page_title: Occupation of Araucanía
section_title: Chilean and foreign settlers
hierarchical_section_title: Occupation of Araucanía / Aftermath / Chilean and foreign settlers
caption_attribution_description: English: I have done a digital photo of an old photo from my father album, and cut it with my software. It showed the family of a friend called Castagna, from Pavullo (Italy), who emigrated to Capitan Pastene in southern Chile.
context_page_description: The Occupation of Araucanía or Pacification of Araucanía was a series of military campaigns, agreements and penetrations by the Chilean army and settlers into Mapuche territory which led to the incorporation of Araucanía into Chilean national territory. Pacification of Araucanía was the expression used by the Chilean authorities for this process. The conflict was concurrent with Argentine campaigns against the Mapuche and Chile's wars with Spain and with Peru and Bolivia.
  The Mapuche people had a history of resistance to Spanish conquest with the area known as Araucanía remaining de facto independent through the colonial era. Following an independence from Spain relations between the nascent republic and the Mapuches of Araucanía remained mostly amicable. However economical and geopolitical reasons together with increasingly negative attitudes towards the Mapuche made Chilean authorities decide to seek an incorporation of Araucanía, by arms if necessary. Mapuche chiefdoms responded in different ways, some aligned with Chile, other declared themselves neutral while a substantial group led by the Arribanos sought to violently oppose the advance of Chilean settlers and military.
context_section_description: When the territory of Araucanía was subdued the Chilean government issued calls for immigration in Europe. The most numerous groups of settlers were the Italians who settled mainly around Lumaco, the Swiss who colonized Traiguén and Boers who settled mainly around Freire and Pitrufquén. Other settler nationalities included Englishmen, French people and Germans. There are estimates that by 1886 there were 3,501  foreign settlers in Araucanía, another investigation points out that 5,657 foreign settlers arrived to Araucanía in the 1883–90 period.
  At first Chilean settlers arrived to Araucanía by their own initiative. Later the government begun to stimulate the settlement of Chileans in Araucanía. Chilean settlers were mostly poor and largely remained so in their new lands.
caption: Photo of an Italian immigrant family in Capitán Pastene, Araucanía.
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