Valdivia Wins at Penco: Spanish Expand South

Pedro de Valdivia's force of roughly 200 Spanish soldiers and several thousand indigenous allies defeated a large Mapuche army at the Battle of Penco on March 12, 1550, in what is now the Biobio Region of Chile. The Mapuche, who had been resisting Spanish expansion for years, attacked with overwhelming numbers but were repelled by Spanish cavalry, steel weapons, and the tactical advantage of fighting from a fortified position. Valdivia founded the city of Concepcion nearby shortly after the battle. His victory did not end Mapuche resistance. The Araucanians, as the Spanish called them, fought continuously for over 300 years, making the Arauco War the longest sustained military conflict in the Americas. Valdivia himself was captured and killed by Mapuche forces under the toqui Lautaro in 1553, just three years after Penco. The Mapuche were never fully conquered and maintained effective independence south of the Biobio River until Chile's military subjugation campaigns of the 1880s.