The Philosophy of History in Nineteenth-Century Chile

With the birth of a new nation the Chilean historian was faced with the task of defining his past and of deciding how to study it. There were problems of historical sources, methodology, and function. Were all documents of the colonial period to be given equal credence, or were certain chronicles or narratives more reputable than others? Were current European historians such as Guizot, Michelet, and Hegel to be chosen as models for their writings, or were the ancients such as Tacitus and Thucydides more suitable? Were American models necessary (such as Bernal Diaz del Castillo's chronicle) or should Chilean historians shun subservience to any models? The most important problem, however, was the question of the function of history: was it to be a romantic form to entertain the masses or the province of a select few who collected large libraries for their own pleasure? Was history to maintain a scientific objectivity or was it to be used in political debates, as the basis for policy recommendations? The possibilities are varied when a new field of science or literature is developed. The Chilean experience saw all of these suggestions rigorously debated. Before 1842, however, young Chileans had few domestic models of historical writing as aids to their own work. From the time the Portalean era had begun, only one history of Chile had appeared, El Chileno instruido en la historia topografica, civil, y politica de su pais (1834), written by a Franciscan Jose Javier de Guzman.' Sponsored by the Prieto government, which published five thousand copies of the work, this curious history offered little inspiration for future historians. Written in the form of a dialogue between an elderly man and his nephew, this moral history of Chile was designed to divert the attention of the youth from the romantic, heretical, or scandalous novels that they had been reading.2 A Society of Chilean History, formed by students of the National Institute

Epistemology · Philosophy of history · Classics · Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America · History · Philosophy · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America

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