Bernardo O’Higgins is granted dictatorial powers as…
February 1818 CE
Bernardo O’Higgins is granted dictatorial powers as Supreme Director of Chile on February 16, 1817.
While in exile, he had met the Argentinean General José de San Martín, a fellow member of the Lautaro Lodge, and together the men had returned to Chile in 1817 to defeat the royalists.
The Second Battle of Cancha Rayada in 1818 had been a victory for the Royalists, and it is not until the Battle of Maipú on April 5 that ultimate victory will be assured.
San Martín had initially been offered the position of power in the newly-free Chile but had declined, in order to continue the fight for independence in the rest of South America.
O'Higgins accepts the position instead.