Mapuche military

The Mapuche are a belic culture, and their history has been plagued by wars and conflicts since they began to settle in the Araucanía, they believed that history was created through warfare^[1], and thus engaged in many military conflicts.

Military culture and organization

The Mapuche would be, in times of war, led by a toqui. The toqui is chosen in an assembly or parliament, of the chiefs of various clans or confederations of clans, allied during the war in question. The toqui had the power to call obedience of the troops, organize them, and appoint leaders to them. The command position would continue until the war in question ended, or if in an assembly the chiefs decided the toqui to be incompetent. In the event of death, a new toqui would be appointed.^[2]

The Mapuche were well organized, upon the arrival of the Spanish colonists they were able to build a network of forts and complex defensive buildings to defend themselves from the invaders.

Tactics

Upon the arrival of european colonizers the Mapuche began to assign leaders to fight them off. They did not understand the concept of slavery, and so would not surrender to the Spaniards. The new toquis included many new tactics in order to fight the invaders. For this reason they incorporated cavalry, guerrilla tactics, artillery, infantry on horses, espionage, fortresses, camouflage trenches, malóns, armors and helmets, and the use of infantry formations against cavalry. All these advances proved effective as they were capable of holding off the Spaniards during 350 years, and were even capable of defeating their cavalry with their newly incorporated cavalry techniques.

References

1. ^ Eduardo A. Cruz Farias, An overview of the Mapuche and Aztec military response to the Spanish conquest, La Guirnalda Polar, Núm. 150 - Textos marcados y recordando a Víctor Jara, Publicación de mayo, 2009.
2. ^ Giovanni Ignazio Molina, The geographical, natural, and civil history of Chili, Volume 2, Chapter III, pp.68-71

Sources

• Eduardo A. Cruz Farias, An overview of the Mapuche and Aztec military response to the Spanish conquest, La Guirnalda Polar, Núm. 150 - Textos marcados y recordando a Víctor Jara, Publicación de mayo, 2009.
• Giovanni Ignazio Molina, The geographical, natural, and civil history of Chili, Volume 2, Chapter III, pp.68-77, Military System of the Araucanians; their Arms and Mode of making War.