Manuel Bulnes

Manuel Bulnes Prieto (Concepción, December 25, 1799—Santiago, October 18, 1866) was a Chilean soldier and conservative politician, who served as President of the Republic —being the the last to be born in the 18th century—during the period between 1841 and 1846, being re-elected for the period immediately following until 1851. After his administration, he served as senator for the province of Coelemu, from 1852 until his death.

His rule is considered one of the foremost of the 19th century. During his decade, the foundations of the republican regime were laid, the most important educational institutions in the nation were created, and important progress was made in the recognition of the national territory.

As a soldier, he held the highest position in the Chilean Army, assuming the command of its Chief in 1841, serving until 1866.

Biography

Early Years

He was born in Concepción on December 25, 1799. Son of the captain of the Royal Spanish Army Manuel Bulnes Quevedo and Carmen Prieto Vial (sister of President José Joaquín Prieto Vial). He did his first studies at home. Following his family's military tradition, he entered a line infantry battalion at the age of twelve, where he was given the nickname "black"; or the & # 34; mulatto & # 34;, in which his father was an officer, in the city of Penquista.In March 1813, his mother got him promoted as a brigadier's assistant by the Spanish. However, he decided not to join the Hispanic cause and at the age of 16 he was exiled to Quiriquina Island for his revolutionary ideas. He was sent to study in Santiago until 1814, until the end of the Patria Vieja when the Spanish closed the National Institute and he had to return to Concepción.

In 1817, the Spanish military chief from Concepción, José Ordóñez, learned of the rumors of the advance of the Liberation Army towards Chile. Given this, he sent about 200 young Penquistas to Quiriquina Island -among them Bulnes and his brother Francisco-, so as not to join the patriotic forces. They stayed there for several months, but when the war reached the south and the royal guard withdrew, the boys tried to reach the mainland on precarious rafts. Thirty of them drowned and among the survivors were Manuel and his brother, who reached the coast between Tomé and the mouth of the Itata River.

Marriage and children

On July 20, 1841, he married Enriqueta Pinto Garmendia, daughter of the former president of Chile Francisco Antonio Pinto and sister of the president in the period 1876-1881, Aníbal Pinto Garmendia.

Their children were:

1. Manuel Bulnes Pinto married Elena Calvo Cruchaga.
2. Enriqueta Bulnes Pinto married José Luis Larraín Larraín.
3. Lucia Bulnes Pinto married Ruperto Vergara Rencoret.
4. Carmela Bulnes Pinto married Adolfo Ortúzar Gandarillas.
5. Elena Bulnes Pinto married Angel Ortúzar Montt.
6. Luisa Bulnes Pinto married Luis Dávila Larraín.
7. Gonzalo Bulnes Pinto married Carmela Correa (from Saa) and Sanfuentes.

During the New Homeland

In June 1817, Bulnes joined the patriot army with the rank of first lieutenant. In November of the same year, the Line Army passed. He was under the command of General Ramón Freire, touring the towns south of the Biobío River.

Under the orders of Bernardo O'Higgins, he participated in the combat of Quechereguas and in the battles of Cancha Rayada and Maipú. He returned to the south with the Cazadores regiment at the age of 20.

In July 1818, when the patriots surrounded Chillán dominated by Mariano Osorio, Bulnes found out that his father was among the royalists and went to speak with him. Father and son tried to convince each other of the cause, but everything was useless and it was the last time they would see each other. The battle ended without victory for either side. Bulnes's father traveled to Peru, where he died.

The war to the death

In 1820, the War to the Death began in the area between the Maule and Biobío rivers. The Spanish troops allied with Mapuche loncos and bandits to continue defending the royal cause. On the other hand, the Chilean troops under the command of Freire were chasing them across the border. Bulnes participated in the battles of Puda, Curaco and Yumbel in 1819. The following year, on August 3, he was promoted to captain. In September of that year he fought the Spanish colonel Juan Manuel Picó near Los Angeles. In the defense of Talcahuano, on November 11, 1820, he fought the renegade Vicente Benavides, whom he defeated in Las Vegas de Saldías on October 10, 1821.

His decisive actions led his uncle, General José Joaquín Prieto Vial, to entrust him with a division of the army, with which he began the pacification of the Border. Upon returning to Concepción in March 1822, he was appointed sergeant major and obtained the Chilean Legion of Merit from O'Higgins.

During constitutional trials

In 1823, after Freire assumed command after the fall of O'Higgins, he appointed Bulnes to the governorship of Talca, promoting him to lieutenant colonel in August. Elected to the constituent congress of 1823, without participating in it for the armed actions against the Pincheira brothers and the Pehuenche montoneras in the Talca mountain range.

In 1826 he participated in a division commanded by General José Manuel Borgoño to stop the Pincheira bandits. In 1831, as brigadier general, he captured Pablo Pincheira in Pulaquén, whom he shot.

He crossed the Andes mountain range towards the Antofagasta territory and in an ambush he devastated them in the Battle of the Epulafquen lagoons at dawn on January 14, 1832, in the place where they had their camp. Most of the pincheiristas died in the attack, among them the chiefs Neculmán, Coleto and Trenquemán. José Antonio escaped towards Atuel, being pursued by Captain Zañartu with 80 soldiers, but they failed to reach him. Bulnes ordered the ex-pincheirista José Antonio Zúñiga to go to Atuel with 100 men and then withdrew towards Chillán with 20,000 head of cattle. José Antonio finally turned himself in and received a pardon from President Prieto. Zúñiga managed to get José Antonio Pincheira to go with his forces to Chillán to turn himself in. Hired as an employee on the farm of President José Joaquín Prieto, the last of the Pincheiras, José Antonio died a legendary old man.

Revolution of 1829

In 1829, he was convinced by José Joaquín Prieto to rise up against the liberal government. He participated in the Ochagavía combat on December 14 of that year. On April 17, 1830, he definitively defeated Ramón Freire's troops in the battle of Lircay.

War against the Peru-Bolivian Confederation

In 1838, Manuel Bulnes assumed the position of Mayor of Concepción, having to leave it that same year. Between 1838 and 1839 he participated at the head of the army in the war against the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, defeating the troops of Andrés de Santa Cruz in the battle of Yungay on January 20, 1839, after which he was received in Chile as a hero. He was promoted to major general and in Peru he was awarded the rank of Grand Marshal of Ancash and a beautiful sword of honor.

On July 20, 1841, he married one of the most representative female figures of the Chilean aristocracy, Enriqueta Pinto Garmendia, daughter of President Francisco Antonio Pinto and sister of the future President Aníbal Pinto.

He was appointed State Counselor to President José Joaquín Prieto, a step prior to being a government candidate in the 1841 elections.

Presidency

Photograph by Manuel Bulnes.

When he assumed command on September 18, 1841 —at the age of 42—, Bulnes was known for his gift of command and honesty, but his knowledge and intellectual faculties to govern were doubted. However, he surrounded himself with excellent collaborators, such as the ministers of state Jerónimo Urmeneta, Manuel Camilo Vial, Ramón Luis Irarrázaval, Manuel Rengifo, Manuel Montt and Antonio Varas.

In addition, through the literary gatherings organized by his wife, he had contact with prominent intellectuals such as Ignacio Domeyko, Andrés Bello, Amado Pissis and others, from whom he received advice and advice.

His government was characterized by educational and cultural expansion, reforming the National Institute, creating preparatory schools, and founding the Normal School of Preceptors. The University of Chile was created by law enacted during his presidency, in 1842, classes are still taught at the National Institute, as well as the Academy of Painting (1849), the School of Arts and Crafts (1849) and the School of Architecture.

The poet Eusebio Lillo Robles was entrusted with a second text of the National Anthem.

On October 23, 1841, a general amnesty was decreed, where Freire was pardoned and officers who were on the liberal side in 1830 were reinstated. O'Higgins was rehabilitated 17 days before his death. He even hosted his ex-enemy Santa Cruz between 1844 and 1846 at Colonel Benjamin Viel's hacienda in Chillán.

Bulnes called Manuel Rengifo to collaborate in the Ministry of Finance, finishing the tasks started with Prieto. On June 2, 1842, the Customs Regulations for Internment and Transit Commerce were published to simplify the procedures for importing and exporting merchandise.

His government was also marked by a "complex international scenario regarding the true geographical limits of Chile with Argentina, the government of President Manuel Bulnes encouraged a settlement policy to populate the territory of Chilean Patagonia, to later in 1845 dictate the first law of colonization. At that time, Chilean territory was only inhabited from La Serena to Concepción, despite the fact that the Constitution of 1833 set the limits from the Atacama desert to Cape Horn."

Bulnes tried to establish sovereignty in 1842, when he declared the guanos located to the south of Mejillones Chilean, and ordered Juan Williams to possess the territory located in the Strait of Magellan for which he founded in 1843 the Bulnes fort (whose population is transferred 6 years later to found Punta Arenas) with the aim of establishing sovereignty in the Strait of Magellan. The colonization law is issued, promoting the occupation of the territories of the current X and XIV Regions, Germans coming to occupy the area. Peace is signed with Spain on April 24, 1844, where Chile is officially recognized as an independent and sovereign country.

Administratively, he reestablished the Military School and created the Naval School in 1844, created the statistics office and carried out a population census in 1842. He promulgated the Interior Regime Law and the Printing Law, created the provinces of Valparaíso, Atacama and Nuble.

The body of civil engineers was created (1842) which allowed the initiation of a range of works such as roads, bridges and tolls. The road between Santiago and Valparaíso was improved; a route was opened between the latter port and Los Andes. The concession for the first Santiago-Valparaíso telegraph was awarded, and customs buildings were built in several ports.

In 1846 he decided to transfer the seat of government from the Royal Court to the Palacio de la Moneda.

In 1847 an agreement was reached with the creditors of the English loan, based on the payment of the debt in defined terms, and, in 1849, he introduced the decimal metric system to standardize the process of weights and measures in offices and accounting of the government.

In 1848 Pedro Amado carried out the cartographic survey of Chile and wheat exports began to the California market (until 1853) and in 1850 to Australia (until 1857), resources that allowed rural life to be modernized. In 1850 William Wheelwright began the construction of the railway from Copiapó to Caldera, which would finally be inaugurated on December 25, 1851.

Ministers of State

State ministries of the Government of Manuel Bulnes Prieto
Ministry	Owner	Period
Ministry of the Interior and Foreign Affairs	Ramón Luis Irarrázaval Manuel Montt Torres Manuel Camilo Vial José Joaquín Pérez Mascayano Antonio Varas de la Barra	1841 - 1845 1845 - 1846 1846 - 1849 1849 - 1850 1850 - 1851
Ministry of War and Marina	Manuel Montt Torres José Santiago Aldunate José Manuel Borgoño Pedro Nolasco Vidal	1841 - 1842 1842 - 1846 1846 - 1848 1848 - 1851
Ministry of Finance	Manuel Rengifo José Joaquín Pérez Mascayano Manuel Camilo Vial Antonio García Reyes Jerónimo Urmeneta	1841 - 1844 1844 - 1846 1846 - 1849 1849 - 1850 1850 - 1851
Ministry of Justice, Cult and Public Instruction	Manuel Montt Torres Antonio Varas de la Barra Salvador Sanfuentes Manuel Antonio Tocornal Maximum Mujica	1841 - 1845 1845 - 1846 1846 - 1849 1849 - 1850 1850 - 1851

The Revolution of 1851

Statue of Manuel Bulnes in Santiago de Chile.

The authoritarianism of the conservative governments caused great discontent in the liberal sectors, for which reason young men from the Creole aristocracy, such as Santiago Arcos and Francisco Bilbao, would found the Society for Equality, which promoted the increase in public liberties. This group would be considered a public danger by the government, due to its calls to overthrow the government and its propaganda against government candidate Manuel Montt^{[citation required]}, which is why which would be deleted.

However, the Society would organize, now in hiding, a revolutionary attempt in Santiago on April 20, 1851, which would be appeased by the Army, under the command of Bulnes himself (Urriola Mutiny).

The political tension would continue: after the elections in which the pro-government candidate Manuel Montt would be elected president, his opponent, General José María de la Cruz, would rebel against the central government from Concepción; His troops would finally be defeated by Bulnes himself on December 8, 1851 at the Battle of Loncomilla.

Life after the presidency

General Bulnes at his retirement.

After this, he was appointed state counselor to President Montt, in addition to being elected senator for Coelemu, for the period 1852-1861 and re-elected for the period 1861-1870. In the first term he was a member of the Permanent War and Navy Commission. Member of the Conservative Commission for the recess 1854-1855; 1855-1856; and 1856-1857. For the second he continued to integrate the Permanent Commission of War and Navy. In addition, he was a member of the Conservative Commission for the recess 1864-1865 and 1865-1866.

In 1866, despite his health being affected, he was a presidential candidate, but the then ruler José Joaquín Pérez was re-elected.

In his last years he dedicated himself to agricultural activities.

He died in Santiago on October 18, 1866, serving as a senator. He was chosen as his replacement in 1867, Marcos Maturana del Campo.