WI more Amerindians had fought the Spanish as succesfully as the Mapuche IOTL?

which leads as to another question: why where the Mapuche so succesfull? They not only resisted very serious Spanish attemps to conquer them, but they adopted many of their tecniques, such as horse riding, and eventually expanded their culture and language way farther than they home territory in Southern chile (to the point their language was spoken less than a hundred miles from Buenos aires in the late XVIII century.

Was it their terrain? Their organization? The lack of a centraliserd capital? Their previous experience in fighting the Incas? Or was t just having the right leader in the right time? I'm talking about Lautaro, and Indian chief who was talking captive, and put in charge of the Spanish captain´s horses, learning thus no to fear them and to employ them usefully?

EDIT: of course, eventually, the Mapuche were beaten, both in Chile and argentina, in the late XIX century, through the use of Remingtons and other weapons. But the idea is, could other amerindians have done what they did, and resist as long as they did?
 
From what I gather, it was a mix of all the things you mentioned, with a key addition: the Spanish were incredibly stretched there, and the Mapuche lands actually not so worth the sustained effort necessary to subdue them.
The Mapuche were able to exploit very well their very marginal position relative to both the Incan and the Spanish empires' core areas. This helped giving them the time to adopt Spanish techs. I'm under the impression their meetings with the Spaniards were much less a cultural shock than what happened in Mexico and Peru.
They were not the only group who managed a lasting resistance in the fringe areas of the Spanish Empire, though I think they were the most successful at it overall.
 
I'm under the impression their meetings with the Spaniards were much less a cultural shock than what happened in Mexico and Peru.
.

This might have been a factor, indeed. After all, the Spanish weren't the first advanced civilization they had met, and they came from the very same direction where the Spaniards had come less than a century ago.

Around 1470, they met a group of invaders carryng novelties such as pack animals (llamas) and metal tools and weapons. 70 years later, they met another group of people carrying larger pack animals and more shinny metal tools. It might not have been such a great shock as it was for the Incas or the Spanish, who considered themselves the center of the civilized world.
 
Top