Among Lights and Shadows. Perceptions of argentine exiles on the state of Civilization and Progress in Chile in the mid-19th century

Abstract

From a History of Thought and Political History approach, and based on primary and secondary sources, we examine the perceptions that certain Argentine exiles from the regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas had about the state of civilization and progress of politics, society and culture in nineteenth-century Chile, a place which, in a context of détente to a certain extent, in the middle of the century, gave them asylum. We can observe in their perceptions an appreciation for the type of State, the Constitution of 1833, the power of the President of the Republic, the legal stability, the leadership, and for education as the engine of civilization, of the revolution, of democracy and the civic education of society. They resignified these dimensions from a clear critical sense of the Argentine reality, not failing to observe lights and shadows in the political evolution of the Republic.