Social advancement: military promotions and retirement within the Spanish army in Chile (1693-1735)

Abstract

Colonial Chile is known in part for its continual military conflicts that forced the Spanish Crown to station there a permeant standing army.This paper looks at a unique aspect of this conflict, in that it focuses on the administrative details of a specially created system by which common soldiers could purchase officer ́s titles and form part of a newly created semi-retired officer corps. Many of these officers on paper were then able to enter the civilian society with an acquired level of nobility that permitted them to receive specific economic benefits reserved for those of noble birth.

Chile colonial esta conocida en parte por sus continuos conflictos bélicos que forzaron a la Corona Española a estacionar allí un ejército profesional permanente. Este articulo analiza un aspecto único de este conflicto, en que se enfoca en los detalles administrativos de un sistema especial creada por medio de lo cual soldados comunes compraron grados de oficiales para luego formar parte en un cuerpo de oficiales semiretirados. Muchos de estos oficiales en papel entonces lograron entrar en el mundo civil con un nivel de nobleza adquirida que les permitió recibir beneficios económicos específicos que generalmente fueron reservados para los de nacimiento noble.