On This Day...
On this day in 1598, 300 Mapuche natives attacked and nearly wiped out a column of 50 Spanish soldiers and 300 native auxiliaries at the battle of Curalaba. Only two Spaniards survived the ambush, which also killed the governor, Martín García Óñez de Loyola. The stunning defeat ended Spanish expansion into southern Chile for nearly 300 years.
The growth of the Spanish Empire in the New World in the decades after the original explorations of Christopher Columbus and others at the end of the fifteenth century led to the establishment of far flung settlements in rapid succession. By 1536, Spanish conquistadors had advanced from their initial foothold in modern day Peru and Ecuador south, and into the mountain and river-crossed land of present day Chile. Santiago, the capital, was established in 1541 and was the principal settlement and hub of future expansion further south. In the following decade, the tentacles of Spanish colonialism reached into the Araucanía region, crossing the Biobío River. Here the Spanish built seven cities in lands controlled by the Mapuche people. The Mapuches resisted this encroachment onto their homeland a long-running conflict between them and the Spanish, the Arauco War, resulted.
Martín García Óñez de Loyola arrived in Santiago in September 1592 to assume the role of Royal Governor of the Captaincy General of Chile. Óñez de Loyola’s goal was to more aggressively prosecute the war against the Mapuches by building up defenses at key points in the frontier and housing a garrison of Spanish soldiers in each. Óñez de Loyola led 110 soldiers to Concepción, where he realized that he did not have sufficient resources to undertake a pacification campaign in the Arauco, so he requested reinforcements from the Viceroyalty of Peru.
The Spanish viceroy, however, was wary of British privateers raiding coastal cities and declined to send any additional soldiers to Óñez de Loyola. Impatient, the governor proceeded anyway in May 1594 and established a fort on the Biobio River called Santa Cruz de Oñez. A year later, the fort was recognized as a city was renamed Santa Cruz de Coya. The settlement was built to protect and take advantage of the vast gold mines in the region. Its presence was deeply resented by the Mapuches and their leader Pelantaro. Leaving the 110 soldiers at the fort, Óñez de Loyola returned to Santiago where he again requested for resources. Three years later in 1597, 140 additional soldiers arrived and the governor duly dispatched them to Santa Cruz de Coya to supplement the garrison.
In December 1598, Óñez de Loyola learned of a Mapuche attack on the city of Angol in the Araucanía. The governor departed the city of La Imperial and then proceeded to Santa Cruz de Coya where he took 50 soldiers from the garrison and assembled 300 nearby friendly tribesman into a column. He then marched towards Purén where another fort was located. On the second night of the march, the Spanish established a camp near the Lumaco River. Óñez de Loyola took no security precautions and failed to establish any defenses. Pelantaro detected the presence of the Spanish column and, with his lieutenants Anganamón and Guaiquimilla, assembled a cavalry force. The Mapuches attacked the Spanish camp, catching the reset conquistadors by surprise. Despite this disadvantage the Spanish fought hard, but were nonetheless overrun. Martín García Óñez de Loyola was speared in the chest and died on the battlefield. His head was taken as a prize by Pelantaro and added to his collection, which included that of Pedro de Valdivia, the first Royal Governor of Chile.
At the time of the battle, a larger uprising by the Mapuches had already been planned by Paillamachu. Taking advantage of the decisive Spanish defeat, the Mapuches attacked and destroyed all seven Spanish cities south of the Biobio River. After this series of sharp setbacks, Alonso de Ribera, the successor to Martín García Óñez de Loyola, decided to abandon the Araucanía, fix a border to the north, and instead fight a defensive war against the Mapuche people. This policy was followed by every subsequent Spanish governor and was inherited by the Government of the Republic of Chile when it declared independence from Spain in 1818. The pacification and settlement of the Araucanía would not be attempted again until 1861, and the effort lasted until the final defeat of the Mapuches in 1883. For nearly 300 years, the Mapuches had succeeded where the vast majority of other native tribes around the world had failed against the might of the Spanish Empire.
