Emil Körner and the Prussianization of the Chilean Army: Origins, Process, and Consequences, 1885-1920

Abstract

IN 1885 the Chilean government appointed Captain Emil K6rner of the Imperial German Army to train its officers. When K6rner arrived in Chile he found an experienced officer corps composed of veterans from the War of the Pacific and the Indian campaigns in Araucania. They were men who took pride in being the heirs of Bernardo O'Higgins and Manuel Bulnes, but they had little experience in the rigors of the classroom. Chile wanted a modern professional army; K6rner molded one; and when he retired in 1910, he left behind the best equipped land fighting force and the best educated officer corps in Latin America. But by the time K6rner died, ten years later, that same army found itself enmeshed in politics, a professional organization within an anachronistic political and social order and almost a distinct political institution. Only two years before obtaining Kiirner's services, Chile emerged victorious from the War of the Pacific. Established as the dominant state on the Pacific coast of South America, she faced potential enemies on each of her three borders. To the north and northeast Peru smarted from the loss of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica; Bolivia became a land-locked nation with the Chilean annexation of Antofagasta; and across the Andes, Argentina, always suspicious, viewed the territorial cessions with envious concern.' Chile 's victory in the War of the Pacific merely heightened the need for a modern, powerful fighting machine and for increased sea power. But South American -power politics was not the sole reason