Announcement of the Royal Chancellery and the Secretary of State for Diplomatic Affairs on the Day of Sovereignty of the Mapuche Nation commemorating the Signing of the Mapuche Treaties of Quillin (1641) and Tapiwe (1825)
6 and 7 Jan 2026
6 and 7 January: Mapuche Nation Days of Sovereignty
Today, 6 January, the Mapuche commemorate the 385th anniversary of the Treaty of Killen, signed between the Mapuche nation and the Spanish Crown in 1641, in which the parties in conflict agreed to establish the Bio-Bio River as the border between both nations. Tomorrow, 7 January, we also commemorate the Treaty of Tapiwe, signed in 1825 by the Mapuche state and the Republic of Chile, in which the parties ratified the validity of the border established in 1641.
It is important to note that the ongoing struggle of the Mapuche people in defence of their territory, independence and territorial sovereignty began before the arrival of the Spanish, as they had already been defending it from the advances of the Inca Empire. Thus, with the Spanish invasion in 1536 led by Diego de Almagro and continued by Pedro de Valdivia in 1540, a new war began with the we inca (new Incas), whom the Mapuche commonly called winka.
The strong resistance of the Mapuche people against the winka or the forces of the Spanish empire, and after the latter suffered continuous military defeats, including the death in battle of two of their governors, King Philip III ordered his subordinates in the Viceroyalty of Peru and Santiago del Nuevo Extremo (today Santiago, Chile) to establish a border with the State of Arauco, as part of a defensive military strategy. After years of deliberation, the Mapuche nation ratified the border with Spain on its own terms in the Treaty of Killen on 6 January 1641.
King Philip IV of Spain, according to the Royal Decree of 29 April 1643, ratified the Treaty of Killen with the aim of establishing peace with all the peoples, communities and nations of Wallmapu, whose territory extended on both sides of the Andes mountain range. The wallmapuwen (citizens) of the Gulumapu and Puelmapu had successfully defended their territory in unity, and only after more than a hundred years of anti-colonial warfare did they achieve independence and respect for their territorial sovereignty.
Following the declaration of independence of the republics of Argentina and Chile in 1810, the border established with the Spanish Crown remained in force, (in compliance with the principle of Uti possidetis juris (“as you possess, so may you possess”) a principle in international law, which requires that new states inherit the administrative borders of the preceding colonial territory) and the liberators of Argentina, José de San Martín, and Bernardo O’Higgins of Chile respected Mapuche sovereignty, whose border was fortified. Indeed, in a letter dated 13 March 1819, the Supreme Director of Chile, Bernardo O’Higgins, addressed to the Mapuche authorities, expressed his desire to strengthen an alliance with the Mapuche state, to live in harmony and fraternity between both peoples, and his decision to recognise the independence of the Mapuche state: “I speak to you as the leader of a free and sovereign people, who recognises your independence, and is about to ratify this recognition by a public and solemn act, signing at the same time the great Charter of our alliance to present it to the world as the impregnable wall of freedom of our States.”
The Treaty of Tapiwe, agreed on 7 January 1825 between the Mapuche state, representing four territorial identities (meli wixan-mapu), i.e. the Wallmapu, and the nascent Republic of Chile, ratified the border established in 1641 with the Kingdom of Spain. However, a few decades later, Chile unilaterally violated the treaty and in 1852 created the province of Arauco symbolically because in practice the border remained in force. With this measure, Chile sought to demonstrate to the Western world that the Mapuche territory was part of Chilean territorial jurisdiction, while in official communications with the Toki Magñil, head of the Mapuche state, it assured him that the border remained in force.
It is important to note that when the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia was founded in 1860, in Araucanía, the Wallmapu state was independent, free and sovereign, recognised by Spain, Chile and Argentina, and therefore had the power to establish the government it deemed necessary. The parliament or Koyang that established it did so in a defined territory, a government headed by the Toki Magñil, his council of lonko and his parliament in force since time immemorial, prior to the Spanish invasion in 1536.
Throughout his reign King Orelie Antoine I maintained a consistent legal argument grounded in international law in defence of Mapuche Sovereignty denouncing the violations of Sovereign territorial integrity by the states of Chile and Argentina. In his inaugural speech he called for Peace through dialogue with the nascent republics. King Achilles I continued internatinally to raise awareness of this breach of international law, with Prince Antoine II lobbying consistently against the subsequent North South partition of Wallmapu. Prince Philippe I spent his 63 year reign denouncing to the interational fraterity, the violation of Mapuche Sovereign borders, in 2012 establishing an NGO with UN special consultative status I, which could highlight the violation of Mapuche rights before the United Nations. A policy which has continued under his successors to the present day with the establishment of the Order of the Southern Star NGO, the human rights arm of the Kingdom established in 2024 by Prince Frederic I and our present Sovereign Prince Antoine V.
The Kingdom, which is now ruled by H.R.H. Antoine V (Ninth Prince) after the voluntary abdication of Prince Frederick I, will continue to fly the flag of freedom raised by the Toki Magñil, his Council of Lonko and Orelie Antoine de Tounens, an event that was ratified in a Koyang (Mapuche parliament) in December 1860. The Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia will continue to support the peaceful struggle of the Mapuche people for their fundamental rights, as the predecessors of the current Prince have done.
H.E. Dame Nina Saleh Ahmed – Duchess of Neuquen – Chancellor – Garde des Sceaux – President of the High Court of Justice – Councillor of the Kingdom.
H.E Werken Reynaldo Mariqueo – Duke of Meli-Peuko – Secretary of State for Diplomatic Affairs – Councillor of State.
