Kingdom of Chile
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Image:Location Chile Capitania.png
The Kingdom of Chile (Spanish: Reyno de Chile), also known as the General Captaincy of Chile (Capitanía General de Chile), was an administrative territory of the Spanish Empire from 1541 to 1818, the year in which it declared itself independent, converting itself into the Republic of Chile. It had a number of governors over its long history, and technically one King, from which it derived its unusual designation as a "kingdom".
In old spanish Reyno (compared to modern Reino) was more descriptive of a geographical unity rather than a political one. This can lead to confussion since politically there was not a Kingdom of Spain until the Borbon instauration in 1700, but several kingdoms inside and outside the Iberian Peninsula. Spain was in that sense a Reyno before becoming a Reino. Each of this independent kingdoms were engaged in Spain in a personal union by the Spanish King, since the time of Charles I.
The Chilean kingdom (el Reyno de Chile) was a posession of the King of Castile (and then a geographycal entity more than a political one) as there were all other Spanish posessions in the New World. Naples or Sicily in the other hand where posessions of the King of Aragon, which happens to be the same person. There was not common administrative apparatus between different independent Reinos, and each one was governed by the King and its own Council, and its own laws. The day a day work was lead mostly by Viceroys to represent the King´s will e.g. in Aragon, Sicily, Mexico or Peru, for example.
Chile never reached the status of a Viceroyalty (was too small and too poor for that) but of a Captaincy General , dependent of the Peruvian Viceroyalty. Therefore, in English maybe it should be more appropiate to refere to colonial Chile as a Realm under the rule of the Castilian (and later Spanish) King, rather than a Kingdom.
[edit] History
The district was designated a Captaincy General during initial exploration and settlement of the area, because the local Ameindian peoples demonstated fierce resistance and thus a more autonomous, military-based governmental authority was needed. This was not an unusual arrangement for the Spanish colonizers.
In 1554, however, the future Philip II of Spain married Queen Mary I of England, when he was still just the heir to the Spanish throne. In order to bring him up to an equal rank with the Queen, he was named the "King of Chile" by his father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Additionally he received the Kingdom of Naples, which came with a claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Thus the marriage treaty could jointly style the couple as King and Queen, and would reflect not only Mary's but also Philip's dominions and claims:
Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Chile and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol
After Philip inherited the throne and became King of Spain in 1556, the Kingdom of Chile merged back into the Spanish crown, continuing its practical identity as a Captaincy, but maintaining the honorific title of Kingdom.de:Generalkapitanat Chile es:Capitanía General de Chile
