Mapuche uprising of 1655
Coordinated Mapuche attacks sparked a decade of war in Chile.
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The Mapuche uprising of 1655 was a coordinated series of attacks by Mapuche forces against Spanish settlements and forts in colonial Chile. It represented the most severe military crisis in Chile in decades and led contemporaries to consider the possibility of civil war among the Spanish. The uprising initiated a decade of warfare between the Spanish and the Mapuche.
Background
The Parliament of Boroa, signed on January 24, 1651, imposed terms heavily favoring the Spanish, including a prohibition on Mapuche carrying weapons unless requested by the Spanish. Peace was compromised two months later by renewed conflict with the Cuncos, a peripheral southern Mapuche group not present at Boroa. Jesuit fathers Diego de Rosales and Juan de Moscoso warned Governor Antonio de Acuña Cabrera that war against the Cuncos would undo the gains of Boroa.
The Cuncos had a long history of conflict with the Spanish, having forced the abandonment of Osorno in October 1602. In March 1651, a Spanish ship carrying supplies and salaries from the Real Situado wrecked in Cunco lands after being driven south by storms; the Cuncos seized the cargo. Two punitive expeditions were assembled, one from Valdivia under Diego González Montero and one from Carelmapu under Ignacio Carrera Yturgoyen.
González Montero's force encountered indifferent natives who misled him, ran out of supplies, and returned. Carrera Yturgoyen reached the site of old Osorno, where Huilliches handed over three suspects who were killed, but the loot was never recovered. The Spanish military was dissatisfied with the results.
Uprising
Salazar began his campaign on February 6 from the frontier fortress of Nacimiento with an army of 400–700 Spanish soldiers and a larger number of Indian auxiliaries, totaling 2,000 men (other estimates say 2,400). The expedition targeted the Cuncos south of the Bueno River. On the morning of February 14, Mapuche across southern Chile—from Osorno to the Maule River—launched attacks on Spanish estancias, forts, and individuals. Mapuche slaves rose against their masters; men were killed, women and children taken hostage, livestock stolen, and houses set afire.
Spanish forts were besieged. Over 400 estancias between the Bío Bío and Maule rivers were destroyed. Some insurgents entered Concepción, penetrating two city blocks from the Plaza de Armas, and isolated the city without besieging it. Arauco and Chillán were besieged; Chillán was eventually evacuated by the Spanish.
The audiencia in Santiago criticized the evacuation as cowardice and prohibited Chillán's refugees from fleeing north beyond the Maule River, partly due to a smallpox outbreak among them. Acuña Cabrera ordered the evacuation of Buena Esperanza, later criticized as unnecessary. José de Salazar evacuated the garrison of Nacimiento by boats and rafts on the Bío Bío River, intending to reach Buena Esperanza, but learned it was evacuated. Plans to fortify at San Rosendo failed when the rafts ran aground near Santa Juana, pursued by about 4,000 hostile Mapuche; all 240 Spanish were killed.
Conflict among the Spanish leadership
On February 20, a cabildo in Concepción declared Acuña Cabrera deposed as governor. He went into hiding, and Jesuits persuaded him to issue a written resignation. Other discontented Spanish figures also hid, including a brother of Salazar who was a priest and the physician and oidor Juan de la Huerta Gutiérrez.
The choice of a new governor in Concepción fell between Juan Fernández de Rebolledo and Francisco de la Fuente Villalobos; de la Fuente Villalobos was elected, but days later the Audiencia in Santiago rejected the removal as unlawful. De la Fuente Villalobos pursued an appeasement policy toward the Mapuche rebels, which met severe opposition from other military commanders. In mid-March, Acuña Cabrera appeared in public acting as governor again, designating Fernández de Rebolledo to lead the army.
De la Fuente Villalobos did not recognize Fernández de Rebolledo's authority, but no clashes occurred between their forces. The Viceroy of Peru removed Acuña Cabrera, who refused to acknowledge the dismissal, asserting only the King of Spain could dismiss him. The viceroy appointed Pedro Porter Casanate as governor and sent him with 376 soldiers to reinforce troops and quell opposition. Álvaro de Ibarra accompanied Porter to inquire into events and establish responsibilities for the political turmoil.
More in Indigenous Rebellions Against the Spanish Empire
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Mapuche uprising of 1655 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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