Conquest of Chile in the context of Itata River

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, extending along a narrow strip of land between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. According to the 2024 census, Chile had an enumerated population of 18.5 million. The country covers a territorial area of 756,102 square kilometers (291,933 sq mi), sharing borders with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. It also administers several Pacific islands, including Juan Fernández, Isla Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island, and claims about 1,250,000 square kilometers (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica as the Chilean Antarctic Territory. The capital and largest city is Santiago, and the national language is Spanish.

Spain conquered and colonized the region in the mid-16th century, replacing Inca rule; however, they failed to conquer the autonomous tribal Mapuche people who inhabited what is now south-central Chile. Chile emerged as a relatively stable authoritarian republic in the 1830s after their 1818 declaration of independence from Spain. During the 19th century, Chile experienced significant economic and territorial growth, putting an end to Mapuche resistance in the 1880s and gaining its current northern territory in the War of the Pacific (1879–83) by defeating Peru and Bolivia.

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 to the Spanish conquerors attempting to establish cities and force Mapuches 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 until the Battle of Curalaba in 1598 and the following destruction of the Seven Cities led to the establishment of a clear frontier between the Spanish domains and the land of the independent Mapuche. From the 17th to the late 18th century a series of parliaments were held between royal governors and Mapuche lonkos and the war devolved to sporadic pillaging carried out by both sides.

The Battle of Curalaba (Spanish: Batalla de Curalaba pronounced [baˈtaʝa ðe kuɾaˈlaβa]) was a battle and an ambush in 1598 when Mapuche people led by Pelantaru defeated Spanish conquerors led by Martín García Óñez de Loyola at Curalaba, southern Chile. In Chilean historiography, where the event is often called the Disaster of Curalaba (Spanish: Desastre de Curalaba), the battle marks the end of the conquest (la conquista) period in Chile's history, although the fast Spanish expansion in the south had already been halted in the 1550s. The battle led to a general Mapuche uprising that resulted in Destruction of the Seven Cities. This severe crisis reshaped Colonial Chile and forced the Spanish to reassess their mode of warfare.

The Destruction of the Seven Cities (Spanish: Destrucción de las siete ciudades), in Chilean historiography was the destruction or abandonment of seven major Spanish outposts in southern Chile around 1600, caused by the Mapuche and Huilliche uprising of 1598. The Destruction of the Seven Cities, in traditional historiography, marks the end of the Conquest period and the beginning of the proper colonial period.

The Destruction of the Seven Cities had a long-lasting impact on the history of the Mapuche and the history of Chile, determining the shape of future Colonial Spanish–Mapuche relations, e.g. by causing the development of a Spanish–Mapuche frontier.

Araucanía or Araucana was the Spanish name given to the region of Chile inhabited by the Mapuche peoples known as the Moluche (also known as Araucanos by the Spanish) in the 18th century. Prior to the Spanish conquest of Chile, the lands of the Moluche lay between the Itata River and Toltén River.

Agriculture in Chile has a long history dating back to the Pre-Hispanic period. Indigenous peoples practised varying types of agriculture, from the oases of the Atacama Desert to as far south as the Guaitecas Archipelago (43° S). Potato was the staple food in the populous Mapuche lands. Llama and chilihueque herding was practised by various indigenous groups.

The arrival of the Spanish disrupted in many places local agriculture as indigenous populations shrank and mining rose to prominence. Mapuches in south-central Chile adopted sheep, wheat and the horse from the Spanish. Further south in Chiloé apple trees and pigs proved successful introductions into local potato-based agriculture. As the Spanish were repulsed from much of southern Chile, Central Chile became increasingly populated and exploited with husbandry becoming the most prominent agricultural activity in Spanish-ruled areas in the 17th century. In parallel to husbandry vineyards did also become more important. Spanish agriculture, centered on the hacienda, absorbed most of the scattered and declining indigenous populations of Central Chile. Much land in Central Chile was cleared with fire during this period. On the contrary open fields in southern Chile were overgrown as indigenous populations declined due to diseases introduced by the Spanish and warfare.

The royal governor of Chile ruled over the Spanish colonial administrative district called the Captaincy General of Chile, and as a result the royal governor also held the title of a captain general. There were 66 such governors or captains during the Spanish conquest and the later periods of Spanish-centered colonialism. Since the first Spanish–Mapuche parliaments in the 17th century it became an almost mandatory tradition for each governor to arrange a parliament with the Mapuches.

The Huilliche (Spanish pronunciation: [(g)wi.ˈʝi.tʃe], Huilliche pronunciation: [wi.ˈʎi.tʃe]), Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group in Chile and Argentina. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco or Veliche subgroup, the northern half of Chiloé Island. The Huilliche are the principal Indigenous people of those regions. According to Ricardo E. Latcham the term Huilliche started to be used in Spanish after the second founding of Valdivia in 1645, adopting the usage of the Mapuches of Araucanía for the southern Mapuche tribes. Huilliche means 'southerners' (Mapudungun willi 'south' and che 'people'.) A genetic study showed significant affinities between Huilliches and Indigenous peoples east of the Andes, which suggests but does not prove a partial origin in present-day Argentina.

During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the mainland Huilliche were generally successful at resisting Spanish encroachment. However, after the Figueroa incursion of 1792 Huilliches were decisively defeated and their territory was gradually opened to European settlement beginning with the Parliament of Las Canoas. Today, most Huilliche speak Spanish, but some, especially older adults, speak the Huilliche language. Laurelia sempervirens, known in Huilliche triwe and in Spanish as laurel, is the ritual tree of the Huilliche of Futahuillimapu.

As an archaeological culture, the Mapuche people of southern Chile and Argentina have a long history which dates back to 600–500 BC. The Mapuche society underwent great transformations after Spanish contact in the mid–16th century. These changes included the adoption of Old World crops and animals and the onset of a rich Spanish–Mapuche trade in La Frontera and Valdivia. Despite these contacts Mapuche were never completely subjugated by the Spanish Empire. Between the 18th and 19th century Mapuche culture and people spread eastwards into the Pampas and the Patagonian plains. This vast new territory allowed Mapuche groups to control a substantial part of the salt and cattle trade in the Southern Cone.

Between 1861 and 1883 the Republic of Chile conducted a series of campaigns that ended Mapuche independence causing the death of thousands of Mapuche through combat, pillaging, starvation and smallpox epidemics. Argentina conducted similar campaigns on the eastern side of the Andes in the 1870s. In large parts of the Mapuche lands the traditional economy collapsed forcing thousands to seek themselves to the large cities and live in impoverished conditions as housemaids, hawkers or labourers.

The Moluche ("people from where the sun sets" or "people from the west") or Nguluche are an Indigenous people of Chile. Their language was a dialect of Mapudungun, a Mapuche language. At the beginning of the Conquest of Chile by the Spanish Empire the Moluche lived in what came to be known as Araucanía. The Moluche were called Araucanos ("Araucanians") by the Spanish.

Descendants of the Moluche, Pehuenche and Huilliche later migrated into Argentina in later centuries mixing with the local tribes. This Araucanization made their language the common spoken language in the region.

The Chiloé Archipelago is home to a wide variety of potatoes. After the Titicaca region of Peru and Bolivia, it is the geographical nucleus where the most different types of potatoes are found. Evidence ranging from historical records, local agriculturalists, and DNA analyses strongly supports the hypothesis that the most widely cultivated variety of potato worldwide, Solanum tuberosum tuberosum, is indigenous to the Chiloé Archipelago, and has been cultivated by the local indigenous people since before the Spanish conquest. Unlike potatoes from Peru and Bolivia, the potatoes of Chiloé are adapted to the long summer days of the higher latitude region of southern Chile. After the disastrous European Potato Failure in the 1840s, strains originating in the Chiloé Archipelago replaced earlier potatoes of Peruvian origin in Europe.

The potatoes of Chiloé are important elements of Chilote folk medicine and features in Chilote mythology.

Lautaro (Anglicized as 'Levtaru') (Mapudungun: Lef-Traru "swift hawk") (Spanish pronunciation: [lawˈtaɾo]; c. 1534 – April 29, 1557) was a young Mapuche toqui known for leading the indigenous resistance against Spanish conquest in Chile and developing the tactics that would continue to be employed by the Mapuche during the long-running Arauco War. Levtaru was captured by Spanish forces in his early youth, and he spent his teenage years as a personal servant of chief conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. He graduated from servant to stableman; in this job he saw that their horses weren't godlike creatures like his people thought (the biggest animal they knew was the llama). He escaped in 1551 and told his people that the conquistadores and their horses were just mortals and they could defeat them. Back among his people he was declared Toqui and led Mapuche warriors into a series of victories against the Spanish, culminating in the Battle of Tucapel in December 1553, where Pedro of Valdivia was killed. The outbreak of a typhus plague, a drought and a famine prevented the Mapuche from taking further actions to expel the Spanish in 1554 and 1555. Between 1556 and 1557, a small group of Mapuche commanded by Levtaru attempted to reach Santiago to liberate the whole of Central Chile from Spanish rule. Levtaru's attempts ended in 1557 when he was killed in an ambush by the Spanish.

Today, Levtaru is revered among Mapuche and non-Mapuche Chileans for his resistance against foreign conquest, servitude and cruelty.