what people helped Chile gain independence and how did they do it?

Answer 1

[1817] Argentine and Chilean forces of almost 4,000, led by generals Jose de San Martin and Bernardo O'Higgins, crossed the Andes (January 1817), defeated Spanish and colonial forces at Chacabuco (February 12, 1817), and then took Santiago (February 15, 1817).

[1818] At Cancha-Rayada (March 16, 1818), Jose de San Martin's forces were defeated by Spanish and colonial forces; the revolutionary army won a decisive battle on the Maipo River (April 5, 1818), with minor revolutionary casualties; Spain's casualties were 1,000 and more than 2,000 captured; Spanish forces then retreated to Peru.

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In Chile the initial move toward independence was made on Sept. 18, 1810, when a cabildo abierto (open town meeting) in Santiago, attended by representatives of privileged groups whose vaguely defined objectives included a change in administration, accepted the resignation of the President-Governor and in his place elected a junta composed of local leaders.

From 1810 to 1813 the course of the patriots was relatively peaceful because they were able to maintain themselves without formal ties to the Viceroyalty of Lima. Trade restrictions were relaxed; steps were taken toward the eventual abolition of slavery; a newspaper was established to publicize the beliefs of the patriots; and education was promoted, including the founding of the National Institute. However, the embers of civil strife were also fanned. The Creoles were divided over how far the colony should go toward self-government. José Miguel Carrera and his brothers, whose desire for complete independence was equaled if not surpassed by their personal ambition, inflamed the issues. Meanwhile, Spain had taken steps to reassert its control over the colony. At the Battle of Rancagua, on Oct. 1 and 2, 1814, it reestablished its military supremacy and ended what has been called la patria vieja (“The old fatherland”).

Following the defeat at Rancagua, patriot leaders, among them the Carrera brothers and Bernardo O'Higgins, future director-dictator of Chile, migrated to Argentina. There O'Higgins won the support of José de San Martín, who, with the support of the revolutionary government in Buenos Aires, was raising an army to free the southern portion of the continent by first liberating Chile and then attacking Peru from the sea. The Carreras continued their spirited agitation for independence in Buenos Aires and the United States.

Meanwhile, many of those who remained in Chile suffered from the harsh rule of Spain's inept representatives and became convinced that absolute independence was necessary. In January 1817 San Martín's well-drilled army, with O'Higgins as one of its commanders, began its march across the Andes; and on Feb. 12, 1817, the patriot forces defeated the royalists on the hill of Chacabuco, which opened the way to Santiago. O'Higgins was proclaimed supreme director of Chile, although the act of declaring Chile's independence was not taken until a year later (Feb. 12, 1818), on the first anniversary of Chacabuco; and the decisive defeat of Spain on the Chilean mainland (Spain held the island of Chiloé until 1826) did not come until the Battle of Maipú, on April 5, 1818. Before emancipation was assured, O'Higgins began the creation of the Chilean navy, which by late 1818 was in the process of clearing the Chilean coast of Spanish vessels.

Chile was free, but its inherent weaknesses were everywhere manifest. The Creoles remained bitterly divided between O'Higgins and the Carreras. Two of the Carrera brothers had been executed in Mendoza, Arg., in 1818; and José Miguel Carrera suffered the same fate in the same city in 1821. The elite groups were dedicated to the retention of those institutions on which such things as law, property, family, and religion were founded. The masses, who had been little more than spectators in the conflicts between 1810 and 1818, were excluded from government.

Answer 2

When Did Chile Declare Independence