Arauco War
/əˈraʊkoʊ wɔːr/noun
The prolonged conflict between the Spanish colonial forces and the Mapuche peoples of south-central Chile, generally dated from 1536 to 1883.
Did you know?The Arauco War outlasted the Roman Empire’s fall, the medieval period, and most of Spain’s American empire, ending only after Chilean state expansion in the nineteenth century.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Colonial Period
Mapudungun
Ragko / Arauco
“A Mapuche place-name preserved in Spanish as Arauco; its precise original meaning is debated, with interpretations including “chalky water” or “clayey water.””
6th Century
Proto-Germanic
*werra
“A reconstructed Germanic term meaning confusion, strife, or conflict.”
11th Century
Old North French
werre
“War or armed conflict; borrowed from a Germanic source.”
12th Century
Middle English
werre
“War, hostility, or armed struggle.”
1536
Spanish / Mapuche history
Guerra de Arauco
“The Spanish term used for the conflict beginning with early Spanish campaigns against the Mapuche in southern Chile.”
1883
Chilean Spanish
Pacificación de la Araucanía
“The Chilean military occupation and incorporation of Mapuche territory, conventionally treated as the end of the Arauco War.”