Mapuche Warrior

History
The origin of the Mapuche is not clear. The Mapuche language, Mapudungun, has been classified by some authorities as being related to the Penutian languages of North America. Others group it among the Andean languages, and yet others postulate an Araucanian-Mayan relationship; Croese (1989, 1991) has advanced the hypothesis that it is related to Arawak. Reports in 2007 of DNA analysis of animal remains has suggested that pre-Columbian Araucana chicken came from Polynesia, which suggests contact between the Mapuche and Polynesia. More recent research strongly disputes this claim, suggesting no contact between the Mapuche and Polynesia.

The Mapuche successfully resisted many attempts by the Inca Empire to subjugate them, despite their lack of state organization. They fought against the Sapa Inca, Tupac Yupanqui, and his army. The result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river. They fell back to the north behind the Rapel and Cachapoal Rivers, where they established a fortified border guarded by fortresses such as the Pucará de La Compañía and the Pucará del Cerro La Muralla. Although the Spanish subjugated the Picunche in the Conquest of Chile, the Moluche of the area which the Spanish called Araucanía fought against the invaders for over 300 years. The Mapuche repelled the Spanish after their initial conquests in the late 16th century so effectively that there were areas to which Europeans did not return until late in the 19th century. One of the main geographical boundaries was the Bío-Bío River, which the Mapuche used as a natural barrier to Spanish and Chilean incursion. The 300 years were not uniformly a period of hostility, and there was often substantial trade and interchange between Mapuche and Spaniards or Chileans. The long Mapuche resistance has become primarily known as the War of Arauco. Its early phase was immortalized in Alonso de Ercilla's epic poem La Araucana. From the mid-17th century, the Mapuches and the governors of Chile made a series of treaties in order to end the hostilities. By the late eighteenth century, many Mapuche loncos had accepted the de jure sovereignty of the Spanish king while operating with de facto independence.

When Chile revolted from the Spanish crown during the Chilean War of Independence, some Mapuche chiefs sided with the royalists of Vicente Benavides in the Guerra a muerte (war to death). The Spanish depended on the Mapuches as they had lost control of all cities and ports north of Valdivia. The Mapuches valued the treaties made with the Spanish authorities; however, many regarded the war with indifference and took advantage of both sides. Other Mapuche leaders actually allied themselves with the independence leaders, such as Jose de San Martin, and assisted him and his army to cross the Andes. After Chile's independence from Spain, the Mapuche coexisted and traded with their neighbors, who prudently remained north of the Bío-Bío River, although clashes frequently occurred.