The Disaster of Curalaba is the name given to a battle (or surprise attack) between Spanish conquerors led by Martín García Óñez de Loyola and Mapuche people led by Pelantaru at Curalaba (which means broken stone in Mapudungun), in southern Chile. In Chilean historiography this event marks the end of the "Conquista" period in Chile's history, although the fast Spanish expansion in the south had already been halted in the 1550s.
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On December 21, 1598, the governor, Martín García Oñez de Loyola, traveled to Purén leading only 50 men. On the second day they camped in Curalaba, without taking measures of protection. The Mapuche people were aware of their presence, and with their cavalry led by Pelantaru and his lieutenants, Anganamon and Guaiquimilla, with three hundred men, shadowed his movements and made a surprise night raid. Completely surprised, the governor and nearly all his soldiers and companions were killed.
This event was called the Disaster of Curalaba by the Spaniards. It involved not only the death of the Spanish governor, but the news rapidly spread among the Mapuche and triggered a general revolt, long-prepared by the toqui Paillamachu, that destroyed Spanish camps and towns south of the Bío-Bío River over the next few years.
[edit] Additional information
[edit] References
- ^ The Spanish survivors were a priest, Bartolomé Pérez, who was captured, and Bernardo de Pereda, a soldier left for dead with 23 wounds who made his way to La Imperial after 70 days.
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Spanish Empire
Mapuche
