Conquest Of The Desert

The Conquest of the Desert ( es, Conquista del desierto) was an Argentine military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s with the intention of establishing dominance over the Patagonian Desert, inhabited primarily by indigenous peoples. The Conquest of the Desert extended Argentine territories into Patagonia and ended Chilean expansion in the region.

Argentine troops killed more than 1,000 Mapuche, displaced over 15,000 more from their traditional lands and enslaved a portion of the remaining natives. Settlers of European descent moved in and developed the lands through irrigation for agriculture, turning the territory into a breadbasket that contributed to the emergence of Argentina as an agricultural superpower in the early 20th century.''The Argentine Military and the Boundary Dispute With Chile, 1870-1902,'' George V. Rauch, p. 47, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999 The conquest was paralleled by a similar campaign in Chile called the Occupation of Araucanía.

The Conquest is controversial. Apologists describe it as a civilising mission, while revisionists label it a genocide.

Background

The arrival of the Spanish colonists on the shores of the Río de la Plata and the foundation of the city of Buenos Aires during the 16th century led directly to the first confrontations between the Spanish and the local Indian tribes, mainly the Querandí (also called the Pampas). Spanish had purchased the Buenos Aires hinterland from the local Indians to be used for cattle raising. This use displaced most of the animals traditionally hunted by the natives and they struggled to survive. The Indians fought those in the towns, raiding many cattle and horses that altered Native homelands. In retaliation, the Spanish colonists built forts and launched attacks.

As more settlers developed properties, the frontier dividing the colonial farms and the Indian territories gradually moved outwards from Buenos Aires; at the end of the 18th century, the Salado River was the boundary between the civilizations. Due to land loss and environmental devastation brought by cattle, many Indians were forced to abandon their tribes to work on the farms. Some assimilated or intermarried with the white population. The mixed race gauchos developed from those men who worked on the ranches.

After Argentina achieved independence in 1816, the provinces had numerous conflicts as they struggled over how to organize. Once these were settled, the government wanted to quickly occupy the lands claimed by the young republic (in part to prevent Chile from enforcing its claim to the same land). It also wanted to increase the national agricultural production and offer new lands to prospective immigrants.

In 1833, Juan Manuel de Rosas in Buenos Aires Province and other military leaders in the Cuyo region coordinated offensives to try to exterminate the resistant indigenous tribes, but only Rosas's expedition achieved some success. By this time Chile had founded Punta Arenas in Magellan Strait in 1845, which threatened the Argentine claims in Patagonia. Later in 1861, Chile began the occupation of Araucanía, which alarmed Argentine authorities because of its rival's growing influence in the zone. Chile had defeated the Mapuche in their central region. This indigenous tribe had strong language and cultural ties to the nomadic tribes on the east side of the Andes, with whom they share the same language.

In 1872, the indigenous leader Calfucurá and his 6,000 followers attacked the cities of General Alvear, Veinticinco de Mayo and Nueve de Julio. They killed 300 settlers and drove off 200,000 head of cattle. These events were a catalyst for the government to mount the Conquest of the Desert.

The Indians drove the stolen cattle from the incursions ('' malones'') to Chile through the Rastrillada de los chilenos and traded them for goods. The historian George V. Rauch notes evidence that Chilean authorities knew about the origin of the cattle and consented to the trading in order to strengthen their influence over Patagonian territories. They expected eventually to occupy those lands in the future.

Alsina's campaign

In 1875, Adolfo Alsina, Minister of War under President Nicolás Avellaneda, presented the government with a plan which he later described as having the goal "to populate the desert, and not to destroy the Indians."

The first step was to connect Buenos Aires and the ''Fortines'' (fortresses) with telegraph lines. The government signed a peace treaty with chieftain Juan José Catriel. But he broke it a short time later, as together with chieftain Manuel Namuncurá and 3,500 warriors, he attacked Tres Arroyos, Tandil, Azul, and other towns and farms. The casualties were higher than in 1872: Catriel and Namuncurá's forces killed 400 settlers, captured another 300, and drove off 300,000 head of cattle.

Alsina attacked the Indians, forcing them to fall back, and leaving ''fortines'' on his way south to protect the conquered territories. He also constructed the 374 km long trench named zanja de Alsina ("Alsina's trench"). It was supposed to be a fortified border to the unconquered territories. Three metres wide and two metres deep, it served as an obstacle to cattle drives by the Indians.

The Indians continued taking cattle from farms in the Buenos Aires Province and south of the Mendoza Province, but found it difficult to escape as the animals slowed their march. They had to confront the patrolling units that followed them. As the war went on, some Indians eventually signed peace treaties and settled among the "Christians" behind the lines of forts. Some tribes allied with the Argentine government, standing neutral or, less often, fighting for the Argentine army. In return, they were granted periodical shipments of cattle and food. After Alsina died in 1877, Julio Argentino Roca was appointed Minister of War, and decided to change the strategy.

Roca's campaign

In contrast to Alsina, Julio Argentino Roca believed that the only solution against the Indian threat was to extinguish, subdue or expel them.

At the end of 1878 he started the first sweep to "clean" the area between the Alsina trench and the Negro river by continuous and systematic attacks on the Indian settlements. On 6 December 1878, elements of the Puán Division under Colonel Teodoro García

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