Lautaro

Lautaro (c. 1534-1557) was a Mapuche military leader in what is now southern Chile who organized effective resistance against Spanish colonial conquest during the Arauco War. Captured as a youth and forced to serve as a groom in the household of the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, he learned Spanish military tactics, horsemanship and organization from the inside before escaping to join the Mapuche resistance. Applying what he had learned, he reorganized Mapuche forces with rotating reserves, cavalry units and coordinated ambush tactics not previously used against the Spanish, and he led the force that defeated and killed Valdivia himself at the Battle of Tucapel in 1553. He continued leading Mapuche resistance until he was killed in a surprise Spanish attack in 1557, but the Mapuche remained unconquered by Spain for centuries afterward, and Lautaro is remembered in Chile today as a founding figure of national resistance.