[Responses and resistance in the fight against smallpox, Chile, eighteenth to twentieth centuries]

This article explores how political and health authorities in Chile responded to smallpox epidemics. It focuses on the methods employed (isolation, variolation, and vaccination) and the institutional strengthening that led to mandatory smallpox vaccination. We argue that these responses reflect the centralization of state power in public health and a process of institutional consolidation. However, the implementation of these policies met with passive resistance, as evidenced by low vaccination rates in the first half of the twentieth century. This reveals tensions between state health objectives and their social acceptance.