The balance of power with the indigenous peoples turned steadily in the favour of the newly independent states during the second half of the 19th century. The Mapuche still remained largely autonomous in the 1860s, following several centuries of resistance to Spanish, and then Chilean, rule - but pressure was increasing. In 1860, the French lawyer and adventurer named Orélie-Antoine de Tounens visited the region and established "Nouvelle France", also sometimes called the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia. This provided the trigger for Chilean action, who invaded and captured Orélie-Antoine, detaining him as a lunatic. Over the next twenty years the Chilean military set about building roads and telegraph systems, pacifying the region and forcibly assimilating the Mapuche into Chilean society. The Mapuche fought back, particularly during the War of the Pacific, but were ultimately defeated - some indigenous remnants were placed into reservations and their land given to Chilean and foreign settlers. Argentina also led their own campaign of pacification in neighbouring Patagonia, the "Conquest of the Desert" during the 1870s, spurred by greed, the military success of Chileans, and recent uprisings. Initially the military aimed at simply enabling white colonialisation of the desert, but in 1877 military efforts began to extinguish, subdue and expel the local Indians in their entirety. Some Mapuche were forced into Chile, whilst the remaining indigenous peoples largely perished.