The insurgents win Chile's bloody but brief Civil War of 1891 when the army decides not to fight the navy.

As a result of the rebel victory, Congress becomes dominant over the chief executive and the nitrate mines increasingly fall into British and North American hands.

Having gained asylum in the Argentine embassy, Balmaceda waits until the end of his legal presidential term, then commits suicide.

As Diego Portales had become a legendary hero to the right, so Balmaceda will later be anointed by the left as an economic nationalist who sacrificed his life in the struggle for Chilean liberation.