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Chile
Index
Following Pérez's peaceful ten-year administration,
Chilean
presidents were prohibited from running for election to a
second
consecutive term by an 1871 amendment to the constitution.
Pérez
was succeeded as president by Federico Errázuriz Zañartu
(1871-76),
Aníbal Pinto Garmendia (1876-81), and Domingo Santa María
González
(1881-86), the latter two serving during the War of the
Pacific
(1879-83). All formed coalition governments in which the
president
juggled a complicated array of party components.
The Liberal Party (Partido Liberal--PL), the
Conservative Party
(Partido Conservador--PC), and the National Party (Partido
Nacional--PN) were formed in 1857. Once the Liberal Party
replaced
the Conservative Party as the dominant party, the Liberal
Party was
in turn challenged from the left by the more fervent
reformists of
the Radical Party (Partido Radical--PR). A spin-off from
the
Liberal Party, the Radical Party was founded in 1861.
Reformists of
the Democrat Party (Partido Demócrata), which in turn
splintered
from the Radical Party in 1887, also challenged the
Liberal Party.
The National Party also vied with the Conservatives and
Liberals to
represent upper-class interests. Derived from the Montt
presidency,
the National Party took a less proclerical, more centrist
position
than that of the Conservatives. Party competition
escalated after
the electoral reform of 1874 extended the franchise to all
literate
adult males, effectively removing property qualifications.
Like Montt, most Liberal chief executives were
centrists who
introduced change gradually. Their administrations
continued to
make incremental cuts in church privileges but tried not
to inflame
that issue. Secularization gradually gained ground in
education,
and Santa María transferred from the church to the state
the
management birth, marriage, and death records.
Even during internal and external conflicts, Chile
continued to
prosper. When Spain attempted to reconquer Peru, Chile
engaged in
a coastal war (1864-66) with the Spaniards, whose warships
shelled
Valparaíso. Once again, Chile asserted its sway over the
west coast
of South America. Farming, mining, and commerce grew
steadily until
the world depression of the 1870s, when Chile again turned
to a war
against its Andean neighbors.
Data as of March 1994
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