Chilean Armed Forces in the context of "Occupation of Araucanía"

The Occupation of Araucanía or Pacification of Araucanía (1861–1883) was a series of military campaigns, agreements and penetrations by the Chilean military and settlers into Mapuche territory which led to the incorporation of Araucanía into Chilean national territory. Pacification of Araucanía was the expression used by the Chilean authorities for this process. The conflict was concurrent with Argentine campaigns against the Mapuche (1878–1885) aimed at establishing dominance over Patagonia and Chile's wars with Spain (1865–1866) and with Peru and Bolivia (1879–1883).

The Mapuche people had a history of resistance to Spanish conquest with the area known as Araucanía remaining de facto independent through the colonial era. Following Chile's War of Independence against the Spanish Empire, relations between the nascent republic and the Mapuches of Araucanía remained mostly amicable. However economic and geopolitical reasons together with increasingly negative attitudes towards the Mapuche made Chilean authorities decide to seek an incorporation of Araucanía, by force if necessary. The Mapuche chiefdoms responded in different ways, some aligned with the central government, a substantial number followed the lead of the Arribanos in violently opposing the advance of Chilean settlers and soldiers into the region, while some others opted for neutrality. For the first ten years (1861−1871), the Mapuches were unable to prevent Chile from advancing its positions but at time were able to defeat in detail small detachments while avoiding large battles. Hostilities were minimal in the decade that followed, this period was mostly peaceful but ended when the Mapuches were unable to militarily oppose a large Chilean army that in March 1881 penetrated from the north to Cautín River, putting most of the territory under Chilean rule or at least occupation. In November 1881, the Mapuches made a last-ditch effort to regain control of their territory, launching coordinated strikes against Chilean settlements across the region. With most of these attacks repelled and Mapuche forces defeated within a matter of days, Chile went on to consolidate its conquests in the years that followed.