José Manuel Balmaceda

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José Manuel Balmaceda Fernández (born July 19, 1840 at the Hacienda Bucalemu, Santo Domingo, Chile, † September 18, 1891 in Santiago de Chile ) was President of Chile from 1886 to 1891 .

Life

José Manuel Balmaceda

José Manuel Balmaceda was born the eldest of twelve children into a wealthy family. When he was nine, his parents sent him to the boarding school of the Arnstein Fathers in Santiago de Chile .

Originally, Balmaceda wanted to study theology and become a priest . But then he married Emilia de Toro Herrera , with whom he had six children. In 1864 José Manuel Balmaceda joined the former President Manuel Montt Torres as secretary . He turned into a staunch advocate of liberal political reform.

In the competition for the candidacy to succeed President José Joaquín Pérez Mascayano in 1871, Balmaceda, who had made a reputation for himself as a brilliant speaker and also published his political positions as a journalist in the Revista de Santiago , was chosen to represent the National Party, who campaigned for religious freedom and civil rights, for constitutional reform and the limitation of the rights of the president. Since the parliamentary elections of 1870 Balmaceda represented the national in the House of Representatives. The presidential elections of 1871, however, won Federico Errázuriz Zañartu .

In 1879, President Aníbal Pinto Garmendia sent MP Balmaceda on a delicate diplomatic trip: José Manuel Balmaceda was supposed to secure the neutrality of his big neighbor in Argentina in the war of Chile against Bolivia and Peru - the saltpeter war . Balmaceda succeeded, Argentina remained neutral, and Chile defeated its opponents and annexed considerable land in the north, which is also rich in natural resources.

When Domingo Santa María González took over the presidency in 1881, he made José Manuel Balmaceda Foreign Minister and also made him Minister of Justice, Culture and Public Education. Later Balmaceda changed the department and served Santa María as Minister of War and Navy.

The next presidential elections were due in 1886: The National Party, the Liberals and some of the radicals called Balmaceda as a candidate, in the elections of June 15, 1886, José Manuel Balmaceda achieved a clear majority.

In line with his conviction that the president should exercise restraint in relation to parliament, Balmaceda sought a coalition of national unity for his policies that would unite all liberal factions. With this well-meaning suggestion, he sparked a period of violent parliamentary discord.

The beginning of Balmaceda's term of office was economically under a good star; the national product grew, the state revenues flowed profusely thanks to the income from the saltpetre export. At that time, Chile was building a brilliant reputation in Europe as a reliable believer and a trustworthy investment location.

The government used the income to improve the infrastructure, for example by building roads and bridges and improving the drinking water supply in the big cities. The numerous state investment and construction projects made it necessary in 1887 to set up a separate Ministry of Infrastructure ( Ministerio de Obras Públicas ). The finance system was also modernized and a modern tax and financial administration was introduced.

Whether it was the experience of a thoroughly successful state infrastructure policy or some other influence: Balmaceda's basic political direction changed radically from liberal to statist during his tenure. The politics of massive state influence soon stood in stark contrast to the liberal market ideas of his political friends. The president wanted to expand the state's influence further: So he considered nationalizing the saltpeter mines and the service companies associated with them (e.g. in transport), which together formed the essential economic factor and the most important source of income for the public budget.

The fluctuations in the Chilean financial markets prompted him to propose a state bank that would have sole control of assets and loans, as well as their conditions and use. All of these proposals fueled domestic debates and culminated in the Chilean civil war of 1891 .

During Balmaceda's tenure, the political decision-making process had become increasingly difficult and complex. The Liberals divided into numerous currents of government loyalists and opponents of various stripes. The dissenting liberals, together with the conservatives, brought down practically every political project of President Balmaceda, governing in Chile had recently become impossible, so that none of Balmaceda's state and planned economy ideas could be put into practice. Balmaceda also had to constantly rearrange his cabinet, with voters increasingly distrusting the government.

In January 1889, Balmaceda appointed Enrique Salvador Sanfuentes as Minister of Industry and Infrastructure, whom he also called as a candidate for the next presidency. Since this procedure was neither provided for in the constitution nor agreed with the leaders of the liberals, a scandal broke out. The nationalists, the radicals and two factions of the liberals formed the Cuadrilátero , the group of four of Balmaceda's opponents, who demanded free elections from the president , the independence of the parties and the transfer of executive power to the parliament, the Chilean Congress.

Balmaceda gave in and effectively lost government power to the House of Representatives. Chile had changed its political system at a stroke and was henceforth not a presidential but a parliamentary democracy .

This did not calm the conflicts of interest between the president and his opponents. Balmaceda responded to his loss of power with dictatorial means: in October 1890 he ended the session of parliament on his own initiative, even before some essential laws had been passed, including the budget, which was supposed to determine the means to supply the armed forces . Balmaceda appointed - without the consent of the dissolved parliament - a cabinet made up of personal confidants. On New Year's Day 1891, he publicly announced that this year he would grant the army the same budget as the previous year; four days later, his ministers had signed the relevant ordinance without parliamentary approval - a clear violation of the constitutional process of legislation. The parliamentary majority immediately demanded Balmaceda's resignation.

On January 7, 1891, the Chilean fleet under the naval captain Jorge Montt Álvarez , a highly decorated war hero from the Saltpetre War, rose against the presidential dictatorship of Balmacedas, and there was a civil war of the parliamentary supporters against the presidial, which was to last a three-quarter year. The troops loyal to Balmaceda were finally defeated in the battles of Concón and Placilla in August 1891. José Manuel Balmaceda recognized his defeat, placed the official business in the hands of Manuel Baquedano , a general who had maintained neutrality during this war, and fled to the Argentine embassy in Santiago on August 24, 1891.

But Baquedano no longer had the opportunity to exercise the office assigned to him. Instead, the affairs of state were taken over by a junta under Jorge Montt Álvarez , who marched into Santiago at the head of the victorious insurgents. Balmaceda managed some family affairs in Santiago on extraterritorial grounds and wrote a political will in which he justified his actions. On September 18, 1891, Chile's Independence Day, he committed suicide at the age of 51.

See also: History of Chile .

Web links

Commons : José Manuel Balmaceda  - Collection of images, videos and audio files