Araucania

Taking possession of the Araucanía
Historians minimize the permanence of the Mapuche, citing that the Mapuche people date no more than 200 years before the conquest of Chile. However the latest archaeological studies, Monte Verde, give a data of 33,000 years.
Just as historians minimize the permanence of the Mapuche people in these territories, it was a State policy to minimize their economic role by reducing them, in 1883, to a territory that was 10% of Araucanía. This action has to be looked at by the emergence of the paradigm of progress. Perhaps today would have been the same, but with the buffering given by respect for human rights. Although Lautaro and Pelantaro kept their people at a vanguard level in warlike capacity, their successors neglected this aspect, and with only 300 rifles they confronted the Chilean army, which in the Pacific War demonstrated its military capacity and its expansionist spirit , The southward expansion was the next step.