Conquest of The Desert

The Conquest of the Desert (Spanish: Conquista del desierto) was a military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s with the intent to establish Argentine dominance over Patagonia, which was inhabited by indigenous peoples. Under General Roca, the so-called Conquest of the Desert extended Argentine power into Patagonia and ended the possibility of Chilean expansion there. European settlers turned the conquered lands into a breadbasket which made Argentina an agricultural superpower in the early 20th century. The Conquest is commemorated on the 100 peso bill in Argentina.

Jens Andermann has noted that contemporary sources on the campaign indicate that it was genocide by the Argentine government against the indigenous tribes.Others perceive the campaign as intending to suppress specifically those groups of Indians that refused to submit to the law and carried out brutal attacks on civilian settlements.The Indians frequently raided frontier settlements and stole horses and cattle, slaughtered the men defending their livestock and captured women and children, who were enslaved or offered as brides to the warriors.This recent argument – usually summarized as "Civilization or Genocide?"– questions whether the Conquest of the Desert was really intended to exterminate the Indians.