PART II - The rise of a republic, 1830s–1880s

Summary

While consolidating itself as a nation-state, Chile enjoyed both substantial 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 initiate modernization, though with its traditional social structure changing only slowly. Chile came to be regarded abroad as the “model republic” 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, prefiguring 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).