ABSTRACT
Poor, dangerous, and isolated. These descriptors of colonial Chile derived from the country’s reputation for natural disasters, marauding pirates, and warlike Indians. The mestizaje occurred rapidly in Spanish-controlled Chile. The Spanish Civil War brought refugees into Chile and created ideological fault lines that went unchanged for decades. The period after Balmaceda’s defeat and suicide has been dubbed the Parliamentary Republic because Chile’s legislature had more power than the executive. The Cold War came very quickly to Chile. President Gabriel Gonzalez declared a national emergency during a wave of labor unrest in 1947. The wars for independence left Chile militarized. Years of armed conflict had elevated the stature of soldiers and made them politically indispensable. The pacification of Araucanía provided the impetus, in 1896, for the creation of special police units staffed by army officers in territory formerly under Mapuche control.
