The Arauco War was a long-running conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people, mostly fought in the Araucanía region of Chile. The conflict began at first as a reaction by the Mapuche to the Spanish conquerors attempting to establish cities and force the natives into servitude. It subsequently evolved over time into phases comprising drawn-out sieges, slave-hunting expeditions, pillaging raids, punitive expeditions, and renewed Spanish attempts to secure lost territories. Abduction of women and war rape was common on both sides.
The Spaniards penetrated into Mapuche territory during the conquest of Chile in the 16th century. They were stopped at the Battle of Curalaba in 1598 and the destruction of the Seven Cities. Afterward the two forces established a clear frontier between the Spanish domains and the land of the independent Mapuche. From the 17th to the late 18th century the Mapuche lonkos and Spanish royal governors held a series of parliaments. The war devolved to sporadic pillaging carried out by both sides.
In the words of Philip II, this conflict cost the largest number of Spanish lives in the New World. It became known as the Flandes indiano ("Indian Flanders"), in reference to the Eighty Years' War in Europe.
Causes of its origin and length
Initially, the key area of conflict that the Spanish attempted to secure south of Bío Bío River were the valleys around Cordillera de Nahuelbuta. The Spanish designs for this region was to exploit the placer deposits of gold using Mapuche (slave) labor from the densely populated nearby valleys. To serve the Spanish in gold mining was a deadly activity that killed many Mapuches. Lacking a tradition of forced labor like the Andean mita, the Mapuches largely refused to serve the Spanish, setting the stage for the conflict. It has been conjectured that gold mining was already occurring in Mapuche lands south of the Inca Empire prior to the Spanish arrival and that this would have allowed the Spanish to rapidly identify places with gold.
On the other hand, the Spanish, in particular those from Castile and Extremadura, came from an extremely violent society. According to Diego de Rosales, 17th-century Mapuche chief Lientur would have explained that he preferred to "die warring, than in a bad peace". Analysing the situation in the 1650s, the Real Audiencia of Santiago opined that slavery of Mapuches was one of the reasons for constant state of war between the Spanish and the Mapuches.
Jesuits sought to diminish hostilities and end the war altogether by converting Mapuches to the Christian faith. They temporarily succeeded in enforcing the Defensive War (1612–1626) policy, but their conversion attempts foundered on Mapuche leaders' staunch defense of polygamy, which was unacceptable in the Catholic faith. This insistence on polygamy has been explained as Mapuche chiefs valuing it as a way to establish more alliances through marriage than monogamous marriage allows. Polygamy may also have been valued as important population strategy in war times when the Mapuche male population was unstable.
Spanish conquest
An antecedent of the Arauco War was the Battle of Reynogüelén, which occurred in 1536 between a detachment of Diego de Almagro's expedition and a large group of Mapuches, near the confluence of the Ñuble and Itata rivers. The beginning of the war comes with the campaigns of conquest of Pedro de Valdivia.
Campaigns of Pedro de Valdivia (1540–1553)
During the early phase of the Conquest of Chile, the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia conducted a nine-year campaign to secure central Chile. Arriving in central Chile, Pedro de Valdivia was confronted by the toqui Michimalonco, who a couple of years before had expelled the Incas from the northern parts of the Mapuche lands. The Spanish and Mapuche faced each other in the Battle of Mapocho, in which de Valdivia was victorious. Michimalonco decided to make a tactical retreat to gather more contingents and to expel the Spanish invaders with a surprise attack, but the Spanish learnt of this and decided to head for where the Mapuche were gathering: at the Battle of Chillox, Michimalonco was defeated again.
The resounding victory left Pedro de Valdivia confident enough to decide to found the city of Santiago in the Mapocho valley and begin organizing the nascent colony. After a few months of settlement, Pedro de Valdivia gathered his forces and went directly to attack the fortress of Michimalonco in Paidahuén, leading to the battle of Paidahuén where the Mapuches were completely defeated and Michimalonco taken prisoner. To obtain his freedom, Michimalonco offered the Spanish the ownership of the Marga Marga gold pans, which had belonged to Michimalonco since the expulsion of the Incas. With this, Michimalonco and his imprisoned men were released and Michimalonco set some of his vassals to the exploitation of the gold on behalf of the Spanish.
After gold-panning for the Spanish for a while, Trangolonco, Michimalonco's brother, revolted. He defeated the Spaniards in Marga Marga, destroying the Spanish settlement, then defeated the Spanish in Concón, burning a ship under construction in the bay: only one Spaniard and a slave escaped. Trangolonco called on all the indigenous chiefs of the Cachapoal, Maipo and Mapocho valleys to send forces to join Michimalonco so that, just as he did with the Incas, he might expel the Spanish from the Wallmapu. In this way, he managed to gather around 16,000 warriors.
On September 11, 1541, Michimalonco attacked: the resulting Destruction of Santiago left barely a handful of Spaniards surviving. Then Michimalonco applied his “empty war” strategy, which consisted of not giving the Spaniards any type of food or supplies to force them to go back to Peru. The Spanish barely managed to resist and there were a series of skirmishes between Spanish and Mapuche forces.
After a large number of confrontations between the forces of de Valdivia and those of Michimalonco, the capture by de Valdivia of three forts held by Michimalonco in the Andean mountain range of the Aconcagua River, enabled the Spanish finally to gain control over the valleys of Cachapoal, Maipo and Aconcagua by the end of 1543; resulting in the withdrawal of Michimalonco's forces towards the north.
In 1544, Michimalonco headed to the Limarí River valley to cut off Spanish land communications between Chile and Peru. With the forces of his Diaguita allies in this region added to his own, Michimalonco regained his strength, winning some victories against the Spanish advances, and forcing Pedro de Valdivia into commanding his army himself; engaging the Mapuche-Diaguita forces at the battle of Limarí, where Michimalonco was again defeated.
Pedro de Valdivia then sent Juan Bohón to found the City of La Serena at the mouth of the Elqui River.
In 1544, de Valdivia sent out a naval expedition, comprising the barques San Pedro and Santiaguillo, under the command of Juan Bautista Pastene, to reconnoitre the southwestern coast of South America as far as the Strait of Magellan. 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 honour of the commander. Encountering severe storms further south, he then returned to Valparaiso.
Pedro de Valdivia himself set out in 1546, with sixty horsemen plus guides and porters. Crossing the Itata River, he was attacked by Mapuche warriors in the Battle of Quilacura near the Bío-Bío River. Realizing that it would be impossible to proceed in such hostile territory with so limited a force, de Valdivia elected to return to Santiago after finding a site for a new city at what is now Penco and that would become the first site of Concepción.
Founding of Concepción, Imperial, and Valdivia
In 1550, a new expedition was launched, consisting of a naval force under Pastene, and a land force of two hundred Spaniards mounted and foot and a number of Mapocho auxiliaries under de Valdivia. They planned to reunite on the shores of the Bay of Concepción. The expedition advanced beyond the Itata River and Laja River, to the shores of the Bío-Bío River. Along the way they had several battles with groups of Mapuches as they explored the region, killing many with little loss to themselves. After spending over a week in the area and encountering increasing opposition, the Spanish marched toward the sea through the valleys of the Laja and Bío-Bío rivers, towards the coast at Penco. On the banks of the Andalién River, they camped for two days between the river and a lake, where they were attacked on the second night by a large force of Araucanians under their toqui Ainavillo in the Battle of Andalien. The night attack was defeated in a furious battle, the Spaniards suffered one killed and many wounds to men and especially their mounts. After a day treating their wounds they continued towards their rendezvous at the Bay of Concepción. There de Valdivia began building a fort at what is now Penco.
On February 23, Pastene's fleet anchored in the bay, brought supplies and reinforcements, and provided materials to finish the fort. On March 1 de Valdivia founded here the city of Concepción del Nuevo Extremo. On March 3 of that year, the fort was completed and was attacked nine days later by the largest force of Mapuches yet seen in the Battle of Penco. This force was broken and routed despite the small size of the Spanish forces. Despite the resulting submission of the local tribes, de 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 Araucanía with only the forces at his disposal. After reinforcement at Concepción in 1551, he organized another expedition to establish the fort La Imperial 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, de 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, de Valdivia's column advanced southwards and joined the reinforcements sent from Peru, under the command of Francisco de Villagra. There, the city of Santa María la Blanca de Valdivia was established. After garrisoning these new places, de Valdivia returned to his base at Concepción in 1552 where rich placer gold mines were found in the Quilacoya River valley.
First Great Mapuche Rebellion (1553)
Lautaro and the Battle of Tucapel
With the goal of securing the lines of communication with the southern forts, de Valdivia launched a third expedition which established forts at Tucapel, Purén, Confines, and Arauco. The Araucanians didn't offer any resistance to the conquistadors in their fort-building. In October 1553, the Quilacoya gold mine was opened and large numbers of Mapuche were forced to work in it.
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 their "toqui" (wartime chief) an extraordinarily strong man called Caupolicán and as his vice toqui Lautaro, because he had served as an auxiliary to the Spanish cavalry; his experiences with the Spanish gave him insight into the best methods for fighting the conquistadores. He created the first Mapuche cavalry corps.
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. Lautaro seized and burned the fort and prepared his army certain that the Spaniards would attempt to retake Tucapel. De Valdivia, with a reduced force, mounted a counter-attack, but he was quickly surrounded and his army was massacred by the Mapuches in the Battle of Tucapel. This was Pedro de Valdivia's last battle; he was captured and later killed in captivity when he refused to concede defeat.
Campaigns of Caupolicán and Lautaro (1554–1557)
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 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 at the Battle of Marihueñu.
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.