Caupolican
Encyclopedia
Caupolicán was a Toqui
, the military leader of the Mapuche
people of Chile
, that commanded their army during the first Mapuche rising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558.
Following the successful campaign of conquest by Pedro de Valdivia
in Araucanía and the failure of the toqui Lincoyan
to stop them, the Mapuche were persuaded by Colocolo
to choose a new supreme war leader in response to the Spanish threat.
Caupolicán as an Ulmen
of Pilmayquen
won the position of Toqui by demonstrating his superior strength by holding up a tree trunk for three days and three nights . In addition to proving his physical power, he also had to improvise a poetical speech to inspire the people to valor and unity.
His death came in 1558, at the hands of colonizing Spaniards as their prisoner. He was impaled
by making him sit on a stake while his wife was forced to watch. After his death he was replaced by his son Caupolicán the younger
.
Toqui
Toqui is a title conferred by the Mapuche to those who are chosen as their leaders during times of war. The toqui is chosen in an assembly or parliament of the chieftains of the various clans or confederation of clans , allied during the war in question...
, the military leader of the Mapuche
Mapuche
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...
people of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, that commanded their army during the first Mapuche rising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558.
Following the successful campaign of conquest by Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro de Valdivia
Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, where he served as lieutenant under Francisco Pizarro in Peru, acting as his second in command...
in Araucanía and the failure of the toqui Lincoyan
Lincoyan
Lincoyan was the Mapuche toqui that succeeded Ainavillo in 1550 after the defeat at the Battle of Penco. He tried to stop Pedro de Valdivia from invading and establishing fortresses and cities in their lands between 1551 and 1553 at the beginning of the Arauco War with no success...
to stop them, the Mapuche were persuaded by Colocolo
Colocolo (tribal chief)
Colocolo was a Mapuche leader in the early period of the Arauco War. He was a major figure in Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga's epic poem La Araucana, about the early Arauco War. In the poem he was the one that proposed the contest between the rival candidates for Toqui that resulted in the choice of...
to choose a new supreme war leader in response to the Spanish threat.
Caupolicán as an Ulmen
Ulmen(Mapuche)
Ulmen a Mapudungun word meaning "rich man". In Mapuche society the wealthy men usually were the lonco's and would often be the influential leaders of their rehue and aillarehue and if skilled in war like Caupolicán were sometimes elected toqui.-Source:...
of Pilmayquen
Pilmaiquén
Pilmaiquén or Pilmayquen is a riachuelo in the commune of Cañete in Arauco Province in the Bío-Bío Region of Chile that flows southwest towards the coast of the Pacific Ocean, to the northwest of the city of Cañete. Its course is of short but of great volume and traverses a small valley between...
won the position of Toqui by demonstrating his superior strength by holding up a tree trunk for three days and three nights . In addition to proving his physical power, he also had to improvise a poetical speech to inspire the people to valor and unity.
His death came in 1558, at the hands of colonizing Spaniards as their prisoner. He was impaled
Impalement
Impalement is the traumatic penetration of an organism by an elongated foreign object such as a stake, pole, or spear, and this usually implies complete perforation of the central mass of the impaled body...
by making him sit on a stake while his wife was forced to watch. After his death he was replaced by his son Caupolicán the younger
Caupolicán the younger
Caupolicán the Younger according to Juan Ignacio Molina was the son of the toqui Caupolicán. He was made toqui following the capture and execution of his father in 1558...
.
Sources
- The first history of Chile was written in 1558 by Jerónimo de VivarJerónimo de VivarJerónimo de Vivar was a Spanish historian of the early conquest and settlement of the Kingdom of Chile, and author of Crónica y relación copiosa y verdadera de los reinos de Chile....
, Crónica y relación copiosa y verdadera de los reinos de Chile (Chronicle and abundant and true relation of the kingdoms of Chile) ARTEHISTORIA REVISTA DIGITAL; Crónicas de América (on line in Spanish)
- Much of the legend of Caupolicán is found in the epic poem La AraucanaLa AraucanaLa Araucana is an epic poem in Spanish about the Spanish conquest of Chile, by Alonso de Ercilla; it is also known in English as The Araucaniad...
by Alonso de ErcillaAlonso de ErcillaAlonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga was a Spanish nobleman, soldier and epic poet from the Basque Country. While in Chile he fought against the Araucanians, and there he began the epic poem La Araucana, considered the greatest Spanish historical poem. This heroic work in 37 cantos is divided into three...
, a major piece of literature about the Spanish conquest of the Americas.