La autonomía estatal y la clase dominante en el siglo XIX chileno : la guerra civil de 1891

Abstract

This thesis deals with the causes

of the 1891 civil war in Chile. That confrontation was very violent, to

the extent that the ruling Balmaceda administration was accused of not

respecting private property, the privacy of the home nor the freedom of the press. Furthermore, he was accused of arresting and torturing opponents to his government. According to Valentín Letelier, a contemporary observer, the events occurred in a context where the administrative apparatus of the state (which had grown and been reformed during the 1880’s) had become an “instrument for oppression”. This narration of the civil war is not consistent with the traditional description of nineteenth century Chilean history. This dissertation starts with the premise that, what seemingly is a paradox – that the oligarchic state would have repressed the class which controlled it – is not truly so. This study argues that what really characterized the 19th century in Chile was the fact that the State was a constant source of political conflict. This study seeks to fill the existing gap in literature regarding the civil war and aims to explain why the role of the State in the nineteenth-century Chilean society was a key factor to explain the war of 1891.