Miguel Luis Amunátegui

Miguel Luis Amunátegui (Santiago, Chile, January 11, 1828 – January 22, 1888) was a Chilean historian, politician, and writer. He was the brother of fellow historian Gregorio Víctor Amunátegui Aldunate.

Amunátegui was the son of José Domingo Amunátegui and Carmen Aldunate Irarrázaval, and was of Basque descent. At the age of fourteen, he lost his father, but General Ramón Freire became the family's protector, which the future historian deeply appreciated. He entered Chile's National Institute in 1840, where he became one of its most distinguished students. In 1846, he sat for his Latin examination under the great Venezuelan teacher Andrés Bello, who made him translate the poetry of Horace, a task he carried out with such care that it earned him Bello's affection.

Amunátegui began to work as a private tutor and earned a professorship in humanities at the National Institute, in spite of not meeting the prerequisite age of 21 (he was 19 at the time).

In October 1852, he joined the University of Chile as a professor, and he began participating in the ministry of public instruction. He was immediately summoned by the university president to make a historical report that he would present. On December 11, 1853, he read the prologue of his book, The O'Higgins Dictatorship (Spanish: La dictadura de O'Higgins), which was published shortly thereafter and was one of the notable literary events of the year. A few years later he received the university's award for best educational report, for his book On primary instruction in Chile: what it is, what it should be (Spanish: De la instruccion primaria en Chile: lo que es, lo que deberia ser), in 1857. That year another of his books was also published, Condensed Political and Ecclesiastical History of Chile (Spanish: Compendio de Historia Política y Eclesiástica de Chile).

In 1849 he became a member of the newly forming liberal party and began to publish historical works in The Santiago Review (Spanish: La Revista de Santiago). He received his first prize for his work in 1851 for The first three years of the Revolution in Chile (1811-1812-1813 (Spanish: Los tres primeros años de la Revolución en Chile (1811-1812-1813)). In 1852, Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Varas commissioned from him a work to affirm Chilean sovereignty in the southern part of the continent in opposition to a recent work from Argentina, from which arose the title Titles of the Republic of Chile to the Sovereignty and Possession of the Southern extremity of the American Continent (Spanish: Títulos de la República de Chile a la Soberanía y el Dominio de la extremidad austral del Continente Americano), a book that had impact in Argentina and that produced responses and counter-responses on both sides of the Andes mountains.

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