Today, as in the past, Chile is exceptional among Latin American countries. In good and bad ways, Chile has usually bucked the regional trend. It has been both pioneer and pariah. It was first to achieve effective national unification after independence when the rest of the region plunged into internecine warfare. It was first to experiment with constitutional government at a time when dictatorship was the norm in the region. Much later, as the rest of the region worshiped the virtues of dirigisme and import substitution industrialization, it championed neoliberal fundamentalism two decades before it became international gospel. Whereas the rest of the region embraced democracy in the 1980s, Chile clung to its modernizing but brutal military dictatorship. Over a century earlier, Chile was first to undertake a root and branch remaking of its military system by importing wholesale Prussia's renowned Imperial army. Chile's bold decision, and its successful emulation, altered the regional strategic landscape, setting a standard by which all others had to measure and adjust. That large-scale military emulation in the region began with Chile is not surprising from the standpoint of the theory of emulation.

This chapter examines the nature and causes of military emulation in late-nineteenth-century Chile. The first section narrates Chile's process of large-scale military emulation. It provides a comprehensive examination of its military emulation during the principal years of the process, 1885 to 1914. It details emulation in the areas of military armaments, conscription system, officer formation, and general staff organization.