Burgos Pinto, Raul Cesar Antonio; (2020) Championing the Catholic Nation: Conservative Ideas in Chile, 1930s-1960s. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This study examines the intellectual history of Chilean conservatism to re-evaluate its significance in debates about national identity from the 1930s to the 1960s. Although it gives due weight to local dynamics, the thesis highlights the extent to which the ideas of Chilean conservatives were nurtured through their cultural exchanges with a wider community of conservatives, mainly in Latin America, but also in certain European countries. The dissertation argues that Chilean conservatives, despite their many differences, shared a worldview centred on the idea of belonging to ‘Western Christian civilisation’. They maintained that the existence of the Chilean nation was part of a broader process that originated during colonial encounters and continued its development after independence from the Spanish empire. Thus, conservatives conceived of the nation as moulded by shared values transmitted by earlier generations and through an accumulation of historical experiences that defined the boundaries of its existence. They drew on cultural and religious ideas to advocate a social order based on national values, Catholic morality and Hispanic culture. They imagined an ideal order in which their conceptions of the nation were bound up with, and dependent upon, their notions of the international order. The thesis explores the themes of religion, tradition, family, education and the economy. Their study enables the understanding of conservatism as a broader phenomenon that was created and recreated by individuals who participated in diverse political, social, cultural and religious institutions. This analysis also helps to comprehend that the defence of this worldview was enacted with varying intensity according to the extent of the alleged threats that opposing ideas posed. As various combinations of national and transnational factors shaped many of the intellectual developments during this period, this dissertation maintains that both dimensions should be considered to understand the intellectual history of conservatism in Chile.

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