Headed by Colonel Marmaduque Grove, left-wing troops deposed the September Junta in the 1925 coup, and handed power to General Pedro Dartnell as interim president, with the hope of recalling Arturo Alessandri Palma from exile.

Henceforth, Alessandri encountered opposition from his own Minister of Defence, Colonel Carlos Ibáñez del Campo who had also participated to the January 1925 coup and also enjoyed support from the masses.

Freedom of press was restricted, 200 politicians were arrested or exiled (among whom were Alessandri and his former ally Marmaduque Grove), the Communist Party was proscribed, and the workers' movement repressed.

The resulting legislative body which emerged from his choices became known as the “Congreso Termal.”[citation needed] Ibánez's popularity was buoyed by loans from American banks, which helped to promote a high rate of growth in the country and the launching important public works projects.

He ordered the construction of canals, bridges, prisons, ports, the Palace of Cerro Castillo in Viña del Mar, restoration of the façade of La Moneda, and increased public spending.

[citation needed] Although Ibáñez's government increased export taxes to 71% and imposed restrictions on exit of devises, he did not the balance of trade, leading to a depletion of Chile's gold reserves.

On July 13, 1931, Ibáñez named a "Cabinet of National Salvation" (Gabinete de Salvación Nacional) whose members included Pedro Blanquier and Juan Esteban Montero.

Before leaving, Ibáñez designated Pedro Opazo as his successor; he, in turn, resigned in favor of Interior Minister Juan Esteban Montero, a member of the Radical Party, who was proclaimed the new president by Congress.

A short time after his investiture in December 1931, President Montero was confronted by the Escuadra uprising, during which revolutionaries took some military ships and sank them in the Bay of Coquimbo.

On June 4, 1932, planes from El Bosque Air Base fled over the presidential palace, La Moneda, leading to the resignation of Montero's cabinet.

The center-right candidate, Arturo Alessandri, subsequently won 54% of the votes in the October 30, 1932 presidential election, defeating his still-exiled opponent Marmaduque Grove, who obtained 18%.

The President asked the Parliament on several occasions to vote for a state of constitutional exception, resulting in actions such as the famous burning of the 285th issue of the satirical magazine Topaze, which published a caricature of Alessandri he considered offensive.

[2] In the economic sphere, the recovery from the crisis of 1929 was begun with the work of Treasury Minister Gustavo Ross, a pragmatic liberal who implemented a "development inwards" approach to growth.

It finally succeeded in gaining power as part of the Popular Front left-wing coalition, although its cabinets were fragile due to constant parliamentary instability.

He narrowly defeated the conservative candidate Gustavo Ross, mostly because of the political backlash caused by the Seguro Obrero Massacre which followed an attempted coup d'état by the National Socialist Movement of Chile (MNS), intended to take down the rightwing government of Arturo Alessandri and place Ibáñez in power.

The German–Soviet Non Aggression Pact of 1939 during the Second World War led to the dismantling of the left-wing coalition, as the Comintern then abandoned the Popular Front strategy and anti-fascism in favour of advocating peace with Germany.

The Democratic Alliance (Alianza Democrática) chose as its candidate a member of the conservative wing of the Radical Party, Juan Antonio Ríos, who defeated Ibáñez in the February 1942 election, obtaining 56% of the votes.

The Chilean Communist Party opposed Ríos who had initially chosen neutrality and refused to break off diplomatic relations with the Axis Powers, while the right-wing accused him of complacency regarding the Left.

These internal divisions partly explained the right-wing success during the 1945 legislative elections, which were a debacle for the Socialists and the Communists, who obtained close to no seats in Parliament.

Faced with terminal cancer, he gave up his presidential powers in January 1946 in favour of his Minister of the Interior, Alfredo Duhalde Vásquez, who acted as vice-president until his death on June 27, 1946.

Despite this political, social and economical instability, González's government did achieve some important successes, including the complete integration of women in political life, the remodeling of the city of La Serena, the development of an Antarctic policy with the creation of the Antártica Chilena Province – González was the first chief of state of any nation to visit Antarctica, and the Gonzalez Videla Antarctic Base was named after him – and the determination along with Peru and Ecuador of the 200 nautical miles (370 km) of the Exclusive Economic Zone.

Due to the protectionist policies of the Radical Governments and of their predecessors, a quite diverse, although not that strong, national industry had developed in the country, leading to a deep renewal of the economical and social structure of Chile.

On the other hand, the 1952 presidential election displayed the Chilean political field as divided between three sectors, including the emerging centrist Christian Democrat Party which had the support of a large spectrum of personalities.

Elected on a program promising to put an end to chronic inflation in the Chilean economy, Ibáñez decided to freeze wages and prices, leading to stagnation of economic growth and in turn a relative increase in civil unrest.

These ibañistas, most of whom were young army officers inspired by the Argentine caudillo Juan Domingo Perón, created the Línea Recta (Straight Line) group and the PUMA (Por Un Mañana Auspicioso) to establish a new dictatorship.

Alessandri continued to receive their support after the 1961 legislative elections, while the Radical Party entered the governmental coalition, leading the President to have control of both Chambers of Parliament, something which had not occurred in recent times.

Thousands of volunteers helped survivors in rebuilding local infrastructures, while the United States, Cuba, Brazil, France, Italy and other countries sent international aid.

Chile's situation forced the state to accept the US conditions for the receiving of aid via John F. Kennedy's assistance plan for Latin America, the Alliance for Progress, including the first steps of the Chilean land reform.

Fearing a victory of the Marxist candidate Allende, especially in the context of the United States embargo against Cuba decided in 1962, the CIA directly spent three million dollars to support the Christian Democrats during the electoral campaign, mostly through radio and print advertising aimed at raising the "Red Scare" again.

[3][4] Eduardo Frei Montalva, who had been Minister of Public Works in 1945 in Juan Antonio Ríos's cabinet supported by the left-wing Democratic Alliance, and presidential candidate in 1958, was elected in this atmosphere, six years later, with the slogan "Revolución en Libertad" ("Revolution in Liberty").