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Excerpt from the Book

EL SALITRE (NITRATE), Historical Resume since its Discovery and Exploitation.

Roberto Hernández C., Valparaíso, Fisher Hnos., 1930

The Tamarugal forests have directly and immediately intervened in the creation of the nitrate industry and, with their deterioration, fomented a vast and quick development of this industry.

It is said that in the last third of the 18th Century, the producers of nitrate hid in the thick forests of La Tirana, like pursued alchemists, to cook the caliche (raw material of nitrate) clandestinely and extract from it that valuable substance that was applied with such great success in the fabrication of gunpowder, all this in opposition to the King of Spain, who had monopolized it and sold it in his trusts and factories.

Tradition preserves the name of Mariano Ollero as one of the Indians who worked with greatest tenacity at the end of the 18th century, in favor of nitrate. They extracted from certain sites, which were not too distant, boulders covered with nitrate, and in whose interior there were veins of the same substance.

Memoirs of the Peruvian wise man Mr. Mariano Eduardo Rivero:

"In 1821 this nitrate was made known in Europe, thanks to Mr. Pedro Fuentes, citizen of Tarapaca´, who had been engaged in its purification in the Chilean province of Concepción, and provided some of his products to me in Madrid. The mineralogist scientist Haley, to whom he offered a portion of the same substance, was the first who determined its crystallization. It was then announced that this nitrate was in a vast territory, easy to exploit and that the European trade would obtain great advantages from its extraction.
"But in spite of my promises, it was a impossible to obtain any price for the first shipments that the first cargoes that were sent in the years 1827and 1830 to England and the United States as its use was still unknown. Only in 1831 nitrate came to be appreciated in France, and the quintal was sold at over 30 francs at which time its export was fomented, which in the last fifteen years had increased to 3,260.475 quintals".
Giving to the discovery all the importance that it has as an initial point of a stage, Messrs. Semper and Michels only state in their Monograph published in Berlin in 1904: "A German who lived in Bolivia, Tadeo Haenke, was the one who gave the first impulse to the exploitation of nitrate with the invention in 1809 of a procedure to extract potash nitrate from the Caliche of Tarapacá".
Haenke arrived in Chile with the famous scientific expedition headed by Malaspina; expedition composed of hydrographers, naturalists, astronomers, mineralogists and draftsmen, prepared by Charles II of Spain. Enamored of the nature and in spite of coming from the greatest cultural centers he wished to live definitively in his farm of "Santa Cruz de Elicona" near Cochabamba that he cultivated mainly with scientific purposes and there he died on December 17, 1817.

With the advice given by the wise man in 1809, the new industrialists were able to produce a quantity of nitrate that was sent to Spain: the first of which there is news of according to documents. From 1810 to 1812 seven or eight plants for the elaboration of nitrate were set up in the nitrate fields of Negreiros, Pampa Negra and Zapiga (Tarapacá), which were called "Paradas", according to the system that was inferred from the explanations of Haenke.
Negreiros derives its name from a Portuguese, thus called, who was one of the first to prepare nitrate in the Paradas, by means of a system that constituted a progress, however rudimentary it could be. The fact is that Negreiros has remained as a designation of a geographical place, by the name of the industrialist; but the name of Julian Fierro, of Chilean nationality who was the general administrator of Negreiros and the director of all the elaboration work remains unknown and forgotten. The production of nitrate in Tarapaca since the end of October 1812 until the beginning of February of 18… amounted to 23,160 quintals 31 lbs., which equals a production of nearly 70,000 quintals per year.
Since the month of March 1812 until January 1813, seven shipments of nitrate of soda were sent from Tarapacá to Callao for the account and order of Mr. Sebastian de Ugarrisa, as follows:
 

 
1812 Vessels Quintals
March  Frigate "Trial" 3,270          
May  Brig "Santa Bárbara" 3,891.47    
August  Frigate "Trial" 3,498.55    
September  Frigate "Especulación" 4,545          
November  Brig "Pilar" 1,000          
December  Brig "Candelaria" 3,400.22    
1813 Vessels Quintals
January  Frigate "Neptuno" 3,118.25    
TOTAL QUINTALS 22,723.49    
(Equivalence: 1 Spanish Quintal = 46 Kgs = 4 arrobas = 100 lb)


 

The following are among the producers of that period who are remembered, some of them natives: Esteban Vernal, Benito Calla, Manuel Hidalgo, José Jacinto Plaza, Manuel Arias, Vicente Granadino, Bacilio Carpio, Atanacio Tinaxas. The name of a woman also figures, Mrs. Anda Vilca.

When the Government realized the need of activating explorations it issued the following decree that is inserted in number 39 of "La Aurora", of Camilo Henríquez, corresponding to November 5, 1812.

 

 

Santiago, October 29, 1812.
Although experience teaches that nitrate can be easily separated almost everywhere in Chile and that this simple operation presents a sure industrial article for weak and perhaps involuntarily idle hands, the obstacles that have always embarrassed progress in our work, obliging us to buy as necessary many materials that being superfluous should be the subject of an active trade and perennial occupation, have frustrated their achievement; therefore the Government that is anxious to aid in common happiness, orders not only that there must be no obstruction to the elaboration of these salts but that that all of those of good quality that are extracted shall be paid, for the fabrication of gunpowder, at twenty four pesos per quintal, proportionally the one of less activity and class, and to facilitate such an occupation, the subaltern authorities will provide as much assistance as may be in their hands, and instructions must be given in the newspapers.
Print next week..
        Prado.       Portales.       Vial, Secretary.

 


  Excerpt from the Book En venta en nuestra Librería Especializada  

BRIEF HISTORY OF NITRATE

OSCAR BERMUDEZ M. Ediciones Pampa Desnuda 1987.

Once the caliche (raw material of nitrate) was extracted and after having crushed it into small pieces, it was leached by cooking it with water in one or two copper cauldrons, which were heated over live fire by means of a furnace or firebox, which, placed under or between the two cauldrons permitted heating both. With the increase in temperature to which the mass was subjected inside the cauldrons, sodium chloride precipitated and the water became increasingly saturated with nitrate of soda thus achieving the separation of the different substances. Once these were dissolved, the liquid saturated with the same - called mother liquor - passed to another deposit where it was clarified and ended by becoming crystallized . When nitrate that first was in a state of solution is crystallized, it is a perfectly white clot, of a characteristic smell and that keeps the humidity, so it must be exposed to the air to dry.

This first system for the elaboration of nitrate of soda, was known subsequently with the name of "Paradas", and was used until the Second half of the 19th century, having been reformed frequently . The copper cauldrons that were used were the same that were used by the Spaniards in the treatment of silver minerals and there is no doubt that the Spanish miners were the first producers of nitrate of Tarapacá, being efficiently assisted by the natives who carried out the same operations in different places of Pampa del Tamarugal using small boilers.

In mid 1830 nitrate was purchased in France and the United States, almost immediately after in England and later in Germany, Italy and other European countries. The commencement of the export of nitrate to the Old World marks the most important milestone in the history of the nitrate industry.
The nitrate industry started to receive new impulses since the decade of 1850. The province of Tarapacá had a greater labor contingent and capital expressed in the affluence of entrepreneurs, in their majority foreigners and mainly Chileans. In addition, in that period (1853) a technical procedure was invented to elaborate nitrate based on the dissolution of the caliche through water steam, system that traces back to the Chilean inventor Mr. Pedro Gamboni, thanks to which the first Oficinas emerged with steam engines and with an incomparably higher production capacity than those of the Parada system.

Until 1866 iodine had been a substance of which no advantage had been taken in the Nitrate Pampa. The same Chilean industrialist and inventor, after lengthy experiments, was able to constitute a procedure to extract iodine from the mother liquor and requested the patent and the legal privilege to exploit it.

The same year, another matter of great importance for the development of the nitrate industry took place outside the Peruvian territory, when the Chilean industrialist and explorer Mr. José Santos Ossa, carried out with success before the Bolivian government, the legal proceedings to explore for nitrate in it.

In October 1869 the elaboration of nitrate commenced in Oficina Salar del Carmen, the first nitrate producing plant that was installed beyond the Peruvian territory, south of River Loa.

The first nitrate railway, inaugurated in mid 1871 was established to connect the port of Iquique with the district of La Noria. Thus a new era was established in the nitrate transportation, commencing the replacement of the old hoof roads.

The decisive and immediate cause of the war between Chile and Bolivia was the violation, on the part of this latter nation, of the Treaty of Boundaries in effect between the two countries since 1874. The tax that the Bolivian government imposed on Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta, violating what was stipulated in such Treaty, precipitated the war conflict when the Company refused to pay this duty, and the Bolivian government ordered the attachment of its property, its sale in public auction and subsequently, the recovery of the nitrate companies maintained by the Company. The reaction of the Chilean Government was the occupation of the port of Antofagasta, event that occurred on February 14, 1879.

In the month of April of that year war had been declared, on the one hand, between Chile and Bolivia, and on the other between Chile and Peru. The Peruvian intervention in the conflict had its origin in the Treaty of the Alliance executed between this country and Bolivia in 1873. Military operations followed until the Chilean forces entered the Peruvian capital in January 1881, where the last resistance was liquidated.

Before the Pacific War commenced, more than 50% of the sums invested in the exploitation of nitrate in Tarapacá were Peruvian capitals; the Chilean capital was in the second place, the third and fourth places being for the English and Germans. Apart from these nationalities, there were investments in the industry by a few Italian, Spanish, Bolivian and French producers, in order of importance.

Towards 1890 and shortly after around 60% of the nitrate industry was controlled directly or indirectly by the stock corporations that were based in London. In the following years, however, no increase was observed in Chilean and German investments and thereafter the preponderance of the English influence started to decline, remaining proportional to the Chilean influence in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. In 1912 and considering the joint production of the two provinces, Tarapacá and Antofagasta. the Chilean interests represented nearly 40% and those of other nationalities were around 60%. Exports exceeded two million tons per year.

One of the issues to which not sufficient importance was given at first was the advertising of the product, notwithstanding that for such purpose a Permanent Nitrate Committee was formed in 1886. A better organization of the media, to make known the fertilizer in the foreign agricultural and agronomic institutions was established in 1884 when the Advertising Nitrate Association was founded in 1884, which later became the Association of Nitrate Producers of Chile in 1919.
In the course of the decade of 1870 the English engineer Mr. Santiago Humberstone was able, after lengthy studies, to conclude a system of elaboration based equally on the use of water steam, but indirectly, in closed tubes, and with a new type of cauldrons of great capacity and provided inside with serpentines, through which the steam passed to heat the mass of caliche and water under treatment. The cauldrons adapted by Mr. Humberstone for the elaboration of nitrate were based on those of the Shanks System used in England for the preparation of soda.

Most of the nitrate was still produced in Tarapaca, where almost all the nitrate districts had been under exploitation since before the war. Between the first and second decade of the Twentieth century, production started to be strengthened with the growing increase of the exploitation in the regions of El Toco, Antofagasta, Aguas Blancas and Taltal. Since 1910 these districts of the South competed with the old nitrate province of the North and shortly after 1912 Antofagasta exceeded Iquique as port of exports. The industry in those years employed over 45,000 workers, of which 21,000 were located in the Tarapacá nitrate oficinas. According to the census of 1907, the nitrate population of the two provinces that year amounted to 36,700 workers.



CHRONOLOGIC TABLE OF THE HISTORY OF NITRATE

Since its origin until 1891

 
Pre-Hispanic Period   Caliche or the mineral of sodium nitrate native of the provinces of Tarapacá and Antofagasta is said to have been used by agricultural fertilizer by the natives of that region. Atacameños, coyas and Incas fertilized their lands with the pulverized caliche.There are no documentary data.

XVII Century
 
The Spaniards know the nitrate of Tarapacá. Between the end of this century and beginning of the XVII century, the miners of Huantajaya use nitrate to prepare the black gunpowder used in the mines.

1750
 
The same use is given to it in other mining plants of Tarapacá.

1786
 
The industrialist Felipe Hidalgo proposed to the colonial government of Peru to take advantage of nitrate to fabricate different kinds of gunpowder and supply the miners and merchants of that province.

1795 to the beginning of the XIX Century
 
Interest in taking advantage of nitrate industrially and transforming it into potassium nitrate. As a result of the scarcity of this, the supplier of gunpowder in Lima, Castañeda, tried to use the Tarapaca nitrate, refining it in Lima.

1808-09
 
Discoveries of rich and extensive nitrate deposits in the north of the province (Zapiga, Pampa Negra and Negreiros).

1809
 
Through the procedure provided by the naturalist Tadeo Haenke, the conversion of sodium nitrate into potassium nitrate was obtained. For the first time, the caliche of Tarapacá leaves Peru: small cargoes are sent to Talcahuano.

1810
 
The first "nitrate plants" of the "Parada" type were constructed in Pampa Negra, Zapiga and Negreiros.

1813
 
The construction of an establishment destined to refine nitrate of Tarapacá was completed, and in the same year it was destroyed in the battles between royalists and patriots.

1821
 
The naturalist Mariano Eduardo Rivero introduced nitrate in Europe.

1828-1830
 
First decrees of the Peruvian government authorizing the export of nitrate by the port of Iquique.

1830
June-July
 
Export to Europe and the United States commences. Freedom of duties to the internment of machines for the nitrate industry was decreed.

1831
 
Habilitation of the small ports of Pisagua and Mejillones (North) for the shipment of nitrate.

1835
 
New exploitations were commenced in the North of Tarapacá and in the southern Side, region of La Noria.

1840
 
Studies of Justo Liebig in Germany, on the use of nitrates and other mineral fertilizers in agriculture. The existence of Iodine in caliche is proved in the United States by a. A. Hayes.

1848
 
In England the agricultural chemists study the yield of the crops fertilized with sodium nitrate, establishing for this purpose an experimental field.

1850
 
First drawing of the nitrate zone of Tarapaca, prepared by Jorge Smith

1853
 
Pedro Gamboni introduced a new procedure in the elaboration of nitrate through the use of water steam, replacing the direct fire heating.

1855
June 26
 
Iquique is declared major port to favor nitrate trade.

1856
 
Studies commence to take advantage industrially of the iodine contained in the waters of the nitrate elaboration.

1857
 
Domingo and Máximo Latrille discover nitrate in the Salar, deposit near Antofagasta, in the Bolivian littoral.

1860
 
José Santos Ossa discovered nitrate in Aguas Blancas in the same littoral. First estimative calculations on the total existence of the nitrate contained in the Peruvian territory.

1865
 
Smith and Gibbs organize "Compañía de Salitres de Tarapacá".

1866
June 23
 
Gamboni obtains from the Peruvian government a patent for his system for the elaboration of iodine and exclusive privilege to exploit it. First productions of iodine in Tarapacá.

1866
September 18
 
Concession granted by the Government of Bolivia to Ossa and Francisco Puelma to exploit nitrate in the Littoral Department of Cobija.

1868
October 22
 
Official Foundation of Antofagasta.

1968
November 30
 
By order of the Peruvian Government, the awards of nitrate land in Tarapaca are suspended and a tax of 4 cents of a sol per quintal of nitrate exported is established.

1870
 
Jorge Smith dies in England.
The Peruvian government eliminated the iodine trust and established freedom of this industry. For the first time nitrate is discovered in the region of Toco, North of Antofagasta.

1871
 
Formation of new Companies with bank credits of Peru and Chile for the exploitation of Tarapaca. New activities in the south of the province.

1871
July
 
Inauguration of the first Nitrate Railway, from Iquique to La Noria.
The Government of Bolivia, because of the August laws, annuls the awards and concessions given in favor of Ossa and Francisco Puelma.

1872
April 30
 
Concessions and privileges to "Melbourne Clark y Cia". For nitrate exploitation and construction of a Railway in the littoral of Bolivia. Since the middle of this year, the discovery starts of nitrate lands on the Chilean side of Aguas Blancas. Foundation of "Compañía de Salitre y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta".

1873
January 18, April 23 and July 12
 
Laws and decrees of the government of Peru to establish and organize the Nitrate Trust in Tarapacá. Alliance Treaty between Peru and Bolivia

1873
November
 
Transaction entered into between the government of Bolivia and "Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta", that regularize the situation of this Company.

1874
 
Treaty of Boundaries between Bolivia and Chile.
The organization of the Trust in Peru failed.

1875
 
In May Perú issues the Law of expropriation of the nitrate companies of Tarapacá The government starts to acquire the oficinas, the Banks of Peru becoming the administrators of the business. The history of the nitrate certificates commences.

1876
 
Costeaning expeditions and discovery of nitrate lands in Taltal. New discoveries in Aguas Blancas.
In Tarapacá, Santiago Humberstone studies and applies the Shanks system in the elaboration of nitrate.
The government of Chile orders the study of the maritime coast of Atacama. Expedition of the "Abtao".
The North American entrepreneur J. G. Meiggs contracts with the Bolivian Government, the rental of the state-owned nitrate companies in the Region of El Toco. Meiggs buys nitrate companies from privet parties and transfers them to the Peruvian government.

1877
 
The Chilean government orders the geology and products of the Atacama Desert and orders the establishment of inhabitants in the coast, habilitating the ports of Blanco Encalada and Taltal.
The efforts of Peru to raise a loan in Europe fail, which was necessary for the payment of the expropriated nitrate oficinas.

1878
February 14
 
The Bolivian constituent Assembly creates by law of this date, a tax of 10 cents on the nitrate exported by Antofagasta.
Diplomatic activities that had their origin in that law.

1878
August 5
 
Ossa dies on board the "Fanny Hare".

1878
December
 
Bolivia orders the application of the tax.

1879
January 11
 
The property of Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta is attached by the Bolivian authorities.

1879
February 14
 
Occupation of Antofagasta by the Chilean expeditionary forces.

1879
April
 
Bolivia, Chile and Peru in state of war. The blocking of Iquique is established.
Augusto Matte assumes as Minister of Finance in Chile.

1879
September 12
 
Enactment of the law that assesses a tax of 40 cents on the quintal of nitrate exported by Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta.

1879
November 2
 
Chilean troops disembark in Junin and Pisagua.

1879
November 19
 
Battle of Dolores or of San Francisco.

1879
November 23
 
Chilean troops take possession of Iquique

1879
November 27
 
Battle of Tarapaca

1879
December 6
 
Miguel Carreño is appointed as State Delegate for the nitrate affairs of Tarapacá.

1879
December 18
 
The President of Peru, Mariano Ignacio Prado, is obliged to leave the country. General La Puerta assumes as Vice-president.

1879
December 22
 
Nicolás de Pierola, through a coup d état takes over the control of the Peruvian government with the title of supreme Head of the Republic.

1879
December 26
 
General Erasmo Escala, Head of the Occupation Army, announced by edict a Decree that establishes tax of $ 1.50 legal Chilean currency for each quintal of nitrate exported by the ports of Tarapacá.

1879
December 27
 
The officers of the Bolivian army do not recognize the authority of General Hilarion Daza, President of Bolivia. He is later replaced by general Narciso Camero, who proclaims himself as interim president of Bolivia.

1880
January 3
 
Decree of Appointment of the First Consultant Committee of Nitrate.

1880
February
 
Appointment of Robert Harvey, by the Chilean government, as General Inspector of the Nitrate companies.

1880
February 22
 
Decree that grants permission to the creditors of Peru to make shipments of guano from the coasts of Tarapacá.

1880
February 23
 
Edict published in Iquique by General José A. Villagrán informing about the Decree that recognizes elaboration contracts, between the old nitrate companies and the Government of Peru, payments to the producers as stipulated in those contracts, and that establish the sale of nitrate for fiscal account. Edict published in Iquique by General José A. Villagrán informing about the Decree that recognizes elaboration contracts, between the old nitrate companies and the Government of Peru, payments to the producers as stipulated in those contracts, and that establish the sale of nitrate for fiscal account.

1880
March 5
 
Decree establishing the procedure to be followed for sales, in public auction, of the nitrate that the contractors had to produce in accordance with their contracts.

1880
June 16
 
José Alfonso is named Minister of Finance in Chile.

1880
October 1
 
Law that established industrial freedom in the exploitation of nitrate and applied a tax of $1.690 pro each metric quintal of nitrate exported. This law was enacted on January 2, 1881.

1880
October 20-27
 
Conference of the representatives of the belligerent countries, on board the corvette Lackawanna, off the port of Arica, apart from the North American Minister accredited therein.

1880
December
 
Commencement of crisis in the nitrate industry.
The Taltal Railway Company Limited was organized

1881
February 22
 
An assembly appoints Francisco García Calderon as president of Peru.

1881
April 9
 
The Government of Chile appoints a Second Consultant Committee of Nitrate and Guano.

1881
May 28
 
Decree that repeals that of February 22, 1880 and that establishes the extraction and remittance of guano for fiscal account.

1881
June 11
 
Decree that commences the process of reconstitution of the nitrate properties in Tarapacá, with the recognition of the nitrate certificates b the Chilean Government.

1881
July 5
 
Domingo Santa María is elected President of Chile.

1881
September 18
 
Luis Aldunate Carrera is appointed Minister of Finance.

1881
October 26
 
Chilean Congress ratifies the Treaty of Boundaries with Argentine.

1881
November 6
 
Almirante Montero assumes the Vice-presidency of Peru.

1882
February 4
 
Pedro Lucio Cuadra is named Minsiter of Finance.

1882
March 28
 
Decree that authorizes the redemption of the nitrate companies by the holders of certificates and the acquisition of nitrate companies by public auction.

1882
August 24
 
The Nitrate Railway Company Limited is organized in London.

1883
October 18
 
General Miguel Iglesias is recognized by the government of Chile as Head of the National Government of Peru.

1883
October 20
 
The Peace Treaty between Chile and Peru is signed in Ancon.

1884
 
Commencement of nitrate crisis that extends until 1885.

1884
January
 
Appointment of Ramon Barros Luco as Minister of Finance.

1884
April 4
 
Signing of the Truce Treaty with Bolivia and Chile

1884
June 10
 
Constitution, in Iquique, of the provisional Nitrate Committee formed by representatives of the most important nitrate companies. This would later become the Nitrate Combination.

1884
September 2
 
Pedro N. Gandarillas assumes as Minister of Finance.

1885
May 28
 
Execution of an agreement between Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta and Compañía Huanchaca de Bolivia to extend to the frontier with Bolivia de Railway of the C.S.F.A.

1886
February 21
 
Transfer of rights, in the Antofagasta Bolivia Railway, of C.S.F.A. to Compañía Huanchaca of Bolivia. The name of C.S.F.A. was reduced to that of Compañía de Salitres de Antofagasta.

1886
September 18
 
The government of José Manuel Balmaceda in Chile commenced.
Agustín Edwards is named Minister of Finance.

1887
January 1
 
The first Iodine combination established in 1886 starts to operate.

1887
Abril 18
 
Law that authorized the payment of the nitrate certificates, that were in foreign hands and that permitted that some nitrate companies should pass to the dominion of the State.

1888
Abril 12
 
Enrique Salvador Sanfuentes assumes as Minister of Finance.The Bank of Tarapacá and London Company Limited is organized, founded by John Thomas North.

1888
September
 
Foundation of The Tarapacá Water Works Company, owned by John Thomas North.

1889
 
Compañía Huanchaca de Bolivia sells its rights to the Antofagasta (Chili) and Bolivia Railway Company Limited.
Termination of the construction of Ferrocarril del Toco by Manuel Ossa Ruiz.
John Thomas North organizes The Nitrate Provision Supply Company Limited, and the General Nitrate Investment Trust.
John Thomas North assumes the presidency of the Directive Council of The Nitrate Railways Co. Ltd.

1889
September 13
 
Decision of the Council of the State that destroys the railway monopoly of Nitrate Railways Co. Ltd.

1890
 
Commencement of the exploitation of Ferrrocarril del Toco by Anglochilean Nitrate Co. Ltd.

1890
July
 
Workers strike commences in the nitrate oficinas of Tarapacá.

1891
January 1
 
Manifest of President Balmaceda to the country declaring that he concentrates all the power in his hands.

1891
January 7
 
Insurrection of the Navy.

1891
January 23
 
Iquique is blockaded by the Navy. Decree of the Government of Balmaceda that prohibits the export of nitrate by the ports of Tarapacá.
Battle in Zapiga. Victory of the government forces.

1891
February 6
 
Battle and taking of Pisagua by the forces of Congress.

1891
February
 
Victory of the government forces in Estacion de Hospicio (Pisagua).
Decree of the government of Balmaceda that repeals the previous one permitting the export by Iquique and Pisagua to those who promised to pay the duties only to the government.
A number of approximately 9,000 nitrate workers of Tarapacá abandon their operations and go to Iquique against the government. Confrontation with the Army troops.

1891
February 15
 
Confrontation between government and Congress troops in Dolores. Defeat of the government forces.

1891
February 16
 
Confrontation in Huara. Victory of the government forces.

1891
February 17
 
Occupation of Iquique by the Congress forces.

1891
February 19
 
Attempt to take it by the forces addicted to Balmaceda.

1891
March 1
 
The Second Nitrate Combination starts to operate.

1891
March 3
 
Blockade of Antofagasta.

1891
March 7
 
Defeat of the government forces in Pozo Almonte.

1891
March 17
 
Occupation of Antofagasta by the Congress troops.

1891
April 12
 
Constitution in Iquique of the Government Junta presided over by Jorge Montt.

1891
September 19
 
President Balmaceda commits suicide.

APPENDIX:
Excerpt from the speech of President José Manuel Balmaceda, in his message to the Chambers of June 1, 1889:

"It is true that we must not close the doors to free concurrence and production of nitrate of Tarapacá, but we cannot consent either that such vast and wealthy region be converted into a simple foreign factory. The fact that the very serious and real event that the singularity of the industry, the way in which constitution of nitrate ownership has occurred, the absorption of the small capital by the foreign capital, and up to the class of the races that will dispute the imperium of that vast and fecund exploitation, impose a special legislation based on the nature of things and the special needs of our economic and industrial existence."
Source:
HISTORIA DEL SALITRE, Vol. I: From its origin to the Pacific War.
      OSCAR BERMUDEZ MIRAL, Ediciones de la Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, 1963.

HISTORIA DEL SALITRE, Vol. II: From the Pacific War to the Revolution of 1891.
      OSCAR BERMUDEZ MIRAL, Ediciones Pampa Desnuda, Santiago, Chile, 1984


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