Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-14T08:56:58.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Discriminatory Frontier Land Policy: Chile, 1870-1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Carl E. Solberg*
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Extract

Writing in 1904, the Chilean intellectual Nicolás Palacios bitterly complained that his fellow-countrymen inhabiting the southern frontier provinces were “orphans” in their own land. The simile was appropriate. Since the 1870's, the government, through its land policy, systematically and deliberately had excluded Chile's wage-labor class from property ownership in the frontier. As a direct result, many Chilean laborers fell to peonage while European immigrants and wealthy Chileans acquired ownership of much of the public domain. Shortly before World War I, social and political pressures in Chile forced the government to end this discriminatory policy and to begin distributing the remainder of the public domain to nativeborn settlers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Quoted in Varas, Santiago Macchiavello, Política económica nacional: antecedentes y directivas, 2 vols. (Santiago, 1931), 1, 366.Google Scholar

2 McBride, George M., Chile: Land and Society (New York, 1936), 283 Google Scholar; Jefferson, Mark, Recent Colonization in Chile (New York, 1921), 2930.Google Scholar

3 One distinguished foreign traveller who lauded the Araucanians was Bryce, James, South America (New York, 1913), 235.Google Scholar

4 Among observers who maintained that the white man’s alcohol was a prime cause of Araucanian decline were Gautier, Ferdinand, Chili et Bolivie (Paris, 1905), 22 Google Scholar; and Bryce, , South America, 237.Google Scholar

5 A factual account of the conquest of Araucania is Valenzuela, Francisco Frías, Historia de Chile, 5 vols. (Santiago, 1949), 3, 321330.Google Scholar An account decidedly hostile to the Indians is Encina, Francisco A., Resúmen de la historia de Chile, Third Edition, 3 vols. (Santiago, 1959), 2, 12841288.Google Scholar

6 Chilean historians who comment on the unrepresentative character of the ruling oligarchy include Edwards, Alberto, La fronda aristocrática, Fifth Edition (Santiago, 1959), 175 Google Scholar; and Galdames, Luis, Estudio de la historia de Chile, Eighth Edition (Santiago, 1938), 450456.Google Scholar

7 Lipschutz, Alejandro, La comunidad indígena en América y en Chile (Santiago, 1956), 152.Google Scholar

8 Cange, J.E. Valdes (pseud. for Alejandro Venegas), Sinceridad: Chile íntimo en 1910 (Santiago, 1910), 171172.Google Scholar Also see Donoso, Ricardo and Velasco, Fanor, Historia de la constitución de la propiedad austral (Santiago, 1928), 75.Google Scholar This work concentrates on land tenure prior to 1860.

9 Varas, Macchiavello, Política económica nacional, 1, 95 Google Scholar; Lipschutz, , La comunidad indígena, 136.Google Scholar

10 Cochrane, (pseud.), “Concerning Chile,” Fortnightly Review, 42 (September 1, 1884), 367.Google Scholar An account of the Araucanian decline into peonage is Amberga, Jerónimo, “Estado intelectual, moral y económico del araucano,” Revista chilena de historia y geografía 7 (Third Quarter, 1913), especially 32.Google Scholar

11 Cange, Valdes, Sinceridad, 173.Google Scholar

12 Chile, , Comisión Central del Censo, Censo de la República de Chile levantado el 28 de noviembre de 1907 (Santiago, 1908), 1299.Google Scholar

13 One of the first Chilean intellectuals to portray the plight of Chile’s large rural “ floating “ population was Augusto Orrego Luco, who published a series of articles entitled “La cuestión social en Chile,” in La Patria of Valparaiso in 1884. They have been reprinted in Anales de la Universidad de Chile, CXIX (First and Second Quarters, 1961), 43–55. The quote is from page 50.

14 An agricultural laborer’s wages, when work was available, amounted to about forty centavos paper per day plus three meals of biscuits and beans worth another twenty centavos. This compensation was equivalent in 1899 to about .15 cents gold per day. Danvers, Ernesto, “Chilean Agriculture,” The Weekly Northwestern Miller (March 15, 1899), 506.Google Scholar

15 McBride, , Chile: Land and Society, 299.Google Scholar

16 Guevara, Tomás, “Historia de la civilización de Araucanía,” Anales de la Universidad (Santiago), 113 (Second Semester, 1903), 584585.Google Scholar

17 Chile, Senado, Boletín de sesiones, Sesiones extraordinarias, November 15, 1904, 537 (Hereafter abbreviated as B.S.S.). Also see Hernán Ramírez Necochea, La guerra civil de 1891: antecedentes económicos (Santiago, 1951), 182.

18 Jefferson, , Recent Colonization in Chile, 3334 Google Scholar; Guevara, , “Historia de la civilización de Araucanía,” 187.Google Scholar

19 For information on the auctioning of public land, see Matthei, Adolfo, La agricultura en Chile y la política agraria chilena (Santiago, 1939), 149 Google Scholar; Guevara, , “Historia de la civilización de Araucanía,” 187, 316.Google Scholar

20 The location, ownership, and value of all rural property worth thirty thousand pesos or more in Malleco and Cautín is noted in Espinoza, Enrique, Jeografía descriptiva de la República de Chile, Fifth Edition (Santiago, 1903), 443462.Google Scholar

21 Palacios, Nicolás, Raza chilena (Valparaiso, 1904), 597.Google Scholar

22 Espinoza, , Jeografía descriptiva, 450452.Google Scholar Biographical information in this study is from Fuentes, Jordi and Cortés, Lía, Diccionario histórico de Chile, Fourth Edition (Santiago, 1966).Google Scholar

23 Scott Elliot, George F., Chile (London, 1907), 288289.Google Scholar

24 A brief review of Bunster’s career is in Valenzuela, Frías, Historia de Chile, 4, 3839.Google Scholar Also see Guevara, , “Historia de la civilización de Araucanía,” 584.Google Scholar The value of Bunster’s land was computed from data in Espinoza, , Jeografía descriptiva, 432462.Google Scholar

25 The failure of the Nascimento colony is described in Jefferson, , Recent Colonization, 3132 Google Scholar; and in Guevara, , “Historia de la civilización de Araucanía,” 177178.Google Scholar

26 A work which reproduces the texts of the principal colonization laws is Garzena, Victor García, El problema de la colonización: estudio sobre la ley No. 5,604 (Santiago, 1936), 34.Google Scholar The legislation is also reviewed in Varas, Macchiavella, Política económica nacional, 1, 362.Google Scholar

27 Encina’s data are summarized in Varas, Macchiavello, Política económica nacional, 1, 346.Google Scholar

28 Comparative population figures for the period 1854 through 1907 are found in Chile, Comisión Central del Censo, Censo… de 1907, 1263. Also see Jefferson, , Recent Colonization, 51.Google Scholar

29 The quote is from Felix del Campo, N.Pro inmigración,” Boletín de la Sociedad de Fomento Fabril, 21 (May 1, 1904), 187.Google Scholar For similar statements of this racial theory, see El Mercurio, March 2, 1896, 2; and February 2, 1898, 2. Amberga, in “Estado intelectual, moral y económico del araucano,” 7, laments that many Chilean anthropologists and psychologists considered the Indian hopelessly inferior.

30 La Lei, September 27, 1898, 1.

31 Errázuriz, Isidoro. Tres razas (Valparaiso, 1892), 164.Google Scholar

32 El Mercurio, October 3, 1898, 2. The conviction that European colonization would bring wealth and economic growth was a frequent theme in Chilean writing of the era. Two examples are Cange, Valdes, Sinceridad, 269270 Google Scholar; and García, Belisario, “Chile como país colonizador,” La revista de Chile, 3 (November 15, 1899), 307.Google Scholar

33 Alfonso, José A., Una viaje a Valdivia: la civilización alemana en Chile (Santiago, 1900), 33.Google Scholar Another visitor to the German colonies who was deeply impressed was Santiago Marín Vicuña, one of the leading Chilean engineers of his time. See his Al través de la Patagonia (Santiago, 1901), 29–31.

34 Chile, , Presidente, Lei de presupuestos de los gastos jenerales de la administración pública de Chile (Santiago, 1890),Google Scholar no pagination. For a thorough discussion of the duties of the Paris Immigration and Colonization Agency, see Luco, Ramón Briones, Glosario de colonización (Santiago, 1902), 33.Google Scholar

35 The number of immigrants arriving each year is listed in Chile, , Oficina Central de Estadística Anuario estadístico de la República de Chile (1914), 10 vols. (Santiago, 1915), 1, xi.Google Scholar For a list of the government agricultural colonies and the number of immigrants each contained, see Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Culto i Colonización, Memoria … presentada al Congreso Nacional en 1890 (Santiago, 1890), 490.Google Scholar

36 Smith, W. Anderson, Temperate Chile (London, 1899), 63.Google Scholar One document circu-lated by Chilean agents in Europe gave the value of the peso as four shillings, while in reality at that time it was only two. See Child, Theodore, “Agricultural Chile,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 81 (October, 1890), 780.Google Scholar Also see Guevara, , “Historia de la civilización de Araucanía,” 564565.Google Scholar

37 Luco, Briones, Glosario de colonización, 10; Chile, Agencia General de Colonización, Memoria de los trabajos ejecutados por la Agencia General de Colonización de Chile en Europa en 1895 (Paris, 1896), 19.Google Scholar

38 Ortúzar, Adolfo, Chile of To-Day: Its Commerce, Its Production and Its Resources (New York, 1907), 85.Google Scholar

39 Details of the Colson contract are in Luco, Briones, Glosario de colonización, 1011, 225–229.Google Scholar The difficulties of implementing the contract are reviewed in a speech by Edwards, Agustín in Chile, Cámara de Diputados, Boletín de sesiones, Sesiones ordinarias, September 24, 1903, 1373 (Hereafter abbreviated as B.S.C.D.).Google Scholar Also see Eyzaguirre, Jaime, Chile durante el gobierno de Errázuriz Echaurren, 1896–1901, Second Edition (Santiago, 1957), 170171.Google Scholar

40 Matthei, , La agricultura en Chile, 118.Google Scholar For details of the Budi concession, see Palacios, , Raza chilena, 654655.Google Scholar

41 The decree of the Ministry of Colonization ordering eviction of the Chilean squatters is reprinted in El Mercurio, June 28, 1903, 5 . For other information on “Boer” colonization, see Ibid., May 5, 1903, 5; February 10, 1912, 14; Palacios, , Raza chilena, 642 Google Scholar; and Jefferson, , Recent Colonization, 42.Google Scholar

42 The story of New Italy from the founder’s point of view is in Ricci, Jorge, La Colonia ‘Nueva Italia,’ 40 años después de su fundación (Santiago, 1914).Google Scholar For another version, see Palacios, , Raza chilena, 730.Google Scholar

43 For a repon on the early progress of the colony, see El Mercurio, May 22, 1908, 5. Information on the expulsion of Chilean residents and their subsequent protests is in La Unión, March 19, 1907, 1; El Mercurio, November 17, 1906, 6; December 15, 1909, 3; and in speeches by Alfredo Irarrázaval before the Chamber of Deputies, B.S.C.D., Sesiones extraordinarias, December 28, 1905, 937; and December 18, 1906, 1231–1232.

44 Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Culto y Colonización, Memoria de la Inspección Jeneral de Colonización e Inmigración (Santìago, 1907), 54 Google Scholar; Ricci, , La Colonia ‘Nueva Italia’ 3439.Google Scholar

45 Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Culto y Colonización, Memoria… presentado al Congreso Nacional el 1° de junio de 1910 (Santiago, 1910),Google Scholar Insert facing page 444; Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Culto y Colonización, Memoria… octubre de 1911–Julio de 1914 (Santiago, 1917), 368.Google Scholar

46 Gotschlich, Bernardo, “Reseña de la colonización de las provincias australes,” Boletín de la Sociedad de Fomento Fabril, 18 (November 1, 1901), 404405 Google Scholar; Errázariz, , Tres razas, 31.Google Scholar A novel which describes the Chileans who labored for immigrant landowners was written in 1913 by Fernando Santibáñez. See Santiván, Fernando (pseud.), El crisol, Second Edition (Santiago, 1926), 2021.Google Scholar

47 Palacios, , Raza chilena, 4, 32, 4852.Google Scholar

48 Encina, perhaps the most prestigious historian to live in twentieth-century Chile, closely followed Palacios’ racial theories. See Griffin, Charles C., “Francisco Encina and Revisionism in Chilean History,” Hispanic American Historial Review, 37 (February, 1957), 78 Google Scholar; Mogollón, José Vicente, “Francisco Antonio Encina: su personalidad y sus ideas sobre la raza, la economía, y la educación. Escenario: Chile, 1910,” Atenea, 155 (July-September, 1964), 11.Google Scholar Santiván, , El crisol, 4950, 93Google Scholar; and Le-Brun, Tancredo Pinochet, La conquista de Chile en el siglo XX (Santiago, 1909),Google Scholar are representative works of well-known young authors who called for government support for Chileans rather than for foreigners.

49 The Pitrufquén society is described in La Lei, October 3, 1903, 1. Palacios, , Raza chilena, 693,Google Scholar mentions the Termico group. Reports of the Chilean consul in Neuquen are reprinted in Palacios, Nicolás, “Algunos efectos de la colonización estranjera,” in Chile, Congreso, Comisión Parlamentaria de Colonización, Informe, proyectos de ley, actas de las sesiones y otras antecedentes (Santiago, 1912), 388389.Google Scholar Also see Encina, Francisco A., Nuestra inferioridad económica (Santiago, Edition of 1956), 7071.Google Scholar For observations of an Argentine economist who toured Neuquen, see Carrasco, Gabriel, De Buenos Aires al Neuquen (Buenos Aires, 1902), especially 4041, 49–50.Google Scholar For comments of the Buenos Aires press, see La Nación, March 9, 1910, 8–9; and La Prensa, May 10, 1906, 5.

50 A review of the diplomatic crisis is in Burr, Robert N., By Reason or Force: Chile and the Balancing of Power in South America, 1830-1905 (Berkeley, 1965), 222225.Google ScholarPubMed

51 Luco, Briones, Glosario de colonización, 106108 Google Scholar; and Varas, Macchiavello, Política económica nacional, 363, review the 1896 legislation.Google Scholar Appeals in the press for national colonization to repatriate Chileans in Argentina include El Porvenir, June 7, 1893, 1; El Mercurio, November 25, 1891, 2. Congress approved the legislation with little discussion. See B.S.C.D. Sesiones extraordinarias, April 20, 1896, 796; and B. S. S. Sesiones extraordinarias, February 8, 1896, 594–595.

52 Speech of Agustín Edwards, Minister of Colonization, in B.S.S. Sesiones extra-ordinarias, November 18, 1903, 482.

53 On migration to cities, see Morris, James O., Elites, Intellectuals, and Consensus: A Study of the Social Question and the Industrial Relations System in Chile (Ithaca, 1966), 8384.Google Scholar The census defined an urban center as a place with population of one thousand or more. Chile, , Comisión Central del Censo, Censo… de 1901, 1262.Google Scholar

54 The petition is reprinted in B.S.S., Sesiones ordinarias, July 26, 1897, 406. For descriptions of the 1897 crisis, see Eyzaguirre, , Chile durante el gobierno de Errázuriz Echaurren, 82, 84–85, 168Google Scholar; and in Necochea, Hernán Ramírez, Historia del movimiento obrero en Chile: antecedentes–siglo XIX (Santiago, 1956), 312313.Google Scholar

55 Guevara, , “Historia de la civilización de Araucanía,” 571.Google Scholar

56 B.S.C.D., Sesiones extraordinarias, December 5, 1896, 161; Sesiones ordinarias, August 24, 1897, 927, 946. Also see B.S.S., Sesiones extraordinarias, February 4, 1896, 456; November 16, 1897, 608; and December 15, 1897, 894–895.

57 Chile, , Comisión Central del Censo, Censo… de 1907, 1304–1305.Google Scholar

58 The major terms of this law are summarized in Varas, Macchiavello, Política económica nacional, 364 Google Scholar; and in Garzena, García, El problema de la colonización, 37.Google Scholar

59 See Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Esteriores, Culto i Colonización, Memoria… presentada al Congreso Nacional en 1900 (Santiago, 1900), 122 Google Scholar; Luco, Briones, Glosario de colonización, 9 Google Scholar; and Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Culto y Colonización, Memoria de la Inspección Jeneral de Colonización e Inmigración (Santiago, 1910), 5.Google Scholar

60 A petition from the Congreso Social Obrero, a Santiago federation of trade unions, asking the government to enforce the national colonization law, is in B.S.S., Sesiones extraordinarias, December 11, 1905, 797. A similar petition from a group of artisans in Parral is in Ibid., Sesiones extraordinarias, October 14, 1898, 30.

61 Petitions from Chilean citizens squatting on public land in the south are in B.S.S., Sesiones extraordinarias, October 17, 1898, 43; and Ibid., Sesiones ordinarias, June 19, 1899, 147.

62 La Lei, April 25, 1905, 2.

63 Concha, Malaquías, El programa de la democracia, Second Edition (Santiago, 1905), 372.Google Scholar

64 Speech of Artemio Gutierrez in B.S.C.D., Sesiones extraordinarias, May 15, 1902, 2025.

65 Pike, Fredrick B., Chile and the United States, 1880-1962 (Notre Dame, 1963), 115116 Google Scholar; Also Eyzaguirre, Jaime, Fisonomía histórica de Chile, Third Edition (Santiago, 1965), 147.Google Scholar

66 Speech of Emilio Claro in B.S.C.D., Sesiones extraordinarias, November 3, 1914, 259.

67 Chile, Congreso, Comisión Parlamentaria de Colonización, Informe…, xxvi.

68 Palacios, , “Algunos efectos de la colonización estranjera,” 391.Google Scholar

69 El Porvenir, May 17, 1902, 1; and La Unión, April 18, 1911, 3.

70 La Lei, June 30, 1906, 1.

71 El Porvenir, June 10, 1906; 1; La Lei, June 30, 1906, 1.

72 Montt’s proposed legislation is in B.S.C.D., Sesiones extraordinarias, January 25, 1908, 1287. For the main provisions of this law, see Garzena, García, El problema de la colonización, 38 Google Scholar; and Varas, Macchiavello, Política económica nacional, 364365.Google Scholar

73 Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Culto y Colonización, Memoria… octubre de 1911–julio de 1914, 368370.Google Scholar

74 Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Culto y Colonización, Memoria de la Inspección Jeneral de Colonización e Inmigración (Santiago, 1913), 22, 41Google Scholar; Chile, , Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Culto y Colonización, Memoria… de 1910, insert facing page 444.Google Scholar