Part II

THE RISE OF A REPUBLIC, 1830s–1880s

While consolidating itself as a nation-state, Chile enjoyed both substan-

tial commercial expansion and the eventual development of a tradition
of tolerant upper-class politics. Exports of copper, silver, and wheat
enriched the upper class and enabled the republic to grow and to initi-
ate modernization, though with its traditional social structure changing
only slowly. Chile came to be regarded abroad as the “model repub-
lic” of South America, an opinion widely shared by educated Chileans
themselves (Chapter 4). The early Conservative hegemony gradually gave
way, in some memorable mid-century struggles, and with the tradition
of strong presidential rule maintained, to a pattern of Liberal-dominated
politics which included competition between four major parties, prefigur-
ing the vital role of parties in later times. A severe economic crisis in the
1870s was followed by Chilean victory over Peru and Bolivia in the War
of the Pacific (Chapters 5 and 6).

Governments
1831–41 General Joaquín Prieto
1841–51 General Manuel Bulnes
1851–61 Manuel Montt
1861–71 José Joaquín Pérez
1871–76 Federico Errázuriz
1876–81 Aníbal Pinto*
1881–86 Domingo Santa María
* Son of the president of 1827–29

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https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009170222.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009170222.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press