Lautaro
Encyclopedia
Lautaro was a Mapuche
Mapuche
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...

 military leader and protagonist of the War of Arauco in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

. He defeated and exterminated the Spanish forces of Governor Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, where he served as lieutenant under Francisco Pizarro in Peru, acting as his second in command...

 and was almost able to expel them from the area when he was killed in battle.

Early life

Lautaro was the son of a Mapuche "Lonko" (chief for times of peace). When young, he was captured by some Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 colonizers, and became the personal servant of Don Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, where he served as lieutenant under Francisco Pizarro in Peru, acting as his second in command...

, Spanish conqueror of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

. Lautaro learned the military ways and skills of the Spaniards' army by observing Valdivia and his peers.

Lautaro escaped from Spanish captivity and rejoined the mapuches as a young adult. With the knowledge he had acquired, he introduced use of horses
Horses in warfare
The first use of horses in warfare occurred over 5,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of horses ridden in warfare dates from Eurasia between 4000 and 3000 BC. A Sumerian illustration of warfare from 2500 BC depicts some type of equine pulling wagons...

 to the Mapuche, and designed improved tactics for combat against the Spanish. He attracted a large number of otherwise dispersed Mapuche warriors and formed a native army that could fight successfully against the Spanish conquerors. In 1553 the Mapuches held a parliament in which, given the growing Spanish forces and their decision to remain in the territory, it was decided that war was needed to expel them. The Toqui
Toqui
Toqui is a title conferred by the Mapuche to those who are chosen as their leaders during times of war. The toqui is chosen in an assembly or parliament of the chieftains of the various clans or confederation of clans , allied during the war in question...

 Caupolicán
Caupolican
Caupolicán was a Toqui, the military leader of the Mapuche people of Chile, that commanded their army during the first Mapuche rising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558....

 chose Lautaro as vice Toqui because he had served as an assistant for the Spanish cavalry, and knew various tactics that would allow the Mapuche infantry to defeat the mounted conquistadors. He is considered an icon of the War of Arauco and the first Chilean General, for his revolutionary strategies and the responsibility in uniting the dispersed Mapuche people.

Battle of Tucapel

With 6,000 warriors under his command, Lautaro attacked Fort Tucapel. The Spanish garrison couldn't resist the assault and retreated to Purén. Lautaro seized the fort, sure that the Spaniards would attempt to retake it. This was exactly what Valdivia tried to do with a reduced force, which was quickly surrounded and massacred by the Mapuches. The Battle of Tucapel
Battle of Tucapel
The Battle of Tucapel is the name given to a battle fought between Spanish conquistador forces led by Pedro de Valdivia and Mapuche Indians under Lautaro that took place at Tucapel, Chile on December 25, 1553...

 would be Pedro de Valdivia's last, as he was captured and then killed.

After the defeat at Tucapel, the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 hurriedly reorganized their forces, reinforcing fort Imperial for its defence and abandoning Confines and Arauco in order to strengthen Concepción. However, Araucanian tradition dictated a lengthy victory celebration, which kept Lautaro from exploiting the weakness of the Spanish position as he desired. It was only in February of 1554 that he succeeded in putting together an army of 8,000 men, just in time to confront a punitive expedition under the command of Francisco de Villagra
Francisco de Villagra
Francisco de Villagra Velázquez was a Spanish conquistador, and three times governor of Chile.-Early life:Born at [Santervás de Campos], he was the son of Alvaro de Sarría and Ana Velázquez de Villagra, who were not married. For this reason he took the name of his mother...

.

Battle of Marihueñu

Lautaro chose the hill of Marihueño
Marihueño
Marihueño is a large hill in the Nahuelbuta Range near the coast in the Lota commune of the Bio-Bio Region of southern Chile. Site of the Battle of Marihueñu during the Arauco War, it overlooked the coastal route to Araucanía from Concepción. The place is located on the coast to the north of the...

 to fight the Spanish, and subsequently organized his forces in four divisions: two had the mission of containing and wearing down the enemy, another would be held in reserve to launch a fresh attack as the Spanish were about to crumble, and the last would work to cut off their retreat. Additionally, a small group was sent to destroy the reed bridge the Spanish had erected across the Bío-Bío River
Bío-Bío River
The Biobío River is the second largest river in Chile. It originates from Icalma and Galletué lakes in the Andes and flows 380 km to the Gulf of Arauco on the Pacific Ocean....

, which would disrupt even more the attempted retreat of Villagra.

The Spanish attack broke the first Mapuche lines, but the quick action of the third group maintained the Indian position. Later, the wings of this division began to attack the Spanish flanks, and the fourth division attacked from behind. After hours of battle, only a small group of Spanish were able to retreat.

Despite this new victory, Lautaro was again unable to pursue the opportunity due to the celebrations and beliefs of his people. By the time he arrived at Concepción, it was already abandoned. After burning it, he could not continue the offensive with his remaining forces, and the campaign came to an end as the warriors demobilized.

In Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...

, Villagra reorganized his forces, and that same year of 1554, he departed again for Arauco and reinforced the strongholds of Imperial and Valdivia, without any interference from the Mapuches, who were dealing with their first epidemic of smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

, which was brought by the Spanish.

In 1555, the Real Audiencia in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, ordered him to reconstruct Concepción, which was done under the command of Capitan Alvarado. Lautaro attacked Concepción when he learned that it was being rebuilt, with 4,000 warriors. He put the town under siege, which Alvarado attempted to break unsuccessfully. Only 38 Spaniards managed to escape by sea the second destruction of the city.

Peteroa and the Battle of Mataquito

After this action, Lautaro planned an assault on Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...

, for which he drew scant support from his troops, who soon dwindled to only 600. In October of 1556 he reached in his northward march the Mataquito River
Mataquito River
Mataquito is a river located in the Province of Curicó, Maule Region of Chile and formed by the union of rivers Teno and Lontué about 10 kilometers west of Curicó near the locality of Sagrada Familia and empties into the Pacific Ocean south of the town of Iloca, Licantén.- Source :*...

, where he established a fortified camp at Peteroa
Peteroa
Peteroa is a small town west southwest of the town of Sagrada Familia, Chile.Peteroa is also the name of the location of the fortress built by Lautaro and the site of the Battle of Peteroa. This location is uncertain and sometimes confused with the place on the Mataquito River where Lautaro was...

. In the Battle of Peteroa
Battle of Peteroa
Battle of Peteroa was a battle in the Arauco War in 1556, in a place in a plain beside a river in the Mataquito River valley, called Peteroa....

 he repulsed attacking Spanish forces, first under the small command of Diego Cano and later held off the larger force of Pedro de Villagra
Pedro de Villagra
Pedro de Villagra y Martínez was a Spanish soldier who participated in the conquest of Chile, being appointed its Royal Governor between 1563 and 1565....

. Hearing of more Spaniards approaching, Lautaro retreated towards the Maule River
Maule river
The Maule river is one of the most important rivers of Chile and is inextricably linked to this country's pre-Hispanic times, the country's conquest, colonial period, wars of Independence, modern history, agriculture , culture , religion, economy and politics...

, with the Spaniards in hot pursuit he was forced to retire beyond the Itata River
Itata River
The Itata River flows in the Bío-Bío Region, southern Chile.Until the Conquest of Chile the Itata was the natural limit between the Mapuche, located to the south, and Picunche, to the north.-References:* . - External links :*...

. From there he launched another campaign towards Santiago when Francisco de Villagra
Francisco de Villagra
Francisco de Villagra Velázquez was a Spanish conquistador, and three times governor of Chile.-Early life:Born at [Santervás de Campos], he was the son of Alvaro de Sarría and Ana Velázquez de Villagra, who were not married. For this reason he took the name of his mother...

's army passed him on his way to the save the remaining Spanish settlements in Araucanía instead of confronting them, he gave them the slip and left for the city to attack it.

Despite the stealth under which the Mapuches moved, the city leaders knew of the advance, and sent a small expedition to detain them, buying time for word to be sent to Francisco de Villagra
Francisco de Villagra
Francisco de Villagra Velázquez was a Spanish conquistador, and three times governor of Chile.-Early life:Born at [Santervás de Campos], he was the son of Alvaro de Sarría and Ana Velázquez de Villagra, who were not married. For this reason he took the name of his mother...

 to return to the city from the south. The Spanish forces met in the field, and by the treason of a local Picunche
Picunche
The Picunche , also referred to as picones by the Spanish, were a mapudungun speaking Chilean people living to the north of the Mapuches or Araucanians and south of the Choapa River and the Diaguitas...

, found out about the disposition of Lautaro's camp. At dawn, on April 29, 1557 the conquistadors launched a surprise attack from the hills of Caune, obtaining a decisive victory in the Battle of Mataquito
Battle of Mataquito
Battle of Mataquito was a battle in the Arauco War on April 30, 1557, a dawn surprise attack on Lautaro's fortified camp between a wooded mountain and the shore of the Mataquito River...

 in which Lautaro was killed early in the fighting. After the defeat of his army, his head was cut off and displayed in the plaza of Santiago.

Importance

He is considered an icon of the War of Arauco and the first Chilean General, for his revolutionary strategies and the responsibility in uniting the dispersed Mapuche people. He used only spears and axes to defeat the Spanish army, armed with lances, muskets and horses.

His name was used by Francisco de Miranda
Francisco de Miranda
Sebastián Francisco de Miranda Ravelo y Rodríguez de Espinoza , commonly known as Francisco de Miranda , was a Venezuelan revolutionary...

 when he founded the Logia Lautaro
Logia Lautaro
The Lautaro Lodge was a revolutionary secret lodge active in Latin American politics in the 19th Century. It was initially known as the Lodge of Rational Knights .Its initial purposes were to apply the goals of the Spanish Enlightenment, and when Spain began the Absolutist Restauration they...

, an American independence society of the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Lautaro became a key protagonist in the epic poem La Araucana
La Araucana
La Araucana is an epic poem in Spanish about the Spanish conquest of Chile, by Alonso de Ercilla; it is also known in English as The Araucaniad...

by Alonso de Ercilla
Alonso de Ercilla
Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga was a Spanish nobleman, soldier and epic poet from the Basque Country. While in Chile he fought against the Araucanians, and there he began the epic poem La Araucana, considered the greatest Spanish historical poem. This heroic work in 37 cantos is divided into three...

, a major piece of literature about the Spanish conquest of America. In addition, he is also the subject of a poem by Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an Nobel Literature Prize laureate Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....

.
He appears as an important character in the historical novel Ines del Alma Mia by Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende Llona is a Chilean writer with American citizenship. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts , which have been commercially successful...

. According to Allende, Lautaro deliberately allowed himself to be captured by the Spanish in order to learn their secrets, and made no attempt to escape before he felt he had learned enough.

See also

  • History of Chile
    History of Chile
    The territory of Chile has been populated since at least 2,000 BC. By the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors began to subdue and colonize the region of present-day Chile, and the territory became a colony from 1540 to 1818, when it gained independence from Spain...

  • Pedro de Valdivia
    Pedro de Valdivia
    Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, where he served as lieutenant under Francisco Pizarro in Peru, acting as his second in command...

  • Francisco de Villagra
    Francisco de Villagra
    Francisco de Villagra Velázquez was a Spanish conquistador, and three times governor of Chile.-Early life:Born at [Santervás de Campos], he was the son of Alvaro de Sarría and Ana Velázquez de Villagra, who were not married. For this reason he took the name of his mother...

  • Arauco War
    Arauco War
    The Arauco War was a conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people in what is now the Araucanía and Biobío regions of modern Chile...



  • Mapuche people
    Mapuche
    The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...

  • Caupolicán
    Caupolican
    Caupolicán was a Toqui, the military leader of the Mapuche people of Chile, that commanded their army during the first Mapuche rising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558....

  • Colocolo
    Colocolo (tribal chief)
    Colocolo was a Mapuche leader in the early period of the Arauco War. He was a major figure in Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga's epic poem La Araucana, about the early Arauco War. In the poem he was the one that proposed the contest between the rival candidates for Toqui that resulted in the choice of...



Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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