Well-behaved soldiers and women of proper conduct: marriage in wartime seen from the matrimonial licenses of free and freed military in Chile (1818 – 1824)

Abstract

This research analyzes a series of military marriage licenses required between 1818 and 1824 in Chile in the period of Independence and seeks to understand the role that the institution of military marriage played in the troop, the political and strategic positioning of the Army in this internal process towards its subordinates and the responses to such positioning by the soldiers. The Army, while decomposing family nuclei, promoted marriage in the officialization of marital unions, seeking to articulate interests for military cohesion towards independence goals, mainly in the soldiery.