ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the emergence of public probity in colonial Chile in the period 1541–1818. It provides a detailed analysis of the main factors that facilitated the emergence of a relatively honest governmental elite in the country. The chapter starts assessing the impact of the long-lasting Arauco War on the militarisation of colonial society and on the type of government that emerged in Chile. The following section stresses Chile’s relative poverty and extreme geographic isolation from the rest of the Spanish American territories during colonial times. This shaped a particular type of colonial administration which favoured public probity. Attention is also given to the particular nature of the Chilean aristocracy and its important noble features. This chapter explores a large number of cases and examples showing the relatively high degree of honesty characterising the Chilean aristocracy during the colonial period. The emergence of a colonial state with solid institutions, and the existence of a legalist culture and respect for established regulations all had a positive impact on public probity. The final section explores the existence of the so-called ‘Creole patriotism’ among the Chilean elite during the last stages of the colonial regime and how this sentiment also contributed to improving civic probity in the Kingdom of Chile.
