Writing a National Colony: The Hostility of Inscription in the German Settlement of Lake Llanquihue
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Writing a National Colony: The Hostility of Inscription in the Ge ...

Chapter 1:  Writing the Colony
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B. Philippi’s proposal for organized German settlement evolved logically from his proposal for a road—one being the condition of the other—and followed on its heels less than a month later. He received notification from the government that the proposal had been passed on to a committee for further study, which B. Philippi optimistically interpreted as a favorable reply (B. Philippi, “Relación” 293 and “Uebersetzung” 1). While waiting for that reply to become a mandate—which never did happen—B. Philippi proceeded consequentially to compose yet another permutation of his travel report: an emigration pamphlet aimed at recruiting German emigrants for the planned settlement at Lake Llanquihue. The pamphlet was formally published in 1846 as an (anonymous) appendix to Johann Eduard Wappäus’ Deutsche Auswanderung und Colonisation under the title, Ueber die Vortheile, welche das südliche Chile für deutsche Auswanderer darbietet.

“Ueber die Vortheile” is the first published work of B. Philippi in which he goes beyond the descriptive voice of the scientist-explorer and explicitly promotes emigration to Chile. Eurocentric interventionism, in his argument, holds the promise of economic prosperity for German immigrants in Chile:22

Of all the American states that have emerged from the former Spanish colonies, Chile has suffered the least political turbulence and has made the biggest progress in its spiritual and material development. That notwithstanding, a tremendous amount of work remains to be done for an economic upturn commensurate with the natural resources of this country. Especially emigrants bound for the southern parts of the republic have the surest prospects of obtaining permanent prosperity and comfortable lives within a short time. To make this case is the purpose of the present essay.23 (113)

The essay, as a comparison with B. Philippi’s previous 1840 and 1842 reports to the Geographic Society in Berlin shows, is a significantly extended version of those reports24 and incorporates paragraphs of those earlier texts almost verbatim.