1. By: Kimberly Manzo
Kevin Deming
Danielle Hogan
Paige Gillooley
Leo Alcala

2.  Balmaceda came to office when government revenue
at an all-time high
 Main income: export of nitrate
 Created a new ministry of industry/public (1887)
 Expended large $ to improve/expend
telegraphic/railway systems, construction of bridges,
roads and docks
 Balmaceda generously evolved public education, which
was needed to provide skilled workers for Chilean
industry
 During his presidency, total enrollment in Chilean school
rose in four years from 79,0000 in 1886 to 150,000 in
1890
 Favored raising wages of workers
 Inconsistent in his labor policy
 Sent troops to crush a number of strikes due to yielding to
strong pressure from foreign/domestic employers

3.  Determined to “Chileanize” nitrate industry
 Wanted to nationalize industries that only
benefitted foreigners
 Direct reference to nitrate industry
 Later, Balmacaan's strategy shifted
 Encouraged entrance of Chilean private capital
into nitrate production and exportation to
prevent formation of a foreign dominated nitrate
cartel whose interest in restricting output
clashed with government’s interest in
maintaining high level of production to collect
more export taxes

4.  Disliked Chilean elite for their lack of
entrepreneurial spirit
 Balmaceda waged a determined struggle to
end monopoly of British owned Nitrate
Railways Company, whose prohibitive freight
charges reduced production/export of
nitrates
 His nationalistic policies provoked hostility of
English nitrate “kings”
 English “kings” like North had close links with
Chilean elite
 Employed prominent liberal politicians as their legal
advisers

5.  Had many domestic foes, too
 Clericals opposed his plans to further curb
powers of the Church
 Aristocracy resented his public works program
because it drew labor from agriculture and raised
rural wages
 Banks, which profited from an uncontrolled
emission of notes that fed inflation and
benefited mortgaged landlords and exporters,
were angered by his proposal to establish
national bank with monopoly of note issue

6.  Government’s economic problems multiplied,
adding to Balmacedas political difficulties by
narrowing his popular base
 Prices in an overstocked world market fell,
and English nitrate interests responded to
the crisis by forming a cartel to reduce
production
 Reduced production and export of nitrates
and copper sharply diminished the flow of
export duties into the treasury
 Result was a series of great strikes in Valparaiso
and the nitrate zone in 1890

7.  January 7, 1891, Congressional leaders
proclaimed a revolt against the president in the
name of legality and the Constitution
 Navy opposed rebels
 English-owned enterprises also actively aided the
rebels
 Many nitrate workers, alienated by Balmacaan's
repression of their strike, remained neutral or
even joined rebel army, organized by a German
army officer
 September 14, 1891
 Day on which his legal term of office came to an end,
Balmaceda put a bullet through his head

8.  Oligarchy preferred to rule through congress divided into
various factions rather than through a strong executive
 1892- A new law in 1892 vested local governments with the
right to supervise elections for local and national offices
 This force of power of the land owners, priests, and
political bosses, were thought Balmaceda progressive
policies
 Era of Parliamentary Republic was accompanied by a
growing subordination of the Chilean economy to foreign
capital
 In the same period, North American and German capital
began to challenge the British Homogony in Chile
 U.S. and German trade with Chile grew at a faster rate
 German instructors gained strong influence in Chilean army
 Flow of German immigrants continued