of Peru. The
viceroy of Lima made one more effort to uphold the power of Spain in
Chile, but the army he despatched under Mariano Osorio, the victor of
Rancagua, was decisively defeated at the river Maipo on the 3rd of April
1818. By this battle the independence of Chile, formally proclaimed by
O'Higgins in the previous February, was finally secured.

The republic.

The next few years witnessed the expulsion of the royalists from the
south of Chile, the equipment of a small fleet, placed under the command
of Manuel Blanco Encalada and Lord Cochrane (earl of Dundonald), and the
invasion of Peru by San Martin with the help of the fleet, ending in the
proclamation of Peruvian independence in 1821; though the Spanish power
was not finally broken until Bolivar's victory at Ayacucho in 1824.
Relieved from all fear of Spanish attacks from the north, the new
republic of Chile entered upon a period of internal confusion and
dissension bordering upon anarchy. As soon as the necessity for
establishing a stable government arose the lack of training in
self-government among the Chileans became painfully obvious. O'Higgins
as director-general, rightly perhaps, considered that firm orderly
government was more important than the concession of liberal
institutions, but his administration roused strong hostility, and in
1823 he was compelled to resign. From that date up to 1830 there were no
less than ten governments, while three different constitutions were
proclaimed. The nation was divided into small mutually hostile parties;
there were ecclesiastical troubles owing to the hostility of the Church
to the new republic; there were Indian risings in the south and royalist
revolts in the island of Chiloe; the expenditure exceeded the revenue,
and the employment of the old Spanish financial expedients naturally
increased the general discontent. Up to 1830 the Liberal party, which
favoured a free democratic regime, held the upper hand, but in that year
the Conservatives, backed by a military rising led by General Joaquin
Prieto, placed themselves in power after a sanguinary battle at Lircay.
Prieto was elected president in 1831, and a new constitution was drafted
and promulgated in 1833, which, with some modifications, remains the
constitution of Chile at the present time. This constitution invested
the executive with almost dictatorial powers, and the Conservatives
entered upon a long term of office.

The aim of the Conservative poli