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The Mapuche are the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Argentina. They are also known by the Spanish name Araucanos.
Mapuche means people of the land. They had an economy based on agriculture; their social organisation consisted of extended families.
Mapuche encompasses different ethnic groups which shared a common social and religious structure with language and economics as a basis. Their influence extended between the river Aconcagua and the Argentinian pampa: the Picunches lived in the central valleys of Chile (they integrated with the Incan Empire and then with the Spaniards), the Mapuches inhabited the Valleys between the Itata and Toltén Rivers, the Huilliches, the Lafkenches, and the Pehuenches. Also, the northern Aonikenk (called Patagons by Magellan) ethnic group of the pampa regions made contact with some Mapuche groups, adopting their language and some culture; they are the Tehuelches. Although they didn't have a national structure, they successfully resisted Incan colonization. The Mapuche fought against the Spaniards, and, using the Bio Bio River as a natural frontier, they resisted colonization; this war is known as the War of Arauco. As time went by, there came into existence a status quo; they traded with Chilean colonial authorities.
When Chile was emancipated of the Spanish crown, some Mapuche chiefs sided with the colonists.
In the 1860s, the Chilean Army put an end to the War of Arauco, and, using force and diplomacy, a treaty to incorporate the Araucanian territories into Chile was signed between Chile's government and some Mapuche leaders.
Today there are Mapuche descendants in southern Chile and in Argentina. Some of them live on reservations, but the majority of them live in cities. According to official Chilean statistics, 100% of Chilean Mapuche have some non-Mapuche ancestors and more than 90% of the general Chilean population have Native American (mostly Mapuche) ancestors.
Mapuche languages are spoken in Chile and to a smaller extent in Argentina. It has two branches: Huillice and Mapudungun.