José Manuel Balmaceda

Balmaceda was born on 19 July 1840 at the '''' in Santo Domingo to , a landowner and parliamentarian, and Encarnación Fernández Salas. Through his father Balmaceda was a member of the aristocratic Balmaceda family. The eldest of twelve children, Balmaceda was the older brother of , José Rafael Balmaceda, and . In 1849, Balmaceda enrolled at the as a boarder. Balmaceda later studied theology at the Seminario Conciliar de Santiago. ==Career==

In 1864 he became secretary to Manuel Montt, Balmaceda was also elected a Senator for Coquimbo (1882–1888). He was proclaimed a candidate to the presidency on the Odeon Theater of Valparaíso on January 17, 1886, with the support of the Nacional, Liberal and part of the Radical Parties. On June 25 he was elected president as sole candidate. ==Presidency==

Balmaceda became President of Chile on September 18, 1886, following the 1886 election, with 98 percent of the vote. His election was bitterly opposed by the Conservatives and dissident Liberals, but was finally achieved by the official influence of President Domingo Santa María. The election was not free and fair. Opposition candidate José Francisco Vergara withdrew his candidacy before the final votes were counted. On 7 January Waldo Silva, Barros Luco, and a number of senators and deputies embarked on the Chilean warship "" accompanied by the "Esmeralda" and "O'Higgins" and other vessels, and sailed out of Valparaiso harbor and proceeded northwards to Tarapacá to organize armed resistance against the president, launching the civil war. Balmaceda had the loyalty of the Army in the Civil War, but the Navy supported Congress against Balmaceda. This act in defiance of Congress was not the only issue that brought about the revolution. Balmaceda had alienated the aristocratic classes of Chile with his personal vanity and ambition and soon after his election was irreconcilably at odds with the majority of the national representatives. The oligarchy composed of the great landowners had always been an important factor in the political life of the republic; when President Balmaceda found himself outside this circle he endeavored to govern without their support, and to bring into the administration a group of people outside the inner circles of political power, whom he could easily control. Clerical influence also turned against him as a result of his radically secular ideas about government. On 23 May 1891, London Times correspondent in Chile Maurice Hervey alleged British intervention as having been key to the overthrow of Balmaceda, writing, "Beyond the possibility of contradiction, the instigators, the wire-pullers, the financial supporters of the so called revolution were and are the English or Anglo Chilean owners of the nitrate deposits of the Tarapacá." ==Aftermath==

After Balmaceda's forces were overwhelmed and destroyed in the Battle of La Placilla, it was clear that he could no longer hope to find a sufficient strength amongst his adherents to maintain himself in power, and in view of the rapid approach of the rebel army, he abandoned his official duties to seek an asylum in the Argentine legation. On August 29, he officially handed power to General Manuel Baquedano, who maintained order in Santiago until the arrival of the congressional leaders on August 30. The president remained concealed in the Argentine legation until September 19. On the morning of that date, one day after the anniversary of his elevation to the presidency and when the term for which he had been elected president of the republic terminated, he shot and killed himself, rather than surrender to the new government. His reason for this act, put forward in letters written shortly before his end, was that he did not believe the conquerors would give him an impartial trial. The death of Balmaceda finished all cause of contention in Chile, and was the closing act of the most severe and bloodiest struggle that the country had ever witnessed. ==Personal life==

On 11 October 1865, Balmaceda married Emilia de Toro, granddaughter of Mateo de Toro Zambrano, 1st Count of La Conquista. Balmaceda and Toro had eight children including Pedro Balmaceda, a poet and writer, and Enrique Balmaceda, a diplomat and politician. Through his daughter María Elisa, Balmaceda was the father-in-law of Emilio Bello Codesido. ==References==