Battle of Penco

Part of Arauco War

Date	March 12, 1550
Location	Vicinity of Penco
Result	Spanish Victory

Belligerents

Spanish Empire

Mapuche

Commanders and leaders

Pedro de Valdivia

Toqui Ainavillo

Strength

200 Spanish soldiers:

100 cavalry
100 infantry

Many natives

300 Mapochoes
"Indios amigos" of Michimalonco

60,000 warriors, considered exaggerated, modern estimates 6,000

Casualties and losses

some wounded

4000 killed
200 captured

200 Spanish soldiers:

Many natives

The Battle of Penco, on March 12, 1550 was a battle between 60,000 Mapuche under the command of their toqui Ainavillo with his Araucan and Tucapel allies and Pedro de Valdivia's 200 Spaniards on horse and afoot with a large number of yanakuna inclucing 300 Mapochoes auxiliaries under their leader Michimalonco defending their newly raised fort at Penco. It was part of the Arauco War.

After toqui Ainavillo's defeat in the Battle of Andalien he gathered tens of thousands of warriors from the Arauco and Tucapel regions to reinforce his depleted 15,000 man army for an attack on Valdivia's new settlement at Penco. Meanwhile, Valdivia's force took eight days to construct a fort with a circuit of 1500 paces around his new settlement with a ditch 12 feet deep and wide. The excavated earth was used to fill in behind a wall of tree trunks driven into the earth above the ditch. It had three gates with well built bastions provided with artillery. Following the construction of the fort, Valdivia established the city of Concepción del Nuevo Extremo there on March 3, 1550. He also sent out patrols of his cavalry to call on the local Mapuche to submit to Spanish rule and provide food and service to the Spanish.

On March 12, Ainavillo's army of sixty thousand warriors advanced against the fort at Penco in three separate bodies with 5,000 skirmishers covering their advance and deployment. Once they had arrived they surrounded the fort on all sides but were not equipped to storm the deep ditch and the wall above it. They could only fire arrows and stones at the walls and shout threats leaving the Spanish safe inside. Inside the fort there was some discontent among the conquistadors at being so hemmed in and letting the Mapuche gain courage thinking the Spaniards were afraid of them by not fighting in the field where their cavalry had always been able to defeat these enemies.

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Wikipedia