Alonso de Sotomayor y Valmediano

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Alonso de Sotomayor y Valmediano

Alonso de Sotomayor y Valmediano (* 1545 in Trujillo , Spain , † 1610 in Spain) was a Spanish conquistador from Extremadura and governor of the Spanish colony of Chile .

Life

De Sotomayor, the son of Gutiérrez de Sotomayor e Hinojosa and Beatriz de Valmediano, joined the Spanish army when he was fifteen. Like other later governors of Chile, de Sotomayor gained experience in Italy and Flanders , which at that time was still tied to the Spanish crown.

In 1580 he was ordered back to Madrid by his superiors. Philip II recognized his achievements and rewarded them with permission to join the Knightly Order of Santiago, Spanish Order of Santiago . He was also sent on an expedition against the neighboring kingdom of Portugal. During this time, news from Chile reached mainland Europe: The war against the Mapuches , the Arauco War , raged in Chile, which owes its name to the Mapuches' name at the time. Since it was said that every good soldier was needed, the king of Spain decided to lead Sotomayor to the office of governor of Chile and to provide him with some troops so that the new colonial administrator could resolve the conflict.

When de Sotomayor arrived in Chile in 1583, he found himself in the situation that he had to take on the role of a judge: There were numerous charges against his predecessor, Martín Ruiz de Gamboa . This had made himself unpopular during his tenure with the Tasa de Gamboa . This decree stipulated that paying taxes from the Indian side in the form of farm work was no longer to be regarded as permissible. De Sotomayor was therefore forced to detain Gamboa in the governor's house in Santiago , but was later released.

That is why de Sotomayor's first official act was that he abolished the controversial law and replaced it with the previously valid one, the Tasa de Santillián .

De Sotomayor wanted to extend the war in the style of a Valdivia. Valdivia had built many fortresses in Chile and was ready to defend each of them in addition to the cities. De Sotomayor would have needed a large number of professional soldiers from Spain for such an undertaking, but the Crown did not grant him this. Nevertheless, he started a large series of expeditions against the resisting Indians. His plan worked: One of these expeditions was able to capture the Indian troop leader Paineñamcu , also known as Alsonso Díaz, after a short time. Now de Sotomayor sent his brother Luis to launch a surprise attack against the Mapuches near Angol , a Spanish fortress, which was rewarded on January 16, 1585 with a victory for the Spanish.

In the previous year, de Sotomayor had the fortress of San Fabián de Conueo built near Coelemu , and he had many others built. With the construction of these structures he pursued the plan to disrupt communication within the Mapuches and to facilitate the establishment of new cities in the field of view of the fortresses. These new cities, in turn, had the task of attracting settlers to Chile who would then join the army and lead to the final victory over the Mapuches.

The Mapuches began to defend themselves against this plan, which showed initial success. They were able to conquer the fortress Purén , but were soon defeated by the Spanish and had to vacate the fort again. For further protection, de Sotomayor founded a new fort near Purén in the year of the reconquest, 1589.

But the measures that de Sotomayor took had no effect on the Mapuches. Their communication could not be significantly disturbed, and the capture of one of their military leaders did not significantly weaken them. Only the arquebuses had not yet been adopted by the Mapuches, which meant for them that they had to forego firearms in the battle against the Spaniards.

In addition to the Mapuches, the English pirates de Sotomayor also gave headaches. In 1587 the privateer Thomas Cavendish anchored off Quintero . De Sotomayor also had to keep calm in his own ranks. He had to pay particular attention to the soldiers in the south, who were threatened to revolt again and again because of their poverty.

On July 30, 1592, de Sotomayor traveled to Peru because of these aspects, where he wanted to ask the viceroy residing there for reinforcements in order to master the situation. But Martín García Óñez de Loyola took over the office of governor of Chile, which de Sotomayor learned only a few months after his arrival in Peru. He traveled back to Chile to defend his deeds against the Mapuches, which he succeeded. He was given a title of nobility by the Spanish court.

In 1596, four years later, de Sotomayor took over the office of governor of Panama , which he held for six years. As in Chile, there was a constant threat of invasion by English pirates in Central America.

After de Sotomayor returned to Spain after this tenure, he bitterly turned down an offer to take over the governor's title of Chile in 1604. He joined the Consejo de Indias . In 1609 he was entrusted with the task of expelling or converting the Muslims from Spain. A year later, Alonso de Sotomayor y Valmediano died.

literature