The Conquest of the Desert ( es, Conquista del desierto) was an
Argentine military
The Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, in es, Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina, are controlled by the Commander-in-Chief (the President) and a civilian Minister of Defense. In addition to the Army, Navy and Air Force, there are ...
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
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
. The Conquest of the Desert extended Argentine territories into
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
and ended
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
an expansion in the region.
Argentine troops killed more than 1,000
Mapuche
The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...
, 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
Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...
describe it as a
civilising mission
The civilizing mission ( es, misión civilizadora; pt, Missão civilizadora; french: Mission civilisatrice) is a political rationale for military intervention and for colonization purporting to facilitate the Westernization of indigenous pe ...
, while
revisionists label it a
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...
.
Background
The arrival of the
Spanish colonists
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ind ...
on the shores of the
Río de la Plata and the foundation of the city of
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
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
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ...
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
A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts ...
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
Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Although ...
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
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
had founded
Punta Arenas in
Magellan Strait in 1845, which threatened the Argentine claims in
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
. 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
The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...
in their central region. This indigenous tribe had
strong language and cultural ties to the nomadic tribes on the east side of the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
, with whom they share the
same language.
In 1872, the indigenous leader
Calfucurá
Calfucurá (from Mapudungun Kallfükura, 'blue stone'; from kallfü, 'blue', and kura, 'stone') also known as Juan Calfucurá or Cufulcurá (b. late 1770s; d. 1873), was a leading Mapuche lonco and military figure in Patagonia in the 19th centur ...
and his 6,000 followers attacked the cities of
General Alvear,
Veinticinco de Mayo and
Nueve de Julio ''Nueve de Julio'' (or ''9 de Julio'') means July 9 in Spanish. It may refer to:
* The date of the Argentine Declaration of Independence
* One of the following cities and towns in Argentina:
** Nueve de Julio, Buenos Aires Province
** Nueve de Ju ...
. 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
Adolfo Alsina Maza (January 4, 1829 – December 29, 1877) was an Argentine lawyer and Unitarian politician, who was one of the founders of the Autonomist Party and the National Autonomist Party.Ione S. Wright and Lisa M. Nekhom, ''Historic ...
, Minister of War under
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
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
Azul, meaning "blue" in Spanish and Portuguese, may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Azul'' (Los Piojos album), 1998
* ''Azul'' (Cristian Castro album), 2001
* Azul Azul, a Bolivian pop-dance music group
** "Azul" (song), the title song
* " ...
, 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 Río Negro (Spanish and Portuguese, 'Black River') may refer to:
Rivers
Brazil
* Rio Negro (Amazon), tributary of the Amazon River
* Rio Negro (Mato Grosso do Sul)
* Rio Negro (Paraná)
* Rio Negro (Rio de Janeiro)
* Rio Negro (Rondônia)
* ...
by continuous and systematic attacks on the Indian settlements. On 6 December 1878, elements of the Puán Division under Colonel
Teodoro García clashed with a native war party at the Lihué Calel heights. In a brief but hard fought battle, 50 Indians were killed, 270 captured, and 33 settlers were freed.
[The Argentine Military and the Boundary Dispute With Chile, 1870-1902, George V. Rauch, p. 45, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999]
Numerous armed encounters would follow, until by December 1878, over 4,000 Indians had been captured and 400 killed, 150 settlers freed, and 15,000 head of cattle recovered.
With 6,000 soldiers armed with new
breech-loading Remington rifles, in 1879 General Roca began the second sweep, reaching
Choele Choel
Choele Choel is the capital of the department of Avellaneda in the Argentine province of Río Negro, and the most important settlement within the ''Valle Medio'' ("Middle Valley") agricultural area of the Río Negro River in Patagonia.
Overview ...
in two months, after killing 1,313 Indians and capturing over 15,000.
From other points, southbound companies made their way down to the Negro River and the
Neuquén River
The Neuquén River () is the second most important river of the province of Neuquén in the Argentine Patagonia, after the Limay River. Rocks of the Neuquén Basin are fossiliferous, and the basin hosts what may become important fields of ti ...
, a northern tributary of the Negro River. Together, both rivers marked the natural frontier from the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
to the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. This attack led to a large migration of Mapuche into the zone around
Curarrehue and
Pucón, Chile.
Many European-Argentinian settlements were built on the basin of these two rivers, as well as a number on the
Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...
. By sea, some settlements were erected on the southern basin of the
Chubut River, mainly by
Welsh colonists at
y Wladfa
Y Wladfa (, "The Colony"), also occasionally Y Wladychfa Gymreig (, "The Welsh Settlement"), refers to the establishment of settlements by Welsh immigrants in Patagonia, beginning in 1865, mainly along the coast of the lower Chubut Valley. I ...
.
The final campaign
Roca was elected and followed Nicolás Avellaneda as
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
. He thought it was imperative to conquer the territory south of the
Negro River Río Negro (Spanish and Portuguese, 'Black River') may refer to:
Rivers
Brazil
* Rio Negro (Amazon), tributary of the Amazon River
* Rio Negro (Mato Grosso do Sul)
* Rio Negro (Paraná)
* Rio Negro (Rio de Janeiro)
* Rio Negro (Rondônia)
* ...
as soon as possible, and ordered the 1881 campaign under command of Colonel
Conrado Villegas
Conrado Villegas (February 3, 1841 – April 26, 1884) was an Argentine general in the 1880s during the presidency of Julio Argentino Roca. He is famous for his campaigns in Neuquén and Río Negro during the Conquest of the Desert to subdue ...
.
Within a year Villegas conquered the
Neuquén Province
Neuquén () is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west. It also meets La Pampa Provinc ...
(he reached the
Limay River). The campaign continued to push the Indian resistance further south, to fight the last battle on October 18, 1884. The last rebel group, with more than 3,000 warriors under the command of chieftains Inacayal and Foyel, surrendered two months later in present
Chubut Province
Chubut ( es, Provincia del Chubut, ; cy, Talaith Chubut) is a province in southern Argentina, situated between the 42nd parallel south (the border with Río Negro Province), the 46th parallel south (bordering Santa Cruz Province), the Ande ...
.
In the 1880s the Argentine advances effectively disrupted Chileans and
German Chilean trade with indigenous communities east of the Andes. This meant the leather merchants in
Southern Chile had to cross the Andes and establish livestock operations. As a result, a number of Chilean-owned companies were established in Argentina. They imported workers from Chile, mostly people from
Chiloé Archipelago.
It was in this context that
German Chilean Carlos Weiderhold established the trading post and shop ''La Alemana'' in 1895, from which the city of
Bariloche
San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche (), is a city in the province of Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. It is located within the Nahuel Huapi National Park. ...
developed.
[
]
Border clashes
To counteract the Argentine conquest of Patagonia, the Chileans supplied arms, ammunition and horses to their Indian Mapuche allies. On 16 January 1883, a 10-man section of a platoon of the Argentine Army in pursuit of a large Indian war party, ran into an ambush in the Pulmarí Valley set up by Chilean soldiers. In the engagement that followed, Argentine Captain Emilio Crouzeilles, along with Lieutenant Nicolas Lazcano and several privates, were killed.
On 17 February 1883, Lieutenant-Colonel Juan Díaz, at the head of a 16-man Argentine infantry detachment, was trailing a war party of 100 to 150 Indians. Upon reaching Pulmarí Valley, they were surrounded by the Indians and around 50 Chilean soldiers. Much outnumbered, the Argentine soldiers skillfully outfought their attackers, including a bayonet charge mounted by the Chilean detachment. On 21 February 1883, according to Argentine Army Major Manuel Prado, 150-200 Indians armed with Winchesters and Martini–Henry
The Martini–Henry is a breech-loading single-shot rifle with a lever action that was used by the British Army. It first entered service in 1871, eventually replacing the Snider–Enfield, a muzzle-loader converted to the cartridge system ...
rifles attacked an Argentine Army detachment operating on the Argentine-Chilean border. In a four-hour engagement, 22 Argentine soldiers were killed or wounded at a cost of some 100 warriors.
Historical controversy
Historian Jens Andermann has noted that contemporary sources on the campaign conclude that the Conquest was intended by the Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...
government to exterminate the indigenous tribes, and can be classified as genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...
.[Andermann, Jens](_blank)
Birkbeck, University of London
, mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck.
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £4.3 m (2014)
, budget = £10 ...
. Quote: "It is this sudden acceleration, this abrupt change from the discourse of 'defensive warfare' and 'merciful civilization' to that of 'offensive warfare' and of genocide, which is perhaps the most distinctive mark of the literature of the Argentine frontier." First-hand accounts state that Argentine troops killed prisoners and committed "mass executions". The 15,000 Natives taken captive "became servants or prisoners and were prevented from having children."
Apologists perceive the campaign as intending to conquer specifically those Indigenous groups who refused to submit to Argentine law and frequently carried out brutal attacks on frontier civilian settlements. In these attacks, the Natives stole many horses and cattle, killed men defending their livestock, and captured women and children to become the slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and/or forced brides of Indian warriors.
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' alleged in 2011 that two education officials lost their jobs due to the controversy over the Conquest of the Desert: It reported that Juan José Cresto was forced to resign as a director of the Argentine National Historical Museum because he "said the Indians were violent parasites who attacked farms and kidnapped women" and Beatriz Horn, a history teacher in La Pampa Province
La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza.
History
I ...
, was fired for "telling a radio station that Roca deserved praise for putting Indians to flight and opening Argentina's frontier to European settlers." Argentine news sources, however, report Juan José Cresto lost his job for being abusive and violent towards employees and Beatriz Horn was fired primarily due to her praise for the military dictator Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri (; 15 July 1926 12 January 2003) was an Argentine general and politician of Italian descent who served as President of Argentina from December 1981 to June 1982. Galtieri ruled as a military dictator during the Na ...
.
In recent years, Mapuche rights groups and other activist organizations have criticised the representation of Roca in official state imagery. A statue of Roca in the civic center of Bariloche
San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche (), is a city in the province of Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. It is located within the Nahuel Huapi National Park. ...
is a frequent site for protests and graffiti by local Amerindian rights organizations.
See also
* American Indian Wars
* Selk'nam genocide
* Araucanization of Patagonia
The Araucanization of Patagonia ( es, Araucanización de la Patagonia) was the process of the expansion of Mapuche culture, influence, and its Mapudungun language from Araucanía across the Andes into the plains of Patagonia. Historians disagree ...
* Occupation of the Araucanía
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment
* Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces
*Military occupation, t ...
* Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia
* Napalpí massacre
* Population history of American indigenous peoples
References
Further reading
"Nicolás Avellaneda", biography
by Felipe Pigna
Felipe Pigna (born
29 May 1959) is an Argentine historian and writer. He is among the best-selling authors from Argentina.
Biography
Pigna teaches at the Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini, directing the ''Ver la Historia'' proj ...
"Economical consequences of the Conquest of the Desert"
- Universidad del CEMA
- Universidad del CEMA
- Olimpiadas Nacionales de Contenidos Educativos en Internet
by Juan José Cresto, Osvaldo Bayer and others - ElOrtiba.org
* Hasbrouck, Alfred
The Conquest of the Desert
'The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (May, 1935), pp. 195–228''
* Larson, Carolyne R. (ed)
The Conquest of the Desert
Argentina's Indigenous Peoples and the Battle for History ( University of New Mexico Press, 2020).
* Commandante Manuel Prado: ''La guerra al Malón'' 1907
** New edition: Manuel Prado: ''La guerra al Malón'' (The War against the Indians), Editorial Claridad SA, Buenos Aires
*Staff
Conquest-of-the-Desert
an
effect on colonization in Patagonia
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
{{Authority control
Military campaigns involving Argentina
19th-century colonization of the Americas
19th-century conflicts
Mapuche
Violence against indigenous peoples
Conflicts in Argentina
19th century in Argentina
History of Argentina (1852–1880)
1870s in Argentina
1875 in Argentina
Native American genocide
Genocides in South America