Since the beginning of the 1830' s, the National Guard becomes the main instrument of President Jose Joaquin Prieto's (1831-1841) government to guarantee the public order in the Republic of Chile The objective of this article is to show that this not only deals with the will of the executive power who encourages its defensive and moralizing functions, and achieves political agreements for its institutional development, but with the social and local hierarchies which allow a sociopolitical and territorial insertion of the National Guard and its functioning.