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Chile
Index
Figure 2. Three South American Viceroyalties, ca. 1800
Source: Based on information from A. Curtis Wilgus,
Historical Atlas of Latin America, New York, 1967, 112.
The Habsburg dynasty's rule over Spain ended in 1700.
The
Habsburgs' successors, the French Bourbon monarchs,
reigned for the
rest of the colonial period. In the second half of the
eighteenth
century, they tried to restructure the empire to improve
its
productivity and defense. The main period of Bourbon
reforms in
Chile lasted from the coronation of Charles III (1759-88)
in Spain
to the end of Governor Ambrosio O'Higgins y Ballenary's
tenure in
Chile (1788-96).
The Bourbon rulers gave the audiencia of Chile
(Santiago) greater independence from the Viceroyalty of
Peru
(see
fig. 2). One of the most successful governors of the
Bourbon era
was the Irish-born O'Higgins, whose son Bernardo would
lead the
Chilean independence movement. Ambrosio O'Higgins promoted
greater
self-sufficiency of both economic production and public
administration, and he enlarged and strengthened the
military. In
1791 he also outlawed encomiendas and forced labor.
The Bourbons allowed Chile to trade more freely with
other
colonies, as well as with independent states. Exchange
increased
with Argentina after it became the Viceroyalty of the Río
de la
Plata in 1776. Ships from the United States and Europe
were
engaging in direct commerce with Chile by the end of the
eighteenth
century. However, the total volume of Chilean trade
remained small
because the colony produced few items of high unit value
to
outsiders.
Freer trade brought with it greater knowledge of
politics
abroad, especially the spread of liberalism in Europe and
the
creation of the United States. Although a few members of
the
Chilean elite flirted with ideals of the Enlightenment,
most of
them held fast to the traditional ideology of the Spanish
crown and
its partner, the Roman Catholic Church. Notions of
democracy and
independence, let alone Protestantism, never reached the
vast
majority of mestizos and native Americans, who remained
illiterate
and subordinate.
Data as of March 1994
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