Warfare, Reorganization, and Readaptation at the Margins of Spanish Rule: The Southern Margin (1573–1882)

The effective southern border of Spanish control emerged early in the sixteenth century with the creations of a series of small scattered postas (forts) linking the early colonial settlements of Buenos Aires, San Luis, Mendoza, Santiago, and Concepcion. As archaeologists continue to examine the traces of Andean civilizations and ethnohistorians fill in the records of the Inka empire, it has become increasingly believable that the southern margins of Inka influence extended as far south as the Maipo River and as far east as present-day Salta, Jujuy, and San Juan. In fact, a tradition of internecine warfare, usually stemming from charges of witchcraft, characterized intra-Mapuche relations as well as interethnic relations at the southern margins of the Inka empire. The 'permanent war' that had characterized southern frontier relations in the Southern Cone for nearly three centuries had allowed the autonomy and political sovereignty of the Araucanian, Pampas, and Tehuelche people.