Conquest of Chile

Chile at the time of the Spanish arrivals According to traditional historiography, when the Spanish first came to Central Chile the territory had been under Inca rule for about 60 years. The main settlements of the Inca Empire in Chile lay along the Aconcagua River, Mapocho River, and the Maipo River. Quillota, in the Aconcagua valley, was likely their foremost settlement. This outer zone would according to historian José Bengoa have been located between the Maipo and Maule Rivers. The Mapuche population between the Itata River and Reloncaví Sound has been estimated at 705,000–900,000 in the mid-16th century by historian José Bengoa. Mapuches lived in scattered hamlets, mainly along the great rivers of Southern Chile. All major population centres lay at the confluences of rivers. Mapuches preferred to build their houses on hilly terrain or isolated hills rather than on plains and terraces. Yet Mapuches had been influenced over centuries by Central Andean cultures such as Tiwanaku. A cultural linkage of this sort may help explain parallels in mythological cosmologies among Mapuches, Huilliches and the peoples of the Central Andes. Through their contact with Incan invaders Mapuches would have for the first time met people with state-level organization. Their contact with the Inca is thought to have given them a collective awareness to distinguishing between them and the invaders and uniting them into loose geopolitical units despite their lack of state organization. Mapuche territory had an effective system of roads before the Spanish arrival as evidenced by the fast advances of the Spanish conquerors. According to Zavala and co-workers (2021), the widespread gold-related toponyms in Mapuche lands and early Spanish reports of gold objects, plus the easiness for the Spanish to find gold mines suggests that gold mining did occur in Pre-Hispanic Chile south of Itata River, well beyond the borders of the Inca Empire. ==Pedro de Valdivia==

Expedition to Chile In April 1539, Francisco Pizarro authorized Pedro de Valdivia as his lieutenant governor with orders to conquer Chile. That did not include monetary aid, which he had to procure on his own. Valdivia did so, in association with the merchant Francisco Martínez Vegaso, captain Alonso de Monroy, and Pedro Sanchez de la Hoz. 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. This was the last campaign for the Spanish in Chile. expedition to southern Chile in 1544. Valdivia came to the Valley of Copiapo and took possession in the name of the King of Spain and named it Nueva Extremadura, for his Spanish homeland of Extremadura. Arriving in central Chile, Pedro de Valdivia was confronted by the toqui Michimalonco, who a couple of years before had expelled the Incas from the northern parts of the Mapuche lands. The Spanish and Mapuche faced each other in the Battle of Mapocho, in which Valdivia was victorious. Michimalonco decided to make a tactical retreat to gather more contingents and to expel the Spanish invaders with a surprise attack, but the Spanish learnt of this accumulation of forces and decided to head for where the Mapuche were accumulating for their surprise attack and at the Battle of Chillox, Michimalonco was defeated again. The resounding victory left Pedro de Valdivia confident. On February 12, 1541, he founded the city of Santiago de la Nueva Extremadura on Huelen hill (present-day Santa Lucia Hill). After a few months of settlement, Pedro de Valdivia gathered his forces and went directly to attack the fortress of Michimalonco in Paidahuén, leading to the battle of Paidahuén where the Mapuches were completely defeated and Michimalonco taken prisoner. To obtain his freedom, Michimalonco offered the Spanish the ownership of the Marga Marga gold pans, belonging to Michimalonco since his expulsion of the Incas. With this, Michimalonco and his imprisoned men were released and Michimalonco set some of his vassals to work for the Spanish in their exploitation of the gold. Governor Valdivia had rejected the position and titles due him while Pizarro was alive, as it could have been seen as an act of treason. He accepted the titles after the death of Francisco Pizarro. Pedro de Valdivia was named Governor and Captain-General of the Captaincy General of Chile on June 11, 1541. He was the first Governor of Chile. For long time Valdivia was preoccupied about other Spanish conquistadors disputing him what he saw as his domains. As long as he did not have a royal assignment this could very much happen. At the time of the initial contact Mapuches called horses "hueque ingas" in reference to the hueque according to Valdivia's letter to the Emperor. ==Aspects of the Spanish conquest==

Background of the conquistadores Most conquistadores were Spanish men. A few where from elsewhere, like Juan Valiente who was a black-skinned African. Juan de Bohon (Johann von Bohon), the founder of La Serena and Barlolomeo Flores (Barotholomeus Blumental) are said to have been Germans. Navigator Juan Bautista Pastene was of Genoese origin. Inés Suárez stands out as a rare female conquistadora. Founding of cities The conquest of Chile was not carried out directly by the Spanish Crown but by Spaniards that formed enterprises for those purposes and gathered financial resources and soldiers for the enterprise by their own. 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. The inhabitants of Santiago in the mid-16th century were notoriously poorly dressed as result of a lack of armour and food supplies, with some Spanish even resorting to dress with hides from dogs, cats, sea lions, and foxes. The second founding of La Serena in 1549 (initially founded in 1544 but destroyed by natives) was followed by the founding of numerous new cities in southern Chile halting only after Valdivia's death in 1553. The cities founded, despite defeats in the Arauco War, were: Santiago (1541), La Serena (1544), Concepción (1550), La Imperial, Valdivia, Villarrica (1552), Los Confines (1553), Cañete (1557), Osorno (1558), Arauco (1566), Castro (1567), Chillán (1580), and Santa Cruz de Oñez (1595). The destruction of the Seven Cities in 1600, and ongoing Arauco War stopped Spanish expansion southward. Use of yanacona Spanish conquerors were accompanied by thousands of yanakuna from the territories of today's Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador who also settled in Chile. Due to a matter of prestige, many yanakuna claimed to be from the former imperial capital of Cusco. Gold mining Early Spaniards extracted gold from placer deposits using indigenous labour. 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. The key area of the Arauco War were the valleys around Cordillera de Nahuelbuta where the Spanish designs for this region was to exploit the placer deposits of gold using unfree Mapuche labour from the nearby and densely populated valleys. The original site of the city was likely close to modern Pucón. Compared to the 16th and 18th centuries, Chilean mining activity in the 17th century was very limited. ==Southern limit of the conquests==

Pedro de Valdivia sought originally to conquer all of southern South America to the Straits of Magellan (53° S). He did however only reach Reloncaví Sound (41°45' S). Later in 1567 Chiloé Archipelago (42°30' S) was conquered, from there on southern expansion of the Spanish Empire halted. The Spanish are thought to have lacked incentives for further conquests south. The indigenous populations were scarce and had ways of life that differed from the sedentary agricultural life the Spanish were accustomed to. The harsh climate in the fjords and channels of Patagonia may also have deterred further expansion. ==Timeline of events==