The awakening of the Chilean cabildos at the end of the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

This article studies the process of the 'awakening of the cabildos' (as the Mexican historiography named it) promoted by the Crown, in Chile at the end of the eighteenth century. This paper proposes that in the Chilean case, this process implied the end of the suspension of the cabildos, and the establishment of new ones in the villas that lacked them. Three factors contributed to this purpose: the reestablishment of cabildos, the Real Hacienda's iniciative of auctioning the seats of the cabildos, and the reactivation of their royal confirmation.