Araucanization

The Araucanization ( _es. Araucanización) was the process of expansion of Mapuche culture, influence and language from Araucanía into the patagonic plains. Historians disagree in the time of the expansion but it would have occurred sometime between 1550 and 1850. Amerindian peoples such as the Puelches and Tehuelches adopted the Mapudungun as their main language (their own name is in Mapudungun). Together with Quechua, Aymara, Guarani and Nahuatl, Mapudungun is among the few Amerindian languages that extended their territories after the European arrival.

Mapuches that migrated to Patagonia lived often as nomads rising cattle or pillaging the Argentine contryside. The cattle stolen in the incursions (malones) would later be taken to Chile through the mountain passes and traded for goods, especially alcoholic beverages. There is evidence that Chilean authorities knew about this, and gave their consent, expecting to strengthen their influence over Patagonian territories they expected to eventually occupy in the future. The lonco Calfucurá crossed the Andes from Chile to the Pampas around 1830 after a call from the governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, to fight the Boreanos tribe. In 1859 he attacked Bahia Blanca in Argentina with 3,000 warriors. As in the case of Calfucura many other bands of Mapuches got involved the internal conflicts of Argentina until Conquest of the Desert. The decision of planning and executing the Conquest of the Desert was probably triggered by the 1872 attack of Cufulcurá and his 6,000 followers on the cities of General Alvear, Veinticinco de Mayo and Nueve de Julio, where 300 "criollos" were killed, and 200,000 heads of cattle taken.

ee also

*Araucanía
*Conquest of the Desert
*Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia
*List of Mapudungun placenames
*Occupation of the Araucanía
*War of Arauco