The Spanish had subjugated the Picunche in…

The Spanish had subjugated the Picunche in the Conquest of Chile, but the Mapuche of the area called Araucanía by the Spanish have fought against the invaders for over three hundred years.

The Mapuche had repelled the Spanish after their initial conquests in the late sixteenth century so effectively that there are areas to which Europeans will not return until late in the nineteenth century.

One of the main geographical boundaries is the Bío-Bío River, which the Mapuche use as a natural barrier to Spanish and Chilean incursion.

The three centuries have not uniformly been a period of hostility, and there had often been 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 the late sixteenth century in Alonso de Ercilla's epic poem La Araucana.

From the mid-seventeenth century, the Mapuches and the governors of Chile had 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 revolts from the Spanish crown during the Chilean War of Independence, some Mapuche chiefs side with the royalists of Vicente Benavides in the guerra a muerte (war to death).

The Spanish depend on the Mapuches as they have lost control of all cities and ports north of Valdivia.

The Mapuches value the treaties made with the Spanish authorities; however, many regard the war with indifference and take advantage of both sides.