Errázuriz Zañartu, Federico (1825–1877)

Federico Errázuriz Zañartu (b. 25 April 1825; d. 20 July 1877), president of Chile (1871–1876). A lawyer, Errázuriz became president after serving numerous terms as a national deputy, provincial governor, and cabinet minister. Errázuriz broke with the Conservative Party when it opposed his attempts to secularize the cemeteries, permit non-Catholics to marry, and exempt non-Catholics from having to attend religious courses in public schools. After 1873, Errázuriz led a coalition known as the Liberal Alliance, which consisted of members of the Radical and Liberal parties.

Although Errázuriz was the first president to serve only one term, his administration nevertheless implemented numerous reforms, among which were those that limited the power of the state, altered voting procedures, and modernized the penal and mining codes. His term began during a period of prosperity, which allowed Errázuriz to finance railroad construction and purchase ironclads for the navy. However, a fall in metal prices as well as a decline in copper and silver production limited Chile's economic growth, devastated the national economy, and ushered in a period of budget deficits and trade imbalances.

See alsoChile, Political Parties: Conservative Party; Chile: The Nineteenth Century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alfonso Bulnes, Federico Errázuriz Zañartu: Su vida (1950).

Luis Galdames, A History of Chile (1941), pp. 314-319.

Additional Bibliography

Collier, Simon, and William F. Sater. A History of Chile, 1808–1994. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Stuven, Ana María. La seducción de un orden: Las elites y la construcción de Chile en las polémicas culturales y políticas del siglo XIX. Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile, 2000.

                                           William F. Sater