Wallmapu-Araucanía in flames! An historical political ecology of fire in the domination of southern Chile

Abstract

The conflict over Wallmapu-Araucanía in southern Chile, between the Spanish conquistadores, the Chilean state and the Mapuche peoples, dates from the 16th century, with a key moment being the forced integration of Mapuche land into the Chilean state in the late nineteenth century. This paper discusses this long period of conflict in three moments: conquest, occupation and liberation, and it focuses on the use of fire as a politico-symbolic and techno-productive tool. A ‘landscapes of power framework’ is used for this historical political ecology analysis, based on texts from the nineteenth century to the present. The conclusions point to the historical importance of the use of fire as a tool not only for physical changes in the landscape, but principally as a tool of political symbolism that relates to a history of conflict of terror and displacement, used by the forces of occupation and resistance.