The Parliamentary Era in Chile began in 1891, at the end of the Civil War, and spanned until 1925 and the establishment of the 1925 Constitution.

The Parliamentary Republic lasted until the 1925 Constitution drafted by President Arturo Alessandri and his minister José Maza.

The pseudo-parliamentary system was established in Chile following José Manuel Balmaceda's defeat in the 1891 Chilean Civil War.

The National Congress indirectly controlled his nomination and the rest of the cabinet through the vote of the periodical laws (leyes periódicas), the budget, the military credits, etc.

While a Parliament may withdraw its confidence in the Prime minister in the Westminster-style parliamentary system, the head of government is normally granted the power of dissolution of parliament, leading to the calling of new elections in order to have the sovereign people arbitrate between the legislative and the executive.

However, in the Chilean system, the President of the Republic did not dispose of this power of dissolution, thus restricting the Prime Minister's margins of decision.

The aristocracy was formed by the landlords, politicians, saltpeter entrepreneurs (many of whom were foreigners), bankers, physicians, intellectuals, etc.

The first lived in the north, in huts made of Calamina, where differences in temperature between day and night spanned 30 degrees Celsius.