La resistencia de los tarapaqueños al monopolio salitrero peruano durante el gobierno de manuel pardo, desde el estanco a la expropiación (1872-1876)

This article analyzes the development of the saltpeter politics during Manuel Pardo's administration (1872-1876), from the "Estanco" to the expropriation of the nitrate industry, emphasizing the resistance of the saltpeter miners in Tarapacá. This resistance is analyzed as a social movement to defend regional interests of groups from Lima, who exercised economic power through Peruvian banks and political power through the central government. In the realm of saltpeter politics, nitrate monopoly was considered to be a primary tool in the process of modernization, the objective of which was to control the whole Peruvian (as well as the Bolivian) saltpeter territory. This modernization project, initiated and conceived during Manuel Pardo's government, hid the interests of the Lima bankers to control the saltpeter economy once the guano economy was lost in the hands of the Dreyfus firm. Under the guise of national interest, foreign saltpeter capital mine was expropriated, particularly Chilean and English, as well as capital from Tarapacá that was a majority.