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AbstractIn mid-1851 a civil war erupted in Chile following a presidential election in which Manuel Montt defeated José María de la Cruz. Many of Cruz's supporters were sent to the distant penal colony of Magallanes. In November 1851, Lieutenant Miguel José Cambiaso, who was part of the garrison, was jailed for insubordination and subsequently led a bloody mutiny disguised as a revolt by Cruz's supporters. The mutiny is familiar to historians of the period, but what is less well known is the key role played by the British in suppressing it. Contrary to previous historiography, the Chilean government pleaded for British intervention. Given the poor state of the Chilean navy and the precariousness of communications with the penal colony, the Chilean government had no option but to resort to British naval forces. This incident illustrates a new dimension of Anglo-Chilean relations during the mid-nineteenth century which cannot be defined solely as imperialistic; Chilean authorities actively sought cooperation from the British. It also highlights the fragility of the process of state formation in a republic long praised as an example of successful political transition from colony to republic, as well as the lack of commitment of the Chilean government to shoring up state power in Magallanes.

This article discusses Chile's entry into the international economy, the performance of the national economy and institutional change during the 1810–1830s. It argues that the country consolidated a successful process of entry into the expanding world economy. GDP per capita was poor, but alternative indicators suggest a more optimistic picture (e.g., agricultural, copper and silver production increased, population grew and terms of trade improved). Furthermore, there were some positive institutional developments. All these changes made possible the sustained growth that took place from the 1830s and must be seen as more important than the growth record itself during the 1810–1820s.

This article shows how Chile experienced a profound nutrition transition within a short period of time. Before the early 1990s, the diet of most Chileans was poor in animal proteins and calcium. Today, Chileans enjoy a diet characterized by high consumption of meat and dairy products. The rapid rise in consumption of these products can be attributed to various factors: Chile belatedly joining the international agribusiness revolution; government support from the 1930s to the 1960s; increasing GDP per capita; macro-economic stability; changes in consumption habits; trade liberalization; and the fall in food prices, as both meat and milk had high income elasticity. These revolutions in both production and consumption have greatly improved the nutrition of the Chilean population and partly explain the improvement in Chile's biological well-being. ; E ste ar tículo muestra que Chile exper imentó una profunda transición nutricional en un corto periodo de tiempo. Antes de comienzos de los años 1990, la mayoría de los chilenos tenía una dieta pobre en calcio y proteína animal. Hoy, sin embargo, los chilenos disfrutan de una dieta caracterizada por un alto consumo de car ne y productos lácteos. El aumento súbito en el consumo de car nes y productos lácteos está principalmente asociado a la adopción en Chile de la revolución internacional en ag ronegocios; al apoyo gubernamental entre las décadas de 1930 y 1960; a un aumento del PIB per cápita; la estabilidad macroeconómica; los cambios en hábitos de consumo; la liberalización comercial; y a la caída de precios de los alimentos, que tienen una alta elasticidad de demanda. Estas revoluciones en producción y consumo han mejorado de gran manera la nutrición de la población chilena, lo que explica parte de las mejoras en bienestar biológico del país.

AbstractThis article deals with the demographic consequences of the end of Chile's nitrate boom following the 1929 crisis. The traditional economic historiography has maintained that this crisis impacted heavily on nitrate production, and that in turn the crisis triggered a permanent exodus from the nitrate districts to other geographical zones. Contrary to this widely held belief, we have shown in this article that: there was no substantial fall in production; there was indeed a fall in nitrate population, but this was limited; this took place in some nitrate areas only; overall, the decline in nitrate population was a short term phenomenon only. The population making a living from nitrate production (or activities directly related to it) did not emigrate in as large numbers as previously thought, since production remained high up to the 1960s.

AbstractThis article provides the first series of adult male height for 19th-century Chile. Our aim was not only to assess the trends indicated by height during this period, but also the relationship between stature and both GDPper capitaand exports. Having analysed our data, our primary conclusion is that there was a reduction in height for cohorts born in the 1850s and 1860s with respect to cohorts born between 1820 and 1840. Height stagnated thereafter, with small to no improvement towards the end of the 19thcentury, in line with other Latin American countries for which there is comparable evidence. The increase inper capitaGDP and exports during the second half of the century did not result in better biological welfare, as was the case in other Latin American countries during similar export booms.

This article assesses the state of the agrarian sector and the composition of the Chilean agrarian elite during the first half of the nineteenth century, a rather unexplored period in Chile's agrarian historiography. We have used several untapped sources such as the Catastro Agricola and El Agricultor. From the former we have built and processed a half a million records database. From the former we have built and processed a database consisting of half a million records from the first three agricultural censuses of 1832, 1838 and 1852. We have explained why the agricultural sector was so backwards in Chile, while also established a very unequal distribution of both land tenure and agricultural income. Finally, our results show a great persistence within the composition of the agrarian elites between late colonial times and the first decades of republican Chile, as well as a significant correlation between the large landowners with highest agricultural income and the political elite. Keywords Author Keywords:Chile; nineteenth century; agriculture; cadastre; elites; landowners; inequality