José Joaquín de Mora in Chile: From Neo‐Europe to the ‘Beocia Americana’

Abstract

The Spanish jurist, poet and journalist José Joaquín de Mora was probably the first foreign political consultant to be hired by several different South American governments in the period immediately following the wars of independence (mid‐1820–1830s). This paper takes a transnational approach to focus on his activities concerning Chile. It argues that Mora fitted the requirements of regional elites who aspired to have the New World drenched in European cultural values to make it a beacon of rational liberty, particularly for the Old World under the autocratic constrains of the Holy Alliance.