Conquest of Chile
The Conquest of Chile is a period in which the history of Chile is conventionally divided. It includes from the arrival of Pedro de Valdivia to Chile in 1540 until the death of Martín García Óñez de Loyola in 1598 after the battle of Curalaba between the Spanish and the Mapuche.
After the initial success of the Spanish conquest in the area of the transversal valleys and the founding of Santiago in 1541, the conquerors faced indigenous resistance in different rebellions that began the so-called Arauco War. The Spanish defeat at Curalaba and the destruction of the seven cities between Biobío and Chacao led to a relative stabilization of two war borders and the beginning of the period called "the Colony".
Government of Pedro de Valdivia
Despite having accumulated a significant fortune through his participation in Peru, his restless spirit led him to begin a trip to Chile, to leave behind glory and fame. In April 1539, Pizarro gave him authorization as his lieutenant governor to go on to conquer Chile, but that did not imply monetary aid, he had to provide it at his own expense. He associated himself with the merchant Francisco Martínez Vegaso, with Captain Alonso de Monroy and also had to enter into a company contract with Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz, Pizarro's former secretary, who came back from Spain with the king's authorization to explore the lands at south of the Strait of Magellan and with the title of governor of them.
After Almagro's failed expedition, no one wanted to go to Chile, considered a cursed land that offered no riches, but only suffering. He obtained only eleven soldiers for his army, plus a woman, Inés Suárez, and about a thousand auxiliary Indians. Along the way he would be joined by more expeditionaries, such as Francisco de Villagra and Francisco de Aguirre who, together with his men, increased the forces of Valdivia.
Unlike Diego de Almagro, he took the route through the Atacama Desert. Sánchez de la Hoz, who had stayed in Peru trying to obtain agreed upon reinforcements, which he failed to do, filling himself with debt, arrived at the Valdivia camp at night and tried to assassinate him to usurp the leadership of the army.
But Valdivia was absent, and upon his return he forgives Sánchez de la Hoz and banishes three of his accomplices, obtaining in exchange his renunciation of all rights of expedition and conquest.
Upon reaching the Copiapó valley, he takes this land in the name of the King of Spain and names it Nueva Extremadura, in memory of his native land. He renews the march towards the Aconcagua valley, where the Michimalonco chief tried to stop him without success. The deaths of the chiefs of southern Tiwantinsuyu, inflicted by Almagro upon returning to Cuzco, precipitated the conquest of the territory. On February 12, 1541, he laid the foundations of the city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo at the foot of the Santa Lucía hill (Smells in Mapudungún) and enclosed between the arms of the Mapocho River. He laid out the city in the shape of a checkerboard, within the river island they divided the entire land into blocks, which were divided into four lots that were assigned to the first neighbors. The layout and formation of the city was followed by the creation of the first council, an organization that organized public life at that time, importing the Spanish legal and institutional system.
The word began to spread that the Almagritas had killed Pizarro. If the news were true, the powers of lieutenant governor of Valdivia would expire. Another person from Peru could then come to take control of the nascent colony and be forgotten, handing over the indigenous encomiendas to upstarts.
The council considered these points and resolved to give Valdivia the title of governor and captain general in the name of the king, which he initially rejected for strategic reasons so as not to appear a traitor to Pizarro in the event that he was still alive, but in the face of the threat After giving it to someone else, he accepted the title on June 11, 1541, being then the first Governor of Chile.
Valdivia organizes the first distribution of indigenous parcels among the residents of Santiago. Although Chile was not rich in mineral resources like Peru, and did not have as efficient an indigenous labor force, these men were assigned to tend to the work in the fields, to build houses and, above all, to do the laundry. gold. The first times were hard, especially after the attack by the chief Michimalonco, on September 11, 1541, on the nascent city, reducing it to a pile of rubble due to fires. The indigenous people took advantage of the occasion when Valdivia and a group of conquistadors were exploring outside the city to attack. Those who defended the city at the time put up a tough battle and the result was no worse thanks to the help of Inés de Suárez who decided to kill the imprisoned chiefs and throw their heads at the attackers on the palisades that surrounded the city.
The hostilities of the attacks stopped, but the almost destroyed city fell into misery so, in order to save the conquest of Chile, Valdivia sent Alonso Monroy to Peru for help, who could only return with the help entrusted to late 1543, almost three years after the destruction of the city.
Valdivia began various advance works, among which the founding of other cities stands out, starting with La Serena (1544). Then Valdivia undertook a campaign towards the unexplored south, reaching the banks of the Biobío River, starting the war against the Mapuche people or War of Arauco, which is recounted by Alonso de Ercilla in his work La Araucana (1576). Militarily he obtained important triumphs, such as the battle of Andalién and the battle of Penco (1550). These great victories allowed Valdivia to establish cities in indigenous territories, such as Concepción (1550), La Imperial, Valdivia (1552), Villarrica (1552), and Los Confines (1553). That same year, the Mapuche rebellion led by Lautaro in a momentous battle ended the life of Valdivia in Tucapel in 1553. Certain historical documents tell as a legend that Lautaro opened Valdivia's chest and devoured him with all his fury directed towards the Spanish crown..
Conflicts after the death of Pedro de Valdivia
In Valdivia's will, which was only to be opened upon his death, he named Gerónimo de Alderete as governor of Chile first, Francisco de Aguirre second, and finally Francisco de Villagra. Alderete was in Spain negotiating the recognition of the position of Valdivia by the king, Aguirre in the conquest of Tucumán and Villagra in the southern cities (Concepción, La Imperial and Valdivia). The southern cities then proclaimed Villagra as governor. The same did not happen in Santiago, where Valdivia's will was not respected and the Cabildo proclaimed Rodrigo de Quiroga governor.
Villagrá tried to stop the indigenous rebellion, which was led by Lautaro, but when facing the battle of Marihueñu on February 26, he suffered a terrible defeat, as a result of which, half of his soldiers were killed and suffering. depopulation and informed his father of the events and his designation of second place in the will, so he returned to Chile and a fight broke out between the two captains, from which Villagra came out better off, a product that his rival had support only in the north of the governorate (La Serena and Tucumán), while Villagra had the support of the inhabitants of the southern cities, many of them living in Santiago after the depopulation of Concepción.
To resolve this situation, the Santiago City Council submits the situation to the arbitration ruling of the two lawyers who live in Santiago, Alonso de las Peñas and Julián Gutiérrez de Altamirano. Although Villagra agreed to submit to the lawyers' ruling, Aguirre rejected them because he distrusted the decisions that will be made in Santiago.0
The lawyers traveled to Valparaíso to issue their ruling, the sentence arrived in Santiago on October 3 and was read in the parade ground the following morning. It stipulated that Villagra would immediately leave to help the cities of Imperial and Valdivia and that if within seven months the name of the new president did not arrive from the Court, Villagra would be recognized as governor.
The Arauco war continued its course, and Lautaro once again defeated the Spanish in Angol and in the refounded Concepción. Villagra, complying with the ruling of the lawyers, marches south, and manages to enter the Mapuche camp by surprise with his men, killing Lautaro and defeating the Araucanians in the battle of Mataquito on April 1, 1557.
When the seven months that the lawyers had given as a deadline to the Court had expired, Villagra returned to Santiago where he was appointed governor. Once with the title he decided to travel to La Serena to assert his title against Aguirre, but he Upon learning that Villagra is on his way, he travels to Copiapó to avoid him. In Copiapó Aguirre received news from the north that a new viceroy had arrived in Peru and a new governor had been appointed for Nono; It was García Hurtado de Mendoza.
Government of García Hurtado de Mendoza
Francisco de Aguirre received him very hospitably in the city of La Serena, but knowing the new governor the problems between Aguirre and Francisco de Villagra for the governorship of Chile would begin, he did not hesitate for a second to take him prisoner, repeating the same situation with Villagra.
He immediately headed to Araucanian land, building the fort San Luis de Toledo, which was promptly attacked by the Mapuches, who, however, were defeated, since the governor managed to counteract their numbers with the force of the cannons. and harquebuses.
He led a new campaign in October 1557, with a powerful army of more than 500 men and thousands of indigenous auxiliaries. During this campaign, the battle of Lagunillas occurred on November 7, where the Spaniards were saved alive mainly due to the bravery demonstrated by Rodrigo de Quiroga and the other captains.
Alonso de Ercilla, who came to Chile in the group brought by the governor, says that the Spanish took the chief Galvarino prisoner in that battle, whose left hand was cut off. Having lost that hand without any grimace of pain, Galvarino placed the other one, which was also cut off. He asked for death, but the conquerors let him go and the Araucanian left with his people to plan his revenge.
Among the Mapuche leaders who were there, Caupolicán stood out, who led a new attack against the invader on November 30, in the so-called battle of Millarapue, in the valley of the same name, which was full of accidents that made it easier for him. Surprise attack. This battle was another Mapuche defeat, whose punishment was the hanging of 30 of them, which included Galvarino, who always fought in the front row.
The hardships of the fight began to bother García Hurtado de Mendoza's companions, who hoped to obtain riches for their services. To deliver them to them, the governor left the parcels of Concepción vacant, a city at that time abandoned, handing it over to his companions. For this reason, the city was refounded for the third time.
Shortly afterward he also founded the city of Cañete de la Frontera, and once his troops had recovered from the battles, he divided them again. Caupolicán, instigated by Andresillo, decided to attack Fort Tucapel. What he did not know was that Andresillo was a traitor who told the details of the attack to the Spaniards, so the assailants became the attacked, causing an escape in which they left many wounded and prisoners, and seriously weakened their forces.
The morale of the Spanish rose and in a surprise assault on the Caupolicán camp, they managed to capture it. The Mapuche chief, taken to Fort Tucapel, attempted to make a pact with the Spanish, promising to convert to Christianity, but Reinoso, the head of the fort, decided to condemn him to death by impaling, that is, to sit on a pike that would painfully destroy his insides. That sentence was fulfilled, and that was the end of Caupolicán.
The indigenous people fought a new battle at the Quiapo fort, between Cañete and Concepción, but they were again rejected. Confident that to speed up the conquest it was necessary to found several forts, he founded one with the name of Los Infante or San Andrés de Angol.
Some time later he learned that his father, the viceroy, had been replaced by the king, and that his replacement was already on the way. To make matters worse, they appointed Francisco de Villagra as governor of Chile, from whom he had to expect the same humiliations that he made him suffer. For these reasons he decided to leave Chile, passing through Santiago, which he had not visited during his entire government. There he learned of the death of his father's successor, so he was still in command, which gave him more confidence, so he stayed in the capital for a while longer.
During his stay in Santiago, the Santillán tax was published, which established the mita system for indigenous work, which instead of sending all the indigenous people of a repartimiento to work, a shift in the service was established, leaving The chief of each tribe was obliged to send one man out of every six vassals to work for the exploitation of the mines, and one out of every five for agricultural work. This worker, who until then had not been paid any salary, was to be remunerated with one-sixth of the product of his work, and this fee was to be paid regularly at the end of each month. Women and men under 18 and over 50 were also exempted from work, and it was ordered that the indigenous people be supported by the encomenderos, who also had to keep them healthy and evangelized.
New news would change his course, his father had just died. He decided to leave immediately for Peru, appointing Quiroga as interim governor, while waiting for Villagra.
Governments of Francisco and Pedro de Villagra
The new government of Francisco de Villagra began with a demonstration of his eternal bad star, since the ship he came on brought smallpox to Chile, causing a disastrous epidemic in Valparaíso and Santiago, but which also affected even more severely to the Mapuches and they lost between a fifth and a quarter of their population.
At the beginning of his mandate, he reorganized the regulations of work in the mines and annulled the orders that García Hurtado de Mendoza had given to his friends and colleagues, which caused new protests.
He organized a new expedition, but his body, tired from so much battle, fell irremediably ill, having to be carried on a stretcher to the battle sites. He also suffered in this war the death of his son Pedro de Villagra, the young man, which worsened his mental and physical condition.
He appointed his cousin Pedro de Villagra to continue the campaign, later also giving him the title of interim governor, thanks to a power granted by the viceroy.
Pedro de Villagra was already the de facto ruler, so the war did not change course. Resonant victories were obtained in Angol, finally defeating the forces led by chief Loble, in 1564. Later he led a new campaign in the south, being victorious against the Mapuches in the battles of Reinohuelén and Tolmillán.
The death of the viceroy of Peru worsened his situation as governor, and he was replaced by Rodrigo de Quiroga.
Government of Rodrigo de Quiroga
The government of Rodrigo de Quiroga lasted until 1567 and was marked by constant confrontations with the indigenous people, from which he emerged victorious. He undertook a new campaign, organized by Lorenzo Bernal del Mercado. He rebuilt Cañete, repopulated Arauco, and conquered the island of Chiloé, with the founding of Castro and pacified the docile cuncos of that island.
Despite these triumphs (which would prove to be very ineffective in the near future), the court did not recognize his merits and upon returning to the capital he learned of the appointment of the Royal Court in Chile, which was to direct the country's destinies.
The Royal Court of Concepción and Melchor Bravo de Saravia
The government of the Royal Court had fallen into complete discredit in a short time, and the court itself recognized its error, which is why it appointed its president, Melchor Bravo de Saravia, as governor of Chile. He headed south to take part in the Arauco War, achieving only one new defeat in the assault on the Mapuche fort of Mareguano, for which Arauco and Cañete had to be evacuated. Exhausted, he delegated the containment of the Mapuches to General Lorenzo Bernal del Mercado, dedicating himself to civil administration.
His administrative work was harmed by the war expenses in the south as well as by the Concepción earthquake of 1570, which destroyed all the houses in that city, although there were no deaths, despite even the fact that later there was a indigenous attack.
At the end of his mandate, in which the construction of the church of San Francisco in Santiago was also begun and the bishopric of Concepción was created, he was replaced by Rodrigo de Quiroga (1575).
Second government of Rodrigo de Quiroga
Quiroga's second administration was more conflictive than the first. Added to the war were pirate raids, the two earthquakes of 1575, the conflict with Bishop San Miguel over the appointment of ecclesiastical positions and the reduction in the salary of priests, which earned him threats of excommunication.
Spain promised to send 500 reinforcements to definitively end the war, but only 300 arrived, of much lower quality than expected and practically without equipment. Overcoming these difficulties and his illness (he had to be carried in a chair on the battlefield), he carried out a new campaign against the Mapuches, led on this occasion by the mestizo Alonso Díaz.
The Campaign had relative successes, which allowed it to face another threat, the appearance of sir Francis Drake on the coasts of Chile, who plundered the port of Valparaíso, but when he tried to repeat his action in La Serena encountered armed resistance from the inhabitants, who destroyed one of her men.
On December 16, 1575, an earthquake occurred that ruined the cities of La Imperial, Ciudad Rica (Villarrica), Osorno, Castro and Valdivia. The earthquake toppled a hill at the outlet of Lake Riñihue, blocking the drainage and as a large amount of water accumulated, it overflowed and caused another disaster.
His serious illness and his age (he was approaching 80 years old) prevented him from continuing to direct the war, entrusting it to his son-in-law Martín Ruiz de Gamboa.
Government of Martín Ruiz de Gamboa
As soon as Quiroga died, on February 25, 1580, the council of Santiago sent messengers to inform Martín Ruiz de Gamboa of this fact, and to ask him to travel to the capital to receive his command. He was sworn on March 8, 1580.
He requested the ratification of his command from the viceroy of Peru and the king. The viceroy took more than a year to confirm Gamboa in the high position he held, signing the rectification on April 24, 1571, while the king, upon learning the news, would adopt a different position.
To ensure his election as governor, Gamboa thought that by fulfilling the king's wish to protect the indigenous people from abuse he would achieve his goal. For this, he replaced the Santillán rate, which in practice was never met, with a new one, known until now as the Gamboa rate. This replaces personal service with a tribute. The indigenous people of repartimiento were obliged to pay a pecuniary tribute of nine pesos annually in the bishopric of Santiago and seven in that of La Imperial. The position of corregidors of Indians was created, officials in charge of ensuring these laws and their protection. These officials had to be rewarded with a portion of the tribute paid by their servants, but the majority of this tribute formed the income of the encomenderos.
The measure caused increasing confrontations between the encomenderos, since they would be left in the most miserable poverty, since they were sure (and so it happened) that the indigenous people would not pay the new taxes and would dedicate themselves to leisure.
Winning many enemies with this, they dedicated themselves to bringing rumors to the viceroy, that every day a more negative image of Gamboa began to be created.
Meanwhile, it has to face the rebellion of its lieutenant governor Lope de Azócar, who resisted the administration of Ruiz de Gamboa. But the governor gains control of the situation, arrests him and sends him out of Chile.
The last years of his mandate, between 1581 and 1583, he was in the south of the country, permanently confronting the indigenous people. During the campaign he founded the city of San Bartolomé de Gamboa, a name that would not prosper and would be known to posterity as Chillán. The situation of the War during his mandate only worsened, since the Mapuche rebellion was joined by that of the Huilliches, who had previously not been aggressive, and that of the Picunches in Chillán.
He had sent for reinforcements from Spain and Peru, which actually arrived (although there were many desertions on the trip), but under the command of Alonso de Sotomayor, his successor designated by the king.
Government of Alonso de Sotomayor
Alonso de Sotomayor arrived in Chile in 1583, also having the position of resident judge, so he had to take charge of the innumerable accusations against the dismissed governor, Martín Ruiz de Gamboa, who had become very unpopular due to his tax. indigenous that prohibited their personal work.
Sotomayor had to detain him in the houses of the Santiago council, from where he was allowed to leave with jail bail, but then she released him completely with his acquittal.
With this background, his first decision was the reestablishment of the personal service system for the indigenous people, repealing the Gamboa Tax and reimplementing the Santillán Tax, although humanizing it to avoid the excesses that these encomenderos were victims of.
Sotomayor wanted to develop the conquest of Chile in the style of Pedro de Valdivia, that is, building forts that protected each other and the cities, an idea that he was unable to achieve, since he needed a professional army for this, a request not satisfied by the Hispanic authorities due to the scarcity of resources that the Crown had.
At that time he carried out several campaigns against the Mapuches. He managed to capture the mestizo Alonso Díaz, whom he had been directing for some years. He sent his brother Luis to carry out a campaign in the vicinity of Valdivia, and managed to repel the Mapuches in a surprise attack they carried out in Angol (January 16, 1585).
In that year Sotomayor began to implement her plan with the few men she had. He ordered the construction of a fort in a place called Millapoa on each of the banks of the Biobío River, with the aim of cutting off communications between the Mapuches and the indigenous people of the north. He built another fort in Puren, where he also placed a small detachment. The governor hoped to soon establish a town in each of those places, convinced that this was the most effective means of reducing those tribes, and that the reinforcements that would arrive would be sufficient for the definitive conquest of Chile.
But all these actions did not really weaken the Mapuche, since the capture of Díaz changed nothing and the forts did not produce the desired effect. On the other hand, the Araucanians showed themselves to be more skilled every day in the handling of Spanish weapons and horses, their only limit being the harquebus, since they still did not know how to handle it and the lack of gunpowder would have prevented them from doing so anyway.
Among the problems he had to face were the attacks by English privateers, notably Thomas Cavendish, who anchored on April 9, 1587 in Quintero, in which his men were defeated by Spanish forces, losing 10 of his men. In addition to the Mapuche, he had to face two uprisings by soldiers from the south, motivated by the hardships they suffered, as they wanted to be paid with salaries and no longer with parcels.
Alarmed by this situation and by the few efforts sent, he headed to Peru on July 30, 1592, with hopes of obtaining men that would allow him to carry out an effective campaign against the Araucanians. He left in command Pedro de Viscarra, an elderly and circumspect lawyer, who about two years earlier had arrived from Spain with the title of lieutenant governor and chief justice of the Captaincy General of Chile. Chile was a territory belonging to the Viceroyalty of Peru and was a Captaincy General, but not a kingdom.
He landed in Callao in August 1592, where he learned that the king had appointed a new governor of Chile, Martín García Óñez de Loyola.
Government of Martín García Óñez de Loyola
Óñez de Loyola arrived in Chile on September 23 of that year, determined to pacify Arauco, so he immediately headed to Concepción, at the head of one hundred and ten men that he managed to gather in the capital (February 1593).. With such scarce resources that he had in the Captaincy General, Óñez de Loyola realized that without reinforcements he would not achieve his objective, so he asked for reinforcements from Peru because in his current campaign he was maintaining himself with only a little more than 200.
The appearance of the Dutch pirate Richard Hawkins, who raised the alarm in Peru, delayed the sending of reinforcements (it was said that they were necessary for the defense of Peru). During his raids, Hawkins also attacked the port of Valparaíso, but as the loot was very poor, in an act of chivalry, he returned the items that were of no use to him and released the captured sailors.
The governor did not receive the requested men, but two religious orders did arrive, the Augustinian fathers and the Jesuits, the latter would have great importance in the future events that occurred during the colony in Chile until their expulsion.
The governor decided not to wait any longer, and in 1594 he began the southern campaigns with the small contingent he had. Three years later, a reinforcement of one hundred and forty men arrived, but they were not enough, to which was added Santiago's refusal to send more men. The few reinforcements were not the fault of the viceroy, who offered generous offers to join the army, but because Chile's name was so stained by that endless war that no one wanted to risk his life by going to that hell.
The Battle of Curalaba
He was in La Imperial when the news reached him that they had already resumed their raids, so he left on December 21, 1598 with 50 men to the place. On the second day of the march they found a place called Curalaba ('the broken stone' in Mapudungun), on the banks of the Lumaco River, surrounded by high barracks, where they rested without even taking any precautionary measures to avoid an attack. On the night of the 23rd to the 24th, the indigenous people approached the camp, and to the thunder of their shouts and horns they launched themselves to attack the Spanish.
Óñez de Loyola, and two of his soldiers who were at his side, performed prodigies of courage, but succumbed, pierced by the Mapuche pikes. Almost all the Spaniards died in the fray, with the exception of the clergyman Bartolomé Pérez, who was taken prisoner, and Bernardo de Pereda, a soldier who was left lying on the battlefield with 23 wounds on his body but still alive. Chilean historical sources call this event the "Curalaba disaster", while modern authors close to the Mapuche movement call it "victory of Curalaba"
The Mapuche then began a general uprising that finally ended with the destruction of the seven cities south of the Biobío River, with the exception of Castro. From now on, the Spanish paralyzed their expansion towards the south and the territories they controlled were divided, with their northern territory (the Captaincy General of Chile) having the Biobío River as the southern border, and their southern territory (Chiloé) as the northern border. shore of the Chacao canal (except for the subsequent recovery of the territory and city of Valdivia in 1645, and the recovery at the end of the colony of the territories south of this city, such as the city of Osorno).
With this fact it is considered that the period of the Conquest of Chile comes to an end, and it is the beginning of the period of the Colony of Chile.