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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
Although never president, 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 He repealed Liberal reforms that had threatened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.
Portales brought the military under civilian control by
rewarding loyal generals, cashiering troublemakers, and
promoting
a victorious war against the Peru-Bolivia Confederation
(1836-39).
After defeating Peru and Bolivia, Chile dominated the
Pacific Coast
of South America. The victory over its neighbors gave
Chile and its
new political system a psychological boost. Chileans
experienced a
surge of national enthusiasm and cohesion behind a regime
accepted
as legitimate and efficacious.
Portales also achieved his objectives by wielding
dictatorial
powers, censoring the press, and 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
southern frontier, although some units got embroiled in
domestic
conflicts in 1851 and 1859. In later years, conservative
Chileans
canonized Portales as a symbol of order and progress,
exaggerating
the importance of one man in that achievement.
The "Portalian State" was institutionalized by the 1833
constitution. 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.
The first Portalian president was General Joaquín
Prieto Vial,
who served two terms (1831-36, 1836-41). 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.
Prieto and his adviser, Portales, feared the efforts of
Bolivian general Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana 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. Portales got Congress to declare war on Peru in
1836. When
a Chilean colonel who opposed the war killed Portales in
1837, this
act and the suspicion that Peruvians were involved in the
assassination plot inspired an even greater war effort by
the
government.
Data as of March 1994
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