Chile: Independence Movement

Chile's independence movement emerged from the broader crisis of Spanish colonial authority triggered by Napoleon Bonaparte's 1808 invasion of Spain. With the legitimacy of the crown in doubt, Santiago's criollo elite convened an open town council, or cabildo abierto, on September 18, 1810, which deposed the Spanish governor and installed a local governing junta, an event still marked as Chile's Independence Day.

The following years brought relative calm, as the new government relaxed trade restrictions, promoted education, and took early steps toward abolishing slavery, while nominally still professing loyalty to the exiled Spanish king. Royalist forces reasserted control in 1814, forcing independence leaders such as Bernardo O'Higgins into exile in Argentina.

There, O'Higgins allied with Argentine general José de San Martín, who led an army across the Andes and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Chacabuco in February 1817. Spanish resistance in Chile was finally broken at the Battle of Maipú on April 5, 1818, securing Chilean independence and paving the way for O'Higgins to lead the new republic.