Background
Pedro de Valdivia was born on April 17, 1497 in Villanueva de la Serena, Vegas Altas, Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain to an impoverished hidalgo family.
governor military Conquistador
Pedro de Valdivia was born on April 17, 1497 in Villanueva de la Serena, Vegas Altas, Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain to an impoverished hidalgo family.
Joining the Spanish army early, he fought in Flanders and then at the battle of Pavia in 1525.
He reached America in 1535, spent an uneventful year in Venezuela, and moved on to Peru.
There he tookpart on the side of Hernando Pizarro in the battle of Las Salinas in 1538, which saw Almagro defeated and captured.
In 1540, Valdivia started out with about 150 men.
They struggled through the Atacama Desert, and early in 1541 Valdivia founded Santiago.
The Araucanian, the most obstinate and the most skillful fighters of the natives of South America, almost destroyed the colony in 1543.
Valdivia founded more settlements Concepciónsettlements Concepcion (1550), La Imperial (1551), Valdivia (1552), and, east of the Andes, Santiago del Estero (1553).
Valparaíso, though used as a port by the Spaniards from the start, had no considerable population until much later.
He moved against them in 1553 and built a fort at Tucapel.
He had earlier captured and presumably made friends with Lautaro, an Araucanian youth who became his groom.
Though different accounts exist of his execution, the likeliest is that a chief, Pilmaiquén, hit him in the head with a war club.
(Cartas que tratan del descubrimiento y conquista del Rein...)
Valdivia had married Marina Ortíz de Gaete in Spain, but in Peru he became attached to the widow Inés de Suárez, who accompanied him to Chile as his mistress. Early in 1540, with Francisco Pizarro's permission, Valdivia left Cuzco for Chile with a small expedition and one Sancho de Hoz as partner.