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Compare the conquest of the Inca & the Mapuche
The Mapuche culture practiced for centuries a strong influence over much of Chile and Argentina today. Although their origins are uncertain, there are more than likely traces of this culture as early as the fifth century. It is a powerful love that is born, a stable relationship and trust, which will allow them to found the Kingdom of Chile. In this epic novel, love gives a truce to the violence and cruelty of an unforgettable historical epoch. Like all the other peoples of the American continent, the Mapuches had to face the ferocity of the Spanish Conquistadors and diseases brought from Europe. The Mapuches, unlike the Incas, had a level of development as a very minor society, they were emerging from a first stage of human development, we cannot speak of civilization, but of a people and a culture very rich in their attachment to theirs and their values in defense of the land and its ancestors (Allende, Isabel, and Blair Brown). As a people they were fought by the Spaniards, then by the Chileans until today, where there is no clear policy towards their autonomy or respect for their own, which generates a strong resistance of them to integrate into the Chilean society. and they claim violently for their rights continuously and systematically violated.
Unlike the Inca Empire or the Aztec Empire, the Mapuche did not have a hierarchical structure as their northern neighbors. The great weakness of the Incas or the Aztecs was in the organization of their power, extremely centralized. The Conquistadors quickly realized that it was enough to imprison and kill the emperor - considered as a god by the population - for the rest of the empire to collapse. This was certainly not the case with the Mapuches, people without a centralized state and without a single leader. And that's what was the great resistance force of these Native Americans. The war between Conquistadors and Mapuches lasted almost 100 years. One of the great battles fought against the Spaniards ends with the death of the emblematic Pedro de Valdivia, one of the greatest Spanish military leaders, founder of Santiago and governor of Chile(Allende, Isabel, and Blair Brown).
This conflict, called Arauco's war (1546-1641), ended in the failure of the Spaniards to take control of the Mapuche territory and the signing of the Quilin Treaty. By signing this treaty, the Conquistadors had to recognize their helplessness against the Mapuche military organization. They signed the only document in colonial history that recognized a Native American people as a valid interlocutor. In addition, this treaty enshrined the existence of the Mapuche autonomous territory, located south of the Bío-Bío River. But long before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Incas also tried to conquer their land, without success. The Mapuche were therefore one of the only free peoples of the American continent to resist the Inca Empire as much as the Spanish soldiers. Mapuche territorial sovereignty was questioned only at the time of Chilean national construction during the nineteenth century.
In America, Ines does not find her husband, but a passionate love: Pedro de Valdivia, Francisco Pizarro's field master, with whom Ines faces the risks and uncertainties of the conquest and the founding of the kingdom of Chile. In this epic novel the breath of love grants a truce to the rudeness, violence and cruelty of an unforgettable historical moment. Through the pen of Isabel Allende, it is confirmed that reality can be as surprising or more than the best fiction, and equally captivating. The Spanish military detachment Francisco Pizarro (1475-1541) was a man of power, cruel, ruthless. An adventurer to the bone marrow, without principles and ideals. He has one goal - gold. In 1524, the governor gives the go-ahead, and Pizarro becomes the head of his first military expedition. It ends in complete failure after 12 months. But failure does not discourage the illegitimate Spaniard. On the contrary, it inspires him to try to get rich quicker and take an appropriate place in high society.In 1526 the second military expedition went to the lands of modern Ecuador. It lasts more than two years and does not bring any pesos. But instead of the despicable metal, the cunning and dexterous adventurer obtains very important information, which is worth no less in value than the chest of gold. n 1530, Francisco Pizarro leaves the New World. High-speed sailboat delivers it to the lands of Spain. Here he is strikingly seeking an audience with King Charles V.
It is not known what the adventurer talked with the crowned person, but he returns back to the captain-general, Adelantad, and his coat is decorated with the coat of arms of the Marquis. In his hand he triumphantly squeezes a letter signed by His Majesty. It speaks of the right given to him to govern over all lands lying 1000 miles south of Panama.The new governor does not lose time in vain and equips a third military expedition in 1531. Within a few months, he landed on the lands Tauantinsuyu. The Inca Empire in all its glory lies before it.
The mission of both the Pedro de Valdivia and Francisco Pizarro was same. Pedro de Valdivia is a conquistador of Spanish origin, the founder of Chile, he erected a huge number of monuments, his name is the main streets, squares and avenues in almost all Chilean cities. In 1540, Pedro de Valdivia became the first governor of the Chilean colony. He stayed on this post until the end of 1553. He established cities under his control, such as Santiago (1541), La Serena (1544), Concepción (1550), La Imperial (1551) , Valdivia (1552) and many other settlements. During his governorship the territory of Chile was located from the south of Atacama to Valdivia, including the island of Chiloe (Spanish Isla de Chiloe) in the southern part of Chile. On 23 December 1553, Valdivia personally came out against the rebels, Mapuche , at the head of 50 horsemen, he headed for the fort of Tukapel. At dawn on December 25, 1553, the detachment found the fortress completely destroyed. There was not a soul. As soon as the Spaniards camped among the ruins of the fort, Indians rushed at them from the surrounding forests. Lautaro stood at the head of the 6,000 thousand Mapuche militia. After an exhausting 3-hour battle, more than half of his men were killed. Pedro de Valdivia made a desperate dash to save the remaining fighters, escaping from the environment. But soon it was over. Through the ranks of the Indians only Valdivia and the army priest Don Poso managed to break through. They rushed through the forest, but when the rescue was very close, the horses were bogged down in a forest swamp. Thus, the riders were captured winners. Pedro de Valdivia longed for gold, so let him be filled with them,” decided the Council Mapuche. The Indians allegedly began to handful the golden sand into the conquistador’s mouth. Then they executed him with a powerful blow to the club. The massacre in which the tiny army of Francisco Pizarro captured the Inca emperor. On November 16, 1532, the Extremaduran managed to do something that seemed impossible: to capture one of the most powerful men in pre-Columbian America. An act that brought a huge amount of gold
#2. Who was more instrumental in the conquest & settlement of Chile:
Three years after the return of Almagro, in 1539, Pedro de Valdivia -experienced soldier and field teacher of Francisco Pizarro in the war against Almagro- requested his captain and governor permission to conduct an expedition to Chile. This, because King Charles V had authorized Pizarro to explode the New Toledo, after the death of Diego de Almagro. Francisco Pizarro agreed, naming Valdivia lieutenant governor; but he left it in his hands to organize and pay for the force with which "the occupation of the Inca Empire would end". To finance the campaign, Valdivia used the assets he obtained for his intervention in the Inca rebellion in Cuzco: the La Canela valley and a silver mine. However, it was not enough. It was associated with a rich Spanish merchant, Francisco Martinez, with whom they would share half what they found.
This second expedition to Chile sought the conquest and foundation of stable settlements, so they took seeds and domestic animals. Valdivia had to share the expedition with Pedro Sancho de La Hoz, to whom Carlos V had granted in 1539 the authorization to discover and govern the lands located south of the Strait of Magellan and the islands around it. The widow Inés de Suárez was also in the group. The news about the absence of great wealth and the hardships of the trip affected the recruitment of soldiers. The expedition left Cuzco in January 1540, with only eleven soldiers and a few dozen Indians, following the desert route through which Almagro returned. During the trip, some groups of conquerors who had failed in present-day Bolivia joined the column. First, it was the 16 that arrived with Rodrigo de Araya, then about 80 gathered by Francisco de Villagra. In San Pedro, 25 Spaniards were added under Francisco de Aguirre.
After an attempt to assassinate Valdivia, Sancho de La Hozfue was arrested and forced to dissolve in writing the company he brought with him, renouncing the rights they had agreed to divide. After expelling several of his accomplices, the expedition resumed. In Copiapó, 20 more Spaniards were added. Pedro de Valdivia had managed to gather 150 men on foot and on horseback, and a large number of Indians. With all this force took possession, in the name of the king, of the territory that would call New Extremadura, because at that distance and latitude ended the rights of Pizarro. After almost a year, in December 1540, the expedition reached the valley of the Mapocho River, the first destination of the conquest. The conditions of the land, the climate, the abundant population, lent themselves to establish a city, which with time would become the capital of our country. There are hundreds of cases in which historiography has left the role of women as a whole and of some women in particular in the background, when they have not been omitted directly, in order to extol and magnify the male role in history, that of great male characters that we all know.
That is why, taking advantage of the theme of this new issue of the magazine and for my debut as a columnist, I have decided to rescue the figure of Inés Suárez as a paradigm of 16th-century Spanish women in general and more specifically of the Castilian women who emigrated to Spain. America, centering the story on the expedition of conquest and colonization of Chile in which she participated with Valdivia and that was a key part in several specific moments of the same.
Inés Suárez was born in Plasencia in 1507 in the bosom of one of the humble Extremadura families of that time. Orphan father, was raised by his grandfather, a cabinetmaker of recognized prestige in the area and his mother, a seamstress by profession, which teaches him the trade. Apart from sewing, Inés inherited from her mother a kind of gift that consisted in knowing how to find underground water with a wooden stick. As we will see later this was very important in the life of our protagonist. Ines was married at nineteen with Juan, from Malaga, which he met in Holy Week in 1526. Juan was a hustler and a poor adventurer with whom he had no children, since Ines was apparently sterile. Inés must save her own dowry of the money she earns as a seamstress so that she can marry Juan since her grandfather only has a dowry and prefers to give it to Inés' sister. Once he gets it, he marries him and moves to live in Malaga.
Shortly after getting married, in the year 1527, Juan decided to undertake a trip to Panama to enlist as a soldier, leaving Ines again in Plasencia living with her sister and her husband. In Extremadura the women of soldiers who had gone to the New World were considered as "widows of the Indies" (widows during her husband's life), since it was rare for any of these soldiers to return to Castile. They had to wear mourning and could not remarry or have a social life.
"Cuzco" is the Castilian form used since the Spanish foundation of the city is refused by its spelling too close to Spanish. The second form, Cusco, is that commonly used and formalized by regional institutions. "Qosqo", the third form of writing the name of the city, responds to the desire to recover Quechua pronunciation and was officially used between 1990 and 1992. Obviously this last writing is the one that incants use by its native authenticity.
#3. Did the Spanish conquer the Mapuche?
The first attempt of conquest of Chile was made by the Spanish Diego de Almagro , who came to seek wealth and fame, although his chances were reduced to fame, because in Chile there was no mineral wealth, but many indigenous people unwilling to give up their territories . This situation caused that Almagro returned to its place of beginning to try to be the conqueror of the Inca culture, something that also did not manage to realize. Pedro de Valdivia meanwhile was fighting alongside Francisco Pizarro, who offered him a silver mine and an Indian encomienda as a reward. In spite of this, Valdivia wanted the notoriety much more strongly and to go down in history as a protagonist, so despite the bad reputation that Chile acquired, he sold all his wealth and asked for financial help to embark on the conquest company that It would end up being the definitive one in Chilean lands.
He left in 1539 choosing a route different from that of his predecessor, because Almagro had come in the winter on the road of the Andes Mountains, passing the hardships of the cold and the storms, he lost people and resources along the way. Valdivia instead took the desert route , not easy, but more bearable and safer than the previous one. The company of Valdivia was much more modest, but without a doubt more committed, when arriving at the Valley of the Mapocho River the city of Santiago was founded in 1520.The city of Santiago was often attacked and the Spanish forts also, the Chilean indigenous, predominantly Mapuches, they had no idea of domination or authorities, they had even expelled the Inca pretensions from their lands, so they absolutely refused to accept the Spanish era.
They took care of their sacred lands, developed new war strategies and learned to use weapons and horses brought from Europe. They never gave up and never suffered a definitive defeat, which is why the process of conquest in Chile is unique: the occupation never took place and the conquest was simultaneous, and although they often retreated in the face of advances, they once again took control of their territories, including two governors were killed in the Arauco war, a situation that was sufficient for the Spanish crown to rule that the wars in Chile would not be financed, For a long time they received help from the Peruvian viceroyalty, since there was no sense in moving forward, but the strategy was to consolidate what was already occupied. The border of the Biobio was established, crossing it was an indigenous influence and it was until the Independence, where from the legal framework of the Chilean homeland, it signaled the border limits of Chile, and with it its norms and duties. At the same time that it included the indigenous territories, Chile post Independence was a single State and the occupation of the South would be gradual from there. and with it its rules and duties.
"It is the exchange in its various forms that dominates the Mapuche Hispanic frontier in the 18th century, both when war is waged and when peace is concluded. The warrior action seeks, from the two sides, not so much to conquer the territory of the other and physically eliminate it, but rather to appropriate, temporarily or definitively, its valuable goods (animals, objects, individuals), "he comments in Los Mapuches del 18th century, the historian José Manuel Zavala Cepeda. A clear and excellent definition of what was happening at that time corresponds to the historian Sergio Fernando Villalobos Rivera in his work Vida Fronteriza en la Araucanía: "Both sides were collective characters that adapted to new situations, took other customs, exchanged products and They mixed their blood, giving rise to a new reality that nobody had thought of. " He also points out the importance of acculturation in the Mapuche setback: "From the moment the Araucanians were attracted by the trinkets of the conquistadors, iron and alcohol, they were caught in a network from which they would never come off, given that with the passage of time it would become an indispensable trade ".
"The Indians were as active as the Spaniards and the mestizos who swarmed in the border sector. But the commercial dynamic went even further. The increase of mutual needs and appeasement made appear, already very clearly from the beginning of the eighteenth century, peddlers and peddlers who entered the Araucanía with their trinkets “. The Mapuches fought hard against the Spaniards, but also and with the same zeal, maintained with them a voluminous exchange of products. Alcohol was an important part of that exchange due to practical reasons: “The chicha or mudai that their women elaborated was obtained mainly in spring and summer of the mature fruits of diverse plants and of the maize, being more difficult to provide it in winter. It was usually used in ceremonies or to celebrate visitors. It had, nevertheless, several disadvantages: when preparing it it was necessary to wait four days until the fermentation began to produce alcohol and its duration was scarce, soon deriving in vinegar. Its alcoholic degree was, in addition, very low. Wine and brandy, on the other hand, were not necessary to prepare them on each occasion, they could be stored for a long time and their ethyl grade was very high, " says historian Villalobos Rivera.
On the 16th, while the Spaniards waited with a mixture of anxiety and nervousness, Atahualpa made his arrival in Cajamarca accompanied (attending to the different sources) by between 8,000 and 40,000 men. When the sun was high in the sky, the emperor ordered to leave for the square in search of Pizarro. And he did it with a smile knowing that his brother - whom he considered the usurper of a part of the Empire - had fallen prey to his armies. The day could not start better. He only had to annihilate those annoying invaders to reign without major difficulties in his extensive territory. As Pedro Pizarro (cousin of Francisco) explains in his chronicles, Atahualpa was carried in a rich litter (which had pillows of parrot feather) and surrounded by hundreds of fighters who formed in phalanges: "Two thousand Indians were ahead of him , sweeping the road [paved] by which he traveled . They carried such an amount of gold and silver table service that it was wonderful to see it shine under the sun [...] In front of Atahualpa many Indians were singing and dancing (Haughney).
In principle, the procession stopped on the outskirts of the city. Bad news for the Spaniards, who had prepared their trap inside the square. Fortunately, Pizarro solved this difficulty by sending one of his men (Pedro de Aldana ) to the Atahualpa camp . This, despite having no idea how to communicate with those Indians, managed to make them understand by signs that their boss was waiting to "parley" within the square. They took the bait and, shortly, some 600 Indians agreed to the construction. " Eighty gentlemen carried [the Inca lord] on their shoulders , and all wore very rich blue uniforms. Atabalipa himself was dressed very richly, with his crown on his head and a necklace of large emeralds around his neck. I was sitting on a small seat that had a sumptuous cushion, "said Miguel de Estete , another of the combatants who accompanied the Pizarros on the expedition. While Atahualpa entered the square, some Spaniards wet themselves with fear. And it is that, although they were brave and knew that they had to fight, they were not crazy. When Atahualpa arrived at the plaza, there was no enemy in sight. He could only observe four strange bronze cylinders (the cannons) that were at one end. The square seemed to be virgin of Spaniards. And so it was until, from a nearby building, two figures emerged. One of them dressed in a tunic (Father Val Verde ) and the interpreter, Felipillo . The first carried in his hand a crucifix and a prayer book (an object that the Indians had never seen before).
After approaching the emperor, Val Verde set out to read the manifesto that - as a rule - had to be proclaimed in each and every one of the places they planned to conquer. That document was called " Requirement." And in him it was affirmed (basically) that either they surrendered and gave all their possessions to Charles V, or they could prepare to be annihilated. This was what was promised in the manifesto if the Incas did not surrender: "I certify to you that, with the help of God, we will enter powerfully against you, and we will make war on you everywhere and in ways that we could, and we will subject you to the yoke. and obedience of the Church and His Majesty, and we will take your people and your wives and children and make them slaves , and as such we will sell them and dispose of them as Their Majesties commanded, and whatever damage we could. And I insist that the deaths and the damages that follow from it will be your fault! ».
We also do not know why, because that character had never seen one and did not know how it was opened. In any case, the Inca leader should not have liked to invade his personal space, because he gave the priest a slap. There was no possibility of parliament, so Pizarro just gave the order to attack. In a few seconds, Pedro de Candia detonated his cannons and, based on bullets and shrapnel (and among a tremendous noise) began to annihilate the Incas. His harquebusiers did the same and, leaning on tripods, began to fill the square of smoke with their continuous shots. The thunder was brutal and, as expected, so was the bewilderment of the enemies.
Works Cited
Allende, Isabel, and Blair Brown. Ines of My Soul: A Novel. Harper Audio, 2006.
Haughney, Diane. "Neoliberal policies, logging companies, and Mapuche struggle for autonomy in Chile." Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 2.2 (2007): 141-160.
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