Captaincy General of Chile

Infobox Former Country
native_name = Reino de Chile
conventional_long_name = Kingdom/Realm of Chile
common_name = Kingdom of Chile
continent = South America
country = Chile
status = Colony
empire = Spain
religion = Roman Catholicism
era = Spanish Empire
year_start = 1541
year_end = 1818
date_end = February 12
event_start =
event_end =
flag_type = Military flag


flag_type = Military flag

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|225px|thumb|left|Map of the Captaincy
image_map_caption = Map of the Kingdom of Chile
flag_p1 =
flag_p2 = Lautaro flag.svg
flag_s1 = Flag of Chile (1812-1814).svg
capital = Santiago
government_type = Monarchy
title_leader = King
leader1 = Charles I
year_leader1 = 1541 - 1566
leader2 = Ferdinand VII
year_leader2 = 1813 - 1821
title_representative = Royal Governor
representative1 = Pedro de Valdivia
year_representative1 = 1541 - 1556
representative2 = Casimiro Marcó del Pont
year_representative2 = 1815 - 1818
common_languages = Official: Spanish ("de facto"); common: Mapudungun.
currency = Peso

The Kingdom of Chile or Realm of Chile ( _es. Reino de Chile), also known as the General Captaincy of Chile ("Capitanía General de Chile"), was an administrative territory of the Viceroyalty of Peru in the Spanish Empire from 1541 to 1818, the year in which it declared itself independent, becoming the Republic of Chile. It had a number of governors over its long history and technically one king, Philip II, who was not the reigning Spanish king.

Origen of the denomination

In Medieval and Early Modern Spanish "Reyno"—or in the modern spelling, "Reino"—("realm" or "kingdom") was the term used to describe former polities that had been absorbed into the Crown of Castile. This can lead to confusion since politically there was not "one" Kingdom of Spain until the Bourbon instauration in 1700, but rather several kingdoms inside and outside the Iberian Peninsula, which were united by their personal union to the Spanish monarch. ("Compare to the United Kingdom and the 20th-century evolution of the term "Commonwealth realm.")

The Chilean Kingdom (the "Reino de Chile") was a personal possession of the King of Castile as were all the other Spanish possessions in the New World. Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sicily, on the other hand, were possessions of the King of Aragon, who happened to be the same person, since 1516. There was no common administrative apparatus between different independent "reinos", and each one was governed by its own council and its own laws, in this case the Council of the Indies and the Laws of the Indies. The day-to-day work was handled mostly by viceroys and governors, who represented the king's will, e.g., in Aragon, Sicily, Mexico or Peru. The areas of the Americas, which had been the site of complex civilizations or became rich societies were usually referred to by the Spanish as "kingdoms," such as the "New Kingdom of Granada," the "Kingdom of Mexico," the "Kingdom of Quito," or the "Kingdom of Guatemala."

Chile never reached the status of a viceroyalty (it was too small and too poor for that) but that of a captaincy general, dependent on the Peruvian Viceroyalty. Therefore, in English maybe it would be more appropriate to refer to colonial Chile as a realm under the rule of the Castilian (and later Spanish) King, rather than as a kingdom.

Exploration and conquest

In 1536 Diego de Almagro formed the first expedition to explore the territories to the south of the Inca Empire, which had been granted to him as the Governorship of New Toledo. After Almargo's death, Pedro de Valdivia solicited and was granted in 1539 the right to explore and conquer the area with Francisco Pizarro's approval. Valdivia founded the city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo and a few months later its "cabildo" (municipal council) appointed him governor and Captain General of New Extremadura on June 11, 1541. Other cities founded during Valdivia's administration were Concepción in 1550, La Imperial in 1551, Santa María Magdalena de Villa Rica and Santa María la Blance de Valdivia in 1552, and the following year Los Confines and Santiago del Estero on the eastern side of the Andes. In 1553 Valdivia also founded a series of forts for protection of the settled areas: San Felipe de Araucan, Purén and San Diego de Tucapel. After Valdivia's death that same year, settlements continued to grow and more cities were founded: Villa de San Mateo de Osorno in 1558, Ciudad de Mendoza del Nuevo Valle de La Rioja in 1561, San Luis de Loyola Nueva Medina de Rioseco and San Juan de la Frontera in 1562, and Cañete de la Frontera on the site of the former San Diego de Tucapel Fort and Santiago de Castro in 1567.

Collapse of southern Chile

A Mapuche revolt was triggered following the news of the battle of Curalaba in on the 23rd of December 1598, where the vice toqui Pelantaru and his lieutenants Anganamon and Guaiquimilla with three hundred men ambushed and killed the Spanish governor Martín García Óñez de Loyola and nearly all his companions.

Over the next few years the Mapuche were able to destroy or force the abandonment of seven Spanish cities in Mapuche territory: Santa Cruz de Oñez (1599), Valdivia (1599), Angol (1599), La Imperial (1600), Villarrica (1602), Osorno (1604), and Arauco (1604).

Political history

As noted, the area had been designated a governorship ("gobernación") during the initial exploration and settlement of the area, but because the local Amerindian peoples demonstrated fierce resistance, a more autonomous, military-based governmental authority was needed. Thus, the governor was given command of the local military and the title of captain general. This arrangement was seen in many places of the Spanish Empire.

Chile also has the curious distinction of being the one region of the Spanish Empire that technically had a king, Philip II who was not the reigning Spanish king. In 1554 the Infante Philip married Queen Mary I of England, when he was still just the heir to the Spanish throne. In order to bring him up to an equal rank with the Queen, he was named the "King of Chile" by his father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Additionally he received the Kingdom of Naples, a possession of the Crown of Aragon and which came with a claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Thus the marriage treaty could jointly style the couple as King and Queen in a formula that reflected not only Mary's but also Philip's dominions and claims:

Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Chile and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol.

For all practical purposes, the title had no effect on Chile's administration, continuing its practical identity as a "gobernación" and "reino" in the Spanish Empire. After Philip became King of Spain in 1556, the title simply merged back to the many held by the Spanish king.

The greatest set back the Spanish settlements suffered was the Disaster of Curalaba in 1598, which nearly wiped them out. All cities south of the Biobío River with the exception of Castro were destroyed. The river became the de facto border between Spanish and Native areas for the next century. ("See Arauco War.)

Chile lost more than half of its territory with the Bourbon reforms of Charles III, when all of its trans-Andean possessions were transferred to the domain of the newly created Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776Fact|date=October 2007. Chile gained two intendancies, Santiago and Concepción in 1786 and became a Bourbon-style Captaincy General in 1789.