Concepción, a significant military settlement for the…
1570 CE
Concepción, a significant military settlement for the Captaincy-General of Chile, had been overrun and destroyed by Mapuche armies in 1554, and once again after being refounded in 1555.
Restored during the governorship of García Hurtado de Mendoza when he landed there and built a fort on the Alto de Pinto in 1557, the town had been refounded once more on January 6, 1558, by captain Jerónimo de Villegas.
It will become the headquarters of the military forces engaged against the Mapuche in Araucanía over the next two centuries, growing to a population of ten thousand despite a siege in 1564 and other attacks by the Mapuche.
The home of the Real Audiencia from 1565 to 1575, Concepción is destroyed by an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3. at 9 AM on February 8, 1570.
No lives are lost, but every house is destroyed.
Because of a delay between the earthquake and the accompanying tsunami, the population is able to escape to higher ground.
Aftershocks are felt for months.