''Malón'' (from the

Mapudungun Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the s ...

''maleu,'' to inflict damage to the enemy) is the name given to plunder raids carried out by

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 ...

warriors, who rode horses into Spanish, Chilean and Argentine territories from the 17th to the 19th centuries, as well as to their attacks on rival Mapuche factions. Historian

Juan Ignacio Molina Fr. Juan Ignacio Molina (; (June 24, 1740 – September 12, 1829) was a Chilean-Spanish Jesuit priest, natural history, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist, and linguist. He is usually referred to as Abate Moli ...

said the Mapuche considered the malón to be a means of obtaining justice: Leaders such as

Lientur Lientur was the Mapuche toqui from 1618 to 1625. He was the successor to Loncothegua. Lientur with his vice toqui Levipillan was famed for his rapid '' malóns'' or raids. Because of his ability to slip back and forth over the Spanish border b ...

used the malón against European colonists: it consisted of a fast surprise attack by a number of mounted Mapuche warriors against the white (''huinca'') populations,

ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...

es, settlements and fortifications in

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 ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, with the aim of obtaining horses, cattle, provisions, and captives, often young women. The rapid attack without formal order did not give the targets time to organise any defence, and it left behind a devastated population unable to retaliate or pursue. In Chile, the Spaniards responded with a system of

fortification A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

s known as ''La Frontera'', garrisoned by a standing army that patrolled the border along the

Biobío River The Biobío River (also known as Bío Bío or Bio-Bio) is the second largest river in Chile. It originates at Icalma and Galletué lakes in the Andes and flows to the Gulf of Arauco (in Spanish) on the Pacific Ocean. The major tributaries of ...

. In Argentina, where the Mapuche in the 19th century ravaged the southern frontier, the government responded by building wooden outposts and occasionally fortresses, e.g. Fortaleza Protectora Argentina, as well as the

Zanja de Alsina Zanja de Alsina (, '' Alsina's trench'') were a system of trenches and wooden watchtowers (''mangrullos'') built in the central and southern parts of Buenos Aires Province to defend the territories of the federal government against indigenous Mapu ...

. This trench covered hundreds of kilometres across the

Pampas The Pampas (; from Quechua 'plain'), also known as the Pampas Plain, are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all o ...

to make incursions more difficult, as well as prevent the raiders from driving large numbers of cattle back across the frontier. Ultimately, the Argentine government invaded and conquered the Mapuche in their territory in the

Conquest of the Desert The Conquest of the Desert () was an Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, Argentine military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca during the 1870s and 1880s with the intention of establishing dominance over Patagonia, inh ...

of the late 1870s. Many Mapuche were killed and thousands more taken prisoner.

References

Sources

Juan Ignatius Molina, "The Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili", Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, London, 1809

Commandante Manuel Prado (1863-1932): ''La guerra al Malón'' (The war against the Malón), 1907
** New edition: Prado, Manuel (2010) ''La guerra al Malón'', Editorial Claridad SA, Buenos Aires, {{DEFAULTSORT:Malon Military history of South America History of the Captaincy General of Chile Colonial Argentina 19th century in Chile 19th century in Argentina Mapuche history