The Mid-Term Contests Americans Should Pay Attention to: Secretaries of State in History

If a poll were taken of Americans asking if they could name their state’s secretary of state, it is doubtful the number who could would eclipse one or two percent. If the poll included the follow up question, “Are you aware your state has a secretary of state,” the number would likely rise only a few percentage points. Voters are preparing to go to the polls in November to provide a referendum on the first two years of the Biden administration. Battleground Senate and House races dominate the country’s attention. Americans though are ignoring at their own peril twenty-seven potentially crucial contests — the twenty-seven states electing a secretary of state. But why should Americans care about a post many don’t even know exists?

Michael J. Trapani explains.

William Pennington, Governor of New Jersey from 1837 to 1843.

The answer to the question of why Americans should care is that secretaries of state are responsible for certifying the results of statewide elections. While their other duties vary from state to state, they share in common the role as their state’s chief election official. As Trump and his team were crafting “the big lie” following Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, phones buzzed in the offices of secretaries of state from closely contested states. Most notably, the defeated president pressured Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes,” to swing the state in his favor and threatened legal repercussions if Raffensperger did not comply.  Raffensperger ultimately stood his ground, informing Trump that the reported result of Biden’s narrow victory was correct.

Trump and his most loyal supporters maintain that Biden’s win was fraudulent and had state election officials, secretaries of state chief among them, acted correctly, the 45th president would be enjoying a second term. Team Trump, although sustaining publicly that their man won, is now scheming to ensure that should a similar scenario arise when the former president presumably runs again in 2024, Trump will emerge victorious, regardless of how the voting shakes out. Their plan is to install as many Trump loyalists as possible into positions that hold authority in state-run elections. Among Trump’s top prizes is the secretary of state of Arizona, for whom the former president’s coveted endorsement has gone to state lawmaker Mark Finchem — a man whose victory, according to a recent article in The Guardian, “should terrify the nation.” As a member of the state legislature, Finchem signed his name to a joint resolution calling on Congress to reject the legally certified electoral vote for Biden and award Arizona’s votes to Trump. Simply put, if Finchem and others like him are elevated to positions to oversee their state’s elections, Trump and Trump acolytes on the losing end of close (or perhaps even lopsided) elections could be declared victorious.

The Broad Seal War

But could a secretary of state actually determine an election? History shows that yes, they can. While the stakes were not as high as those of a presidential election, New Jersey’s 1838 disputed congressional election ended in a hullaballoo that cost the state five-sixths of its congressional representation for over three months. 

New Jersey was politically divided in the late 1830s. The state awarded its eight electoral votes to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in the 1836 presidential election — a victory secured by a mere 545 votes. The Whigs also narrowly won the state’s six congressional seats, which represented a complete reversal of the 1834 congressional election that sent six Democrats to Washington.  

The 1838 statewide congressional election continued the trend. So close were the results that when the 26th Congress convened in December 1839, two slates of delegates, one Whig and one Democratic, arrived in Washington, D.C. Each contingent came bearing commissions as the duly elected members of Congress. Only the commissions of the Whigs bore the governor’s seal, the legally required certification of victory. The Democrats’ commissions bore the seal of the office of James D. Westcott, the secretary of state. The ensuing debacle would later be dubbed, The Broad Seal War, after the governor’s seal affixed on the Whig delegation’s commissions. 

On the first day of the session, the House clerk began the customary roll call to seat the newly elected members. When he got to New Jersey, he read off the name of Whig Joseph F. Randolph (whose victory was not disputed). He then stopped, claiming that because the remaining five seats were contested, he would be unable to seat the rest of New Jersey’s members. 

The dispute centered on the certification of votes from South Amboy in Middlesex county and Millville in Cumberland county. In the case of South Amboy, it was alleged that the legally chosen official whose duty was to certify the township’s results and submit them to the county was prevented from doing so and that another official was unlawfully substituted in his place. In the case of Millville, the township’s votes were not received by the state in a timely manner according to the law and the town’s election officials made public their intent to accept votes of aliens (to use the term of the day). At this time, New Jersey members of Congress were elected at-large, meaning voters cast up to six votes and the top six vote-getters would be elected. Whig Governor William Pennington decided to throw out the vote of the two townships in question and certify the election without them. Had the discarded votes been included in the final statewide tally, the Democratic slate (minus Joseph Randolph) would have scored a razor-thin victory. The unaltered results, presented by the Democratic delegation, were signed and stamped with the seal of the secretary of state.

The situation paralyzed the House for weeks. Whigs attacked the clerk for unilaterally deciding whose certifications were legitimate and whose were not. The New Jersey Whigs had presented the credentials legally mandated by the state; who was the clerk to do anything but seat those members? If further investigation was warranted, the House would do so once organized. Democrats fired back that had the clerk seated the Whig delegation, he would be effectively deciding on a disputed matter, a weight far beyond his responsibility to bear.

The parties bickered over how to proceed. One solution proposed having the clerk read the rest of the uncontested names so a quorum could be reached at which point, those members present would rule on the members claiming their seats under the governor’s seal. This was met with disproval by those who felt this gave the Whigs an unfair advantage. A counter proposal: Establish a quorum and rule on all those claiming the New Jersey seats. When a vote was called, a fracas broke out over whether the New Jersey delegation should be allowed to vote. Which delegation, Whig or Democratic, would be permitted to vote? Both? Neither? Wouldn’t permitting neither to vote deprive New Jersey of its constitutionally granted representation? Finally, two weeks into the session, members voted along partisan lines to elect a speaker so the House could be properly organized. Following the vote, another two weeks of arguing ensued over whether the full House or the Committee of Elections would decide on the matter. On January 14, the House voted to move the matter to the Committee of Elections, thus allowing the House to move on with its business.

The committee consisted of five Democrats and four Whigs (one of whom was future president Millard Fillmore). The partisan majority report, submitted on March 5, 1840 declared that the votes of South Amboy and Millville should be counted and therefore, the Democrats bearing the seal of the secretary of state, not the governor, were the rightful claimants to the contested seats. On March 16, the House voted 111 to 80 to seat the Democrats, finally giving New Jersey its full representation.

Final Thoughts

In 1838, the power of the office of the New Jersey secretary of state was enough to overturn an election in which votes were discarded due to technicalities. In 2020, secretaries of state refused to employ that same power to overturn the results of lawfully conducted elections. Both cases demonstrate the influence the office could have on the outcome of closely contested elections. And both cases demonstrate why we need to pay attention to the twenty-seven states holding secretary of state elections this November.

What do you think of the role of secretaries of state? Let us know below.

References

U.S. Congress, House of Representatives. Committee on Elections. New Jersey Election (26th    Congress, 1st Session, House Report no. 506, March 11, 1840. U.S.  Serial Set no. 371).

Cong. Globe, 26th Cong., 1st Sess. 1-121 (1839-40).

Ed Pilkington, “’This should terrify the nation’: The Trump ally seeking to run Arizona’s elections,” The Guardian. February 21, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/21/mark-finchem-trump-arizona-elections-secretary-of-state.

From American Reconstruction to the McDonaldization of Society

 American has seen so many changes since the end of the US Civil War in 1865. Here, Daniel L. Smith discusses some key trends that have happened since then, ultimately leading to the so-called ‘McDonaldization’ of Society.

Daniel’s book on mid-19th century northern California is now available. Find our more here: Amazon US | Amazon UK

George Ritzer who wrote The McDonaldization of Society in 1993. Source: available here.

Rationality and logic were broken well before the 2000s and even before the 1960s. In fact, it was during the Reconstruction-era after the American Civil War that things fell apart quickly. Specifically, between 1863 and 1877. This was the catalyst for how American society would form as we see it today. During the Reconstruction-era, historical process was coming into play, such as the country adjusting the deconstruction of institutional slavery, as well as the security of our country’s unity as one – both outcomes of the Civil War. If it were not for a pardon from treason that was handed over to the Confederate generals and politicians after Lincoln was assassinated, I observe and stand on conscience that our nation would have looked much different today. I mean that politically and culturally. 

Of course with advancement of society came cooperation with differing minority groups. A differing narrative stayed alive in the black communities. By the 1930s, Southern Democratic politics had been changed. These politicians and business elites began to shift their views to how “interracial cooperation” could bring them success in the 1900s South.[1] Politics at this point and time begin to change rapidly with the introduction of industrialization. Skyscrapers would start to emerge. Entertainment became higher priority. And self-gratification such as at restaurants, movies, food, and alcohol, began to be in excess for all those who hung onto their traditional American roots.

Consumer culture

In the 1930s consumer culture was a tied knot of pestering and arrogance. Many of those at that time would begin to condemn mass-culture, which began to be viewed as fun, with an insistence on freedom for self-expression. Mainstream society began to view it as an antisocial counterculture. Critics of the consumer culture were easily characterized as “Puritan” in their own personal views on this way of life. So, we end up in the 1960s where the societal revolution would really take off. Media and corporate entities would help fast-forward this social revolution in America. The “permissiveness” of 1960s culture would be countered itself by the return of traditional religion in America.

McDonaldization

There has always been a “see-saw” like effect throughout politics and religion in history. If you pay attention to current events, you observe this. From watching the news, to social media, to living your daily lives – everybody sees the fallout from America’s fracture of the founders’ ideals. Most do not know that, but most also see it happening right in front of their own eyes. Think, Skid Row in Los Angeles, California. Tent city. The homeless empire.[2] 

This brings me to how professor and author George Ritzer came up with the clever slogan, “The McDonaldization of Society.” So here we are. We live in a society where a poll of elementary school children in 1986 concluded that 96% of them could identify Ronald McDonald over Santa Claus in name recognition.[3] Mind blowing to think that today it’s even worse. And on many differing levels. Social media, video games, movies. Everything today is on overdrive. But I digress to make the point that the McDonaldization of society, that is, creating an atmosphere of instant gratification, has caused a shift in how Americans live their lives today.

Ultimately, the McDonaldization of society was the turning point in how the entire world would come to learn and live in their daily lives. Someone once said, “The founding fathers would be turning over in their graves right now.” Well, I agree. With education being placed on the backburner by the elites in business and in government, can we pull ourselves into a new way of coping with post-modern America? 

To sum it all up, there has been much change from Reconstruction to our current post-Modern America. Yes. Many historians clarify our current era as post-Modern America. Today, we are living in a new world. Many nations across the globe are facing the same social, economic, and political problems that we face here in the United States. Fate is something that we all face. We are all handed our own cards at birth. With that said, we are all living history. We are all writing and living in history, even if you don’t even know it. 

You can read a selection of Daniel’s past articles on: California in the US Civil War (here), Spanish Colonial Influence on Native Americans in Northern California (here), the collapse of the Spanish Armada in 1588 (here), early Christianity in Britain (here), the First Anglo-Dutch War (here), the 1918 Spanish Influenza outbreak (here), and an early European expedition to America (here).

Finally, Daniel Smith writes at complexamerica.org.

References

[1] Foner, Eric, and Eric Foner. A Short History of Reconstruction, 1863-1877. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2015., XXV. 

[2] "Skid Row : McSheehy, William. Internet Archive. Accessed February 19, 2022. https://archive.org/details/skidrow0000mcsh/page/n3/mode/2up. 

[3] Greenhouse, Steven. "The Rise and Rise of McDonald's." New York Times (New York, NY), June 8, 1986. 

Women in Flight: 5 Incredible Pioneering Female Pilots

Humans have always wanted to fly. We have looked at the birds in the sky and wanted that ability. Early flying machines were designed and experimented with mostly by men.  Aviation was dangerous and many men and women lost their lives flying in the early days. The first successful plane design was the Wright brothers’, and they also had the first sustained airplane flight in 1903. It wasn’t long after that before women stepped into the world of aviation. Women have always been adventurers, explorers and thrill seekers. They have faced many more obstacles to fulfill their dreams but thankfully there were women who were bold and brave enough to push through despite any obstacles.

Here, Angie Grandstaff looks at five amazing female pilots.

Harriet Quimby around 1911.

Harriet Quimby

Harriet Quimby (1875-1912) was a New York journalist and photographer. As a journalist, she went all over reporting and looking for stories. She became interested in aviation after seeing some early airshows. Harriet met the Moisant family who gave her an intro into the aviation world in 1910. John Moisant was a pilot and Harriet took flying lessons with John’s sister, Matilde. Harriet became the first American woman to obtain a pilot’s license in 1911. She loved the freedom flying gave her and she traveled all over the United States and Mexico. She also joined the Moisant International Aviators exhibition team. Harriet wore a purple satin outfit to fly because she loved standing out. Harriet was the first woman to fly across the English Channel on April 16, 1912. This was a huge feat that was done in extreme fog with a faulty compass and a plane she hadn’t flown before. Unfortunately, her flight took place just after the Titanic sank so her major accomplishment barely made the news. Harriet was flying with the exhibition team at an airshow in Boston in 1912 when her plane went into a nosedive. Harriet and her passenger weren’t wearing seatbelts and they were thrown from the plane into the Boston harbor. They were both killed. Harriet was one of the few female pilots at the time of her death. She lived her life in the moment and was always looking for an adventure setting a bold example for girls and women everywhere.

The Stinson Sisters

Katherine (1891-1977) and Marjorie (1895-1975) Stinson grew up in a family that supported their dreams of flying. Katherine was the oldest and paved the way for little sister Marjorie. In 1912, Katherine was the fourth American woman to obtain a pilot’s license when she was just 19 years old. The Stinson family moved to Texas in 1912 and established a flying business. They offered a mail carrier service for some time and flying lessons. Katherine was known as a daredevil. She became the first woman to perform a loop and her stunt work had her outflying the men. Katherine built her own planes and was the first pilot to use flares to skywrite. She attached the flares to her plane and wrote CAL over the California skies in 1915. She set records for distance and duration plus did a six-month tour in China and Japan where she performed for thousands. Marjorie received her pilot’s license in 1914 at the age of 19 as well and worked with Katherine as a stunt pilot. Marjorie expanded the family flying business when she obtained 500 acres near the San Antonio River. Marjorie was the lead flight instructor at Stinson Field. She trained hundreds of pilots during the early years of World War I.  Katherine and Marjorie had petitioned the U.S. government to allow them to serve as pilots in 1917 but they were denied because of their gender. Katherine joined the war effort as an ambulance driver and served in France while Marjorie continued to train Canadian and American male pilots for war. After the war, both sisters continued working as stunt pilots. Katherine retired from flying in 1920 and Marjorie retired from flying as well in 1928. These sisters broke barriers as pilots and as women. Their spirit of adventure and love for flying made an impact in the field of aviation.  

Bessie Coleman

Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) was born in Texas to African American sharecroppers. Bessie lived during a time where Jim Crow laws and racial discrimination were rampant which made her accomplishments even more amazing. Bessie moved to Chicago in 1915 and joined her brothers who were living there. She became a well-known manicurist. This was one of the jobs that allowed African American women to obtain some financial freedom at that time. Bessie became fascinated with the tales of flying she heard from military men, including her brother, who were returning from World War I. As an African American woman, Bessie faced significant barriers to her dream to fly. She was denied entry into American flying schools, so she looked to France where people of color were able to obtain their pilot’s license. Bessie learned the French language and saved her money to prepare for a trip to France. She also obtained financial support from African American millionaire, Robert Abbott.  Bessie went to France in 1920. She received her pilot’s license and became the first African American woman to do so. When she returned to America, Bessie performed as a stunt pilot and barnstormer in many airshows. She was a popular speaker and encouraged African Americans to pursue aviation. In 1926, Bessie was preparing for an airshow in Florida and took a flight with her mechanic. He lost control of the plane. Bessie wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and fell to her death.  Bessie’s life was short but the impact she had on aviation especially for African Americans was immense. Her legacy is still going strong. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go into space, carried a picture of Bessie Coleman with her on that journey.      

Willa Brown

Willa Brown (1906-1992) was born in Kentucky to an African American father and Native American mother. Willa’s parents moved their family to Indiana in hopes of a better education for their children. Willa was a bright student and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business and Master’s degree in business administration. She had many jobs and became interested in flying when she lived in Chicago. Willa was interested in the mechanics of flying as well as flying itself. She took flying lessons at Harlem Field in Chicago. In 1935, she became the first African American woman to obtain a pilot’s license in the United States plus obtained a commercial pilot’s license and a master mechanics certificate. Willa’s husband, Cornelius Coffey, opened the first African American owned flight training academy. Willa was an instructor and director at this school.  She wanted to see more African Americans in aviation. Willa was a founding member of the first African American aviator’s group, National Airmen’s Association of American. Willa advocated for the U.S. military to be desegregated and her school became part of the government funded, Civilian Pilot Training Program. They trained African American men who were training at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. This led to the creation of the Tuskegee Airmen. Willa trained hundreds of these men who became Tuskegee airmen and instructors. She was very politically driven and became the first African American woman to run for Congress. Although she lost, it didn’t stop her from her life’s mission. She continued advocating for the rights of African Americans especially in the military and aviation for the rest of her life.

The Night Witches

The Night Witches were a group of Russian women who flew during World War II. They were dubbed ‘The Night Witches’ by the Germans because they only flew their bombing raids at night and their wooden planes sounded like a sweeping broom. Like in most countries around the world, Russian women were barred from combat. Russia was in a very bad spot militarily when they decided to allow women to pilot their planes. In October 1941, a group of women were recruited by Colonel Marina Raskova to fly combat missions into Germany. Marina was called the Soviet Amelia Earhart. She was the first female navigator in the Soviet Air Force and was well known for her flying abilities. Many Russian women wanted to help with the war effort especially in combat roles and these female regiments gave them that chance. Marina selected 400 women from 2,000 applicants and these became the all-female regiments: the 588th, 587th and 586th. Normally, flight and combat training can take years, but these women were just given an intense few months of training. They faced much skepticism and harassment from the men in the military. No new uniforms or boots for these women, they were given hand-me-downs from male soldiers. Some had to stuff their boots with different material to make them fit. The hand-me-downs didn’t stop there. The planes given to these all-female regiments were old wooden biplanes. These planes offered no weather or bullet protection, no parachutes, no modern instruments, no radio. Each plane carried two crewmembers and two bombs. The weight of the bombs required these planes to travel low which is why these missions were carried out at night. The female pilots had to use maps, compasses and flashlights to help them navigate. Although these women were in planes not fit for battle, there were advantages. Their wooden planes couldn’t be detected on radar, they could outmaneuver the bigger planes and land/take off almost anywhere.  All those advantages plus coming in at night meant these regiments did serious damage. From 1942-1945, the Night Witches dropped 3,000 tons of bombs, 26,000 incendiary shells and much more. Despite their amazing efforts and accomplishments, these women faced serious discrimination from male soldiers. The discrimination made them even more determined to fly and they embraced the German nickname ‘The Night Witches’. Once the war was over, women were once again kept out of combat roles and the feats of the Night Witches faded from memory.   

Let us not forget these women and all women, past and present who are pushing the boundaries to chase dreams and ultimately changing the world for women everywhere. 

Angie Grandstaff is a writer and librarian. She loves to write about history, books and self-development. 

Now read Angie’s article on 5 Amazing Female Businesses in 19th Century America here.

References

https://www.wai.org/pioneers/100womenscript

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/lieutenant-willa-brown

https://www.fai.org/news/harriet-quimby-america-first-female-pilot-licence

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/flygirls-bessie-coleman/

https://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/stinson-katherine/

https://authentictexas.com/marjorie-stinson/

https://www.ctie.monash.edu/hargrave/stinson_bio.html

https://www.wrightmuseum.org/2020/10/01/the-soviet-night-witches/

Bernardo O’Higgins and the Founding of Chile: The Fight for Legitimacy

The improbable lives of Ambrosio O’Higgins and his son, Bernardo, would change the history of South America forever. Two men, father and son, both strivers and achievers. Two men who did not take the traditional paths to power and high office. Two men, who through a series of improbable events, would both become, in their own ways, among the founders of the nation of Chile. The chain of events would begin, of all places, in County Sligo in Ireland.

Erick Redington continues this series on the O’Higgins family by looking at the earlier life and military career of Bernardo O’Higgins.

If you missed it read part one on Ambrosio O’Higgins’ life here.

The charge of O’Higgins at the 1814 Battle of Rancagua.

Bernardo O’Higgins today is seen as one of the founding fathers of Chile and, along with San Martín and Bolivar, is housed in the highest pantheon of South American liberators. Yet from seemingly obscure beginnings, this man who had to fight to be recognized by his own father would fight to make his nation recognized on the world stage.

Bernardo’s story begins with his father Ambrosio O’Higgins. Ambrosio, an unmarried member of the Spanish colonial administration in the Captaincy-General of Chile, had impregnated the daughter of one of his friends, Isabel Riquelme. The young Bernardo would have the last name Riquelme until his father died. This did not mean that Ambrosio refused to recognize his son. As an ennobled Spanish aristocrat, Ambrosio came from a culture that recognized illegitimate children would sometimes arise from liaisons with lower social classes existed and that the father, while not necessarily recognizing the official parentage of the child, could provide for the child in some way without losing too much face. This is what Ambrosio did for Bernardo. 

The Riquelme family was from Chillián, a small city in south-central Chile. During the 18th century, this area was full of rich agricultural land, but was also a backwater of a colonial backwater. Chile was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and with little infrastructure and horrific terrain for travel, this was not a place to rise to greatness. Ambrosio recognized this, and decided to fund his son’s education, including paying for Bernardo to leave his hometown, and get a more worldly education. Bernardo would be placed with Juan Albano Pereira, friends of Ambrosio’s in Mendoza (now in Argentina, but then part of Chile) who had mercantile connections with Ambrosio. After some time with the Albanos, Bernardo was sent to a Franciscan Monastery for a short time before going to Lima, the capital of Peru. Although he would make contacts in Lima that would last him a lifetime, Bernardo’s time there was unhappy. Although there are passing reports of the two men meeting, father and son had no confirmed meetings though both were obviously aware of their relationship. An illegitimate child could be supported in this environment but could not be brought too close. After only a year, Bernardo was sent to Europe to both get him out of the way, and to provide him with a better education. 

London

Ironically, Ambrosio chose as the destination for his son Great Britain, the same country he had fled all those years before as a poor, oppressed Irish farmer. London at this time was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. English radicals, French royalists, embittered revolutionaries, and political dissidents of all stripes crowded the coffee houses and pubs of London. Relative freedom of the press allowed for ideas banned in other nations to be widely disseminated. It was also during the French Revolutionary Wars. The ideals of the French Revolution were sweeping Europe, and for a young and ambitious man like Bernardo, the intellectual atmosphere was exciting. As a man with something to prove, the revolutionary times provided opportunities. 

One of the people who would have the most impact on Bernardo’s life at this time was Francisco Miranda. This Venezuelan revolutionary was a man with infinite plots and schemes in mind to liberate the peoples of South America. Called by some as the Moses of the South American Revolutions, his boundless drive and energy would inspire all the great leaders of Spanish America’s revolutionary generation. Miranda would begin corresponding with Bernardo and would write in a teacher-student style that Bernardo, desperate for a father figure, would take to strongly. 

Due to financial struggles, Bernardo was forced to leave Britain and eventually return to Chile. In 1800, he began his journey which became a small epic of attempts to escape the British blockade (Spain, by this time was allied to France against Britain) and contracting yellow fever, during which Bernardo was so close to death he was read last rites. When he arrived, Bernardo was forced to stay with his old friends, the Albanos, to recover his health. Bernardo was not the only one who was in declining health. His father, Ambrosio, would die only a few months after Bernardo’s return. The man he had so much wanted to impress was now gone forever. Ambrosio did not neglect his son in his will. He left Bernardo a hacienda named Canteras at La Laja in Southern Chile, including 3,000 head of cattle. This was not insignificant for a young man who had to live poor in London only a short time before. It was also at this time that Bernardo Riquelme began adopting his father’s last name O’Higgins. When Bernardo took control of the estate, he settled into the life of a now gentleman farmer. It would be the quietest seven years of his life.  Bringing the latest agricultural science he learned in Europe, the hacienda immediately began to prosper greater than it ever had before. Later in life, Bernardo would reflect on the happiness of this time. The times of peace could not last, however.

King Carlos IV

In the first decade of the 19th century, Spain was governed by King Carlos IV and his prime minister, Manuel Godoy. Spain had been an ally of France since the mid-1790s and had come to be dominated by Napoleon’s French Empire. By the middle of the decade, Napoleon began to worry about the reliability of his ally to the south. Carlos IV and Godoy were both incredibly incompetent and cartoonishly corrupt in their administration of both Spain and the global Spanish Empire. The wealth and resources of the empire were wasted though inefficiency and corruption. Napoleon had created the new law code for France, the Code Napoleon, and had turned France into the preeminent military power of the time. He believed that some Napoleonic efficiency brought to Spanish administration would be more helpful to his cause of dominating Europe than the unexcelled stupidity of the current regime.

In 1808, Carlos IV was forced to abdicate the throne by his son, the future Fernando VII. Carlos then appealed to his ally Napoleon, to restore him to the throne. Napoleon, seeing this as an opportunity to rid himself of this pest, agreed to mediate between father and son, promptly detained both, forced them both to renounce the throne, and placed his own brother King Joseph of Naples on the Spanish throne as King Jose I. 

When word reached the people of Spain of the Abdications of Bayonne (where the mediation had taken place), Spain erupted in revolution. An uprising in Madrid, known to history as Dos de Mayo left hundreds of Spanish civilians dead. Stories of French atrocities began to spread. Civil order broke down in the country and armies appeared to resist French occupation and Napoleon’s puppet king. Revolutionary leaders organized themselves into juntas to fill the gap left in administration. The British began aiding these juntas, and they also decided that independence movements in Spanish America could be used to weaken Napoleon’s ally. A Supreme Junta was established in Seville, ruling in the name of Fernando VII and there were now rival governments vying for the loyalty of Spaniards.

Revolution

Revolutionary thought had already reached Spanish America at this time. Enlightenment philosophies and French revolutionary thought were in vogue throughout Spanish America. Another source of revolutionary attitudes was the dramatic increase in the popularity of Masonic lodges, which would play a significant role in South American independence. Bernardo had been first exposed to many of these ideas while in Britain. Now, divided loyalties among the people led to a situation where everyone had to take sides.

The President of Chile (the acting head of government in the colony) was Brigadier General García Carrasco. He was a military man. By 1809, the situation within Chile had become revolutionary. Support for the Supreme Junta and Fernando VII was seen as a way to safely oppose García Carrasco. On May 25, 1810, the military administration moved against the supporters of Fernando VII and arrested several prominent citizens, who were ordered by the general into exile. After a power struggle with prominent Chileans, the general was forced to resign. With this resignation, the people of Santiago, the capital, began preparations for the creation of a junta for Chile. As many reasoned at the time, the colonies in the Americas belonged to the king, not to Spain. Therefore, if Juntas were being created all over Spain to rule in his name, then it would be only natural for them to be created in the colonies as well. In Buenos Aires, a Junta had taken control the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata. Many in Chile wanted to do the same.

During all this international commotion, Bernardo was civil governor of La Laja. During a previous war scare, he had offered to raise two regiments of cavalry for defense against the British. In 1811, the Junta named him Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Regiment of Cavalry of La Laja. At this time, he was already set on the path that, he believed, a revolution should take. Meeting with other leaders, Bernardo pressed for two immediate objects: the calling of a Congress together and the loosening of restrictions on trade to improve the economy. Freer trade was easily accomplished, and a Congress was called, at this point in the name of Ferdinand VII, to create a new government for Chile. For the new Congress, Bernardo was elected as a member for Los Angeles. With the opening of Congress, many issues came to the forefront. Rivalry between Santiago and Concepción. A failed royalist coup. The most embarrassing for the new Congress was the arrival of HMS Standard, a British warship on a mission for Fernando VII. A message was given to Congress requesting delegates be sent to a new Cortes in Spain. Chile, and the other colonies, were to receive seats in the Spanish legislature. Of course, a large financial contribution was expected to accompany the delegates. The Congress existed and acted explicitly in the name of the king. To accept would be to reaffirm their loyalty to Spain, which not everyone wanted to do. To refuse would be rank hypocrisy. Congress would delay long enough to make the issue moot.

Accompanying the Standard was one José Carrera. Son of a member of the Supreme Junta, he was extremely ambitious, and saw Chile as the perfect field for his ambition. He began conspiring with radicals in Congress, called the Eight Hundred, to remove the moderates to bring forward the cause of independence. On September 1, 1811, the moderates were driven out of Congress, and radicals assumed the positions of power. After the coup, the radicals sidelined Carrera and his family. Now with the precedent set that might, not law, would be the ultimate arbiter of power in Chile, Carrera then arrested men of the Eight Hundred and made himself dictator. Members of Congress then demanded Carrera make an account of himself before them. When he did, Carrera berated Congress and a few hours later disbanded Congress. Chile had had three coups in ten weeks. All Bernardo could do was resign his seat.

The south, and Concepción in particular resisted Carrera. The dictator then turned to Bernardo to help smooth over the situation. Concepción controlled most of the military resources of the country, and Carrera needed this region to solidify his control. Playing on Bernardo’s patriotism, Carrera was able to convince him to go south. After negotiation and a draft agreement which Carrera stalled in implementing, Bernardo realized he was being played and went into open opposition. He placed himself under the orders of the leader of the south, Juan Rozas. When Rozas’ government collapsed, Bernardo returned to his hacienda fed up with the state of affairs. He was an idealistic revolutionary who had run into the wall of practical politics and power struggles. He wanted independence but saw his country falling into infighting. 

Spain returns

This self-imposed retirement did not last very long. In 1813, Spain made its first attempt to reconquer Chile. Invading first in the south, Concepción fell quickly to the Spanish. Of all the colonies in South America, Peru was probably the most royalist. The Viceroy decided now was the time to reestablish control. Carrera called Bernardo to command his cavalry regiment. Bernardo swiftly took command and led a force of troops south to engage the royalists. At Linares, Bernardo’s force encountered the royalists, charged, and drove them out of the town. This was the first battle of the war, and it would bring Bernardo promotion and make his name more well known. 

After Linares, the situation in the south bogged down. Terrain was terrible for the linear warfare of the early 19th century. The three divisions of the reinforced southern army were under different Carrera brothers. The dictator was rapidly losing credibility. After the royalists attacked and defeated the Chilean advanced guard, Carrera was forced to abandon the best defensive positions in front of Santiago. At the Battle of El Roble, Carrera abandoned the field, and a wounded Bernardo rallied the retreating troops and led them to an astounding victory. The junta back in the capital then demanded Carrera give up control of the army. Carrera denounced the junta and his brothers threatened to march on the junta, just as they had Congress previously. The junta was finally able to get enough courage to decree Carrera’s dismissal and made Bernardo the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean army. At first reluctant to take the command as he did not believe in the prudence of changing command in the middle of a war, Bernardo was convinced and accepted. 

Although he had reached the highest position in the Chilean army, it was not to last. Bernardo would only command about 1,800 men who were lacking in almost every supply including weapons and ammunition. A lack of horses meant that artillery was pulled by the soldiers. The royalist army, though no better supplied had morale and initiative on its side.                   When a royalist army was approaching another Chilean force under Juan Mackenna, an old friend and also of Irish extraction, Bernardo took his army to relieve Mackenna. When their armies were joined, Bernardo would lead the army in a race with the royalists to reach Santiago. Both sides, by this point, were tired of campaigning. Both sides were exhausted. Negotiations began between the royalists from Peru and the junta governing Chile. Bernardo and Mackenna negotiated for the Chileans. The result was the Treaty of Lircay. In this treaty, the Chileans restated their loyalty to Fernando VII, under whose name they were fighting anyway. They also agreed to send representatives to the Cortes and money to Spain. Chile was to be integrated into Spain. The major concession the rebels were able to get was recognition of the junta. Both sides seemed to be blaming the whole war on a misunderstanding caused by Carrera. 

War returns

This was nothing more than a temporary truce. The Viceroy in Lima denounced his commander who negotiated the treaty. About 5,000 reinforcements were sent to Chile to suppress the rebels. On the Chilean side, the Carreras were offended by the treaty and acted. On July 23, 1814, Jose Carrera overthrew the government, again, and quickly acted to extend his power over the rebel cause. Bernardo was faced with a dilemma. He was not happy with the treaty and wanted to see Chile freed from Spanish domination. As commander-in-chief, he also knew that the country needed a respite from the fighting. There was also the issue of Carrera himself. This was now the third time he had used force to remove his opponents. Bernardo could not abide this. He would march his troops on Santiago and remove Carrera himself. On August 26, only a month after the signing of the treaty, the forces of Carrera and Bernardo met at the battle of Las Tres Acequias. The two forces met in an engagement among the advanced guards with Carrera’s troops pushed back. Bernardo became confident and ordered an attack with his main force. When the attack failed, his troops began retreating in disorder. When Carrera sent in his cavalry to pursue, it broke what was left of Bernardo’s line and the army began to flee south. 

After the battle, Bernardo learned that the royalists had landed their army from Peru and were marching on Santiago. He reached out to Carrera to put aside their differences and unite to defend the country. Both men, after all, believed in the independence of Chile from the Spanish. It was all for naught. When the Chileans united their forces under Bernardo’s control, they were still outnumbered by the royalists. Infighting had sapped their strength. On October 1, what became known in Chile as the Disaster of Rancagua occurred. The Chilean army was a motley assortment of men ill fed and equipped. The royalist army contained veterans of the Napoleonic Wars from Europe, which were now over. These men had been fighting for six years and knew war on a larger scale than the Chileans did. The Chileans were simply no match for the royalists. Nearly surrounded by the royalists, no reinforcements to be hoped for, and the town he was defending on fire, Bernardo was forced to withdraw from battle. It only took a few days for the royalists to make the distance to Santiago and take the city, the Chilean army was so defeated. 

For Bernardo, there was nothing left. The government had been overthrown. The army, his army, was annihilated. For himself, and the leaders of Chilean independence, their country was lost to them. The leaders began to go into exile, fleeing to other areas not under control of the Spanish. Bernardo would flee across the Andes and into La Plata, not knowing what the future held.

What do you think of Bernando O’Higgins’ earlier life and the war? Let us know below.

Now, read part 3 about the later life of Bernardo O’Higgins and how Chilean independence was earned here.

Further Reading

Clissold, Stephen. Bernardo O’Higgins and the Independence of Chile. Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1968.

Kinsbruner, Jay. Bernardo O’Higgins. Twayne Publishers, 1968.

Moral Principle and Political Reality in US History

An issue that often arises in a detailed exchange on the American experience is equality of opportunity. In many cases, it strikes a dynamic chord with many observers in our society. The essential tension that is inherent in this issue is one of moral principle v. political reality. Here, David Huff considers this in the US by looking at Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and the present day.

Former President Lyndon B. Johnson (on the left) and then Vice President Spiro Agnew (on the right, with sunglasses) view the lift off of Apollo 11 in 1969.

Many societies throughout history have grappled with how to reconcile equality of opportunities with the harsh political of their times. On the whole, societies, particularly in their infancy, have sacrificed equality of opportunity for the sake of political expediency.

In the American experience, the Founding Fathers were more concerned about ensuring the survival of the American Republic than achieving social, political and economic equality in society. The achievement of equality of women, Native Americans and African Americans were left for future generations to undertake.

Fortunately, the United States heeded history's call to action. The patrician reforms of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and the continual call for the creation of an adequate and equitable health-care system are indicative of the potent force that equality of opportunity has played in our society.

The Role of Federal Government v. Private Enterprise

Although I concur that people should not be given a free handout, I believe in offering an individual a hand-up. Furthermore, I think that it is the government's responsibility to ensure that if social inequities get our of hand, constructive remedies should be enacted to ameliorate the situation.

Clearly, the accounting scandals in private enterprise during the past forty years underscore that government ought to play a greater role in preventing the gross pursuit of money and power which results in excessive greed and corruption.

A hallmark of a civilized society is one in which a heightened social consciousness for the welfare of others plays a role in shaping a nation's character.  A government that embraces the political mantra that no social obligation is germane will stagnate and erode, becoming frozen by its own indifference and intolerance. If enterprising and wealthy individuals have the rare privilege of escaping the bonds of everyday existence to see life from an entirely different perspective, why not share some of that resourceful knowledge with others in society?

Abraham Lincoln's Role in Shaping American Society

As a nation, we have been blessed by a number of remarkable individuals who played an influential role in shaping the American consciousness. A central figure during the nineteenth century was Abraham Lincoln, who demonstrated tremendous courage and resilience during the bloody and painful struggle of the American Civil War. Determined, shrewd, and tough, Lincoln not only managed to keep the United States together, but also abolished the long-standing institution of slavery. His accomplishments set into motion profound changes that altered the cultural fabric of the American South.

Above all, Lincoln, by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and his memorable Second Inaugural Address in 1865 raised the social and political consciousness of our nation. 

FDR's Impact on American Society

Another figure who played a prominent role in shaping the American consciousness was Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Elected president in 1932, Roosevelt initiated patrician reforms under his New Deal programs, which alleviated some of the human misery caused by the Great Depression. 

Although experimental in nature, his progressive reforms called for the federal government to play an active role in the social welfare of Americans.  The creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Works Progress Administration, which generated many job creation programs, the Soil Conservation Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Rural Electrification Act, and the Social Security Act, as well as the president's willingness to embrace collective bargaining power for labor, are all indicative of FDR's sweeping reforms that transformed the fabric of American society. 

The Emergence of the Kennedy Family and Lyndon B. Johnson

On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy became the nation's 35th President of the United States. Both JFK and his wife, Jacqueline, as well as Lyndon B. Johnson played a profound impact on the transformation of American society. During his tenure, President Kennedy created the Peace Corps, introduced Civil Rights legislation and Medicare and Medicaid reform bills to Congress in order to provide greater health-care coverage and basic human rights to African Americans throughout our nation, and signed the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in 1963.

In addition, Mrs. Kennedy taught the nation about culture and distinction by combining a unique sense of fashion with a strong sense of scholarship. Furthermore, intertwined with Mrs. Kennedy's interest in fashion was her commitment to the preservation of the arts and humanities, her commitment to the restoration of the White House, her push to host a dinner of the Nobel Laureates in 1962 and her avid interest in hosting youth concerts to encourage young people to study classical music. In my opinion, all of her efforts were indicative of her genuine desire that American civilization should be committed to the idea of developing a rich and diverse cultural identify of its own.

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. It was a tragedy that shook the nation and the world. However, Lyndon B. Johnson, who became the 36th President of the United States, was determined to continue the progressive reform efforts that the Kennedy Administration had undertaken. Under his able leadership, President Johnson pushed through Congress an impressive legislative package, which included the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed the Medicare and Medicaid packages into law in 1965, and provided aid to education, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, and Head Start.

Unfortunately, Lyndon Johnson chose to enlarge significantly America's commitment to South Vietnam in July 1965. The president's determination that the United States could fight a costly war in Southeast Asia while enlarging the social welfare state at home led to the development of a choiceless society. In his mind, President Johnson thought we could adopt a two-prong strategy: conduct a war in Vietnam while enacting major social and economic reforms at home, which he called The Great Society. As a result, his willingness to engage simultaneously in the Vietnam War and The Great Society raised expectations beyond what the Federal Government could promise the American people. To that end, a powerful conservative movement began to take shape under the re-emergence of Richard M. Nixon and the 1966 election of Ronald Reagan as Governor of California. In sum, Lyndon Johnson was a tragedy in the real sense. He was the central figure in a struggle of moral importance that ended in ruin. 

Contemporary America

Now, at the dawn of 2022, that United States is in search of itself. In the wake of COVID-19, political division, economic uncertainty, social turmoil, and an inadequate healthcare system, many Americans realize that we need to revitalize our political, economic, and social institutions in order to provide greater opportunities for our fellow citizens. Only if Americans demand greater corporate accountability, insist that their elected leaders focus on strengthening America's economic infrastructure, push for the creation of a National Commission on Violence to examine the underlying problems that cause people, particularly youth, to choose self-destruction rather personal development, and demand a reduction in the national debt that is approaching 30 trillion dollars can we ever hope to restore our country to a healthy order.

In particular, in regard to the national debt, if the debt continues to climb, at some point investors will lose confidence in the government's ability to pay back borrowed funds. In essence, the higher the debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio, the less likely the country will pay back its debt and the higher its risk of default, which could cause a financial panic in the domestic and international markets. At this point, we will not be able to pay off the interest on the debt let alone the principal itself.

To attain positive change requires people, especially young voters, to play an active role in the political process. Perhaps the answer lies not only in parents instilling a sense of self-esteem and personal responsibility in their children, but also society encouraging youth to pursue higher education, community involvement, and state and federal campaign participation.

We must recognize that it is a matter of personal conscience, historical perspective and the inherit belief that equality of opportunity is a struggle of moral importance that as a nation we cannot afford to relinquish. After all, the future of our democracy, our way of life is contingent upon young voter's thoughtful engagement and passionate participation in the American political system. It is their future and their children's future that hang in the balance. 

Conclusion

Finally, the American people need to remember that our country's destiny is a journey, not a destination. It is a journey the American people have learned to savor, cherish and treasure. Our collective journey is filled with roadblocks and amazing achievements that provide the impetus for us to understand fully ourselves and those we love. With the passage of time. our country must learn to embrace faith that looks through adversity and enables us to flourish and thrive.

What do you think of the article? Let us know below.

Now read David’s article on Jackie Kennedy’s influence on the arts here.

Hand-washing in Hospitals: Ignaz Semmelweis’ Great Contribution to Medicine

As individuals in society, we live by structure and regimes that are either taught or acquired through our environments. The practice of hand-washing and the sterilization of surgical equipment in hospitals are procedures that we expect and universally accepted as best practices. The recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has reminded us of the importance of sanitation and cleanliness to prevent disease and ultimately save lives. However, the importance of hand-washing was not common practice throughout many hospitals before the nineteenth century. Here, Amy Chandler explains Ignaz Semmelweis’ important discovery about hand-washing in the nineteenth century.

An 1860 copper plate picture of Ignaz Semmelweis.

Physician and gynaecologist Ignaz Semmelweis discovered the importance and life-saving impact of hand-washing within maternity wards in the 1850s. Semmelweis’ “discovery exceeded the forces of his genius. It was, perhaps, the root cause of all his misfortunes”, and in an ironic tragedy, Semmelweis died of the same illness that he devoted his career to preventing.[1]This article will explore Semmelweis’ contribution to medical practice in the nineteenth century and analyze how he failed to achieve public and international support for his discovery. Many contributing factors failed to propel Semmelweis into the sphere of revolutionizing and respecting theories in science and medicine, such as failing to publish his hand-washing theory and methodology, fleeing Vienna and the lack of support from his contemporary doctors. How did Ignaz Semmelweis simultaneously revolutionize surgical procedures and fail to convince his contemporary physicians?

17th century

During the seventeenth century, many hospitals in Europe became overwhelmed with cases of childbed fever (also known as 'puerperal fever') that women contracted during childbirth and suffered from days after birth.[2] Symptoms of puerperal fever included severe abdominal pain, fever and debility, and the result was commonly death for many women.[3] By the start of the nineteenth century, puerperal fever was a common and deadly disease that many women feared when entering maternity wards. The cause of this disease was bacteria infecting women during childbirth, but the understanding of how bacteria and disease spread was non-existent until the 1870s. Throughout history, there have been many different attempts to identify the cause of illness and disease, for example, the widely recognized theory of miasma. Miasma was considered “poisonous emanations, from putrefying carcasses, rotting vegetation or molds, and invisible dust particles inside dwellings” that was understood to be within the air that we breathe.[4] Therefore disease and illnesses were thought to be caused by ‘bad air’ or foul smells. By the end of the nineteenth century, the work of Louis Pasteur and his discovery of Germ theory replaced and progressed thinking around the cause of disease. The lack of knowledge around the causation of disease and the spread of infection made Semmelweis’ discovery imperative to progressing medical and scientific ideology. Semmelweis' ideas were often ignored, apart from support from close colleagues, which eventually led to his professional and personal demise.

Semmelweis’ discovery 

In 1846, Semmelweis was appointed as an assistant professor in the maternity ward at Vienna General Hospital. Semmelweis undertook the challenge to understand and answer why mortality rates were so high within the Vienna General Hospital. The high mortality rates in the maternity ward of Vienna General hospital represented a widespread problem across Europe. Therefore, the cause of the disease was a universal substance and not specific to Vienna medical practice but widespread malpractice of the nineteenth century.

During Semmelweis’ employment in Vienna, mortality cases continued to increase, and so did Semmelweis’ concern and desire to discover the causation of illness. The maternal ward offered two divisions of maternity clinics; male physicians controlled one division, and female midwives staffed the other clinic.[5] In 1846 both of these divisions included similar patients demographics, but the statistics present that the male-staffed clinics had 13.10% of maternal deaths from puerperal fever, while the second division only suffered 2.03% of puerperal fever deaths.[6] From these statistics, it is evident that the cause of the illness originated and increased with the medical professionals within the first division that increased mortality rates. Semmelweis undertook a methodological approach to identify and inevitably reduce mortality rates and, as a result, to improve the lives of his patients, professional practice and contribute to disease theory. Semmelweis’ position as a gynaecologist and physician placed him in an advantageous position to discover the root cause of the mortality rates and implement policies to improve practice. Semmelweis had the opportunity to conduct research, medical knowledge and resources to identify the cause of puerperal fever. Historically, midwifery was recognized as a female role that expanded in the eighteenth century, with an increased number of male physicians and surgeons becoming involved within midwifery.[7]

A turning point in Semmelweis’ thinking was when his friend and colleague, Jacob Kolletschka, died from a puerperal fever after wounding himself during a dissection.[8] The autopsy results confirmed that Kolletschka contracted the same illness that many women suffered in the maternity wards. The contemporary theory of miasma formed the foundations of Semmelweis’ theory by speculating that “decaying animal-organic matter” caused the puerperal fever.[9] The causation of infections became evident to Semmelweis after he observed that student physicians worked in the dissection rooms and then directly, without changing their clothes or sanitizing their hands, entered the maternity wards.[10] The correlation between the two clinic divisions and the student's behavior emphasized that the male physicians were the carriers, to a point, of puerperal fever on their unwashed hands and clothes. 

What did Semmelweis do with his newfound knowledge?

During this period, disinfectants that we are familiar with in contemporary society did not exist, nor was the knowledge of using chemicals to remove bacteria from surfaces. The concept of bacteria was not known or explored until many years after Semmelweis’ death. Therefore, methods to combat the unpleasant odors from miasmas included fire, sunlight, strong aromas and chemicals.[11] Semmelweis utilized his knowledge of miasma theory by attempting to eliminate foul odors transferred between the dissection room and the maternity ward by the physicians. For Semmelweis, the most potent smelling chemical available at the Vienna General Hospital was a solution of chlorinated lime. Under the supervision and authority of Semmelweis, physicians were ordered to wash their hands with this solution before entering the maternity wards. Inevitably, mortality rates in the maternity wards began to decrease, which supported Semmelweis’ theory. However, Semmelweis only understood that the solution reduced the number of cases and was unable to explain why hand-washing was so effective.

Semmelweis’ hand-washing policy was unpopular and faced opposition within the hospital, with individuals complaining of the burning sensations on their hands from vigorously washing and exposing their skin to the chlorinated lime solution.[12]Despite declining mortality rates, Semmelweis could not explain why the chlorinated solution was so effective as he did not realize hand-washing removed the bacteria causing disease. Furthermore, Semmelweis did not publish his findings or share his work for many years, which contributed to the lack of support amongst contemporary physicians for adopting the sanitation procedure. For some physicians, Semmelweis’ discovery lacked evidence to be understood fully, and in 1849 Semmelweis’ position within Vienna General Hospital was terminated. The Ministry of Education also declined the proposal to investigate Semmelweis’ theories further and gain evidence to support using chlorinated lime within medical practice.[13]

By 1851, Semmelweis left Vienna and returned to Hungary to continue his work by implementing his chlorinated lime regime and enforcing good ventilation, sterile linen, bandages and surgical equipment for his patients.[14] Eventually, in 1861, Semmelweis published his findings in The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever. However, towards the end of Semmelweis’ career, his mental health began to decline, resulting in a mental breakdown in 1865, and his wife admitted Semmelweis into a mental hospital in Lazarettgasse. Unfortunately, Semmelweis died from blood poisoning after appropriate anti-septic methods were not enforced. 

Conclusion

Semmelweis’ tragic death in some way proved that his theory of using a chlorinated lime solution to avoid puerperal fever was effective in preventing severe infection. Semmelweis’ lack of willingness to share his findings with his contemporaries reduced his hand-washing theory's credibility, while also lack of evidence and widespread enforcement of hand-washing isolated his results to be limited and circumstantial. In some ways, Semmelweis’ courage to challenge popular and pre-established views placed him in a difficult and unfavorable position because he was directly criticizing the work of his contemporaries by insinuating that their practice caused the deaths of many patients. This idea in itself was that doctors who dedicated their professional careers to saving lives and being seen as saviors against diseases were also the cause and carrier of such diseases they treated. Hindsight is a valuable asset we possess after years of scientific discoveries, but we have to praise Semmelweis for his work within the boundaries of knowledge of the time. The knowledge of bacteria was non-existent therefore working within the realms of miasma theory and Semmelweis’ methodologically eliminating factors in his study was to some extent revolutionary given the circumstances and knowledge of the time. Semmelweis’ ideas were brushed aside as unsupported ramblings, which contributed to the decline of his professional career. However, Semmelweis has now gained the status that his work deserves as a pioneer of modern medicine and sanitation procedures within medical environments. Semmelweis' work continues to help save lives today.

What do you think of Ignaz Semmelweis? Let us know below.

1.              D. Pittet and  B. Allegranzi, ‘Preventing sepsis in healthcare - 200 years after the birth of Ignac Semmelweis'. Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin, vol .23 (2018), p.2.

[2] J. Simmons, Doctors & Discoveries: Lives that created today’s medicine (New York, Houghton Miffin Company,2002),p.167. 

[3] C. Hallett, ‘The attempt to understand puerperal fever in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: the influence of inflammation theory’. Med Hist. vol. 49 (2005), p. 1. 

[4] A. Kannadan,’History of the Miasma Theory of Disease’. Essai, vol. 16 (2018),p. 41. 

[5] Simmons, op.cit.,p.166. 

[6] Ibid.,p.166.

[7] Hallett,op.cit.,p.4. 

[8] Simmons, op.cit.,p.166.

[9] Ibid.,p.166. 

[10] Ibid.,p.166.  

[11] G. Risse. ‘Before Germs: Decay, Smell, and Contagion in the Work of Ignaz Semmelweis on Puerperal Fever’,unpublished,(2015),p.3.

[12] Ibid.,p.3.  

[13] Ibid.,pp.3-4. 

[14] Simmons, op.cit.,p.167. 

Bibliography 

Hallett, C, ‘The attempt to understand puerperal fever in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: the influence of inflammation theory’. Med Hist, vol.49, no.1, January 2005, pp. 1-28.

Kannadan, A, ’History of the Miasma Theory of Disease’. Essai, vol. 16, no. 18, 2018, pp.41-43.

Persson, J, ‘Semmelweis’s methodology from the modern stand-point: intervention studies and causal ontology’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences,vol.40, no.3, 2009, pp.204-209. 

Pittet, D and Allegranzi, B, ‘Preventing sepsis in healthcare - 200 years after the birth of Ignac Semmelweis'. Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin, vol. 23, no. 18, May 2018, pp.1-5. 

Risse, G. ‘Before Germs: Decay, Smell, and Contagion in the Work of Ignaz Semmelweis on Puerperal Fever’, unpublished, 2015,pp.1-8. 

Simmons, J. Doctors & Discoveries: Lives that created today’s medicine (New York, Houghton Miffin Company,2002). 

How a Once Threatened Language is now the Seventh most Spoken in the World

Written by prominent columnist, Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, the popular ‘Ekushey Song’ (Song of February 2t) was dedicated to his friends, who raised their voices against the oppression and laid down their lives to save our mother tongue – Bangla. Those who speak Bangla can never forget the day of February 21. Before making it through the International Mother Language Day, the Bengali language had to go through a bloody chapter in history, 70 years ago in 1952.

Rezaul Karim Reza explains. 

Khawaja Nazimuddin in 1948.

“My Brothers’ Blood Spattered 21st February

Can I forget the Twenty – First February?”

The Language Movement

Just after the fall of the British Empire in the Indian Subcontinent, two new countries emerged on the world map: India and Pakistan. Pakistan had two wings – West Pakistan and East Pakistan (Bangladesh today). There were no land borders between the two wings of Pakistan, and there were huge linguistic and cultural differences among the people of the United Pakistan.  

To eliminate the differences, especially the language, on March 21, 1948 in Dhaka, the founding father and then the Governor General of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared “Urdu and only Urdu” will be the state language of Pakistan. The declaration sparked protest among the predominantly Bengali speaking people, especially in East Pakistan where more than 90% of people used Bangla as their first language; whereas only 7% used Urdu as the first language.   

But the Pakistani government did not move an inch from their decision on making Urdu the state language. On January 27, 1952 in Dhaka, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Khawaja Nazimuddin, repeated Ali’s Urdu only policy and warned that there will be no compromise with it.

This time, people from all walks of life burst into anger. They demanded Bangla as the state language of East Pakistan. The angry protestors chanted ‘We Want Mother Tongue Bangla,’ bringing festoons and placards and marching through the roads. The students of Dhaka University called a General Strike on February 21, 1952.

When they brought out the procession on that day as planned, police reacted with massive crackdowns, including mass arrests and firing. Police killed several protestors and arrested many of their leaders.

As the news of the police brutality spread across the country, many more people gathered in the city of Dhaka and staged another protest rally. Again, police fired on and killed the protestors. Among the killings, Salam, Barkat, Rafique, Jabber, and Shafiur had been identified as the young students.

The Achievement

The significance of ‘Vasha Andolon’ or the language movement in 1952 left many a lasting legacy. In fact, the spirit of the movement embedded Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.

Today, the five students killed on that fateful day are recognized as ‘Language Martyr.’ In recognition of the sacrifice of the protestors for the language, a Martyr Monument has been erected on the spot of Dhaka University where they were shot dead. In addition, one of Asia’s largest book fairs known as ‘Ekushey Boy Mela’ or 21st February Book Fair is observed to commemorate the sacrifice of the protestors every year on February 21st in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

To remember the day, the most prestigious Bengali award, Ekusey Padak or 21st February Prize is given to many distinguished candidates for their contribution to certain fields, especially in linguistic and cultural diversity in the country every year.

Once a dying language, Bangla is now the world’s 7th most spoken language. The language movement motivated the people of East Pakistan to fight for their identity and a country of their own – Bangladesh. And it happened in 1971 – Bangladesh was born after a nine month bloody struggle. 

The legacy of the language movement did not always stay within the country; after the independence of Bangladesh, the recognition of the language movement went beyond the border. 

In 1999, the UNESCO announced that there should be an International Mother Language Day in reconnection of the struggle of the Bengali speaking people and their language – Bangla. The day has been observed to promote awareness of cultural and linguistic diversity around the world since its first observance in 2000.

As I read somewhere, learning a language is like discovering a new country, killing it could be losing a culture, a tradition, an identity, and a whole nation. But, Bangladesh survived both. Today, I take great pride in speaking Bangla as my mother tongue and living in an independent country – Bangladesh.

What do you think of the article? Let us know below.

An Introductory History of Women in Cycling

When thinking about the history of cycling, we often remember the glory days of the Tour de France or the Olympics. Unfortunately, this means that too often the history of women's cycling is overlooked. Elisha explains.

Kittie Knox in the 1890s.

Bicycles played an important role in the women's movement of the early 20th century. Bikes gave women a new freedom after being long accustomed to relying solely on men for transport. The innovation of the bicycle gave women more control over where they went and when, bikes were easy to access and relatively inexpensive. What’s more, women soon found that more traditional outfits like corsets, bustlets and long skirts made riding a bicycle a challenge. This prompted a change in women's fashion which included lighter skirts, bloomers and even trousers. Bicycles helped pave the way for women today.

A recognized sport for women

Cycling as a sport (for men) officially began in the summer of 1868 with a 1,200-meter race near Paris between the fountains and entrance of Saint Cloud Park. The first Olympic race took place the following year with a men's individual road race. Women’s road events were not introduced into the Olympics until the summer of 1984 and women’s cycling was barely even considered a sport until the 1990s. Despite this, women were cycling long before then.

The new woman

Bicycles came to symbolize independence amongst women representing the quintessential ‘new woman’ of the late 19th century. In 1895, suffragette leader Elizabeth Candy Stanton said “the bicycle will inspire women with more courage, self respect, self reliance” predicting the power of the bicycle. Echoing Stanton’s claim was Susan B Anthony who played a key role in the suffragette movement. She said ‘’Let me tell you what I think about cycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.’’

First woman to adopt bloomers

In the 1890s, many women were still not riding bikes, but this didn't stop Kittie Knox, a young seamstress from Boston. Kittie Knox became the first African American to be accepted into the league of American wheelmen. Unfortunately, in the years that followed, Kittie was largely discriminated against, but this didn’t stop her from riding, in fact she became well known for her unique choice of cycling attire. Cycling led to a shift away from the restrictive and modest fashion of the Victorian era and led to a new era of exposed ankles. Kittie was one of the first women to adopt men’s bloomers which is significant because it was the first step in the right direction toward women eventually proudly wearing bicycle shorts in public with no skirt required.

First woman to cycle around the world

The first woman to ride a bicycle is said to be Annie Londonderry around 1896. Annie reportedly completed the cycling challenge in 15 months, whether she made it the whole way around the world via bicycle is debatable though. Apparently Annie was rather liberal with her use of trains and ferries, which made the expedition significantly easier. Interestingly, she made a bit of money through sponsorship where she attached posters and banners to her bike to advertise various companies.

Earliest female cycling journalist 

In 1891, Beatrice Ethel Grimshaw began her career as the first female cycling journalist (on record). She started her writing career after finishing her studies at 21 years old when she ran away to Dublin. In Dublin she began a career as a journalist for R.J. Mecredy’s Irish cyclist where she went on to become an editor. She participated in cycling when she was out of the office, where she reportedly did casual century rides. After a life in the cycling industry, she traded in her bike for a life of travel.

Women in cycling today

Today, despite the efforts of the bicycle industry to get more women into cycling, women only make up just under 25% of riders. Safety is said to be the number one concern that puts women off cycling. One feminist bicycle influencer is the Cycle Maintenance Academy a team of avid cyclists and experienced bicycle repair experts.

Notably, cycling actually demonstrates a clear inequality between men and women as in some countries women are still forbidden from riding bikes due to concerns regarding modesty. In other countries, women were only recently allowed to cycle. It wasn't until 2013 when women were allowed to cycle in Saudi Arabia and reports show that women still cannot cycle in the streets of Iran. Although there may not be specific laws that prohibit women from cycling, there are ‘religious rules’ that must be respected.

What do you think of women cycling in history? Let us know below.

US Cold War Propaganda: The Failures of the CIA in its Radio Broadcasts to Albania in the Early Cold War – Part 2

The US had a variety of ways to influence citizens behind the ‘iron curtain’ during the Cold War. One of those was radio broadcasts. Here, Richard Cummings, author of a recent book Cold War Frequencies (Amazon US | Amazon UK), continues the catastrophic story of how the CIA got a vessel ready to broadcast in Albania in the early 1950s. Here, Richard looks at what happened when the ship was close to Albania.

Read part 1 on how the U.S. prepared for the mission here.

Enver Hoxha, First Secretary of Albania from 1946 to 1985. Shown here in1944.

The JUANITA arrived in Greece on March 25, 1951, to perform the following mission under Project BGSPEED:

The JUANITA was equipped to broadcast on the medium wave band into Albania, utilizing the skip wave technique. When the JUANITA was purchased, there was no certainty that any country would grant permission for her to operate within that country's coastal waters. Therefore, it was understood that the broadcasts might have to be conducted from the open sea, that the vessel obtained for this role would have to be sufficiently seaworthy for open sea operations, and the equipment capable of broadcasting from a considerable distance at sea. 

This skip wave, which exists both day and night, becomes effective as darkness falls and the ionosphere descends and becomes ineffective as the sun rises and the ionosphere ascends.) During the night hours, the beam from the antenna strikes the ionosphere. It bounces back to earth, permitting reception much farther from the transmitter than is normally possible by ground wave--which follows the ground sixty or seventy miles or so, depending on terrain, and grounds out.) 

Problems

After the JUANITA arrived in Greece, serious problems began; below is a summary of these problems, extracted from declassified OPC and CIA reports -- in no particular order of importance.

·       A contract engineer was sent to Greece to review the JUANITA operation. He wrote: “The JUANITA was intended to broadcast medium wave--skip wave into its target from 175-300 miles, came to light during a meeting with Washington communications men two days before my departure to Athens. On arrival in Athens, I found that the men (operations and communications) had been unacquainted with this intention. They expressed surprise that Washington intended to depend on skip wave, for they believed skip wave had never been depended on before for medium wave broadcast.”

·       The Albanian area is greater than the noise level off the U.S. east coast. Radio stations in the Balkans make a Babel of voices, move up
 and down the dial, and operate
with many times the power the JUANITA was given

·       A chance, ever-present in open sea operation, of a wave through the wheelhouse door or the hatch over the transmitting room threatened to fry the communications men at their posts and disable the equipment permanently

·       There is no ventilation in the transmitting room. The heat and smell when the equipment in operation is intense enough to cause sickness, a condition aggravated by semi-tropical weather and the violent movement of the ship

·       The vessel was delivered in the U.S. with its original wiring, which is of the house type and unsuitable for marine use. The vessel's house-type wiring causes repeated fires. This is evidenced by numerous minor fires which have occurred onboard and the extreme difficulty that the engineer has had in maintaining electric current throughout the vessel

·       At anchor in a sheltered island cove, one finds oneself a few hundred yards from village dwellings. After the fall of darkness, the large white yacht, whose presence has brought excitement to the otherwise dreary existence of the islanders, lights up (when transmitting) like a Christmas tree. Spreader and running lights glow, and brilliant flashes play about the rigging.

Conclusions

One conclusion of the JUANITA'S history was: "It was not necessary to buy a yacht, equip her, operate her, sail her across the Atlantic, and maintain her in Greece for half a year to demonstrate that her transmitting equipment would not work."

In one OPC report, there was this commentary:

I wish to reiterate my belief that there need be
no apologies by anyone for a decision now to liquidate this particular experiment. It has provided some people
with valuable experiences and has taught several lessons that could not have been learned without the basic proposition being tried out in actual practice. It has, however, taken up a great deal of time that might better now be directed to more pressing and fruitful activities. 

In March 1952, Acting Assistant Director for Policy Coordination wrote a memorandum to the Assistant Director, Office of Communications, in which he summarized the principal failures of Project BGSPEED, part of which read:

Many things have gone wrong in the implementation of this project, and it was terminated in October 1951. No actual broadcasting ever took place. Much of the onus for the failure can be attributed to shortcomings within OPC. These include lack of seasoned judgment from various OPC officers concerned with the project, lack
of continuous, adequate supervision, unfortunate selection of a vessel: etc. On the other head, the communications equipment provided proved inadequate for the contemplated operation. This constitutes an expensive lesson for OPC. 

The JUANITA, purchased for $80,000 in 1951, was sold in May 1953 for $10,000. 

Although Project BGSPEED was considered a failure, that did not stop OPC from beginning clandestine psychological warfare broadcasts into Albania as the Voice of Free Albania (often interchanged with Radio Free Albania) from the CIA radio transmitting site near Athens, Greece at 10 p.m. local time on September 18, 1951.

This article is based on Chapter 5 of Richard’s book: Cold War Frequencies: CIA Clandestine Radio Broadcasting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, published in 2021 by McFarland & Co. Available here: Amazon US | Amazon UK

From Emigrant to Viceroy: The Life of Ambrosio O’Higgins

The improbable lives of Ambrosio O’Higgins and his son, Bernardo, would change the history of South America forever. Two men, father and son, both strivers and achievers. Two men who did not take the traditional paths to power and high office. Two men, who through a series of improbable events, would both become, in their own ways, among the founders of the nation of Chile.  The chain of events would begin, of all places, in County Sligo in Ireland.

Erick Redington starts this series on the O’Higgins family by looking at Ambrosio O’Higgins’ extraordinary life, and how he went from an emigrant to Chile to Viceroy.

Ambrosio O’Higgins.

The Ireland that Ambrose O’Higgins was born into was a sad one for the formerly great noble Irish families. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the O’Higgins family had lost its land due to confiscations by Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth government. This reduced the members of the family to poverty and working for others, mainly Protestant settlers who were given the Irish lands to break the power of the landed, Catholic, Irish aristocracy. Irish Catholics were subject to laws restricting religious, political, and property rights to encourage conversion and assimilation. Despite this, many of the O’Higgins clan refused to convert and assimilate.

From the time when Henry VIII declared the creation of the Church of England and began to enforce Protestantism on his kingdom, official persecution of Catholics caused many Irish to emigrate. Many of these Irish were looking primarily for the right to worship as Catholics. This caused many to look to, arguably, the most rigorously Catholic nation in Europe, Spain. The Spanish government was more than happy to take in Irish men and women seeking refuge from religious persecution.

To Spain

While religion was the primary motivation, there were others as well. Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries owned a large proportion of the Western Hemisphere. The modern northern border of California to the southern tip of South America at Tierra del Fuego was largely Spanish territory (Brazil and a few other territories excepted). This was the land of Cortes and Pizzaro, the Aztecs and the Inca. It was also the riches of the Potosí mine, so rich in silver that it caused hyper-inflation in Europe and the gold of Mexico. There were limitless economic possibilities in the Spanish Empire. A combination of the push factors of persecution and land confiscation in Ireland and the pull factors of Catholic freedom and economic opportunity led many Irish to choose emigration to Spain. A young Ambrose would be just one of thousands of these emigrants.

Probably born in 1720, though no one really knows for sure, young Ambrose O’Higgins was forced to work on the farms and estates of others to earn his living. Much of the early life of Ambrose is unknown. Although he would make much in later life about his lineage from the great O’Neill family and would even commission a genealogical survey, little can really be known for sure. What is known is that Ambrose begins appearing in the historical records in 1757 after leaving Spain for South America, when he was about 37 years old. Later, he would claim that he first arrived in Cádiz in 1751. Cádiz was a window to the world for young Ambrose. It was one of the home ports for the Spanish Navy, one of the largest in the world. It was also one of the primary ports for trade with the new world. Every year, hundreds of ships would arrive carrying the wealth of the New World. In Cádiz, Ambrose was able to find work, and his natural brilliance and energy would show to his employers. In 1756, Ambrose, now Ambrosio, left Spain for South America. This appears to be a business trip, an assignment for the bank in Cádiz he worked for. In a time of slow communications and the ease of a person disappearing, this was a position of trust the bank gave to Ambrosio. They must have recognized some drive and talent in him to send him off.

While on this first trip to South America, Ambrosio would see many of the great cities of South America: Buenos Aires, Asunción, and Lima. For a man with business acumen and a striving mentality, the possibilities young Ambrosio saw were endless. When he returned to Spain several years later, after his business trip was over, he petitioned the Spanish government to grant him permission to trade in the colonies. The Spain of the 1760s was rife with corruption and sloth due to administrative decay. Without patrons, Ambrosio would have a difficult time gaining official sanction. Another Irishman, John Garland, was a military engineer being transferred to the Captaincy-General of Chile, an administrative division of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. Garland, recognizing the talent and drive of his friend, offered him a position on his staff, which Ambrosio readily accepted. The problem for a young, relatively poor civil servant in Spain at the time was the cost of maintaining office. As corruption was almost expected, salaries were very low. To pay for his transit to America, and then over the Andes Mountains, Ambrosio would bring to South America goods from the mother country to sell to the colonials. This would be the start of Ambrosio’s fortune. 

Chile

When he arrived in South America, Garland wanted to take the trip to Chile at a leisurely pace. Given the pace of travel in the 1760s, crossing the Andes in winter would be difficult at best and suicidal at worst. Ambrosio, however, had drive. Whether it was bravery or foolhardiness is up for debate, but regardless, Ambrosio crossed the Andes in winter with only a few porters for the baggage and arrived at his destination. For most people, a difficult journey would simply be another chapter in the story, an interesting anecdote and nothing else. For Ambrosio, it would set him on the path to all the heights he would achieve. 

Ambrosio’s assignment took him to Chile, a mountainous strip of territory on the western coast of South America. Overland travel between La Plata and Chile was difficult at the best of times due to the difficult terrain. One of the primary reasons for the separate political administration of Chile was due to its isolation from the colonial authorities in Buenos Aires. Ambrosio’s idea was to develop a way to keep the passes open in winter to safeguard travelers and keep trade open all year around. It sounds like a small idea to modern ears, but for the people of Chile, it was a matter of life and death. Due to transport and logistical issues, Chile was the most remote and underdeveloped of Spain’s American colonies. If Ambrosio could succeed in opening the Andes, the vast natural resources of Chile could be transformed into vast amounts of wealth. For a man with a natural business acumen, the attractiveness of this prospect seems obvious. For the Spanish government, improving communications between La Plata and Chile would have the benefit of tying the area to the colonial administration in Buenos Aires. A further benefit would be military. The movement of troops would be much easier with open roads and waystations. The primary route of travel and communication was through the Straits of Magellan, one of the most notoriously bad seas to sail in the world. 

Ambrosio was not only looking for business possibilities. He was, after all, part of a military organization. In Chile, the primary military threat to the colony was the Araucanians. For over 200 years by this point, the Spanish and the Araucanians had had repeated wars and raids. The Araucanians were never able to drive out the Spanish, and the Spanish never had the strength to destroy the natives. Ambrosio participated in many of the battles against the Araucanians. In battle after battle, Ambrosio would distinguish himself leading troops from the front. Ambrosio would steadily rise through the ranks and would be noted for development of innovative cavalry tactics fighting the natives. His fame would only grow when he received a head wound during a fight where the Araucanians were surprised by his innovative tactics and routed at Lautaro. Despite the near-constant fighting with the Araucanians, Ambrosio was not in favor of destroying the Araucanians. Although many in the Spanish colonial administration would press for a policy of extermination against the natives. As he rose through the ranks of administration, Ambrosio pressed for more trade with the Araucanians. He had a great deal of respect for their culture and was an avid devotee of their handwoven blankets and the ponchos that were so common to the area. Although he was a man of his time and believed in the “civilizing” mission of the Spanish, as colonial administrators went, Ambrosio was forward thinking in his relations with the local tribes. This is not to say that he was a pacifist. He would go on to order multiple reprisal expeditions against local tribes in response to raids. He had no qualms about extending Spanish imperial control further into tribal lands.

During one of Ambrosio’s many trips to southern Chile at this time, he would be a houseguest of a friend of his, Simon Riquelme, a landowner near the city of Los Angeles. In a story as old as time, the young teenage daughter of Riquelme, Isabel, was impressed by the powerful and dashing Ambrosio. Ambrosio, being a man of power and wealth, also had an eye for women. Despite being over 30 years his junior, Isabel would become pregnant from the liaison between the two, and in 1778, a boy named Bernardo Riquelme was born. According to Bernardo, later in life, Isabel only yielded to Ambrosio’s advances when he promised to seek permission from the royal court to marry her. Although Ambrosio would provide some financial support for this illegitimate son, especially when it came to education, Ambrosio would never deign to meet this young boy who would have the same brilliance and energy of his father. This will not be the last we hear of young Bernardo. 

Moving up

Ambrosio moved further up the ladder when he was promoted to Governor of the province of Concepción. Concepción province was the location of the capital of Chile and was a prestigious post for a man who started as a poor immigrant. While Governor of Concepción, Ambrosio would have contact with the French explorer the Comte de la Perouse. Although Ambrosio would have an adversarial relationship with the explorer, the research he conducted led the British to plan an expedition to Chile to conquer the region. Although this expedition would be redirected to Montevideo, the scare would give Ambrosio the impetus to recommend improvements to the defense of his province. Ambrosio’s noted ability, as well as his sound recommendations would lead the king, Carlos III to ennoble him as the 1st Barón de Ballinar in 1787 appoint him as the Captain-General of Chile in 1788. In 30 years, an Irish refugee had risen to the highest office in the Spanish colonial administration of Chile. 

Ambrosio wasted no time. He dusted off his old plan to create stations in the Andes to improve communications with Buenos Aires. After all these years, he had not forgotten. A postal service was created. Defenses were reinforced. Surveys were made to determine the mineral and agricultural wealth of Chile. He would make frequent inspections and tours to see for himself that there was always activity. New towns were founded. Imports were encouraged, despite the resistance of local manufacturers. The success that Ambrosio had in developing the region around the city of Osorno would lead to King Carlos IV making him Marquis de Osorno in 1796. There were military tasks that Ambrosio undertook where he could showcase his skills. He ordered the development of old fortifications and construction of new ones in Southern Chile. Military roads were constructed between Santiago, Valparaíso, and Concepción. Routes were opened in Araucanian and Mapuche territory. Perhaps the greatest reform Ambrosio undertook while Captain-General was to abolish the encomienda system. This system, which combined many of the worst aspects of manorialism and slavery, required the native populations of Chile to provide labor to landowners they were bound to. Under Ambrosio’s rule, Chile rose from being a colonial backwater to highly developed colonial jewel. It was at this time that the foundations of the economic and political growth of Chile in the years after independence were formed.

Viceroy of Peru

Due to the impressive accomplishments of Ambrosio in his governorship of Chile, in 1795 he was promoted to be the Viceroy of Peru. Lima, the seat of the viceroyalty, had been the home of Spanish administration in South America for over 250 years. Peru is where a large amount of the mineral wealth of the Americas was extracted for Spain. Only Mexico provided more to Spain than Peru. This wealth kept the corrupt and incompetent Spanish court afloat. Entrusting this responsibility to Ambrosio is a window into both the importance of the office and the opinion the court held of Ambrosio. 

Unfortunately, Ambrosio would not have quite the success in Peru as he had in Chile. By 1795, the French Revolutionary Wars had started, and Spain would play an active part, first as an enemy of France, then its ally. Spain needed all the money it could get its hands on to fight the British, especially the Royal Navy. The money for internal improvements and building projects would not be there for Ambrosio, unless it were for fortifications. The great plan he developed, to link Lima and the old Incan capital, Cuzco, by road would never come to fruition. The Spain of the cartoonishly incompetent and corrupt pair of Carlos IV and his prime minister, Manuel Godoy, was not the enlightened despotism of the reformer Carlos III.  What could have been the ultimate capstone to his career was a disappointing and frustrating denouement. In 1801, Ambrosio died. 

The life of Ambrosio O’Higgins was extraordinary for its time. He rose from a family of Irish tenant farmers to a twice ennobled colonial administrator in the Spanish Empire. Emigrant to Viceroy. Through sheer drive, energy, and competence, Ambrosio O’Higgins wrote one of the most unique chapters in the history of South America. However, this story does not end with his death. Toward the end of his life, Ambrosio declared in his will that his illegitimate son, Bernardo Riquelme, to be his heir. It would be this penniless young man who would take his father’s legacy, and his last name, to become Bernardo O’Higgins, the father of an independent Chile. 

What do you think of Ambrosio O’Higgins’ life? Let us know below.

Now, read part 2 about the early life of Ambrosio’s son, Bernardo O’Higgins, here.

References

Clissold, Stephen. Bernardo O’Higgins and the Independence of Chile. Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publishers, 1968.

Fanning, Tim. Paisanos: The Forgotten Irish Who Changed the Face of Latin America. Gill Books, 2016.

Kinsbruner, Jay. Bernardo O’Higgins. Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1968.