Siege of Concepción
36°50′00″S 73°03′00″W / 36.83333°S 73.05°W
Siege of Concepcion | |
---|---|
Part of Concepcion, Chile | |
Result | Spanish Victory |
Millalelmo
During the siege of Concepcion of the
History
In early 1564, Spanish governor Pedro de Villagra was taking measures to protect all the towns and forts he already held against the growing Mapuche revolt and to organize a field army in Concepcion. He knew that one of the Mapuche objectives was to surround Concepcion, and preparations were made to support a long siege.
Raids by Mapuche bands had made it unsafe for Spaniards to go farther than a league from the city. After a brief fight, 3,000 Mapuche in the Itata River valley under
Meanwhile, the caciques Millalelmu and Loble with 20,000 warriors from the area between the Itata and
The siege lasted two months with continuous skirmishes. At the end of March two Spanish ships arrived bringing food that permitted the population to continue to withstand the siege for a much longer time. On the other side the Mapuche had used up local sources of food, and without pack animals and transport vehicles were finding it difficult to bring in enough to maintain their large force. Also the harvest season was coming and failure to bring in the crops would result in a winter of hunger for their families. With the recent news of the defeat of the Mapuche toqui Illangulién at the Battle of Angol, they were also nervous that their undefended homes might be attacked from Angol or Santiago. On the first of April the Mapuche army raised the siege and dispersed to their homes for the winter.[3]
Additional information
References
- ^ Lobera, Crónica del Reino de Chile, Capítulo XXII
- ^ Marmolejo, Historia..., Capítulo XLV
- ^ Diego Barros Arana, Historia General De Chile, Tomo Segundo, Parte Tercera La Colonia desde 1561 hasta 1610, Capitulo Segundo Sec. 4
Sources
- Alonso de Góngora Marmolejo,Historia de Todas las Cosas que han Acaecido en el Reino de Chile y de los que lo han gobernado (1536-1575) (History of All the Things that Have happened in the Kingdom of Chile and of those that have governed it (1536-1575)), Edición digital a partir de Crónicas del Reino de Chile, Madrid, Atlas, 1960, pp. 75–224, (on line in Spanish)
- Pedro Mariño de Lobera,Crónica del Reino de Chile , escrita por el capitán Pedro Mariño de Lobera....reducido a nuevo método y estilo por el Padre Bartolomé de Escobar. Edición digital a partir de Crónicas del Reino de Chile Madrid, Atlas, 1960, pp. 227-562, (Biblioteca de Autores Españoles ; 569-575). Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes (on line in Spanish),
- Diego Barros Arana, Historia General De Chile, Tomo Segundo, SANTIAGO, RAFAEL JOVER, 1884.