September 1811 Chilean coup d'état

The Revolution of September 4, 1811, also known as Golpe del 4 de septiembre (September 4 Coup) or simply as Primer golpe de Carrera (Carrera's First Coup), was a military movement in Chile. Its main objective was to change the conformation of the nascent National Congress, transforming it into a Congress more inclined to separatist ideas. The movement had as military leaders the Carrera brothers, among them José Miguel, who later became the main character of the so-called Patria Vieja (1810-1814). On the political side, the main instigators of the coup movement were the Larraín family (also called Los Ochocientos or Ottomans) with Fray Joaquín Larraín at their head.
The revolution of September 4 was quickly imposed before the Congress and after that Carrera, presenting a list of petitions on behalf of the people of Santiago, forced the legislators to accede to most of the requests, whose main impact resided in suspending from their positions a group of men considered inclined to the royalist ideas (called Saracens) or in their absence moderates, and changing them for men recognized for their patriotic ideas. This was the first of the four coups d'état that characterized the political life of Carrera, who also resorted to this formula on November 15 and December 2 of the same year, and on July 23, 1814. In addition, this military movement had the peculiarity of being the first successful coup d'état in the history of Chile.
On April 17, after having fought with the troops of the King of Spain against the French, and aware of the political course that the Kingdom of Chile was taking (his father had been a member of the first Government Junta), José Miguel Carrera embarked on the English warship "Standard" to his homeland, arriving at the port of Valparaíso on July 25. He was received in Valparaíso by Governor Juan Mackenna, who informed him of the events taking place in Santiago, and immediately set sail for the capital city, arriving on the night of the 26.
However, upon his arrival in Santiago, he found the news that a revolutionary movement, led by his brother, Juan José Carrera, was brewing in the coming hours:
Thus, Carrera left again for Valparaíso to meet with Charles Elphinstone Fleming, who by then expected the payment of a tribute to alleviate the Spanish war effort. Upon his return to Santiago, on August 11 or 12, Carrera began to learn about the revolutionary plans of the until then patriot minority (or exalted), who, encouraged by Antonio Álvarez Jonte, delegate of the Buenos Aires Junta before the Chilean Junta, sought in the Carrera brothers the managers of the military movement. However, at first, José Miguel Carrera, indicated to his brothers to move away from the intentions of the exalted ones, and tried to delve into the motivations of the patriots to carry out the movement, to which they responded:
Upon learning of the intentions, Carrera at first suggested to gather the people together with the Grenadiers to request the corresponding measures, but it was indicated that the people were too timid and would not get together. Then Carrera indicated that the best thing would be for the healthy part of the people to sign the demands to the Congress and that he, in command of the Grenadiers, would support the plan.
In spite of Carrera's commitment to the exalted, he hesitated a lot before launching the coup d'état. As he mentions in his Military Diary, it seemed to him that he should touch all the possible means to avoid a harmful step, and for this he personally went to talk to the president of the National Congress, Manuel Pérez de Cotapos, who however did not attend to his requests to comply peacefully with the demands. José Miguel Carrera warned Pérez for his refusal:
The National Congress, established on July 4, 1811, was formed mainly by parliamentarians who were either adherents to the royalist ideas, or who were indifferent to the actions that were taking place. This led the patriots, led by Juan Martínez de Rozas, to continually challenge their political opponents, the first and main dispute being the modification of the original intention of electing 6 deputies for Santiago to 12, favoring the royalist intentions, since except for the first majority, which was obtained by the patriot Joaquín Echeverría Larraín, the rest of the seats were awarded to royalists and above all to indifferent ones.
However, in spite of being in minority, the exalted sector of the Congress tried to obstruct within its capacities the proposals of royalists and moderates, but without obtaining many credits. After the failed military attempt that the exalted had prepared for July 27, which was not carried out due to the absence of Juan José Carrera with his troops who followed his brother's advice, the patriots focused their forces on preventing the election of a new executive board in the Congress, since they knew that they would be defeated again by the majority.
A great triumph was achieved by the patriots when they avoided sending funds to Captain Fleming to send them to Spain with the purpose of sustaining the war that this country was facing against the Napoleonic army. However, they received a clear and convincing defeat when the Congress rejected the proposal of Manuel de Salas to divide the territory and reorganize it, giving Coquimbo the recognition of Intendancy as well as Santiago and Concepción, thus facilitating an eventual representation of Rozas in the area. After the rejection of the Congress to the proposal, and in view of the impossibility of carrying out measures to give the Kingdom a more patriotic course, on August 9, the 12 exalted deputies withdrew from the Congress arguing how scandalous the increase from 6 to 12 deputies to represent Santiago was.
There are many authors who interpret the Chilean political scene at the end of 1810 and the beginning of 1811 as a struggle between rocists and anti-rocists instead of following the traditional interpretation that speaks of a struggle between exalted or radicals against royalists or conservatives. Martínez de Rozas is postulated as the leader of a faction desirous of a strong government, and that in great part, will join the later government of O'Higgins. Opposing them were those who would later become liberals and radicals, in favor of greater popular participation and limiting governmental powers.
However, Rozas was a man not very well liked by the Santiago aristocracy and they questioned a series of actions he had carried out during the last year, such as the Scorpion scandal, his close alliance with Álvarez Jonte and his presumed responsibility in the Figueroa mutiny. However, in the elections for the conformation of the national Congress, the Rocist side was defeated in the crucial election held in Santiago, where the victory was even more resounding due to the increase of representatives that the city of Santiago suffered, going from 6 to 12 members. This motivated the repeated complaints of the faction more inclined to pro-independence ideas, a faction already led by the Larraínes or Ochocientos, who had displaced the defeated Martínez de Rozas in the control of the opposition to the anti-rocists.
Martínez de Rozas fell even more in disgrace after his failed attempt to resort to the realization of a military conspiracy to impose his ideas, but on July 27 only a few individuals had gathered and neither Juan José Carrera nor his Grenadiers had shown up. Seeing all the doors closed, the most radical and rocist deputies withdrew from the legislative assembly on August 9. With the change in the course of the revolution, Martinez de Rozas traveled to the south to carry out a revolutionary movement in Concepcion, which would take place on September 5, without knowing the events that had already taken place in the city of Santiago on the 4th, and which were led by the Carrera brothers.
On Wednesday, September 4, a little before noon, José Miguel Carrera arrived at the Plazuela de la Moneda (today's Plaza de la Constitución). There he had arrived riding a horse and dressed in the garb of a sergeant major of the Hussars of Galicia regiment, he set out to carry out an elaborate plan that he had designed with his brothers and his haranguers. However, nothing went according to plan. According to the account of Friar Melchor Martinez, everything would have started earlier, at 6 a.m:
However, at about noon, José Miguel Carrera arrived with his brothers outside the artillery barracks with his impeccable and luxurious clothing, riding his horse, which attracted the attention of all the sentries who were on guard. The guards gathered in the western sector of the square to witness the skillful tricks that Carrera performed with his horse, thus neglecting the barracks. At that moment, the Carrera brothers, who had engaged in a jocular conversation with the officer in charge and the rest of the barracks guard, asked the officer of the guard to give them a piece of paper of recommendation to send some horses to the farm of a brother of theirs. Although the officer apologized saying that he did not have an inkwell, the Carrera family begged the officer so much to write the obituary that he agreed to go write it in a nearby room. Moments after the officer entered the room, the artillery captain Luis Carrera, locked the room to leave the officer locked up and together with other officers stood in front of the checkpoint's armament with his sword drawn to prevent any soldier from taking his rifle.
It was at that moment when the clock struck twelve, and, as planned, seventy men of the grenadier battalion came out of their hiding place in the house of Ignacio de la Carrera, which was right behind the artillery barracks. At the same time, artillery sergeant Ramón Picarte, who was part of the conspiracy and acted as a spy inside the barracks, suddenly took his weapon from the sentry at the door of the barracks. Upon noticing what was happening, the sergeant on duty, Juan Gonzalez shouted "Treason! or "This is treason", without being able to do anything else because Juan Jose Carrera shot him dead on the spot. Faced with the defenselessness of the guard and the quick maneuver of the Carrera family, the artillery barracks was taken and with the passing of the minutes, pickets of grenadiers gathered there and formed under the orders of the Carrera family and the officers who had directed the actions. Immediately José Miguel Carrera dispatched Juan J. Zorrilla with 12 men to detain commander Reina, and thus prevent the revolution from being hindered.
Once the military coup had been consummated with the seizure of the artillery barracks, José Miguel Carrera organized his artillerymen and grenadiers in a line plus four cannons that he took from the barracks and set out for the main square (today's Plaza de Armas). During the morning, the Congress had been in session as usual and they were unaware of the movements that had just taken place in La Moneda. However, shouts of "Revolution! Revolution!" were quickly heard in the square and the grenadier officers who were guarding the doors of Congress, in collusion with the Carrera family, fulfilled the mission they had previously received: to close the doors of Congress so that no legislator would leave the room.
At that moment, José Miguel Carrera's troops arrived and did not face any kind of resistance. Even the militias in charge of protecting the congressmen laid down their arms when they saw the rebels with their artillery pieces, so they were sent to their homes by the insurrectionists. Before the expectation of the congressmen and the people that began to accumulate in the square, that according to the chronicler Manuel Antonio Talavera were a mob of between 25 to 30 factious(not the one that the Larraínes had assured to Carrera), José Miguel Carrera got off his horse and entered the plenary of the Congress. He demanded that the congressmen listen to the people, but the president of the corporation asked him to accompany him to listen to the petitions, and there were curious anecdotes, such as those expressed by Carrera in his Diary:
When Carrera came out again to the square, he communicated to those gathered the intention of the Congress to listen to their petitions. In the act arrived Fray Joaquín Larraín, Carlos Correa, Francisco Ramírez and part of the exalted deputies that had retired on August 9, who gave Carrera a paper containing the petitions of the people, where the petitions that the Larraínes had predesigned were found. When Carrera surveyed the petitions with the opinions of those gathered, it happened that for some unhappy people for whom everything was the same, each one of the petitions was given a viva. The petitions that later, back in Congress, Carrera will impose are the following:
The presentation of the petitions to Congress immediately generated discord in the collegiate body, since not a few realized the political imbroglio that this entailed, as well as the complexity for a realistic and moderate parliament to accept such radical proposals. Some, like Juan Egaña, saw that the insurgents were using the people as an excuse to carry out their movement, others argued that only the Congress was representative of the people and tried to assert their rights. But Martínez explains how the congressmen went from defending their rights to fearing for their lives:
The pressure exerted by the grenadier battalion that approached the Congress hall when they began to protest generated immediate fear, which was mitigated by the assurances about their safety that Carrera made to the Congress as long as the proposals were accepted. Moments later, Carrera, tired of acting as interpreter between Cerdán and the people, withdrew from the room leaving Larraín and Correa, who continued with the task of making the petitions concrete. By three o'clock in the afternoon, the creation of an Executive Board made up of Juan Enrique Rosales, Juan Martínez de Rozas, Martín Calvo Encalada, Juan Mackenna and Gaspar Marín, was announced to those gathered in the square. However, the discussions of the proposals would have extended until 11 o'clock at night, putting an end to a whole day of unforeseen actions and situations that would change the until then undecided course of the pro-independence revolution.
Rozas, who had left Santiago on August 13 when he saw that the supremacy of the moderate and royalist deputies was insurmountable, arrived in Concepcion on the night of the 25th, being received in a great manner by his friends. He quickly put into action his plan to spread the injustices of the Congress with the appointment of the twelve deputies for Santiago and emphasized the mere observance of the deputies for Concepción. When Rozas gave the news of the resounding withdrawal of the twelve exalted deputies, Fray Antonio Orihuela denounced the intentions of the Santiago aristocracy to keep the people in servitude, and his words were deeply heard by the patriots of Concepción who asked the Governor to call an open Cabildo, which was held on September 5, without knowledge of the events that had occurred the day before in Santiago. In this Cabildo, the representatives of Concepción were stripped of their powers for having allowed the entry of the twelve deputies from Santiago, and new representatives were elected, among them, Fray Orihuela himself, a fervent patriot.
In addition, Concepción called on neighboring parties in the province not to recognize Santiago and to join its just cause, along with promoting local boards to review the conduct of their deputies. Thus, in some cases, as in Los Angeles, instead of deposing their representative, the people praised and reelected the patriot deputy Bernardo O'Higgins as their representative.
On September 16, the news of this meeting was known in Santiago, awakening the fear of a rupture within the country. However, when the reasons for the southern revolution were known, it was immediately known that both movements, that of Santiago and Concepción, were inspired by the same intentions, so the fears disappeared and the deputies of Concepción were received, being Fray Antonio Orihuela the one in charge of making peace with the new Congress. In this way the patriot movement, instinctively and in parallel, had managed to give two fierce blows to the status quo that prevailed in the Congress. Melchor Martínez gives an account of the feeling that took hold among the royalists after learning more concretely the news about Concepción and thus noting the absolute triumph of the patriotic cause:
It can be established that the great peculiarity of the Revolution of September 4 will have in the political scenario of the young republic will be the irruption of a new actor in the independence movement: the caudillo sustained by military support. Independently of the great progress made by the nation during Carrera's government, since September 4 the presidency of the bayonets will become the new mechanism of power within the republic, turning the rest of the political bodies into mere puppets of Carrera's intentions. This vision of the primacy of military force over politics can be seen in the following words of José Miguel Carrera:
Another result derived from this movement will be the primacy that the Larraín clan will have in the new configuration of the political panorama after the revolution of September 4. As Carrera himself recognizes, they were the ones who carried out the whole background of the military uprising and who took out and put people in Congress thanks to the intervention of the Carrera family, partly due to their greater political management, partly because of their lack of detailed knowledge of the political networks operating in the country. It will be precisely the primacy of the Ottoman household that will outrage José Miguel Carrera as time goes by, since he will notice what the true intentions of the Larraínes were, together with their own ambitions for power. But in spite of the continuous rebuffs that Los Ochocientos made to Carrera, finally the formula of the use of military force had already been tested, which will impel Carrera to get rid of the Larraínes and at the first excuse he found he carried out a new coup d'état to put himself now together with his brothers, and not leave the Ottomans at the head of the government. The quarrels generated between the Carrera and the Larraínes reached such an extreme that some time later Fray Joaquín Larraín was exiled to Petorca by Carrera, and this one in his diary does not hide his bad vision about Fray Larraín.