Battle of Tucapel - Background

Background

The Arauco War was a large scale war that took place in what is now Chilean territory between Spanish conquerors and Mapuches. Pedro de Valdivia was the Spanish conqueror, who founded the first cities in Chilean territory. Around 1550, he took a Mapuche man who had offered his services as his servant. The conqueror baptized him as Felipe Lautaro. Under Pedro de Valdivia's wing, Lautaro quickly learned horse-riding and Spanish military techniques that he would use later in the war that was taking place at the moment. Once he had learned this knowledge, he eventually went back to his village and decided to use these techniques to his advantage. At the same time, Pedro de Valdivia was using a policy of quickly founding cities, dispersing his forces in the conquered territory. His forces also built numerous forts, like Tucapel and Purén.

Valdivia was on an inspection tour of a group of forts constructed to secure the Chilean interior for the Spanish. He left Concepción in December o 1553 and worked his way south to Quilacoya, where he gathered troops for the march into the restive territory of Arauco. Mapuche spies observed his column from the hills, but merely followed and did not present themselves for battle. Meanwhile, the Mapuche leader Lautaro kept the forces of Gómez de Almagro bottled up in the nearby fort of Purén through various trickery. He learned through his spies of the southwards moments of Valdivia, and realized that they would probably pass through the fort of Tucapel.

Valdivia became perturbed by the lack of news from Tucapel and by the lack of hostility on the road. On December 24, he decided that he would make for the fort, hoping to find Almagro and his troops there. The tranquility and the occasional sightings of Indians in the distance continued to raise his suspicion, and he sent an advance scouting team of five men under the command of Luis de Bobadilla to explore the road ahead and return information about the location of the enemy.