The development and implementation of a policy of congregación in eighteenth-century Chile provide the theme of this able monograph. Materials come from extensive searches in Chilean national and regional archives, including those of the church, and from the Archivo General de Indias, as well as other Spanish archives and libraries. The results are meticulous, voluminous footnotes and a convincing account drawn from the detail of Spanish official reporting.
The intention was not merely to concentrate the scattered Hispanic rural population for closer church supervision and civil administration but also to improve general culture. A number of unusual institutions emerged: a Junta de Poblaciones, Protectores de Villas, and a Superintendente de Villas. Each partido was to have a chief town, with lesser centers as practicable; a line of military towns was to guard the Indian frontier. In a long, carefully structured analysis, the author finds that questions of land, water, and other resources were uppermost. The new towns were to be placed on royal lands, but often, Indian ones were taken. Building the towns ran up against the endemic poverty of the rural population. In the end the royal agents accepted structures of wood, brush, and adobe, where they had hoped for stone. Nevertheless, the policy was successfully implemented, although much more slowly than envisioned. This monograph is a worthy exemplar of the fine historiography for which Chile is famous.
