The southern frontier of the Spanish empire: 1598-1740.

This thesis analyses the impact of the Araucanian revolt of 1598-99 on the southernmost Spanish colonies. In North America, military posts (presidios) were the cutting edge of settlement, and the border between whites and natives separated different economies. In the Southern Cone, however, feral horses and cattle were as important to Spaniards as to Indians, and presidios were conduits draining the wealth of the Andes towards the frontier. The focus of the work is the west-to-east articulation of this border in the seventeenth century. The Great Revolt forced the Crown to establish an army on the Bio Bio. The resources needed, however, provoked recurring political struggle between its agents and Santiago's elite, since both needed access to local products and aspired to use Peru's aid as they wished. The socio-political situation thereby created defined the salient characteristics of this frontier. The conflict was ultimately resolved by creating a corridor which extended frontier activities and characteristics eastward, to Cuyo, Tucuman and the Rio de La Plata. Through this movement, the experience of Santiago was recreated until, eventually, even distant Buenos Aires was transformed into a "frontier society". That change, of course, was peculiarly appropriate for even as the Spanish frontier spread eastward, the Araucanians were driving towards the Atlantic