212 CHAPTER 9 DECOLONIZATION AND THE SEARCH FOR NATIONAL IDENTITIES, 1821–1870
energetically pushed a program of reform designed
to weaken the landed aristocracy and the church
and promote rapid development of the Chilean
economy along capitalist lines. His abolition of titles
of nobility and entails angered the great landown-
ers of the fertile Central Valley between the Andes
and the Pacifi c; his expulsion of the royalist bishop
of Santiago and his restrictions on the number of
religious processions and the veneration of im-
ages infuriated the church. Dissident liberals who
resented his sometimes heavy-handed rule joined
the opposition to O’Higgins. In 1823, O’Higgins re-
signed and went into exile in Lima. There followed
seven turbulent years, with presidents and consti-
tutions rising and falling.
PORTALES AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
In Chile, as in other Latin American countries, the
political and armed struggle gradually assumed the
form of a confl ict between conservatives, who usu-
ally were also centralists, and liberals, who were
generally federalists. The conservative-centralists
were the party of the great landowners of the Cen-
tral Valley and the wealthy merchants of Santiago;
the liberal-federalists spoke for the landowners,
merchants, and artisans of the northern and south-
ern provinces, who were resentful of political and
economic domination by the wealthy central area.
By 1830 the conservatives emerged victorious
under the leadership of Joaquín Prieto and his
cabinet minister Diego Portales.
Until 1837, Portales, who never held an elec-
tive offi ce, indelibly stamped his ideas on Chilean
politics and society. A businessman of aristocratic
origins and owner of a successful import house,
he faithfully served the interests of an oligarchy of
great landlords and merchants that dominated the
Chilean scene for decades. Although Portales ex-
pressed atheist views in private, he supported the
authority of the church as an instrument for keep-
ing the lower classes in order. He understood the
importance of trade, industry, and mining and pro-
moted their interests by removing remaining ob-
stacles to internal trade. He introduced income and
property taxes to increase the state’s revenues and
trimmed government spending by dismissing un-
necessary employees. Agriculture was protected by
high tariffs on agricultural imports. Port facilities
were improved, measures were taken to strengthen
the Chilean merchant marine, and in 1835 a
steamship line began to connect Chilean ports. Un-
der the fostering care of the conservative regime
and in response to a growing European demand
for Chilean silver, copper, and hides, the national
economy made steady progress in the 1830s.
Measures designed to stimulate economic
growth were accompanied by others that forti-
fi ed the social and political power of the oligarchy.
Portales restored the privileges the church had lost
under liberal rule and normalized the troubled re-
lations between Chile and the papacy.
In 1833 a conservative-dominated assembly
adopted a constitution that further consolidated the
power of the oligarchy. Elections were made indi-
rect, with the suffrage limited to men of twenty-fi ve
years or over who could satisfy literacy and prop-
erty qualifi cations. Still higher property qualifi ca-
tions were required of members of the lower and
upper houses. The constitution restored entails,
ensuring the perpetuation of the latifundio. Ca-
tholicism was declared the state religion, and the
church was given control over marriage. The pres-
ident enjoyed an absolute veto over congressional
legislation, appointed all high offi cials, and could
proclaim a state of siege. The process of amend-
ing the constitution was made so diffi cult as to be
virtually impossible. Since the president controlled
the electoral machinery, the outcome of elections
was a foregone conclusion.ECONOMIC EXPANSION UNDER BULNES
In 1841, General Manuel Bulnes succeeded Prieto
to the presidency; he was reelected to a second fi ve-
year term in 1846. Victorious at home and abroad,
the conservative leadership decided it could relax
the strict discipline of the Portales period. Chile’s
economic life began a renewed advance. Com-
merce, mining, and agriculture prospered as never
before. The Crimean War and the gold rushes
to California and Australia of the 1850s created