1851 Chilean Revolution | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Conservative Party | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2,000 [1] to 4,000 men [2] |
The Revolution of 1851 (or Civil War of 1851) was an attempt by Chilean liberals to overthrow the conservative government of president Manuel Montt and repeal the Chilean Constitution of 1833. [3] After various battles and sieges, by late December 1851 government forces had subdued the revolutionaries.
After the Battle of Lircay ended the Chilean Civil War of 1829–30, Chile formed a conservative political system under the 1833 Constitution, drafted by Mariano Egaña, which established a one-party presidential polity. In the succeeding decades, various liberal social and political movements emerged, led by intellectuals like Santiago Arcos, Francisco Bilbao, José Victorino Lastarria and Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna. These and others formed institutions such as the Literary Society of 1842 and the Society of Equality, which sought to rally the population to achieve an increase in civil rights. During the 1840s many small newspapers began to appear in Chile such as, Guerra a la Tiranía, which used language that facilitated violence among liberal social groups throughout Chile. [4] Other newspapers such as El Semanario and El Mercurio, two popular newspapers at the time, began to denounce these new slanderous newspapers such as Guerra a la Tiranía in order to stop their dangerous journalism from further dividing political parties. [5] The European Revolutions of 1848 also inspired and encouraged opposition political movements, who increasingly saw armed action as the most realistic means of forcing political change. [6] ·
In early 1851, the opposition advanced candidate José María de la Cruz in the presidential election to oppose then-president Manuel Bulnes's preferred successor, Manuel Montt. [6] Concerned that the election might not end in their favor, Cruz and other opposition groups decided to attempt a military coup, to be carried out in Santiago by Colonel Pedro Urriola Balbontín.
At dawn on 20 April, Urriola and his companions seized the main streets of Santiago and stormed the army barracks to arm more men, but few of the soldiers they had hoped for joined in the uprising. Two loyalist battalions organized to face the rebels and prepared a counteroffensive from the Alameda and Santa Lucia Hill. The fighting lasted about five hours, after which Urriola was killed along with more than 200 others. [6]
When the government announced that Montt had won the election by a wide margin, Cruz accused the regime of electoral fraud and declared the election void. He also alleged that government agents were conspiring to assassinate him, but the men accused were acquitted by the Chilean courts. [7] After that Cruz withdrew to Concepción from Santiago. [7] Small protests began in Concepción, Coquimbo and Maule, which would gradually escalate into open rebellion. In the meantime, the government began arresting political opponents.
Days before Manuel Montt assumed power on 18 September 1851, dissident uprisings seized power in Concepción and La Serena. [8] According to historian Alberto Edwards the uprising was not only rooted in liberalism but also in provincialism.
The revolution in La Serena was led by Pedro Pablo Muñoz, the brothers Antonio and Ignacio Alfonso, and other notable residents of the city, who organized a revolutionary militia of 600 men from La Serena, Ovalle and Illapel. Calling themselves the "Restorers of the North," they were commanded by José Miguel Carrera Fontecilla. A revolutionary government was formed in the city, declaring the abolition of the Constitution of 1833. After a defeat by government forces in the Battle of Petorca, the city was besieged.
The uprising in Concepción, by contrast, had little to do with liberalism, as José María de la Cruz and other Concepción strongmen were pelucones (conservatives). Instead, historian Fernando Silva (1974) claims that the election of Montt meant the loss of the political hegemony Concepción had enjoyed in the 1829–1851 period under the presidents José Joaquín Prieto and Manuel Bulnes, both of whom were from that city. Because of this the Concepción elite would have supported the overthrow of the Montt regime. [9] Cruz armed a group of four thousand men, including liberal supporters, rebel troops, mountaineers, and warriors of the Mapuche chieftain Mañil. According to historian José Bengoa, the Mapuches saw the central government in Santiago as their main enemy, explaining their participation on the side of Cruz in the Concepción-based revolt. [10] Cruz had previously been in charge of the Army of the South and had helped to prevent a possible Mapuche-Chilean war arising from the wreck of Joven Daniel in 1849. [11]
On 28 October another uprising began in Valparaíso, led by artisans of the Society of Brotherhood (the surviving local chapter of Society of Equality). The Valparaíso mutiny was led by Rafael Bilbao and José Antonio Riquelme. [12]
On 21 November a Chilean naval officer named José Miguel Cambiazo led a mutiny in Punta Arenas, which was eventually put down by the Chilean navy. [13]
Meanwhile, the revolution was still raging in the north. However, the defeat of the Liberals in Petorca made them remain in the Province of Coquimbo, while some mining businessmen favoring the Government, decided to create a counterrevolutionary army under the command of Ignacio José Prieto.
In the meantime, an Government army detachment under the command of Juan Vidaurre-Leal Morla and Victorino Garrido landed in Papudo and headed towards the province of Coquimbo with 4,000 soldiers. [14] These joined Prieto and marched to La Serena, a city that had barely 1,000 men for its defense, under the command of José Miguel Carrera Fontecilla, son of the Father of the Nation of the same name. [15] Even so, the Liberals continued their resistance. After the defeat of the Concepción revolutionaries in the Battle of Loncomilla on 8 December, the Revolution had lost its drive and was reduced to an isolated stronghold in the city of La Serena.
However, on 26 December, a revolution broke out in Copiapó by the forces under the command of Bernardino Barahona. Most of the soldiers who defended La Serena, moved north to support this new revolution. At the end of December, La Serena, with its empty trenches, was easily occupied by Government forces, without an armistice having been negotiated between the both sides.
On 8 January 1852, the Revolutionary forces of Copiapó were defeated in Linderos de Ramadilla by the Chilean army, ending the uprising in the provinces.
After the failure of the Revolution, the government of Montt began a program of political persecution against the instigators of the uprisings, led by his minister Antonio Varas, which included arrests and deportations. Dozens of notable government opponents were driven into exile, including Arcos, Bilbao, Lastarria and Vicuña Mackenna. Between 2,000 and 4,000 men had died in the fighting.
A major rift developed within Chile's political opposition, dividing them into a group headed by Francisco Bilbao, who called for renewed armed revolution, and one headed by Aubrey, seeking a return to democracy by an institutional route.
The Arauco War was a long-running conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people, mostly fought in the Araucanía region of Chile. The conflict began at first as a reaction to the Spanish conquerors attempting to establish cities and force Mapuches into servitude. It subsequently evolved over time into phases comprising drawn-out sieges, slave-hunting expeditions, pillaging raids, punitive expeditions, and renewed Spanish attempts to secure lost territories. Abduction of women and war rape was common on both sides.
Manuel Jesús Baquedano González was a Chilean soldier and politician, who served as Commander-in-chief of the Army during the War of the Pacific, and briefly as President of Chile during the civil war of 1891.
Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera, often shortened to Instituto Nacional, is a public boys' school in downtown Santiago, Chile which teaches 4.400 students between 7th and 12th grade. 170 teachers are employed.
The Fort System of Valdivia is a series of Spanish colonial fortifications at Corral Bay, Valdivia and Cruces River established to protect the city of Valdivia, in southern Chile. During the period of Spanish rule (1645–1820), it was one of the biggest systems of fortification in the Americas. It was also a major supply source for Spanish ships that crossed the Strait of Magellan.
The Occupation of Araucanía or Pacification of Araucanía (1861–1883) was a series of military campaigns, agreements and penetrations by the Chilean army and settlers into Mapuche territory which led to the incorporation of Araucanía into Chilean national territory. Pacification of Araucanía was the expression used by the Chilean authorities for this process. The conflict was concurrent with Argentine campaigns against the Mapuche (1878–1885) and Chile's wars with Spain (1865–1866) and with Peru and Bolivia (1879–1883).
The Destruction of the Seven Cities is a term used in Chilean historiography to refer to the destruction or abandonment of seven major Spanish outposts in southern Chile around 1600, caused by the Mapuche and Huilliche uprising of 1598. The Destruction of the Seven Cities, in traditional historiography, marks the end of the Conquest period and the beginning of the proper colonial period.
The Conquest of Chile is a period in Chilean historiography that starts with the arrival of Pedro de Valdivia to Chile in 1541 and ends with the death of Martín García Óñez de Loyola in the Battle of Curalaba in 1598, and the destruction of the Seven Cities in 1598–1604 in the Araucanía region.
Guerra a muerte is a term coined by Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna and used in Chilean historiography to describe the irregular, no-quarter warfare that broke out in 1819 during the Chilean War of Independence.
In Chilean historiography, Colonial Chile is the period from 1600 to 1810, beginning with the Destruction of the Seven Cities and ending with the onset of the Chilean War of Independence. During this time, the Chilean heartland was ruled by Captaincy General of Chile. The period was characterized by a lengthy conflict between Spaniards and native Mapuches known as the Arauco War. Colonial society was divided in distinct groups including Peninsulars, Criollos, Mestizos, Indians and Black people.
Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna was a Chilean writer, journalist, historian and politician. Vicuña Mackenna was of Irish and Basque descent.
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The Battle of Loncomilla was the decisive battle of the 1851 Chilean Revolution between conservative government and liberal rebel forces on 8 December 1851. The conservative victory in the battle essentially crushed the revolution. The rebel army of José María de la Cruz's was aided by Mapuche chief Mañil who participated in battle with his warriors. After defeat at Loncomilla Mañil returned south. According to historian José Bengoa Mapuches saw the government in Santiago as their main enemy, explaining thus the participation of Mapuches on the side of José María de la Cruz Concepción-based revolt.
Mañil or Magnil was a Mapuche lonko who fought in the 1851 Chilean Revolution and led an uprising in 1859. He was the main chief of the Arribanos and the father of Quilapán who led Mapuche forces in the Occupation of Araucanía.
As an archaeological culture, the Mapuche people of southern Chile and Argentina have a long history which dates back to 600–500 BC. The Mapuche society underwent great transformations after Spanish contact in the mid–16th century. These changes included the adoption of Old World crops and animals and the onset of a rich Spanish–Mapuche trade in La Frontera and Valdivia. Despite these contacts Mapuche were never completely subjugated by the Spanish Empire. Between the 18th and 19th century Mapuche culture and people spread eastwards into the Pampas and the Patagonian plains. This vast new territory allowed Mapuche groups to control a substantial part of the salt and cattle trade in the Southern Cone.
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José Victorino Lastarria was a Chilean writer, legislative deputy, senator, diplomat, and finance minister.
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Joven Daniel was a brigantine of the Chilean Navy that entered service in 1838 serving as transport in Manuel Bulnes' expedition to Peru during the War of the Confederation. The ship became later known for its wreck off the coast of Araucanía in 1849. As it wrecked in territory outside Chilean government control, Chilean authorities struggled to elucidate the fate of possible survivors amidst inter-indigenous accusations of looting, murder and other atrocitities among local Mapuche. The events spinning off the wreckage fueled strong anti-Mapuche sentiments in Chilean society, contributing years later to the Chilean resolution to invade their hithereto independent territories.
Las guerras civiles chilenas de 1829-1830, 1851 y 1859 dejaron, entre muertos y heridos, 2000, 4000 y 5000 vidas perdidas