Historia de la Independencia Chilena(in Spanish). Vol. I & II. Paris: Imprenta de E. Thunot y Cia.
- Harvey, Robert. "Liberators: Latin America`s Struggle For Independence, 1810–1830". John Murray: London (2000). ISBN 0-7195-5566-3
- Herring, Hubert (1968). A History of Latin America. New York: Alfred A Knopf.
- Prago, Albert (1970). The Revolutions in Spanish America. New York: The Macmillan Company.
- Vicuña Mackenna, Benjamín (1849). El sitio de Chillán (in Spanish). Santiago: Periodico La Tribuna.
- Vicuña Mackenna, Benjamín (1868). La guerra a muerte: memoria sobre las últimas campañas de la Independencia de Chile (1819–1824) (in Spanish). Santiago: Imprenta Nacional. p. 562.