- Arauco, Chile
Arauco is a community in
Chile , located inArauco Province in theBiobio Region . The meaning of Arauco means Chalky Water inMapudungun .It was destroyed on numerous occasions by theMapuche during theArauco War .Old Arauco
In 1552
Pedro de Valdivia the firstgovernor of Chile , founded a fort, named San Felipe de Rauco or Araucan. It was twelve kilometers east of the location of the modern city of Arauco in the part of the valley immediately on the South or left bank of theCarampangue River at the point where on the opposite bank it receives the riachuelo or brook of Conumo. Valdivia planned it to be the base for a city he planned to found. TheMapuche destroyed the fort in1554 , after killing Valdivia. It was raised again after thebattle of Quiapo , byGarcia Hurtado de Mendoza in1559 . Destroyed again in1563 it was rebuilt again in1566 byRodrigo de Quiroga and became a small town, that remained so without growing until being transferred to the current site of the city of Arauco.Arauco
The population of old Araucan was moved in
1590 by Governor DonAlonso de Sotomayor to the seacoast, four kilometers to southwest of the mouth of the Carampangue River located between its beach on theBay of Arauco and the hill on the southwestern side of the place called "cerro de Colocólo". The lands for the site were ceded by the cacique Colocólo, and it was named "Villa de San Ildefonso de Arauco". However, six years later,Martín García Óñez de Loyola transferred it to to its present site, a fort raised on the slope of the Cerro Colocólo and gave it the name of "Ciudad de San Felipe de Araucan". In the greatMapuche Uprising of 1598 , that followed the death of Governor Loyola, it was destroyed by the Mapuche once again. It was recovered by GovernorAlonso de Ribera in1603 , it continued to be harassed by the Mapuche until its inhabitants were forced to leave it in another great rising in1655 . GovernorÁngel de Peredo recovered it in1662 and GovernorFrancisco de Meneses Brito in1665 . Under the government of DonJuan Henríquez de Villalobos its fort was reconstructed in1673 , and served as the defense of the town until it was destroyed almost completely by theearthquake of February 20, 1835. It still suffered from the hostilities of the Mapuche in their uprisings of 1723 and 1766 and during the war of Independence in the assault that they made on it on June 4,1817 , with their royalist allies. Population began to gather around this fort and it became the city of Araucan (later Arauco) on December 7,1852 . Later it became the capital of thedepartment of Araucan and now Commune of Arauco in theArauco Province .Sources
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=CYYCAAAAYAAJ Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos, Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile, D. Appleton y Compania, Nueva York, 1899]
** [http://books.google.com/books?id=CYYCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA31&vq=Andali%C3%A9n&source=gbs_search_r&cad=0_1#PPA47,M1 Arauco (Ciudad de), pg. 47-49]
** [http://books.google.com/books?id=CYYCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA31&vq=Andali%C3%A9n&source=gbs_search_r&cad=0_1#PPA50,M1 Arauco Viejo, pg. 50]
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