Young Chilean army officers disrupted a Senate session by rattling their sabers, signaling growing military impatience with congressional deadlock and stalled social legislation—an immediate prelude to open intervention in politics.
President Arturo Alessandri resigned amid military pressure and sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, illustrating the collapse of civilian control and accelerating the breakdown of the parliamentary regime.
A military coup produced the Government Junta of Chile (the “September Junta”), headed by Gen. Luis Altamirano, which effectively displaced Alessandri and marked a decisive military entry into state governance.
Another military coup removed the September Junta, reflecting continued factional conflict within the armed forces and reopening the question of constitutional and civilian authority.
Arturo Alessandri returned to Chile to complete his presidential term, enabling a renewed push for constitutional reorganization after the 1924–1925 military interventions.
Voters approved a new constitutional text by plebiscite, a turning point in modern state formation that aimed to replace the 1833 framework and strengthen the presidency while restructuring Chile’s political order.
The Constitution of 1925 was promulgated (dated) in Santiago, formally inaugurating a new constitutional era associated with presidentialism and major institutional reforms, including church–state separation.
The new constitutional order took effect, replacing the 1833 constitution and providing the legal foundation for Chile’s “Presidential Republic” period (commonly framed as 1925–1973).
Following President Emiliano Figueroa’s resignation, Carlos Ibáñez del Campo won the 1927 presidential election by an overwhelming margin, consolidating power after years of military-backed political instability.
Under mounting opposition and the pressures of economic collapse during the Great Depression, Ibáñez resigned and left Chile, opening a volatile interregnum that would culminate in repeated coups in 1932.
Chile held presidential elections in the midst of severe economic and political instability; Juan Esteban Montero won decisively, but his government would be short-lived as military plotting continued.
Juan Esteban Montero assumed the presidency, but the deep legitimacy crisis of the state and the radicalization of military and civilian actors left the constitutional order highly vulnerable.
A coup led by Marmaduke Grove and allies forced Montero’s resignation and established a governing junta that proclaimed the Socialist Republic—an attempt to rapidly reorient the state in response to Depression-era breakdown.
Internal splits culminated in Carlos Dávila’s move to take control (including the arrest and exile of key rivals), shifting the Socialist Republic from a coalition junta toward a narrower, force-dependent rule.
The Socialist Republic collapsed when Dávila resigned, bringing the experiment in revolutionary state reconfiguration to an end and paving the way for a rapid succession of authorities before elections restored a more durable government.
General elections returned Arturo Alessandri to the presidency, widely treated as the endpoint of the acute coup cycle of 1931–1932 and a re-stabilization of constitutional governance under the 1925 framework.
1925 Constitution, Military Interventions, and the 1932 Socialist Republic (1924–1932)
