Guerra a muerte (lit. English: ''War to the death'') is a term coined by

Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna (August 25, 1831 – January 25, 1886) was a Chilean writer, journalist, historian and politician. Vicuña Mackenna was of Irish and Basque descent. Biography Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna was born in Santiago, the ...

and used in

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 ...

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians h ...

to describe the irregular, no-quarter warfare that broke out from 1819 to 1821 during the Chilean War of Independence. After the royalists had been expelled from all cities and ports north of the Bio-Bio River,

Vicente Benavides Vicente Benavides Llanos (Quirihue, 1777 – Santiago, Chile, February 23, 1822) was a Chilean soldier who fought in the Chilean War of Independence. He is best known for leading Royalist (Spanish American independence), Royalists guerrillas in ...

organized royalist resistance in La Frontera with the aid of

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 ...

chiefs. The aid of the Mapuches was vital to the royalists since they had lost control of all cities and ports north of

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Ca ...

. Most Mapuches valued the treaties they had with the Spanish authorities, while many other Mapuches regarded the matter with indifference and played both sides against each other. The

Pincheira brothers The Pincheira brothers (Spanish: ''Hermanos Pincheira'') was an infamous royalist outlaw group in Chile and Argentina active from 1818 to 1832. The gang fought initially in the Chilean War of Independence as royalist guerrillas during the Guer ...

, a future outlaw group, served Benavides in the ''Guerra a muerte'' by defending the Cordillera. As result of the Guerra a muerte the government of nascent republic begun to distrust the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

missionaries of

Chillán Chillán () is the capital city of the Ñuble Region in the Diguillín Province of Chile located about south of the country's capital, Santiago, near the geographical center of the country. It is the capital of the new Ñuble Region since 6 S ...

who were regarded as representatives of the old regime. This led to the recruitment of a new contingent of missionaries for Chillán in the 1830s.

Sources

*. Chilean War of Independence Mapuche history {{chile-hist-stub

See also

Sources