Mapuche

The Mapuche, also called Araucanians, are the Indigenous people of south-central Chile and the neighbouring Andes and Pampas of Argentina, united by the Mapudungun language. Archaeology places their culture in Chilean river valleys as early as 600 to 500 BC, and they halted the Inca Empire at the Maule River.

The Arauco War broke out in 1550: the war leader Caupolicán and his lieutenant Lautaro took Tucapel and killed Pedro de Valdivia, who had founded Santiago, in 1553; Lautaro fell at Mataquito in 1557. The 1598 ambush at Curalaba cost the Spaniards seven cities and fixed the frontier at the Bío Bío River. The Treaty of Quilín of 1641 recognized Mapuche autonomy.

From the seventeenth century Mapuche bands crossed the Andes, carrying their language and horse culture across Patagonia in the process known as Araucanization. Through the eighteenth century their lands stayed beyond Spanish and republican rule.