Destruction of the Seven Cities

Course of events

Decades before the uprising, some conquistadors and settlers had recognized the fragility of Spanish rule in southern Chile. In 1576, Melchior Calderón proposed merging cities such as Concepción, Angol, and Tucapel into one, and La Imperial and Villarrica into another. The revolt was triggered by news of the Battle of Curalaba on 23 December 1598, where vice toqui Pelantaru and his lieutenants ambushed and killed Governor Martín García Óñez de Loyola. Over the following years, the Mapuche destroyed or forced the abandonment of all seven Spanish cities south of the Biobío River, including Santa Cruz de Coya, Valdivia, and La Imperial.

Death toll and fate of captives

Contemporary chronicler Alonso González de Nájera recorded that Mapuches killed more than 3,000 Spanish and took over 500 women as captives, along with many children and clergy. Skilled artisans, renegade Spanish, and women were generally spared; women were taken, in his words, to take advantage of them.

Some Spanish women were recovered in raids, while others were freed only after the Parliament of Quillín in 1641. Some women chose to stay voluntarily, which the Spanish attributed to weak character or shame. Captive women bore many mestizo children, who were rejected by the Spanish but accepted among the Mapuche, potentially impacting Mapuche society demographically.

Aftermath

The collapse of the southern Spanish cities after the Battle of Curalaba meant the loss of the Spaniards' main sources of gold and indigenous labor. The colony of Chile became concentrated in Central Chile, which was increasingly populated and economically exploited; much land there was cleared with fire. In southern Chile, open fields became overgrown as indigenous populations declined due to introduced diseases and intermittent warfare.

Spanish settlements became more rural, and the hacienda grew in economic and social importance. The establishment of a Spanish–Mapuche frontier made Concepción the military capital of Chile, housing the Spanish Army of Arauco financed by silver payments from Potosí called the Real Situado. Santiago remained the political capital.

When Valdivia and Osorno were destroyed, Spanish settlers and loyal yanakuna marched south, evading hostile groups, and reached the Chacao Channel. Refugees were assigned to Calbuco and Carelmapu; loyal yanakuna were exempted from encomienda labor, formed into a militia paid by the Real Situado, and became known as Indios reyunos. Three hundred of the initial 600 settled in Calbuco. The destruction reduced settlements at Chiloé to an isolated exclave.

The abandoned city of Valdivia became an attractive site for Spain's enemies; Spanish attempts to reoccupy it in the 1630s were thwarted by Mapuches. The Dutch briefly occupied Valdivia in 1643. In 1644, the Spanish viceroy in Peru sent 1,000 men in twenty ships to resettle and fortify Valdivia.