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The Arauco War was a long conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people of the region of Araucanía, of modern Chile. The beginning of the conflict is usually placed at the Battle of Reynogüelén, which occurred in 1536 between an expedition of Diego de Almagro and a well organized and numerous group of Mapuche soldiers, near the confluence of the Ñuble and Itata rivers. Its end however, is more difficult to pin down. Since 1609, each governor of Chile held "Parlamentos" with the Mapuche chiefs, in which they discussed the maintenance of a treaty between both parties, violations of which were quite frequent. However, it was not until 1881 that these finally ended, with a process known as the Pacification of Araucanía.^[1]

Contents 1 Campaigns of Pedro de Valdivia (1546–1553) 1.1 Founding of Concepción, Imperial, and Valdivia 1.2 The Toqui Lautaro and the Battle of Tucapel 2 Campaigns of Lautaro and Caupolicán (1554–1557) 2.1 Battle of Marihueñu 2.2 Peteroa and the Hills of Caune 2.3 Campaigns of Caupolicán 3 End of the Spanish conquest and Destruction of Seven Cities (1558–1604) 3.1 Destruction of Seven Cities 4 17th-century 5 18th-century 6 Chilean War of Independence and Guerra a muerte 7 Occupation of Araucanía 7.1 Background 7.2 The occupation 7.3 Aftermath 8 See also 9 References

With the goal of securing the city of Santiago, which had been destroyed on September 11, 1541 by natives under the direction of the chief, Michimalonco, and also with the hope of enlarging the territory under his jurisdiction, the Spanish conquistador, Pedro de Valdivia, resolved to take personal command of a land expedition into Araucanía.

In 1544, he sent a naval expedition comprised by the barks, San Pedro and Santiaguillo, under the command of a Captain Pastene, to reconnoiter the southwestern coast of South America. The expedition set sail from Valparaíso, entered the bay of San Pedro, and made landings at what is now known as Concepción and at Valdivia, which was later named in honor of the commander. It then returned to Valparaiso.

Valdivia himself set out in 1546, with sixty horsemen plus native guides and porters, and reached the Bío-Bío River, where they were attacked by Mapuche warriors. Realizing that it would be impossible to proceed in such hostile territory with so limited a force, Valdivia wisely elected to return to Santiago.

In 1550, a new two-pronged expedition was launched. One "prong" was a naval force under the command of Pastene, and the other was a land force under Valdivia. They planned to reunite on the shores of the Bay of San Pedro. The land column advanced to the Laja river, where they were ambushed by the Mapuches and suffered extensive casualties. The Spanish retreated, in the valleys of the Laja and Bío-Bío rivers, towards San Pedro. On the banks of the Andalién river, they were attacked again by the Araucanians, although with less serious losses. In this area, they established a small fort, which they garrisoned with a few soldiers, to protect their onward retreat towards San Pedro.

On March 3 of that year, Valdivia founded a fort at Concepción, which was attacked nine days later by the Mapuches. Jerónimo de Alderete succeeded in fending off the assaults, despite the small size of his force. On March 20, the marine column anchored in the bay, provided materials to finish the fort, and replaced his casualties. Valdivia sent an emissary to the Viceroy of Peru, asking for additional forces; he knew that it would not be possible to complete the conquest of Arauco with only the forces at his disposal. After reinforcement at Concepción in 1551, he organized another expedition to establish a fort on the banks of the Imperial River. He then returned to Concepción to prepare another expedition and await the reinforcements the Viceroy had promised to send by sea.

Leaving orders that the new troops should disembark on the Tierras de Valdivia that Pastene had discovered earlier, Valdivia left with two hundred soldiers in the direction of Fort Imperial. Once he had passed it on his way south, he ordered Jerónimo de Alderete to drive inland and establish a fort, with the goal of securing his eastern flank. To this end, Alderente reached Lake Villarrica and established a fort there. Meanwhile, Valdivia's column advanced southwards and joined the reinforcements sent from Peru, under the command of Francisco de Villagra. There, Fort Valdivia was established. After garrisoning the new forts, Valdivia returned to his base at Concepción in 1552.

With the goal of securing the lines of communication with the southern forts, Valdivia launched a third expedition which established forts at Tucapel, Purén, Confines (now called Angol), Arauco, and Lebu. The Araucanians didn't offer any resistance to the conquistadors in their fort-building.

In 1553, the Mapuches held a council at which, because of the growth of Spanish forces in their territory, they resolved to make war. They chose as "toqui" (wartime chief) a man called Lautaro, who had served as an auxiliary to the Spanish cavalry. Because of his experiences with the Spanish, he had some insight into the best methods for fighting the conquistadors.

With six thousand warriors under his command, Lautaro attacked the fort at Tucapel. The Spanish garrison was unable to withstand the assault and retreated to Purén. Certain that the Spaniards would attempt to retake it, Lautaro seized Tucapel. Valdivia, with a reduced force, mounted a counter-attack, but he was quickly surrounded and his army was massacred by the Mapuches. The Battle of Tucapel was Pedro de Valdivia's last; he was captured and later killed in captivity.

After the defeat at Tucapel, the Spanish hurriedly reorganized their forces, reinforcing fort Imperial for its defence and abandoning Confines and Arauco in order to strengthen Concepción. However, Araucanian tradition dictated a lengthy victory celebration, which kept Lautaro from exploiting the weakness of the Spanish position as he desired. It was only in February of 1554 that he succeeded in putting together an army of 8,000 men, just in time to confront a punitive expedition under the command of Francisco de Villagra.

Lautaro chose the hill of Marihueño to fight the Spanish, and subsequently organized his forces in four divisions: two had the mission of containing and wearing down the enemy, another would be held in reserve to launch a fresh attack as the Spanish were about to crumble, and the last would work to cut off their retreat. Additionally, a small group was sent to destroy the reed bridge the Spanish had erected across the Bío-Bío River, which would disrupt even more the attempted retreat of Villagra.

The Spanish attack broke the first Mapuche lines, but the quick action of the third group maintained the Mapuche position. Later, the wings of this division began to attack the Spanish flanks, and the fourth division attacked from behind. After hours of battle, only a small group of Spanish were able to retreat.

Despite this new victory, Lautaro was again unable to pursue the opportunity due to the celebrations and beliefs of his people. By the time he arrived at Concepción, it was already abandoned. After burning it, he could not continue the offensive with his remaining forces, and the campaign came to an end as the warriors demobilized.

In Santiago, Villagra reorganized his forces, and that same year of 1554, he departed again for Arauco and reinforced the strongholds of Imperial and Valdivia, without any interference from the Mapuches, who were dealing with their first epidemic of smallpox, which was brought by the Spanish. In 1555, the Real Audiencia in Lima, ordered him to reconstruct Concepción, which was done under the command of Capitan Alvarado.

Lautaro attacked Concepción when he learned that it was being rebuilt, with 4,000 warriors. He put the town under siege, which Alvarado attempted to break unsuccessfully. Only 38 Spaniards managed to escape by sea the second destruction of the city.

After this action, Lautaro planned an assault on Santiago, for which he drew scant support from his troops, who soon dwindled to only 600. In October of 1556 he reached in his northward march the river Mataquito, where he destroyed a fortified camp at Peteroa. From there he launched feelers towards Santiago.

In Peteroa he repulsed small attacking Spanish forces, first under the command of Diego Cano and later Francisco de Villagra himself. Lautaro retreated towards the river Itata, with the Spaniards in pursuit. Instead of confronting them, he gave them the slip, and left for Santiago.

Despite the stealth under which the Mapuches moved, the city leaders knew of the advance, and sent a small expedition to detain them, buying time for word to be sent to Villagra to return to the city. The Spanish forces met in the field, and, presumably by the treason of a fellow Araucano, found out about the disposition of Lautaro's camp. On April 29, the conquistadors launched a surprise attack from the hills of Caune, obtaining a decisive victory in which Lautaro was killed.

García Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete was designated the interim governor of Chile in 1557, and immediately ordered the reconstruction of Concepción, this time with a much stronger force than before: 600 soldiers, 6 pieces of artillery, and 1,000 horses.

After the death of Lautaro, and before the new Spanish expedition, the Mapuches chose Caupolicán as a new Toqui. He attacked Concepción with 3,000 warriors but was soundly defeated. Although he was able to escape immediately after the battle, as the Spanish cavalry did not arrive in time to pursue, he would not remain indefinitely out of their clutches. He was eventually captured and sentenced to death by impaling through the rectum.

Despite having founded cities and forts in Mapuche territory, all further Spanish conquest attempts failed. The Kingdom of Chile became a problematic region which the Spaniards would possibly have abandoned if they not feared colonization by another European nation in the region. Several Spanish generals and nobles were assigned posts in Chile.

Main article: Destruction of Seven Cities

In September of 1592, Martín García Oyez de Loyola was appointed as General Captain directly by Felipe II, king of Spain. He insisted in penetrating the Mapuche territory with an army with soldiers coming directly from Panama. Later, the 21 December of 1598 Oñez de Loyola became the second governor of Chile to die in war with the Mapuches after the Battle of Curalaba. The battle became the beginning of a general uprising that finished with all Spanish settlements south of the Bio-Bio River with the exception of Chiloé Island and Valdivia, which was later rebuilt.

The last major uprising came by 1655 when mapuche armies overwhelmed the Spaniards and came to the shores of the Maule River. After that, the Spanish tactics varied from a "defensive war" proposed by Jesuit missionaries, and parliaments with loncos to make agreements with the Mapuche in so called parliaments. This allowed the grow of commerce and increased the mestization.

After 30 years of peace the War of Arauco continued with a Mapuche uprising in 1723.

During the Chilean War of Independence many Mapuche chiefs allied with the Realist Spanish that fought for reestablishing the old colonial order in Chile. The realist brigadier Gabino Gaínza negociated with Mapuche chiefs during the the Parlament of Quilín in 1814 and gained their support against the Chilean patriots.

In 1817 and 1818 the royalist had suffered a lot of defeats, but continued to make resitace in the southern Central Chile together with Mapuches. José de San Martín who had liberated north-central Chile with Bernardo O'Higgins launched a series of actions against armed bands in the mountains, consisting of assorted outlaws, royalists, and Indians who had taken advantage of the chaos of military expeditions and forced recruitments to pillage and sack the countryside. This time of irregular warfare was later called the Guerra a muerte (Fight to the death) for its merciless tactics, as neither the guerillas nor the government soldiers took prisoners. Only after the band of Vicente Benavides was liquidated in 1822 was the region around Concepcion finally pacified.

Main article: Occupation of the Araucanía.

In 1860 Chilean president José Joaquín Pérez Mascayano decided to incorporate the territory between the Bio-Bio River and Toltén River (the Araucanía). With the proclamation of the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia by Orélie-Antoine de Tounens it became a priority to incorporate the Araucanía even if Orélie Antonie never was a serious threat. The authorities decided to apply the plan proposed by General Cornelio Saavedra Rodríguez which included a mix of military and cultural penetration together with agreements with local chiefs. The plan also included the foundation of cities, building of roads and other public infrastructure such as schools and hospitals.

Cornelio Saavedra advanced in relatively short time to the Malleco River and founded the city of Angol, together with the forts of Mulchén and Lebu in 1862. From Valdivia in the south the troops also succeeded in advancing along the coast into the Toltén River. This first phase of occupation was carried out with relatively low levels of resistance, but soon after the lonco Quilapán started a revolt near Malleco River. When the War of the Pacific started in 1879 much of the troops in the south of Chile were moved north to fight Peru and Bolivia. In 1880 several Mapuche tribes took advantage of this situation and launched a series of spontaneous attacks on to the Chilean forts established in the frontier. With a victorious Chilean army returning from the War of the Pacific, the government of Domingo Santa María launched the final campaign to incorporate the heartland of the Mapuches into Chile. Colonel Gregorio Urrutia was chosen for this task. The old Spanish town of Villarrica was refounded and the forts of Carahue, Lautaro, Pillánlelbu, Temuco, Nueva Imperial and Pucón where founded. The tribes living close to this forts their territory, and about 10,000 Mapuche Indians were killed in skirmishes by the Chilean army. Many of the survivors escaped to mountains where they joined with the Pehuenches and other tribes escaping from Argentine territory. Some indigenous remnants were placed into reductions and their land was given to Chilean and foreign settlers. Some historians consider the occupation of the Araucania to be the end of a 300-years long War of Arauco.

Araucanía was not fully "pacified" after the campaigns, and it remained an insecure land, in spite of military efforts. Even nowadays some Mapuche groups continue pillaging haciendas in what they consider their ancestral lands. With the construction of the Malleco viaduct in the 1890s, the region became more accessible and colonization southward in Chile increased even more.

• Occupation of the Araucanía
• History of Chile
• Pedro de Valdivia
• Lautaro
• Caupolican
• Araucanization