before the
1751 earthquake cacique in Concepción in 1846 Concepción was founded by Don
Pedro de Valdivia in 1550 north of the
Bío Bío River, at the site which is today known as
Penco. At that time it was given the name
Concepción de María Purísima del Nuevo Extremo (Mary Immaculate Conception of the New End). The new settlement of Concepción was just a few kilometers north of
La Frontera (The Frontier), the boundary between Spanish territory and the land of the
Mapuche, an American Indian ethnic group that remained independent until the 1870s. The settlement was formally recognized by the Spanish authorities as a town two years later by a royal decree. It was given a coat-of-arms that is still in use today. At the time of the Spanish arrival to the Concepción area chronicler
Jerónimo de Vivar noted local Mapuches wore gold and silver
bracelets and "sort of crowns". This is interpreted either as
Incan gifts, war spoils from defeated Incas, or the adoption of Incan
metallurgy. Although Concepción was a significant military settlement for the
Captaincy General of Chile, it was overrun and destroyed by
Mapuche armies in 1554, and once again after being refounded in 1555. Concepción was restored during the governorship of
García Hurtado de Mendoza when he landed there and built a fort on the Alto de Pinto in 1557. The town was refounded once more on January 6, 1558, by captain Jerónimo de Villegas. It became the headquarters of the military forces engaged against the
Mapuche in
La Araucanía over the next two centuries, growing to a population of 10,000 despite a
siege in 1564 and other attacks by the Mapuche. Concepción was the home of the
Real Audiencia from 1565 to 1575.
Earthquakes and
tsunamis, which razed the town in
1570, 1657, 1687, 1730 and 1751, led the authorities to move the town to its current site in the
Valle de la Mocha, alongside the
Bío Bío River; the old site lay empty until March 29, 1842, when the present town of
Penco was founded. The new site for the town of Concepción became the main town of the Intendancy of Concepción, whose jurisdiction extended from the
Maule River to La Frontera. The first Intendant of Concepción was the Irishman
Ambrose O'Higgins, Marquis of Osorno, who later became
Royal Governor of Chile and
Viceroy of Peru. When the First National Government Board met in
Santiago on September 18, 1810, citizens of Concepción joined up. Concepción was used as the point of entry by the Spanish Army in the attempt by the
Viceroyalty of Peru to re-conquer Chile. Concepción politicians and soldiers became a significant political force in the newly independent country. On January 1, 1818, Ambrose O'Higgins's son,
Bernardo O'Higgins, proclaimed and took the oath of the
Chilean War of Independence in the main square of Concepción, which since then has been known as "Plaza de la Independencia". Until the moment of independence, the city had been the scene of
various engagements in its old and new settlements. On February 20, 1835, the town again was largely destroyed by
an earthquake and had to be rebuilt. By 1875, a key British community and German colony existed within the province. By 1895, there was an even larger Spanish presence. The
Universidad de Concepción, founded in 1919, became the first secular private university in Chile. The neighboring harbor of Talcahuano is the site of the largest naval base in Chile. On February 27, 2010, an
8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Concepción, killing more than 521 people and injuring thousands nationwide. Following the earthquake, geologists relying on global positioning satellite (GPS) data concluded that the city had been displaced roughly to the west as a result of the event. The tsunami that followed missed the city. After the
2010 Chile earthquake, a
prison riot began in Concepción's
El Manzano prison following a failed escape attempt by the inmates. Different parts of the prison were set on fire and the riot was controlled only after the guards shot into the air and received help from military units. As of March 5, 2010, a Peruvian field hospital has been deployed to the city. ==Seismology==