Saltpeter interests, foreign intervention and fracture of civility: Formation, rise and fall of the government of Francisco García Calderón (1881–1883)

The article aims to contrast the historiographic visions of the government of President Francisco García Calderón, by following his interests in the nitrate industry with the development of an international strategy that had the intervention of the United States and France to retain Tarapacá and strengthen the legitimacy of García Calderón in the internal sphere. Waiting for a favorable mediation would lead the next government of Lizardo Montero to rule out the search for other options to negotiate peace with Chile. The exile of García Calderón deepened the differences with other politicians on how to face the outcome of the war.