In this book Andrés Baeza Ruz explores a series of relationships between Chileans and Britons during independence but takes a new path to study a question that has interested historians for a very long time. He returns to it with the conviction that the tried and tested explanations of the way in which these people related was an expression of British expansionism, that these were neo-colonial entanglements, and do not explain how those involved (mostly non-state actors) really related to each other.
The study, which emerges from his doctoral dissertation, revises the traditional view that sees everything through the lens of imperialism. Instead, he attempts to ‘systematise the analysis of British–Chilean relations between 1806 and 1831, taking into account different spheres of interaction rather than trying to demonstrate any particular influence of British culture in the making of Chile as a new nation state’ (p. 13). He succeeds in moving away from a narrow imperial perspective, employing instead a wider transnational approach that understands empire as ‘a suitable entry route for global processes of exchange and flows of goods and people’ (p. 19).
He takes a thematic approach, still following a slightly chronological structure which helps the reader understand the changes that took place through time. Chapter 1 looks at encounters that predated independence and how they were coloured by the British invasions of Buenos Aires and Montevideo in 1806 and 1807. Fear of possible occupation was pervasive during this time as Chileans were convinced that Spain's great enemy would invade their territory. Baeza finds some documents that point to this, but others show that Chileans fended off foreign threats by portraying their territory as poor and inhospitable even though they did offer the connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific as their only attraction. After the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, when Britain became an ally, the strategy changed, as Chileans wanted them to support their newly created governing junta. They sent a representative to London to present their land as one of opportunity and of plenty, hoping this would be an incentive for them to intervene in their favour as the viceroy in Lima threatened their autonomy. The Chilean authorities went as far as to ask the Royal Navy officer stationed in the Pacific to draft a peace agreement between the Santiago junta and the authorities in Peru.
Chapter 2 sheds new light on the British participation in the Chilean Navy, an issue that has tended to remain limited to military history and is seldom understood as part of a wider cultural sphere of influence. Baeza manages to disentangle the experience of a great variety of individuals from the usual heroic narrative of events and in so doing he presents the reader with a nuanced and detailed portrayal of the conflicts and opportunities that resulted from the close proximity shared by Britons and Chileans both on land and at sea. The chapter explores the way language and cultural expectations played a role in how individuals participated in the campaigns and contributed to their changing understanding of identity, and the role this played in developing a sense of belonging to a new independent nation.
Chapter 3 deploys more of a cultural perspective with its focus on the Bible trade and the introduction of the monitorial system of teaching. Here Baeza shows how competing ideas of civilisation brought British and Chilean actors together to collaborate in the dissemination of practices that both sides saw as beneficial, albeit for different reasons. While British missionaries were concerned with spreading the word of God by selling Bibles and teaching people to read, Chilean elites saw this type of education as a cost-efficient way to create citizens who could read and write, and address the low levels of literacy, which they considered one of the worst legacies of Spanish colonialism. This was the main reason why they were willing to overlook their Protestant origins and agenda. Another factor was that Bible societies were not official agents of the British state, even if they did advance notions of the Empire and its civilising mission.
This was not exactly the case of British merchants who advocated for the introduction of a free-trade agenda and who Baeza studies in Chapter 4. Although trade was one of the main means of imperial advancement, the book explores the extent to which the private interests of the merchants and businessmen coincided with that of Her Majesty's government. Undoubtedly British merchants promoted the liberalisation of the Chilean economy, even though this was only achieved by taking into consideration local conditions. The Association of British Merchants was established in 1819, and during the wars of independence they were protected by Royal Navy officers but only if this did not interfere with their neutrality. After the wars ‘merchants tended to behave as “non-state” actors distancing themselves from British imperial interests’ (p. 175). This chapter shows that in contrast to what has often been assumed, merchants were not agents for the Crown.
Chapter 5 touches on the question of Britain's recognition of Chilean independence. The new republic's elites considered this of prime importance, even if other nations such as the United States had recognised them as early as 1818. In large part this was to counter the rising power of the United States in the Pacific region, so Chileans devoted much energy to achieving British recognition. They sent ministers to London, but they were ignored and treated as ‘well-informed travellers’ because otherwise it would have been de jure recognition. Officials were very disappointed when Chile was not amongst the first countries to be acknowledged in 1825 and were convinced this was due to the lacklustre reports sent by the British consul and their previous efforts to paint their country as devoid of interest in order to fend off possible invasion. All this was compounded by the instability that characterised Chile in the first years after independence, as Britain was mostly interested in establishing relations with territories that were either wealthy or stable. It was only once efforts to secure recognition stopped that Britain stepped up as a reaction to French recognition of Chile in 1831.
In this book Baeza presents a view of a period that is seldom analysed from a transnational perspective. His empirical work shows that the ‘dependency theory’ that considered Chile as part of an informal empire led by Britain is no reflection of reality. Instead, Chileans had different and changing perceptions of the British and there was a wide variety of contacts, with naval officers, missionaries selling Bibles and establishing schooling systems, or with merchants. Although to some degree all these actors reflected British imperial desires, they did not represent them and instead established relations with the Chileans based on their own specific needs and ambitions. By illustrating how this process came to pass at the very start of the republican era, Baeza contributes to the reader's understanding of Chile as a unique case, as well as the wider way in which the British intervened in South America in this period.
