1.
Chilean War of Independence
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Traditionally, the beginning of the war is dated as September 18,1810. A declaration of independence was issued by Chile on February 12,1818 and formally recognized by Spain in 1844. The Chilean War of Independence was part of the more aroused Spanish American wars of independence, Independence did not have unanimous support among Chileans, who were divided between independentists and royalists. What started as a movement among elites against the colonial power. Traditionally, the process is divided into three stages, the Patria Vieja, 1810–1814, the Reconquista, 1814–1817, and the Patria Nueva, 1817–1823. In May 1808 the overthrow of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII, their replacement by Joseph Bonaparte, in the meantime, Chile was facing its own internal political problems. Governor Guzmán had suddenly died in February of that year and the crown had not been able to appoint a new governor before the invasion, since her father and brother were being held prisoners in France, she regarded herself as the heiress of her captured family. Allegedly among her plan was to send armies to occupy Buenos Aires and northern Argentina, brigadier García Carrasco was a man of crude and authoritarian manners, who managed in a very short time to alienate the criollo elites under his command. Already in Chile, as in most of Latin America, there had some independence agitation but minimal. In 1809, Governor García Carrasco himself was implicated in a flagrant case of corruption that managed to destroy remnants of moral authority he or his office had left. From that moment on the pressure for his removal began to build, in June 1810 news arrived from Buenos Aires that Napoleon Bonapartes forces had conquered Andalusia and laid siege to Cádiz, the last redoubt against the French on Spanish soil. Moreover, the Supreme Central Junta, which had governed the Empire for the past two years, had abolished itself in favor of a Regency Council, among those arrested were José Antonio de Rojas, Juan Antonio Ovalle and Bernardo de Vera y Pintado. Inspired by the May Revolution in Argentina, the movement had also propagated through the criollo elite. They resented the illegal arrests and, together with the news that Cádiz was all that was left of a free Spain, count Toro Zambrano was, by all standards, a very unorthodox selection. He was an old man already and moreover a criollo as opposed to a peninsular. Immediately after his appointment in July, the juntistas began to lobby him in order to obtain the formation of a junta. In August the Royal Appeals Court took a loyalty oath to the Regency Council in front of a massive audience. After vacillating for some time over which party to follow, Toro Zambrano finally agreed to hold an open Cabildo meeting in Santiago to discuss the issue, the date was set for September 18,1810 at 11 AM
2.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
3.
Royalist (Spanish American independence)
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The creation of juntas in Spanish America in 1810 was a direct reaction to developments in Spain during the previous two years. In 1808 Ferdinand VII had been convinced to abdicate by Napoleon in his favor, the Supreme Central Junta had led a resistance to Josephs government and the French occupation of Spain, but suffered a series of reverses resulting in the loss of the northern half of the country. On February 1,1810, French troops took Seville and gained control of most of Andalusia, the Supreme Junta retreated to Cadiz and dissolved itself in favor of a Regency Council of Spain and the Indies. As news of this arrived throughout Spanish America during the three weeks to nine months—depending on time it took goods and people to travel from Spain—political fault lines appeared. It is important to note that, at first, the claimed to carry out their actions in the name of the deposed king. Juntas were successfully established in Venezuela, Río de la Plata and New Granada, in the months following the establishment of the Regency, it became clear that Spain was not lost, and furthermore the government was effectively reconstituting itself. The Regency successfully convened the Cortes Generales, the parliament of the Spanish Monarchy. The Regency and Cortes began issuing orders to, and appointing and those who supported the new government came to be called royalists. Those that supported the idea of maintaining independent juntas called themselves patriots, as the Cortes instituted liberal reforms and worked on drafting a constitution, a new division appeared among royalists. Conservatives did not want to see any innovations in government, while liberals supported them and these differences would become more acute after the restoration of Ferdinand VII, because the king opted to support the conservative position. Regional rivalry also played an important role in the wars that broke out in Spanish America as a result of the juntas. The disappearance of a central, imperial authority—and in some cases of even a local, viceregal authority —initiated a prolonged period of balkanization in many regions of Spanish America. It was not clear which political units which should replace the empire, more often than not, juntas sought to maintain a provinces independence from the capital of the former viceroyalty or captaincy general, as much as from the Peninsula itself. Armed conflicts broke out between the provinces over the question of some provinces were to be subordinate to others in the manner that they had been under the crown. This phenomenon was particularly evident in New Granada and Río de la Plata and this rivalry also lead some regions to adopt the opposing political cause from their rivals. The creation of juntas in Río de la Plata allowed Peru to regain control of Upper Peru for the duration of the wars. Ferdinand justified his actions by stating that the Constitution and other changes had made by a Cortes assembled in his absence. He also declared all of the juntas and constitutions written in Spanish America invalid and restored the former law codes, most Spanish Americans were moderates who decided to wait and see what would come out of the restoration of normalcy
4.
Bernardo O'Higgins
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Bernardo OHiggins Riquelme was a Chilean independence leader who freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. He was a landowner of Spanish and Irish ancestry. Although he was the second Supreme Director of Chile, he is considered one of Chiles founding fathers and his mother was Isabel Riquelme, a prominent local, the daughter of Don Simón Riquelme y Goycolea, a member of the Chillán Cabildo, or council. OHiggins spent his years with his mothers family in central-southern Chile, and later he lived with the Albano family. At age 15, OHiggins was sent to Lima by his father and he had a distant relationship with Ambrosio, who supported him financially and was concerned with his education, but the two never met in person. At the time of his sons birth, Ambrosio was only a military officer. Two years later, Isabel married Don Félix Rodríguez, a friend of her father, OHiggins used his mothers surname until the death of his father in 1801. Bernardos father continued his rise and became Viceroy of Peru. There, studying history and the arts, OHiggins became acquainted with American ideas of independence and he met Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan idealist and believer in independence, and joined a Masonic Lodge established by Miranda, dedicated to achieving the independence of Latin America. In 1798 OHiggins went to Spain from Great Britain, his return to the Americas delayed by the French Revolutionary Wars and his father died in 1801, leaving OHiggins a large piece of land, the Hacienda Las Canteras, near the Chilean city of Los Ángeles. OHiggins returned to Chile in 1802, adopted his fathers surname. In 1806, he was appointed to the cabildo as the representative of Laja, in 1808 Napoleon took control of Spain, triggering a sequence of events in South America. On 18 September 1810, OHiggins joined the revolt against the now French dominated Spanish government and this date is now recognized as Chiles Independence Day. OHiggins was a friend of Juan Martínez de Rozas, an old friend of his father. OHiggins strongly recommended that a national congress be created, and was elected a deputy to the first National Congress of Chile in 1811 as a representative of the Laja district. Tensions between the royalist and increasingly pro-independence factions, to which OHiggins remained attached as a junior member, the anti-Royalist camp in Chile was deeply split along lines of patronage and personality, by political beliefs, and by geography. José Miguel Carrera, the most prominent member of the Carrera family, enjoyed a power base in Santiago, that of de Rozas, and later OHiggins, lay in Concepción. As a result, OHiggins was to find himself increasingly in political and military competition with Carrera—although early on, de Rozas initially appointed OHiggins to a minor military position in 1812, possibly because of his illegitimate origins, poor health, or lack of military training
5.
Rafael Maroto
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Rafael Maroto Yserns was a Spanish general, known both for his involvement on the Spanish side in the wars of independence in South America and on the Carlist side in the First Carlist War. Maroto was born in the town of Lorca in the Region of Murcia, Spain, to Margarita Isern, a native of Barcelona, and Rafael Maroto, a native of Zamora. His father was a captain who held several important positions in civilian life. Maroto was baptized in the San Cristóbal parish church, where his baptismal certificate was preserved, during his childhood, he lived on the Calle Mayor of the Barrio de San Cristóbal, across from Plaza de la Estrella. He married Antonia Cortés García, a Chilean, in 1816, Antonia and two of his daughters died in a shipwreck in 1830 en route to Chile. At the age of 18, Maroto took part in the conflicts and campaigns of Manuel de Godoy and he also fought in the Spanish War of Independence, in which he was wounded and made a prisoner in Zaragoza. He then received a position in Peru and later fought in the war against the pro-independence Chileans, however, he was defeated by General José de San Martín in the Battle of Chacabuco. At the age of 11, Maroto left for Cartagena in the province of Murcia where he joined as a minor subordinate cadet in the Asturias Infantry Regiment in 1794 and he was promoted to second lieutenant on June 15,1798. The English had disembarked to the Heights of Grana and the campaigns ran from August 25 to August 26,1800, for the merit he demonstrated in these operations, Maroto was awarded a Shield of Honor. He continued on, adding two years in the Navy of the Department of Ferrol, and later he returned to the Asturias Regiment, on October 15,1806 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Maroto also fought as a soldier in the Spanish War of Independence against Napoleons army, the French attacked the plaza of Valencia on June 28,1808. Maroto defended the city with the batteries that he had at his position, in Santa Catalina, forced to surrender to the enemy after a heroic defense, he was recognized with distinction to the mother country and was awarded a Shield of Honor. On November 23 he took part in the Battle of Tudela in Navarre, on December 24, Monte Torrero and Casa Blanca—suburbs of Zaragoza—were attacked, and shortly after Maroto used bayonets in order to dislodge the enemy that had taken them. With the grade of captain, Maroto participated also in the Siege of Zaragoza in 1809 and he gained control of Pilar, the batteries of San José, Puerta Quemada and Tenerías. He made forays from these batteries, often receiving gunfire, when the city of Zaragoza was captured, Maroto was made a prisoner of war by the French, but managed to escape. For his heroic acts in Zaragoza he received a Shield of Distinction that held the motto Recompensa del valor y patriotismo and he was declared a benemérito de la patria en grado heroico y eminente, roughly Distinction of the Fatherland, in Heroic and Distinguished Degree. On March 9 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, in 1811 he was assigned to the Infantry Regiment of the line in Valencia. On October 24 and 25, he occupied the defense of the attacks against Puzol, Heights of Sagunto Castle, on October 25,1812, he defended the lines of Grao, Monte Olivet, Cuarte, the line of Valencia, and the square of the city
6.
General officer
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A general officer is an officer of high rank in the army, and in some nations air forces or marines. The term general is used in two ways, as the title for all grades of general officer and as a specific rank. It originates in the 16th century, as a shortening of captain general, the adjective general had been affixed to officer designations since the late medieval period to indicate relative superiority or an extended jurisdiction. Today, the title of General is known in countries as a four-star rank. However different countries use different systems of stars for senior ranks and it has a NATO code of OF-9 and is the highest rank currently in use in a number of armies. The various grades of general officer are at the top of the rank structure. Lower-ranking officers in military forces are typically known as field officers or field-grade officers. There are two systems of general ranks used worldwide. In addition there is a system, the Arab system of ranks. Variations of one form, the old European system, were used throughout Europe. It is used in the United Kingdom, from which it spread to the Commonwealth. The other is derived from the French Revolution, where ranks are named according to the unit they command. The system used either a general or a colonel general rank. The rank of marshal was used by some countries as the highest rank. Many countries actually used two brigade command ranks, which is why some countries now use two stars as their brigade general insignia, mexico and Argentina still use two brigade command ranks. As a lieutenant outranks a sergeant major, confusion arises because a lieutenant is outranked by a major. Originally the serjeant major was, exclusively, the commander of the infantry, junior only to the captain general, the distinction of serjeant major general only applied after serjeant majors were introduced as a rank of field officer. Serjeant was eventually dropped from both titles, creating the modern rank titles
7.
Captain (armed forces)
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The army rank of captain is a commissioned officer rank historically corresponding to the command of a company of soldiers. The rank is used by some air forces and marine forces. Today, a captain is typically either the commander or second-in-command of a company or artillery battery, in the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army, a captain may also command a company, or be the second-in-command of a battalion. In NATO countries, the rank of captain is described by the code OF-2 and is one rank above an OF-1, the rank of captain is generally considered to be the highest rank a soldier can achieve while remaining in the field. The rank of captain should not be confused with the rank of captain or with the British-influenced air force rank of group captain. The term ultimately goes back to Late Latin capitaneus meaning chief, prominent, in Middle English adopted as capitayn in the 14th century, the military rank of captain was in use from the 1560s, referring to an officer who commands a company. The naval sense, an officer who commands a man-of-war, is earlier, from the 1550s. He would in turn receive money from another nobleman to serve as his lieutenant, the funding to provide for the troops came from the monarch or his government, the captain had to be responsible for it. If he was not, or was otherwise court-martialed, he would be dismissed, otherwise, the only pension for the captain was selling the right to another nobleman when he was ready to retire. In most countries, the air force is the junior service, many, such as the United States Air Force, use a rank structure and insignia similar to those of the army. However, the United Kingdoms Royal Air Force, many other Commonwealth air forces, a group captain is OF-5 and was derived from the naval rank of captain. In the unified system of the Canadian Forces, the air force rank titles are pearl grey, a variety of images illustrative of different forces insignia for captain are shown below, Captain Captain Senior captain Staff captain
8.
Viceroyalty of Peru
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The Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled South America, governed from the capital of Lima. The Viceroyalty of Peru was one of the two Spanish Viceroyalties in the Americas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the Spanish did not resist the Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian established by the Treaty of Tordesillas. The treaty was rendered meaningless between 1580 and 1640 while Spain controlled Portugal, eventually, the viceroyalty would dissolve, as with much of the Spanish empire, when challenged by national independence movements at the beginning of the nineteenth century. From September 2,1564 to November 26,1569 he was viceroy of Peru. In 1542, the Spanish created the Viceroyalty of New Castile, in 1544, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V named Blasco Núñez Vela Perus first viceroy, but the viceroyalty was not organized until the arrival of Viceroy Francisco Álvarez de Toledo. Toledo made a tour of inspection of the colony. He improved the safety in the viceroyalty with fortifications, bridges, still, Luis Jerónimo de Cabrera, 4th Count of Chinchón sent out the third expedition to explore the Amazon River, under Cristóbal de Acuña. Many Pacific islands were visited by Spanish ships in the sixteenth century and these included New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands and the Marquesas Islands by Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira. These groups had the advantage of remote geography and river access from the mouth of the Amazon, meanwhile, the Spanish were barred by their laws from slaving of indigenous people, leaving them without a commercial interest deep in the interior of the basin. One famous attack upon a Spanish mission in 1628 resulted in the enslavement of 60,000 indigenous people, in fact as time passed they were used as a self funding occupation force by the Portuguese authorities in what was effectively a low level war of territorial conquest. In 1617, Francisco de Borja y Aragón divided the government of Río de la Plata into two, Buenos Aires and Paraguay, both dependencies of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Viceroy Borja y Aragón also established the Tribunal del Consulado, a special court, Diego Fernández de Córdoba, Marquis of Guadalcázar reformed the fiscal system and stopped the interfamily rivalry that was bloodying the domain. Fernández de Cabrera suppressed an insurrection of the Uru and Mapuche Indians, viceroys had to protect the Pacific coast from French contraband and English and Dutch pirates. They expanded the naval forces, fortified the ports of Valdivia, Valparaíso, Arica and Callao and constructed city walls in Lima, nevertheless, the famous English privateer Henry Morgan took Chagres and captured and sacked the city of Panama in the early part of 1670. Also Peruvian forces repelled the attacks by Edward David, Charles Wager, the Peace of Utrecht allowed the British to send ships and merchandise to the fair at Portobello. In this period, revolts were common, around 1656, Pedro Bohórquez crowned himself Inca of the Calchaquí Indians, inciting the indigenous population to revolt. From 1665 until 1668, the rich mineowners José and Gaspar Salcedo revolted against the colonial government, the clergy were opposed to the nomination of prelates from Spain. Viceroy Diego Ladrón de Guevara had to take measures against an uprising of slaves at the hacienda of Huachipa de Lima, there were terrible earthquakes and epidemics, too
9.
Santiago
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Santiago de Chile, or simply Santiago, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chiles largest and the most densely populated conurbation, the city is entirely located in the countrys central valley, at an elevation of 520 m above mean sea level. Founded in 1541, Santiago has been the city of Chile since colonial times. The city has a core of 19th century neoclassical architecture and winding side-streets, dotted by art deco, neo-gothic. Santiagos cityscape is shaped by several hills and the fast-flowing Mapocho River. The Andes Mountains can be seen from most points in the city and these mountains contribute to a considerable smog problem, particularly during winter. The city outskirts are surrounded by vineyards and Santiago is within a few hours of both the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Santiago is the cultural, political and financial center of Chile and is home to the regional headquarters of many multinational corporations. The Chilean executive and judiciary are located in Santiago, but Congress meets mostly in nearby Valparaíso, Santiago is named after the biblical figure St. James. In Chile, there are entities which bear the name of Santiago that are often confused. The Commune of Santiago, sometimes referred to as downtown or Central Santiago, is a division that comprises roughly the area occupied by the city during its colonial period. The city and regions demonym is santiaguinos and santiaguinas, according to certain archaeological investigations, it is believed that the first human groups of the X millennium settled in the Santiago basin. The groups were mainly nomadic hunter-gatherers, who traveled from the coast to the interior in search of guanacos during the time of the Andean snowmelt. The villages established in the belonging to picunches groups or promaucaes, were subject to the Inca Empire throughout the late fifteenth century. The Incas settled in the valley of mitimaes, the main installation settled in the center of the present city, with strengths as Huaca de Chena, the area would have served as a basis for the failed Inca expeditions southward road junction as the Inca Trail. Having been sent by Francisco Pizarro from Peru and having made the journey from Cuzco. The hosts of Valdivia camped by the river in the slopes of the Tupahue hill, the natives accepted and even recommended the foundation of the town on a small island between two branches of the river next to a small hill called Huelén. On 12 February 1541, Valdivia officially founded the city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo in honor of St. James, patron saint of Spain, near the Huelén, renamed by the conqueror as St. Lucia. Following colonial rule, Valdivia entrusted the layout of the new town to master builder Pedro de Gamboa, in the center of the city, Gamboa designed a Plaza Mayor, around which various plots for the Cathedral and the governors house were selected
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