Life
Gabriel Cano was born in the town of Mora,near Toledo,the son of Juan Cano Ruiz and of Josefa de Aponte Carvajal. Cano joined the Spanish army and fought in Flanders for 33 years,rising through the ranks from Alférez to Brigadier and finally Marshal. He married María Campos,but she died in 1713 without descendants.
Due to his outstanding valor and performance during the War of the Spanish Succession he was promoted to Lieutenant General on 28 October 1715,three days later being appointed Royal Governor of Chile. [1]
MariáFrancisca Vélaz de Medrano
On 5 January 1716 he married again,this time with María Francisca Velaz de Medrano Navarra y Puelles,in the city of Pamplona. [2] María Francisca Vélaz de Medrano was 24 years old,while he was already in his fifties. She was the daughter of María de Larrea and Juan Vélaz de Medrano,Viscount of Azpa,lord of Mendillori and the town of Autol. [2] The marital agreements were formalized on January 5,1716,with the bride's father contributing a dowry of 3,000 ducats,charged as an encumbrance on his entail,plus 4,000 pesos in jewelry. [2] They had two sons:JoséAntonio de Aponte y Medrano and Juan Gabriel de Aponte y Medrano. [2] They travelled together to Chile to assume his position,arriving to Santiago on 17 December 1717. [1]
As governor of Chile
In a flare up of the Arauco War he fought the Mapuche toqui Vilumilla in the Mapuche Uprising of 1723. It was ended with the Peace of Negrete in 1726.
In 1725,Governor Cano attempted to repress contraband,without complete success,due to the wit and skills of the French and Dutch merchants and the complicity of some of the Kingdom's influential citizens.
Death
As a soldier,Cano was an innovative horseman,and historians have documented Cano's "inclination for unbridled fun and equestrian exercises". On 26 July 1733,while he was participating in a game on horseback,Cano suffered an equestrian accident when he fell with his horse and was crushed by it. [3] The sequence of events that caused his death three months later are unclear,but what is clear is that Cano was badly injured and never recovered,dying on 11 November the same year.
It has been stated that a spinal lesion caused by the accident kept him bedridden for a period of three months,clear in reason and with intense pain,before his death. However,there is no evidence that conveys any typical sign associated to spinal injury following the accident. Therefore,it is possible that Cano suffered a complex pelvic ring fracture. The fact that he was prostrated,lucid,but suffered intense pain best sustains the hypothesis of a pelvic fracture. After the initial period,one of the most common causes of death resulting from a pelvic fracture is deep venous thrombosis with secondary pulmonary thrombo-embolism. This must have been the sequence of events that most probably caused Cano de Aponte's death. [4]
The Arauco War was a long-running conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people, mostly fought in the Araucanía region of Chile. The conflict began at first as a reaction to the Spanish conquerors attempting to establish cities and force Mapuches into servitude. It subsequently evolved over time into phases comprising drawn-out sieges, slave-hunting expeditions, pillaging raids, punitive expeditions, and renewed Spanish attempts to secure lost territories. Abduction of women and war rape was common on both sides.
Toqui is a title conferred by the Mapuche on those chosen as leaders during times of war. The toqui is chosen in an assembly or parliament (coyag) of the chieftains (loncos) of various clans (Rehues) or confederation of clans (Aillarehues), allied during the war at hand. The toqui commanded strict obedience of all the warriors and their loncos during the war, would organize them into units and appoint leaders over them. This command would continue until the toqui was killed, abdicated (Cayancaru), was deposed in another parliament, or upon completion of the war for which he was chosen.
The Royal Governor of Chile ruled over the Spanish colonial administrative district called the Captaincy General of Chile, and as a result the Royal Governor also held the title of a Captain General. There were 66 such governors or captains during the Spanish conquest and the later periods of Spanish-centered colonialism. Since the first Spanish–Mapuche parliaments in the 17th century it became an almost mandatory tradition for each governor to arrange a parliament with the Mapuches.
Rodrigo de Quiroga López de Ulloa was a Spanish conquistador of Galician origin. He was twice the Royal Governor of Chile.
The Battle of Curalaba is a 1598 battle and ambush where Mapuche people led by Pelantaru soundly defeated Spanish conquerors led by Martín García Óñez de Loyola at Curalaba, southern Chile. In Chilean historiography, where the event is often called the Disaster of Curalaba, the battle marks the end of the Conquest of Chile period in Chile's history, although the fast Spanish expansion in the south had already been halted in the 1550s. The battle contributed to unleash a general Mapuche uprising that resulted in the Destruction of the Seven Cities. This severe crisis reshaped Colonial Chile and forced the Spanish to reassess their mode of warfare.
Don Martín García Óñez de Loyola was a Spanish Basque soldier and Royal Governor of the Captaincy General of Chile. Very likely Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, was his uncle.
Alonso de Sotomayor y Valmediano was a Spanish conquistador from Extremadura, and a Royal Governor of Chile.
Tomás López Marín y González de Poveda, 1st Marquis of Cañada Hermosa was a Spanish colonial administrator who served as Royal Governor of Chile.
Vicente Carvallo y Goyeneche (1742–1816) was a Chilean soldier, author and historian of Basque descent, born in Valdivia. Author of the Descripcion Histórico Geografía del Reino de Chile, covering the history and geography of the Captaincy General of Chile from the beginning of the Spanish conquest to 1789. The book remained unpublished for eighty years, until it was published between 1875 and 1876 by José Toribio Medina. The text is divided in two sections. In the first Carvallo narrates events beginning with the Conquest of Chile up to the year 1789. The second section consists of a description of all the provinces of the country and the customs of the Mapuche. It was published in three parts, the last in 1876.
Battle of Peteroa was a battle in the Arauco War in 1556, in a plain beside a river in the Mataquito River valley, called Peteroa. The battle was between the Spanish forces of Pedro de Villagra, and Mapuche headed by their toqui Lautaro.
Battle of Quilacura was a battle in the Arauco War, fought at night, four leagues from the Bio-Bio River, between the Spanish expedition of Pedro de Valdivia and a force of Mapuche warriors led by Malloquete on February 11, 1546.
The Battle of Mataquito was fought in the Arauco War on April 30, 1557, between the forces of the Spanish governor, Francisco de Villagra, and Mapuche headed by their toqui Lautaro. It was a surprise attack, carried out at dawn, on Lautaro's fortified camp between a wooded mountain and the shore of the Mataquito River. The battle is notable for ending Mapuche designs on Santiago, while also avenging the death of former governor Pedro de Valdivia, who had been killed by Lautaro's warriors four years earlier.
Juan Godíñez Conquistador Juan Godínez, was born in the city of Úbeda, Spain. He came to the Americas in 1532. After coming to Peru, he campaigned with Diego de Almagro in Chile. He later served in Peru in the subjugation of Manco Inca, and in the expeditions of the captains Pedro de Candia and Diego de Rojas. Afterward, he returned to Chile in 1540 with Pedro de Valdivia serving in the wars of the Conquest of Chile until the arrival of García Hurtado de Mendoza.
Paineñamcu or Paynenancu or Alonso Diaz, was the Mapuche toqui from 1574 to 1584. Alonso Diaz was a mestizo Spanish soldier offended because the Governor of Chile did not promote him to the officer rank of alféres, who subsequently went over to the Mapuche in 1572. He took the Mapuche name of Paineñamcu and because of his military skills was elected toqui in 1574 following the death of Paillataru.
Vilumilla was the Mapuche Toqui elected in 1722 to lead the Mapuche Uprising of 1723 against the Spanish for their violation of the peace.
Loble, also known as Lig-lemu or Lillemu,(d. ca. 1565) was the Mapuche vice-toqui of the Moluche north of the Bio-Bio River who led the second Mapuche revolt during the Arauco War.
Antonio de Guill y Gonzaga was a Spanish colonial administrator who served as Royal Governor of Panama and Royal Governor of Chile.
Tomás Antonio Álvarez de Acevedo Ordaz was a Spanish colonial administrator who twice served as interim Royal Governor of Chile, first in 1780 and again between 1787 and 1788.
Ambrosio de Benavides Medina Liñán y Torres was a Spanish colonial administrator who served as Royal Governor of Puerto Rico, Royal Governor of Charcas and Royal Governor of Chile.
Inca rule in Chile was brief, it lasted from the 1470s to the 1530s when the Inca Empire was absorbed by Spain. The main settlements of the Inca Empire in Chile lay along the Aconcagua, Mapocho and Maipo rivers. Quillota in Aconcagua Valley was likely the Incas' foremost settlement. The bulk of the people conquered by the Incas in Central Chile were Diaguitas and part of the Promaucae. Incas appear to have distinguished between a "province of Chile" and a "province of Copayapo" neighboring it to the north. In Aconcagua Valley the Incas settled people from the areas of Arequipa and possibly also the Lake Titicaca.
