Chile: Difference between revisions

Before gaining independence Chile was the southernmost province of the Kingdom of Peru whose government was a unitary monarchy with much of the political power in the country laying in the capital Cusco. During the late 19th century political organizations & labor unions throughout Chile started gaining large popular support by advocating a less centralized more federal government (taking inspiration from many other nearby South American nations). The largest of these organizations was the 'Party for Reform in Chile' (''El Partido por la Reforma en Chile)'' who campaigned across the province advocated their vision of a federal kingdom of Peru where the provinces could have much more autonomy to solve localized issues with less interference from the far-off capital; this party grew increasingly popular in the decades leading up to independence especially amongstamong liberals, union workers & the province's Native American communities. Collectively all the groups seeking federalist reforms in Chile were known (informally) as the Reformists, and were concentrated especially in the city of Santiago.

In the early 20th century, the Reformistreformist cause gained force due to the poor Peruvian economy and later the war with Colombia. When the 2nd Colombian-Peruvian War broke out, Reformist groups started to write anti-war articles in local newspapers and organization large scale public protests. The war was seen by Chileans across the political spectrum to be driven by the arrogance & greed of the Peruvian central government. The Peruvian government fearing that the political unrest in Chile would spread to other regions banned public & private political gatherings, established curfews and instituted a large scale censorship on the press. These actions, ironically, invigorated the Reformist cause and turned the Chilean public increasingly against the central government leading to even more protests in the province's main urban centers.

In the fall of 1918, after a violent response from the national forces over a protest in Santiago, the Chileans throughout the city became outraged and confrontations with central government forces in the street started to get violent. Many public buildings were vandalized and looted for supplies while central government & pro-Peruvian politicians were run out of the region by violent mobs. After only one day of fighting, Santiago fell to reformist aligned protestorsprotesters. After the capital's demise, other towns and cities across central Chile and later the Chaco followed the same path. Due to the war in the Amazon and the long distance needed to be crossed by national forces from the country's heart to Chile, rebel forces held an advantage. In late 1918, Britain and Colombia started to supply the Reformists through the port of Valparaíso. From this moment until the end of the conflict in April 1919, the rebels took a guerillaguerrilla fighting approach, engaging in surprise confrontations in the Andes. In 1919 during the aftermath of the 2nd Colombian-Peruvian, the treaty of Leonabelle was signed and Chilean independence was recognized by Peru as one of the peace conditions.