Mapuche

The Mapuche were Indigenous communities in south-central Chile, led by local chiefs who could unite under a war leader. Their lands later faced Spanish attempts at conquest.

In 1550 Pedro de Valdivia campaigned in Mapuche lands, beginning the long Arauco War. In 1598 Pelantaru defeated the Spanish governor at Curalaba, triggering an uprising that destroyed seven Spanish towns. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries chiefs negotiated with colonial governors as Mapuche groups crossed the Andes into the Pampas.