State and cities in the Araucanía-Pampa territory, 1850-1930

Abstract

After Chile and Argentina’s independence processes, the indigenous communities inhabiting the eastern as well as the western sides of the Andes mountain range, were affected by the emergence of the National States. In order to approach this long-duration process, we propose an integrated comparative study of two dynamics that took place in the territory which had been only one. The action of the Argentine State, from Buenos Aires to the interior of the nation, and that of the Chilean State towards Araucanía, end up creating two new territories where the Indigenous are expelled and confined. Though these processes differ in relation to scale, means, and results, they share certain features. Both, within a century, form a new territoriality where the cities would become one of the fundamental devices used to disjoint the indigenous territory at both sides of the Andes.  These States considered the urban centres as one of the most efficient tools to defeat “barbarism” and to encourage the conquest, control, ordering and the transformation of the territory. The comparative study aims at constructing a parallel between both urbanisation experiences, up to the moment analysed separately, so as to propose a new understanding of the emergence of the National States in Wallmapu.