One of the first measures taken by the Spanish crown to organize the setback (misfortune) caused after Curalaba, where many settlements ended up sacked and totally destroyed, was naming a man with experience in conflict resolution: Alonso de Ribera. This Spanish soldier had stood out in the wars of Italy and the Flemish Region and seemed to be the ideal person (suitable) to bring peace to one of the zones that had caused the most problems, human casualties and loss of resources to the Spanish.
After arriving to the country, the new governor ascertained the existence of an improvised army that lacked military discipline. For this reason, Ribera made the professionalization of the troops one of his first goals. This way, applying a strict a strict regimen and internal organization, he managed to organize the soldiers.
In 1604, the king of Spain Phillip II issued a Royal Decree of Graces that authorized the creation of a permanent army in the region and the sending of money and goods from the viceroyalty of Peru to support it. A great part of this money was devoted to financing the soldiers’ salaries.
At the same time, Ribera managed to define important tasks within the army and erect a series of forts in the northern zone of the Biobio river, setting up a kind of border between the Spanish and the fighting Indians. This would soothe the confrontations between sides, which would be limited to malocas (violent entry of Spaniards into mapuche zones to look for slaves) or malones (assault of Spanish settlements by the Indians).
Change of strategy
The ideas of friar Bartolome de Las Casas without a doubt changed the course of events regarding the treatment the Spanish gave American aborigines. After being ordained as a priest, Spaniard De Las Casas got to know the reality lived by the Indians after the arrival of the conquerors, which led him to promote a campaign to end with the abuse and injustice. Such was his determination that he even reached the royal court to present his ideas, which were heard and also implemented.
Although the friar condemned many of the natives’ beliefs as a member of the Catholic Church (like polytheistic cults or polygamy), he criticized the way they were treated. For him, evangelization did not justify the unmeasured violence nor the constant humiliations the Indians had to go through.
Although father De Las Casas’ ideas were presented across the Atlantic, they reached many people, arriving to our territory. By the hand of the Society of Jesus, and based on evangelizing and pacifying ideas, the so called defensive war was encouraged, which consisted on eliminating all violent methods of conquest, pacifying the insurgents through evangelization. The great promoter of this idea in Chile was Jesuit father Luis de Valdivia, who managed to get the support of Phillip III to establish his strategy. Back in the country and when the conflict in the south was once again going sour, De Valdivia called a meeting with the loncos of Concepcion in 1612 to explain the peace agreement. Europeans would respect their lands if in exchange they allowed the entry of evangelizing missions.
The mapuche chiefs accepted the deal, but a single provocation would suffice for the peace plans to fail. In one of the first missions, the mapuches killed three priests after torturing them with great cruelty. This put an end to one of the most optimistic and less violent projects to end the Arauco conflict.
The return of violence
After the end of the defensive war in 1626, king Phillip IV authorized a more violent strategy to pacify the Araucania. The return of offensive combat was not only justified by the absolute failure of father Luis de Valdivia’s plan, but it would also enable the capture and enslavement of Indians caught with weapons, which were sent to work at ranches in large amounts.
This way, there was a return to bloody confrontations that ended up with many deaths and prisoners on both sides. Most times, the Spanish only looked to provoke the Indians in order to capture them as slaves, while the mapuches responded with violent sacks to the ranches, razing crops and entire towns.
A peaceful approach: Parliaments
Although the extensive Arauco conflict was characterized for its violence and raw nature, there were also periods in which both sides, exhausted from the incessant struggle, looked for new ways of rapprochement and peace. This is how the parliaments arose, meetings between Spanish and the main Indian chiefs, where the intention was to establish coherent and long lasting peace. In 1641, while Francisco Lopez Zuñiga governed our country, the parliament of Quilin took place, meeting in which, after trading speeches, the commitment of the governor was established to respect Indian lands and liberties in exchange for the return of Spanish captives and the unhindered entry of missionaries and merchants.
Although the convention was considered a resounding success and was even sealed with barbecues and the exchange of goods, after a time it proved to be insufficient. There was certainly the commitment by both sides to comply with the deal, but one of the essential characteristics of mapuche society would conspire against the effectiveness of this new strategy. This was that the Indians lacked a central authority and only obeyed the family authority, thus explaining the fact that the agreements only involved a small group of mapuches, always with the presence of dissident clans, which would continue the armed conflict with the Spanish.
This way, years went by among peaceful meetings and confrontations. Each time a new governor assumed power a parliament was held, which had little benefits for the parties involved. The last parliament was called to by Ambrosio O’Higgins in 1793 and it was held in Negrete, on the southern bank of the Biobio river.
Another combat front: corsairs and pirates
Without a doubt, the amount of minerals (mostly gold and silver) extracted from the new colonies awoke the greed of the rest of the European countries. Jealous of the wealth enjoyed by the Spanish crown, some of the rival powers began violent assaults to the ships that transported the valued loot (booty). Any strategy counted when it came to being part of this new fortune found in the new continent.
Due to this, from the mid XVI century to the XVIII century, America’s coasts were constantly devastated by corsairs and pirates. Motivated by personal interests or under orders of the governments of their respective countries, all of them had the objective of sacking the juicy shipments and breaking the strict Spanish monopoly.
Due to the fact that many of the crafts reached the Pacific ocean through the straight of Magellan and that there were considerable shipments of gold and silver, our country did not escape the presence of these characters. One of the first records of these events dates back to 1578, when Englishman Francis Drake attacked the port of Valparaiso, taking with him an important shipment of gold and provisions that were destined for Peru. From then on out, corsairs and pirates would intermittently raze Chilean coasts. Both English and Dutch, stand outs among them being Woodes Rogers, Lord Jorge Anson, Enrique Brouwer and Elias Herckemans, would not only devastate the merchandise, they would also spread fear in several of the country’s coastal cities, sacking and even burning them. This would motivate the construction of several forts, like Niebla and Corral (near Valdivia), from where the Spanish settlements defended themselves.
