THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAS OF CLASSICAL GEOPOLITICS IN CHILE (19-20 CENTURIES)

Abstract

The article attempts to answer the question if there is a geopolitical school in Chile. It revews the origins of political thought in Chile as well as first geopoliticians of the new independent republic, such as B. O’Higgins. It analyzes the key events of the two periods in the history of Chile’s foreign policy of the nineteenth century – the period of regional and continental power politics. The Pacific War (1879-1883) of the continental period allowed Chileans to expand their «living space» and approved Chile as a key power in South Pacific. The author studies the formation of various foreign policy concepts in 19-20 centuries, such as the South American version of the «balance of power», whose author was D. Portales; Chilean legalism, whose main supporter was A. Bello; Pacific strategy of R.K. Montalva, subsequently modified by A. Pinochet. An important element that influenced the formation and development of Chilean geopolitics in the twentieth century is the German factor, in particular, German school of geopolitics. The ideas of Social Darwinists, tested and subsequently modified, in accordance with the Chilean specifics, by scientists, militaries and politicians, played an important role in shaping Chile’s foreign policy. It supported, for example, the Chilean interests in Antarctica. The southern continent is a strategical point of the foreign policy and a part of the concept of «tricontinental state», which was promoted in the middle of 20 century.