Conquest of Chile

This was the period of Spanish conquest of territories, founding of cities, establishment of the Captaincy General of Chile, and defeats ending its further colonial expansion southwards.

Spanish conquerors entering Chile were accompanied by thousands of yanakuna from the already subdued territories of the Inca Empire as well by a few African slaves.

[4] The largest indigenous population were the Mapuches living south of the Inca borders in the area spanning from the Itata River to Chiloé Archipelago.

[11][12] A cultural linkage of this sort may help explain parallels in mythological cosmologies among Mapuches, Huilliches and the peoples of the Central Andes.

The first permanent Spanish settler in Chile was Gonzalo Calvo de Barrientos who had left Peru in disrepute after a quarrel with the Pizarro brothers.

[17] In April 1539, Francisco Pizarro authorized Pedro de Valdivia as his lieutenant governor with orders to conquer Chile.

Sanchez was the longtime secretary to Pizarro, who had returned from Spain with authorization from the king to explore the territories south of the Viceroyalty of Peru to the Strait of Magellan, also granting Valdivia the title of governor over lands taken from the indigenous people.

Recently arrived Pedro de Valdivia in central Chile is confronted by the toqui Michimalonco, who a couple of years before had expelled the Incas from Mapuche northern controlled territory.

Michimalonco decides to make a tactical retreat to gather more contingent and expel the Spanish invaders with a surprise attack, but the Spanish find out about this accumulation of forces and decide to go where the Mapuche forces were accumulating for a surprise attack and the Battle of Chillox takes place where Michimalonco is defeated again.

[17] The Strait of Magellan was important in Valdivia's design for the Conquest of Chile, as perceived it was part of his Chilean albeit he never reached so far south.

The Chilean region was not as rich in minerals as Peru, so the indigenous peoples were forced to work on construction projects and placer gold mining.

Trangolonco addresses as ambassador to all the indigenous chiefs of the Cachapoal, Maipo and Mapocho valleys to send their contingents and join Michimalonco, so that, just as he did with the Incas, he expels the Spanish from Araucanía.

Then Michimalonco applied the “empty war” which consisted of not giving the Spaniards any type of food or supplies so that they could go back to Peru.

After some victories against the Spanish advances, Pedro de Valdivia was forced to command his army himself and go to sustain the battle of Limarí, where the Mapuche-Diaguita hosts were defeated.

Then Valdivia commanded Juan Bohon to found the city of La Serena in 1544 to guarantee that communications with Peru by land would not be interrupted again.

The victories allowed Valdiva to found cities on the Mapuche homelands, such as Concepcion in 1550, La Imperial, Valdivia, and Villarrica in 1552, and Los Confines in 1553.

[20] In 1541 an expedition (enterprise) led by Pedro de Valdivia founded Santiago initiating the conquest of Chile.

The first years were harsh for the Spaniards mainly due to their poverty, indigenous rebellions, the poor battle terrain, and frequent conspiracies.

Spanish conquerors were accompanied by thousands of yanakuna from the territories of today's Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador who also settled in Chile.

[26] This contributed to usher in the Arauco War as native Mapuches lacked a tradition of forced labour like the Andean mita and largely refused to serve the Spanish.

[26] The decline was aggravated by the collapse of the Spanish cities in the south following the battle of Curalaba (1598) which meant for the Spaniards the loss of both the main gold districts and the largest indigenous labour sources.

[30] Pedro de Valdivia sought originally to conquer all of southern South America to the Straits of Magellan (53° S).

[31] Indeed, even in Chiloé did the Spanish encounter difficulties to adapt as their attempts to base the economy on gold extraction and a "hispanic-mediterranean" agricultural model failed.