Butalmapu or Fütalmapu is the name in

Mapudungun Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the s ...

for "great land", which were one of the great confederations wherein the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

people organized themselves in case of war. These confederations corresponded to the great geographic areas inhabited by the Mapuches in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. At the beginning of the

conquest of Chile The Conquest of Chile is a period in Chilean history that starts with the arrival of Pedro de Valdivia to Chile in 1541 and ends with the death of Martín García Óñez de Loyola in the Battle of Curalaba in 1598, and the subsequent destruction ...

it is thought that there was a Butalmapu among the

Picunche The Picunche (a Mapudungun word meaning "North People"), also referred to as ''picones'' by the Spanish, were a Mapudungun-speaking people living to the north of the Mapuches or Araucanians (a name given to those Mapuche living between the Itat ...

from the Limari River south to the vicinity of the

Mataquito River Mataquito is a river located in the Province of Curicó, Maule Region of Chile and formed by the union of rivers Teno and Lontué about 10 kilometers west of Curicó near the locality of Sagrada Familia and empties into the Pacific Ocean ...

that was headed by a

Michimalonco Michima Lonco ( – ) (''lonco'' meaning "head" or "chief" in Mapudungun language, Mapudungun) was a Mapuche chief who ruled as an independent sovereign over the territory of the Aconcagua, Mapocho and Maipo valleys. He freed the Picunche (norther ...

. Also at the beginning of the conquest of Chile, a

Moluche The Moluche ("people from where the sun sets" or "people from the west") or Nguluche are an Indigenous people of Chile. Their language was a dialect of Mapudungun, a Mapuche language. At the beginning of the Conquest of Chile by the Spanish Empi ...

Butalmapu, ( name unknown), existed south of the

Itata River The Itata River flows in the Ñuble Region, southern Chile. Until the Conquest of Chile, the Itata was the natural limit between the Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indi ...

and north of the

Bio Bio River Bio or BIO may refer to: Computing * bio(4), a pseudo-device driver in RAID controller management interface in OpenBSD and NetBSD * Block I/O, a concept in computer data storage Politics * Julius Maada Bio (born 1964), Sierra Leonean politician ...

. It may have included the aillurehue of the Cauquenes north of the Itata, who occasionally fought with them against the Spanish in the sixteenth century and earlier against the

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

in the

Battle of the Maule The Battle of the Maule was fought between a coalition of Mapuche people of Chile and the Inca Empire of Peru. Traditionally this battle is held to have occurred near what is now Maule River, in Central Chile. The account of Garcilaso de la Vega ...

. Among the

south of the

there were by the seventeenth century, three Butalmapu, that conformed with the main territorial identities of the Moluche: '' Lafkenmapu'', the coastal region, '' Lelfünmapu'' the plains of the

Intermediate Depression The Central Valley (), Intermediate Depression, or Longitudinal Valley is the depression between the Chilean Coastal Range and the Andes Mountains. The Chilean Central Valley extends from the border with Peru to Puerto Montt in southern Chile, wi ...

and '' Inapiremapu'' the foothills of the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. One other '' Piremapu'' in the

mountain range, was inhabited by the

Pehuenche Pehuenche (or Pewenche) are an Indigenous people of South America. They live in the Andes, primarily in present-day south central Chile and adjacent Argentina. Their name derives from their dependence for food on the seeds of the ''Araucaria ar ...

s. Each butalmapu was made up of several smaller confederations;

aillarehue Aillarehue or Ayllarehue (from the Mapudungun: ayllarewe/ayjarewe: "nine rehues"); a confederation of rehues or family-based units (lof) that dominated a region or province. It was the old administrative and territorial division of the Mapuche, H ...

s, that were made up of a number of familial clans of the same region, known as lofs. In case of an external danger or the beginning of a military campaign, the

lonco A lonko or lonco (from Mapudungun ''longko'', literally "head"), is a chief of several Mapuche communities. These were often ulmen, the wealthier men in the lof. In wartime, lonkos of the various local rehue or the larger aillarehue would gather ...

s (

caciques A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

) of all the lofs chose a supreme military leader of the Butalmapu, called the

Toqui Toqui (or Toki) (Mapudungun for ''axe'' or ''axe-bearer'') is a title conferred by the Mapuche (an indigenous Chilean and Argentines, Argentinian people) on those chosen as leaders during times of war. The toqui is chosen in an assembly or parl ...

and Gran Toqui by the Spaniards. This leader had the right to make military decisions and usually only left his position when the campaign finished or he died. Butalmapus were not described as such in Spanish chronicles until the ''Cautiverio feliz y razón individual de las guerras dilatadas del reino de Chile'', of

Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán (1607–1682) was a Chilean writer and soldier. He was born in Chillán Viejo, Biobío Region, Chile. In 1629 he participated in an expedition to defeat the Mapuche, but, during the Battle of Las Can ...

, where an account of these confederations first occurred. They were called by Núñez “utanmapu”. Among the

Huilliche The Huilliche (), Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group in Chile and Argentina. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco or Ve ...

and

Cuncos Cuncos, Juncos or Cunches is a poorly known subgroup of Huilliche people native to coastal areas of southern Chile and the nearby hinterland. Mostly a historic term, Cuncos are chiefly known for their long-running conflict with the Spanish durin ...

to the south of the Moluche there were two Butalmapu: '' Willimapu'' located in between the

Toltén River Toltén River is a river located in the La Araucanía Region of Chile. It rises at Villarrica Lake, close to the city of the same name. Its major tributary is the Allipén River. From its confluence with the Allipén, the river follows a brai ...

and the

Bueno River The Bueno River (Spanish: ''Río Bueno'') is a river in southern Chile. It originates in Ranco Lake and like most of Chile rivers it drains into the Pacific Ocean at the southern boundary of the Valdivian Coastal Reserve. Its lower flow forms t ...

and the '' Chawra kawin'' located between the Bueno River and the

Reloncaví Sound Reloncaví Sound or ''Seno de Reloncaví'' is a body of water immediately south of Puerto Montt, a port city in the Los Lagos Region of Chile. It is the place where the Chilean Central Valley meets the Pacific Ocean. The Calbuco Archipelago comp ...

. By 1805 these were consolidated into just one, ''Huillimapu''.Francisco Xavier Ramírez, ''Cronicon Sacro - Imperial de Chile, Fuentes para el estudio de la colonia''; transcripción de Jaime Valenzuela M., Dirección de Bibliotecas Archivos y Museos, Centro de Investigaciones Diego Barros Arana, Santiago, 1994, páginas 67 -71.

References

Sources

* Ricardo E. Latcham
''La organización social y las creencias religiosas de los antiguos araucanos'', Impr. Cervantes, Santiago de Chile, 1924.

{{mapuche Mapuche regions Military history of Chile Mapuche history