Mapudungun

The Mapudungun group includes the Mapuche of south-central Chile, the Pikunche and Purun awqa of the central valleys, the Williche to the south, and the Pehuenche of the Andes, who took up Mapudungun later. Spaniards invaded from 1541.

The Mapuche rose in the Arauco War in 1550, killed Pedro de Valdivia in 1553, and in 1598 won the ambush at Curalaba, which cost the Spaniards seven cities and fixed the frontier at the Bío Bío. From the seventeenth century Mapuche bands crossed the Andes and spread their language and horse culture over the Pampas, absorbing the Het.