The Araucanía ( ), La Araucanía Region
( ) is one of
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
's 16 first-order
administrative division
Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...
s, and comprises two provinces:
Malleco in the north and
Cautín in the south. Its capital and largest city is
Temuco; other important cities include
Angol and
Villarrica.
Chile did not incorporate the lands of the Araucanía Region until the 1880s, when it
occupied the area to end resistance by the
indigenous Mapuche
The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...
by both military and political means. This opened up the area for Chilean and European immigration and settlement.
In the 1900–1930 period, the population of Araucanía grew considerably, as did the economy despite recessions striking the rest of Chile. Araucanía became one of the principal agricultural districts of Chile, gaining the nickname of "
granary of Chile". The administrative Araucanía Region was established in 1974, in what was the core of the larger
historic region of Araucanía.
In the 21st century, Araucanía is Chile's poorest region in terms of
GDP per capita. About a third of the region's population is ethnic
Mapuche
The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...
, the highest proportion of any Chilean region. The Araucanía Region has been the main location of the confrontations of the ongoing
Mapuche conflict, as the Mapuche have pressed their land claims against the central government.
History
Early Mapuche resistance
The Araucanía region is the heartland of the indigenous
Mapuche people, who resisted both
Inca
The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...
n and
Spanish attempts at conquest. After sending many forces against the Mapuche, the Spanish would cut their losses, establishing the southern border of their colony at the northern banks of the
Biobío River. Following the
occupation of Araucanía by the Chilean government, which subdued the people, the territory has been a part of Chile ever since 1885.
Chilean conquest
Following independence, the Chilean government opted for peaceful relations with the Mapuche. Effective territorial occupation did not begin until 1862. During this time, the government allowed settlers to found new towns and constructed the
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
,
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
, and roads into the area. After an occupation and sustained military action, Araucanía was fully incorporated into Chile in 1882. Many cities and towns in Araucanía were first developed as army outposts during and after the occupation of Araucanía. The last portions of the region to be reached by the army were
Alto Biobío and
Toltén River's lowlands.
These are the regions where Mapuche communities have thrived the best since the Chilean conquest. With the construction of the
Malleco Viaduct in the 1890s, the region became more accessible. Settlements in southern Chile became more consolidated.
Granary of Chile
Until the mid-20th century, the large agricultural estates (''
estancias
An estancia or estância is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias are located in the southern South American grasslands of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, while the ''pampas'' have historically bee ...
'') that were established in Araucanía were cultivated in wheat, led to its being called the "Granary of Chile". With naturally fertile soil and the implementation of modern technology such as tractors, wheat harvests were extraordinarily high, but because the farmers did not perform
crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. This practice reduces the reliance of crops on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, along with the pro ...
, and indiscriminate
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucks[erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...]
. They lost their fertility and much topsoil was lost to erosion.
Beginning in the 1930s, Villarrica Lake was developed as a tourism area.
Economic expansion and renewed Mapuche conflict

With the return of democracy in Chile in 1990, Mapuche organizations renewed their land claims on certain territories. Rising violence has accompanied what is now called the
Mapuche conflict.
Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco and similar activist groups have sometimes used arson attacks and death threats to back up their claims; other organizations, such as the Consejo de Todas Las Tierras, have sought and enjoyed international support from nongovernmental and their indigenous organizations.
Geography
Virgin forests, featuring ''
coigüe'', ''
raulí'' and ''
tepa'' trees, as well as ''
lingue'', ''
tihue'' and
cordilleran cypress, criss-cross the region in all directions. The majestic conifer ''
Araucaria araucana
''Araucaria araucana'', commonly called the monkey puzzle tree, monkey tail tree, pewen, pehuen pine or piñonero, is an evergreen tree belonging to the family Araucariaceae and growing to a trunk diameter of and a height of . It is native to ...
'', or monkey-puzzle tree (known locally as ''pehuén''), towers above the landscape. Its fruit, the ''piñón'' (a type of massive
pine nut, often growing to the size and weight of a
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
or a
bowling ball) is still a staple food for the indigenous
Pehuenche
Pehuenche (or Pewenche) are an Indigenous people of South America. They live in the Andes, primarily in present-day south central Chile and adjacent Argentina. Their name derives from their dependence for food on the seeds of the ''Araucaria ar ...
s and local residents.
A large part of this natural wealth is protected in various national parks (
Nahuelbuta,
Tolhuaca,
Conguillío,
Villarrica, and
Huerquehue National Parks) and national reserves (
Malalcahuello,
Las Nalcas, and
Alto Biobío).
Demography
Spanish settlers first arrived in Araucanía (one of two regional names) in the 1550s, but were unable to subdue the indigenous Mapuche.
In the late 19th century, the Chilean government endorsed a large-scale immigration and settlement program for the area. At the time, Chile often endorsed land allotment advertisement to Europeans, notably in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, and
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, from where most of the new arrivals came. Beginning in the mid-19th century, with the
German Revolutions, immigrants were often fleeing political upheaval and poor economies, seeking a new place to live. Other immigrants included
Basques
The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...
, from the northern Spanish border with southwest France, and some
Argentines from across the
Andes
The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...
.
The current population is descended mostly from internal migration from the Central Zone of Chile; to a lesser extent, it consists of descendants of European settlers who arrived during and after the "pacification of Araucanía". The region has the highest proportion of indigenous residents of any in Chile, around 25%, of which the majority is Mapuche people. About 25% of the population is white or ''
castizo'' (another form of''
mestizo
( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...
'' (50%) of partial European-Amerindian descent), and a large proportion of them is at least partially descended from Spanish colonists.
In 1903, a fleet of 88
Canarian families—400 persons—arrived in
Budi Lake (and currently have more than 1,000 modern descendants) as a response to the government's call to populate the region, and signed contracts for the benefit of a private company. While many
Canarians obeyed their servitude, some of those who disobeyed the provisions of repopulation tried to escape their agreements and were arrested, or the indigenous Mapuche people took pity on the plight of these individuals who were on their former lands. The Mapuche welcomed some of them, and joined their demonstrations, in the so-called "revolt of the Canarians"; many Canarians integrated into the Mapuche population, thus adding to the large mestizo population that exists in Chile.
Smaller numbers of
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
(largely
Syrian,
Lebanese and
Palestinian),
Chinese,
Japanese,
Korean and people of Euro-North American and Australian descent settled in La Araucania in the early 20th century. Temuco has a thriving Chinese,
Taiwanese, and
Syrian presence, and
Capitán Pastene has a largely ethnic
Italian community.
Villarrica was where several thousand
Afrikaners
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch people, Dutch Settler colonialism, settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in Free Burghers in the Dutch Cape Colony, 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. '' ...
(or Dutch South Africans) settled after their expulsion from
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, following the
Boer War (1899–1903). These towns also were influenced by early
Dutch colonists in the 16th century, when the region was nicknamed
New Flanders. The
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
later ceded it to Spanish colonial rule.
["Navegantes holandeses en Chile"]
Memoria Chilena
During the past three decades, the city of
Temuco has had the fastest rate of growth in Chile. According to the census of 1970, about 88,000 inhabitants lived in Temuco. In the census of 2000, 30 years later, the population had tripled to 250,000. The resort-town of Villarrica, on
Lake Villarrica, has expanded rapidly. It is located next to the fast-growing resort of
Pucón, now one of the four largest
tourist destinations in Chile. According to the 2002 census, the most- populated cities are: Temuco (260,783, includes
Padre Las Casas), Villarrica (45,531),
Angol (43,801),
Victoria (23,977),
Lautaro (18,808), New Imperial (14,980),
Collipulli (14,240),
Loncoche (14,191), and
Traiguén (14,140).
Economy
Until recently, Araucanía was dependent on
cereal
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...
farming and was known as Chile’s granary. Agriculture has become highly diversified; wheat is still the main crop, but production of oats, grapes, and lupines has increased significantly, and fruit and flower growing are also emerging.
The main tourism centre in the region is the Villarrica Lake and Pucón.
Municipalities
The region consists of 38 municipalities:
*
Angol
*
Carahue
*
Cholchol
*
Collipulli
*
Cunco
*
Curacautín
Curacautín, which means "Gathering Stone" in Mapudungun, is a Communes of Chile, commune and List of cities in Chile, city in the Chilean province of Malleco Province, Malleco. Curacautín is located 90 kilometres northeast of Temuco, in a valley ...
*
Curarrehue
*
Ercilla
*
Freire
*
Galvarino
*
Gorbea
*
Lautaro
*
Loncoche
*
Lonquimay
*
Los Sauces
*
Lumaco
*
Melipeuco
*
Nueva Imperial
*
Padre Las Casas
*
Perquenco
*
Pitrufquén
*
Pucón
*
Purén
*
Renaico
*
Saavedra
*
Temuco
*
Teodoro Schmidt
*
Toltén
*
Traiguén
*
Victoria
*
Vilcún
Vilcún (Mapudungun for "lizard") is a Chilean List of towns in Chile, town and Communes of Chile, commune in Cautín Province, Araucanía Region. The town is an important gateway for tourists visiting Conguillío National Park and Llaima volcano. ...
*
Villarrica
See also
*
Araucana breed from this area
*
Araucanization of Patagonia
*
Arauco War
*
Occupation of Araucanía
*
Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia
References
External links
Gobierno Regional de la La Araucanía Official website
Kingdom of La Araucania and Patagonia website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Araucania Region
Regions of Chile