page_title: Conquest of the Desert
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Conquest of the Desert / Background
caption_attribution_description: El Malón
context_page_description: The Conquest of the Desert was an Argentine military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s with the intent to establish dominance over the Patagonian Desert, inhabited primarily by indigenous peoples. Under General Roca, the Conquest of the Desert extended Argentine power into Patagonia and ended the possibility of Chilean expansion there.
  Argentine troops killed more than 1,000 Mapuche and displaced over 15,000 more from their traditional lands. White settlers moved in and developed the lands through irrigation for agriculture, turning the territory into a breadbasket that made Argentina an agricultural superpower in the early 20th century. The conquest was paralleled by a similar campaign in Chile called the Pacification of Araucanía.
  The Conquest is highly controversial. Apologists describe it as a civilising mission, while revisionists label it a genocide.
context_section_description: The arrival of the Spanish colonists on the shores of the Río de la Plata and the foundation of the city of Buenos Aires during the 16th century led directly to the first confrontations between the Spanish and the local Indian tribes, mainly the Querandí (also called the Pampas). Spanish had purchased the Buenos Aires hinterland from the local Indians to be used for cattle raising. This use displaced most of the animals traditionally hunted by the natives and they struggled to survive. The Indians fought those in the towns, raiding many cattle and horses that altered Native homelands. In retaliation, the Spanish colonists built forts and launched attacks.
  As more settlers developed properties, the frontier dividing the colonial farms and the Indian territories gradually moved outwards from Buenos Aires; at the end of the 18th century, the Salado River was the boundary between the civilizations. Due to lad loss and environmental devastation brought by cattle, many Indians were forced to abandon their tribes to work on the farms. Some assimilated or intermarried with the white population. The mixed race gauchos developed from those men who worked on the ranches.
  After Argentina achieved independence in 1816, the provinces had numerous conflicts as they struggled over how to organize. Once these were settled, the government wanted to quickly occupy the lands claimed by the young republic (in part to prevent Chile from encroaching on it). It also wanted to increase the national agricultural production and offer new lands to prospective immigrants.
  In 1833 Juan Manuel de Rosas in Buenos Aires Province and other military leaders in the Cuyo region coordinated offensives to try to exterminate the resistant indigenous tribes, but only Rosas's expedition achieved some success. By this time Chile had founded Punta Arenas in Magellan Strait in 1845, which threatened the Argentine claims in Patagonia. Later in 1861 Chile began the occupation of Araucanía, which alarmed Argentine authorities because of its rival's growing influence in the zone. Chile had defeated the Mapuche in their central region. This indigenous tribe had strong language and cultural ties to the nomadic tribes on the east side of the Andes, with whom they share the same language.
  In 1872 the indigenous leader Calfucurá and his 6,000 followers attacked the cities of General Alvear, Veinticinco de Mayo and Nueve de Julio. They killed 300 settlers and drove off 200,000 head of cattle. These events were a catalyst for the government to mount the Conquest of the Desert.
  The Indians drove the stolen cattle from the incursions (malones) to Chile through the Rastrillada de los chilenos and traded them for goods. The historian George V. Rauch notes evidence that Chilean authorities knew about the origin of the cattle and consented to the trading in order to strengthen their influence over Patagonian territories. They expected eventually to occupy those lands in the future.
caption: Mapuches during a malón raid
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