page_title: History of Valdivia
section_title: Spanish colony (1544–1810)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Valdivia / Spanish colony (1544–1810)
caption_attribution_description: English: Talk
context_page_description: Valdivia is one of the few cities in southern Chile with a more less continuous and well documented history from its foundation in the 16th century onwards.
context_section_description: The first European to visit Valdivia River's estuary was the Genoese captain Juan Bautista Pastene, who took possession of it in 1544 in the name of the Spanish king, Carlos I. He named the river after the Governor of Chile Pedro de Valdivia.
  Pedro de Valdivia later traveled by land to the river described by Pastene, and founded the city of Valdivia in 1552 as Santa María la Blanca de Valdivia. It was the southernmost Spanish settlement in the Americas at the time of the founding. Following the establishment of the church of Santa María la Blanca in Valdivia, more buildings were constructed, so many that it was considered "the second city in the Kingdom of Chile".
  After Pedro de Valdivia's death, the war with the Mapuches, called the War of Arauco, continued as the Spanish made many attempts to defeat the Mapuche and defend the cities and forts built on their territory. On March 17 of 1575 the city was damaged by an earthquake similar to the Great Chilean earthquake of 1960. Until 1575 the Huilliches of Valdivia had not made any notable resistance against their new rulers.  They had even fought as Indios amigos with the Spanish against the northern Mapucuhes in the Arauco War.  But that year 4,000 Indians that had been fighting in Martín Ruiz de Gamboa's army rebelled when they returned to the surroundings of Valdivia.
  After the demoralising Battle of Curalaba in 1598, in which an entire Spanish army was defeated and the Mapuches killed the governor, the Mapuches and Huilliches made a mass rebellion. The Indians proceeded to destroy all the Spanish settlements and forts in their lands, in what came to be known as the Destruction of the Seven Cities. On 24 November 1599 Huilliches destroyed and  plundered Valdivia. The border of the Spanish Empire shifted north of the Bío-Bío River, while the later refounded city of Valdivia remained a Spanish enclave surrounded by native Huilliche territory, and along with the island of Chiloé, continued to be the southernmost colonies of the Empire.
  Eleven days after the first destruction of Valdivia, a group of 270 Spanish soldiers arrived from Perú. The commander of the troops, colonel Francisco del Campo was convinced that the city of Valdivia needed to be repopulated. After Francisco del Campo's expedition left, the Dutch corsair Sebastian de Cordes occupied the site of Valdivia for some months, giving the Dutch government information about this abandoned part of the Spanish Empire. The Spaniards returned on 13 March 1602, when captain Francisco Hernández Ortiz established a fort on the ruins of the city. On September 24 natives attacked the fort unsuccessfully, but laid siege. The Spaniards could not acquire food or supplies, and on 3 February 1604 abandoned the fort, with the last starving survivors rescued by ship.
  The Dutch governor of the East Indies Hendrik Brouwer, learned about the situation in Valdivia, and decided to establish a base there for further attacks against the Viceroy of Peru.  This plan was well accepted as the Netherlands was at war with Spain.  The Dutch had previously taken the North of Brazil from the Spanish-Portuguese crown, and the idea of creating a South American empire was attractive.  In spite of his advanced age, Hendrik Brouwer left his post as governor in the East Indies to personally lead the expedition.  The Dutch fleet destroyed the Fort of Carelmapu and the city of Castro before arriving at Corral Bay at the mouth of the Valdivia River.  Hendrik Brouwer died the 7th of August in Puerto Inglés while waiting for spring to sail north to Valdivia.  John Maurice of Nassau while in charge of the Dutch part of Brazil had equipped the expedition and had secretly appointed Elias Herckman as commander if Brouwer died.  Herckman finally occupied the ruins of Valdivia in 1643.  The Dutch did not find the gold mines they expected and the hostility of the natives forced them to leave on 28 October 1643.
  Pedro Álvarez de Toledo y Leiva Viceroy of Peru (1639–1648) knew of the strategic importance of Valdivia and decided to repopulate and fortify it once for a
caption: Image of Torreón El Canelo restored in the 1850s. It is one of two remaining Spanish towers in Valdivia used to defend the city and one of the few remaining colonial structures
exif: {}