Nation-building and mass education in Chile: the rationales behind the expansion of education in Chile, 1810–1920

This paper looks at the arguments that were used to further mass education in Chile. As the plausibility of the arguments depends on structural conditions, argumentative changes also shed light on changes in these conditions. We argue, more particularly, that the orientation of the debate shifted from religion vs. science to politics and to the economy, and that the ways in which education had to position itself and ensure support for its expansion thus also changed in the period of the ‘long’ nineteenth century. The specifics of this constellation might be distinctive of the social and educational landscape in Chile, but analyses of this constellation might also help clarifying the expansion of mass education in various other nation-states, and hence contribute to our understanding of the complexities of world society.