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Santiago y a Ellos!

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Weichafe by Shabazik

"¡Santiago!", "¡Santiago y Cierra, España!", "¡Santiago y a Ellos!" -this later come from (por) Santiago y a (por) ellos- was an -alleged- battle cry of the Iberian troops during the Reconquista, but in all certainty, a battlecry of the Spanish Empire. "Santiago y Cierra, España" means "Santiago and Close, Spain!" and "Santiago y a Ellos" "Santiago and at them!"

Supposedly, its first usage was during the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa as the christian spanish fought the muslim moors. The meaning of the phrase is to praise St. James -Santiago, in spanish-  the apostle, patron saint of Spain, and to charge or to attack ("close in on them!"). The "Spain", in the end, refers to the recipient of the phrase: the Spanish troops.

After the Reconquista, the phrase continued to be used, especially by the brigades of Spanish cavalry and the Conquistadores. Cervantes quotes it in Don Quixote -the perplexed Sancho Panza was confused if Spain was open wand was needed to close it!-

Funny enough -at least for me, lover of history- it's that in the XX century the spanish used it as an Irony: the warcry "Santiago and Cierra, España" into a joke of the movements against modernisation, europeization and etc, taking away the coma: "Santiago y Cierra España", meaning something different.




Spanish Conquistador in the Arauco War (1550-1818, to be followed by the Chileans until 1883) the long -long, long, long- conflict between the Spanish -and later, colonial spaniards- and the Mapuche people. 

After many initial Spanish successes in penetrating Mapuche territory, the Battle of Curalaba in 1598 and the following destruction of the Seven Cities marked a turning point in the war leading to the establishment of a frontier between the Spanish domains and the land of the independent Mapuche. From the 17th to the late 18th century a series of parliaments were held between royal governors and Mapuche lonkos and the war devolved to sporadic pillaging carried out by Spanish soldiers as well as Mapuches and outlaws.

The Chilean War of Independence brought new hostilities to the frontier, with different factions of Spaniards, Chileans and Mapuches fighting for independence, royalism or personal gain. Mapuche independence finally ended with the Chilean occupation of Araucanía -Called in the traditional historiography of Chile with the euphemism of Pacification of the Araucanía- between 1861 and 1883.

In the context of the Spanish Conquest of the Americas, this War was outright a catastrophe. 400 Conquistadores of Cortés conquered the Aztecs. Pizarro and some 200 Conquistadores defeated the powerful Empire of the Inca... and Chile...

...well. The Emperor Karl V -of the Holy Roman Empire, Carlos I from Spain- said once about Chile: "Chile le cuesta al Imperio la flor de mis guzmanes" -something akin that Chile costed to the Empire the best of his men-. And after the rule of Carlos I, the war continued. And continued. And Continued. The Spanish even said Chile to become a "Flandes Indiano" -Indian Flanders-, comparing the costs of the Arauco War to the Eighty Years War -known as well as the Dutch War of Independence-.

By 1664, after 114 years of war, the Spanish estimated that this war alone costed the lives of 30,000 to 42,000 spanish -and spaniards... and let's not forget, the Empires of America had been conquered rather than with thousands, only with short hundreds of men!- and 60,000 indian auxiliaries, while the Mapuche lost some 90,000 - 100,000 warriors... and this not counting the demographic catastrophe that came along the war -Famine and disease, that further decimated the population.

After the first century of war -only one!- the war deescalated a bit...  by 1790, the spanish estimates spoke of "only" 50,000 killed spaniards -and 150,000 indian auxiliaries- against some 200,000 mapuche.



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single-leg's avatar
The Indians were tough customers alright.