José Joaquín Prieto Vial

José Joaquín Prieto Vial (born August 20, 1786 in Concepción , Chile , † November 22, 1854 in Santiago de Chile ) was President of Chile from 1831 to 1841 .

Life

José Joaquín Prieto

Prieto was born one of five sons to a Creole officer. After finishing school, he entered 1805 in the cavalry - Garrison his hometown one. In 1810 he joined the fight for the independence of Chile against his father's will; In Buenos Aires he met Manuela Warnes García de Zúñiga and married her in the summer of 1812.

In the Chilean War of Independence he fought as an officer with the rank of captain in the insurgents. In the dispute between Bernardo O'Higgins and José Miguel Carrera , José Joaquín Prieto took the side of O'Higgins, who made him quartermaster of the entire southern army.

After the defeat of the independence fighters in the Battle of Rancagua (in which he himself did not take part), Prieto fled across the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina , where he built up the Andean Liberation Army . After the victory against the Spanish colonial power at Chacabuco in 1817 (even without his participation) he was appointed military commander of Santiago, where he dealt with defense strategies and ballistic issues. Then Prieto turned to Peru to support the local liberation struggle.

His military achievements - especially in the south of the country - met the respect of conservative-centralist circles who pushed Prieto into a political career from 1823 onwards; from 1823 he was elected to the House of Representatives and was appointed to the State Council. Prieto advocated a strong and influential central government and against the regionalists' striving for federal independence. In 1828 he was elected Vice President of the Chilean Senate.

His military career progressed in the meantime: in 1827 he was promoted to general and from 1828 commanded the army of the south. In 1829, neither the conservative Prieto nor his liberal-federalist opponent Joaquín Vicuña achieved an absolute majority in the presidential elections. The liberal majority in Congress appointed Vicuña president, the conservatives, who saw it as a breach of the constitution, took up arms and started a civil war.

At the head of the southern army, Prieto marched on Santiago and defeated the liberal army of Santiago under Francisco de la Lastra on December 14, 1829 at the Battle of Ochagavía. The two military leaders then signed a peace treaty on their own initiative, which further complicated the political situation. It was not until the spring of 1830 that a final agreement was reached in Lircay, including Ramón Freire.

After the interim president José Tomás Ovalle died, Prieto was elected provisional successor on March 31, 1831, but could not take over the office, so that Fernando Errázuriz Aldunate temporarily ruled the country for six months , until Prieto for a term of office on September 18, 1831 of five years.

At first his main focus was restoring public order; to do this, he hired Manuel Bulnes Prieto to catch the bandits who had made the area around Concepción unsafe under the brothers Pablo and José Antonio Pincheira. On May 25, 1833, a new constitution was passed, which (with some changes) was to remain in force until 1925. It provided for a five-year term for the President, who could be re-elected once. The president was given extensive powers.

In the ten years of his presidency, Prieto expanded government power and laid the foundations for a public administration in Chile. For the first time there were public educational institutions such as the Instituto Nacional and - since 1837 - also a ministry for justice and public education.

In terms of foreign policy, Prieto's tenure came under the shadow of the war with Peru, which took place between 1836 and 1839. The Chilean expeditionary army under Manuel Blanco Encalada suffered a heavy defeat that culminated in the Treaty of Paucarpata, whereupon Manuel Bulnes took over command and fought the Battle of Yungay, which was victorious for Chile.

The victorious war hero Bulnes was elected Prieto's successor in 1841. After his resignation, José Joaquín Prieto remained a Chilean Senator until 1852 and also assumed command of the infantry and navy of Valparaíso until 1846 . In 1846 he moved to Santiago de Chile and died there on November 22, 1854 at the age of 68.

See also: History of Chile .