Incas in Central Chile

Inca rule in Chile was brief, lasting 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 (also called Picunches). 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.

The exact date of the conquest of Central Chile by the Inca Empire is not known. A study of ceramics from 2014 suggest Inca influence in Central Chile begun as early as 1390. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that Central Chile was conquered during the reign of Topa Inca Yupanqui and most early Spanish chronicles point out that conquest occurred in the 1470s.

Beginning with 19th-century historians Diego Barros Arana and José Toribio Medina, various scholars have pointed out that the incorporation of Central Chile to the Inca Empire was a gradual process. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that incorporation into the empire was through warfare which caused a severe depopulation in the Transverse Valleys of Norte Chico, the Diaguita homeland. Chronicler Diego de Rosales tells of an anti-Inca rebellion in the Diaguita lands of Coquimbo and Copiapó concurrent with the Inca Civil War. This rebellion would have been brutally repressed by the Incas who gave rebels "great chastise".

One theory claims Central Chile was conquered by the Inca Empire from the east after Inca troops crossed the Andes at Valle Hermoso (32º22' S) and Uspallata Pass (32º50' S). This attack from the east would have been done in order to avoid the more direct but inhospitable routes crossing the Atacama Desert. José Toribio Medina claimed in 1882 that the Incas entered Central Chile from both north and east.

Troops of the Inca Empire are reported to have reached Maule River and had a battle with Mapuches from Maule River and Itata River there. Yet, the location of the battle is uncertain with historian Osvaldo Silva conjecturing it close to Concepción.

The battle of Maule refers to a battle that took place in connection to Inca expansion into Central Chile. The main account is that of Garcilaso de la Vega a chronicler of Inca and Spanish descent.

Historian Osvaldo Silva disputes the vicinities of Maule River as the location of the battle claiming instead that the battle could have occurred anywhere between Maipo and Bío Bío rivers, while he is inclined locate to battle close to Concepción at the mouth of Bío Bío River.

The traditional view based on the writings of Garcilaso de la Vega hold that the battle of the Maule halted Inca advance. However, Osvaldo Silva suggest instead that it was the social and political framework of the Mapuche that posed the main difficulty in imposing imperial rule.