Caupolicán

Related Category: South American Indigenous Peoples: Biographies

(kou´´pōlĭkän´), d. 1558, leader of the Araucanian who fiercely resisted the Spanish conquest of Chile. He attempted to carry on the reconquest begun by Lautaro and won a victory over the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. After a heroic but futile battle to keep the Spanish from recapturing Concepción, Caupolicán was forced to retreat into the forest. There he was surprised, captured, tortured, and killed. His fame rests partly on La Araucana, the epic poem of Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga.