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Chilean Independence, "La Patria Vieja"
(Reads: 1113, 03-Mar-2010)
La Patria Vieja (1810 - 1814) The revolutionary movement which occurred in the "Capitanía General" of Chile followed a course which differed little from that in other parts of America. After the triumph of autonomy in the Council opened on 18th September 1810, the aspirations of the leaders were for ever greater separation. However these pretensions were aborted, temporarily at least, by their defeat at the Battle of Rancagua in 1814.
This period is known as the "Patria Vieja". As a result of their experiment in autonomous government during this period, the Criollo population (those of Spanish or other European descent born in Chile) were inspired with political and emancipatory sentiments, adopting the republican ideal.
When the monarchy fell into crisis as a result of Napoleon's invasion of Spain, the Kingdom of Chile was under the interim government of Antonio García Carrasco. His imprudence and lack of political adroitness quickly alienated from him the goodwill, first of the Royal Audience and then of the City Council of Santiago. Authoritarian measures, such as the imprisonment of three patricians, Juan A. Ovalle, José A. de Rojas and Bernardo de Vera y Pintado, led the Santiago aristocracy to demand his resignation on 16th August 1810. He was replaced by don Mateo de Toro y Zambrano, Count of the Conquest, already an old man and subject to influences of all kinds. Toro convened a Council, open to the people of Santiago, to adopt a resolution in view of the difficult situation through which the country was passing.
In this Council the party which advocated autonomous government triumphed over the few supporters of submission to the Regency Council in Spain. A Government Junta was therefore created. This declared its loyalty to the deposed Spanish king, Fernando VII, and took effective measures:
- It organized the first militias for the defence of the kingdom.
- Decreed freedom of trade with nations which were neutral or allied to Spain.
- It also convened a National Congress in order to ensure the representation of the whole country.
All these acts correspond to a legal exercise of right, founded on the legitimate use of the sovereignty which had reverted to the people. However, towards the end of 1810 a clearly revolutionary ideology enters the scene with the arrival of a friar – member of a minor order known as "La Buena Muerte" – Camilo Henríquez. Inspired by the philosophy of the Enlightenment, the ideas of Rousseau's Social Contract and the example of the United States, he proposed separation. He publicised his thinking in the famous Proclamation of Quirino Lemáchez (an anagramatical pseudonym), which appeared in January 1811 and in which he speaks out undisguisedly for independence.
The First National Congress: The National Congress was installed on 4th July 1811. The predominant group was that of the moderate patriots, those who wanted reforms but not to break with the metropolis. The group known as the "Exalted", who had separatist aspirations, remained in a clear minority. The following measures were taken by this Congress:
- Creation of the Province of Coquimbo.
- Law of the "liberty of wombs", by which children born to slaves on Chilean territory were declared free and the traffic of negroes in the country was prohibited.
- Suppression of "parish rights" (taxes charged by the clergy for carrying out the sacraments of baptism, marriage and burial).
- Francisco Antonio Pinto was sent to the Junta in Buenos Aires as diplomatic agent. José Miguel Carrera, who arrived in Valparaiso in February 1811 with the intention of giving the movement a more progressive face, took advantage of the moderate attitude of the members of congress.
By a series of "coups de force" (October, November and December 1811), supported by "exalted" elements, he managed to close the Congress and establish a personal government.
Government of José Miguel Carrera (1811- 1813) Carrera carried out a number of acts with the aim of achieving an independent government. One of these was to obtain a printing press. On this press Camilo Henríquez edited "La Aurora de Chile" (The Dawn of Chile), the country's first newspaper. Its principal purpose was to popularize Carrera's thinking: Absolute independence. The paper attacked Spain and praised the United States; the divine origin of kings was denied and the sovereignty of the people was proclaimed.
Carrera dictated the Constitutional Regulation of 1812, recognising Fernando VII but in purely nominal form. This Regulation, the appointment of J. Robert Poinsett to the newly-created position of Consul of the United States, and the creation of a national flag and cockade, all indicate that Carrera pursued the right of the Chilean people to self-government.
The separatist orientation assumed by Chile led the viceroy of Peru, Jose Fernando Abascal, to send a military expedition. General Antonio Pareja disembarked in Chiloe in March 1813 and advanced northwards, swelling his ranks with soldiers posted in Valdivia and other places. With some 2,000 men he took the city of Concepción, breaking into Chile's military stronghold. Carrera himself directed the defence of the country, leaving a Junta (1813) in charge of the government. The confrontation of the armies of the viceroy and the criollos marked the start of the so-called ‘Wars of independence’, which, considering the composition of the two contingents, may properly be described as Civil Wars.
After a parenthesis in the armed struggle following the signing of the Treaty of Lircay (May 1814), by which the status quo of the year 1810 was re-established, with recognition by the criollos of Fernando VII and by the royalists of the government existing in Chile at that moment, war resumed. The first part of the war came to an end with the royalist triumph at the Battle of Rancagua (October 1814). Rancagua marks the end of the Patria Vieja and the start of the historical period known as the Spanish Reconquest.
Bibliography ”CHILE y AMERICA, ayer y hoy" Authors: LORENZO S.,Santiago and ZAMORANO G.,Manuel Ed. Sociedades Ediciones Pedagógicas Chilenas Ltda. Stgo. 1971
This period is known as the "Patria Vieja". As a result of their experiment in autonomous government during this period, the Criollo population (those of Spanish or other European descent born in Chile) were inspired with political and emancipatory sentiments, adopting the republican ideal.
When the monarchy fell into crisis as a result of Napoleon's invasion of Spain, the Kingdom of Chile was under the interim government of Antonio García Carrasco. His imprudence and lack of political adroitness quickly alienated from him the goodwill, first of the Royal Audience and then of the City Council of Santiago. Authoritarian measures, such as the imprisonment of three patricians, Juan A. Ovalle, José A. de Rojas and Bernardo de Vera y Pintado, led the Santiago aristocracy to demand his resignation on 16th August 1810. He was replaced by don Mateo de Toro y Zambrano, Count of the Conquest, already an old man and subject to influences of all kinds. Toro convened a Council, open to the people of Santiago, to adopt a resolution in view of the difficult situation through which the country was passing.
In this Council the party which advocated autonomous government triumphed over the few supporters of submission to the Regency Council in Spain. A Government Junta was therefore created. This declared its loyalty to the deposed Spanish king, Fernando VII, and took effective measures:
- It organized the first militias for the defence of the kingdom.
- Decreed freedom of trade with nations which were neutral or allied to Spain.
- It also convened a National Congress in order to ensure the representation of the whole country.
All these acts correspond to a legal exercise of right, founded on the legitimate use of the sovereignty which had reverted to the people. However, towards the end of 1810 a clearly revolutionary ideology enters the scene with the arrival of a friar – member of a minor order known as "La Buena Muerte" – Camilo Henríquez. Inspired by the philosophy of the Enlightenment, the ideas of Rousseau's Social Contract and the example of the United States, he proposed separation. He publicised his thinking in the famous Proclamation of Quirino Lemáchez (an anagramatical pseudonym), which appeared in January 1811 and in which he speaks out undisguisedly for independence.
The First National Congress: The National Congress was installed on 4th July 1811. The predominant group was that of the moderate patriots, those who wanted reforms but not to break with the metropolis. The group known as the "Exalted", who had separatist aspirations, remained in a clear minority. The following measures were taken by this Congress:
- Creation of the Province of Coquimbo.
- Law of the "liberty of wombs", by which children born to slaves on Chilean territory were declared free and the traffic of negroes in the country was prohibited.
- Suppression of "parish rights" (taxes charged by the clergy for carrying out the sacraments of baptism, marriage and burial).
- Francisco Antonio Pinto was sent to the Junta in Buenos Aires as diplomatic agent. José Miguel Carrera, who arrived in Valparaiso in February 1811 with the intention of giving the movement a more progressive face, took advantage of the moderate attitude of the members of congress.
By a series of "coups de force" (October, November and December 1811), supported by "exalted" elements, he managed to close the Congress and establish a personal government.
Government of José Miguel Carrera (1811- 1813) Carrera carried out a number of acts with the aim of achieving an independent government. One of these was to obtain a printing press. On this press Camilo Henríquez edited "La Aurora de Chile" (The Dawn of Chile), the country's first newspaper. Its principal purpose was to popularize Carrera's thinking: Absolute independence. The paper attacked Spain and praised the United States; the divine origin of kings was denied and the sovereignty of the people was proclaimed.
Carrera dictated the Constitutional Regulation of 1812, recognising Fernando VII but in purely nominal form. This Regulation, the appointment of J. Robert Poinsett to the newly-created position of Consul of the United States, and the creation of a national flag and cockade, all indicate that Carrera pursued the right of the Chilean people to self-government.
The separatist orientation assumed by Chile led the viceroy of Peru, Jose Fernando Abascal, to send a military expedition. General Antonio Pareja disembarked in Chiloe in March 1813 and advanced northwards, swelling his ranks with soldiers posted in Valdivia and other places. With some 2,000 men he took the city of Concepción, breaking into Chile's military stronghold. Carrera himself directed the defence of the country, leaving a Junta (1813) in charge of the government. The confrontation of the armies of the viceroy and the criollos marked the start of the so-called ‘Wars of independence’, which, considering the composition of the two contingents, may properly be described as Civil Wars.
After a parenthesis in the armed struggle following the signing of the Treaty of Lircay (May 1814), by which the status quo of the year 1810 was re-established, with recognition by the criollos of Fernando VII and by the royalists of the government existing in Chile at that moment, war resumed. The first part of the war came to an end with the royalist triumph at the Battle of Rancagua (October 1814). Rancagua marks the end of the Patria Vieja and the start of the historical period known as the Spanish Reconquest.
Bibliography ”CHILE y AMERICA, ayer y hoy" Authors: LORENZO S.,Santiago and ZAMORANO G.,Manuel Ed. Sociedades Ediciones Pedagógicas Chilenas Ltda. Stgo. 1971
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