Wallmapu, the name used by the Mapuche people for their ancestral territory in southern Chile and Argentina, represents one of the oldest surviving indigenous independence claims in the Americas. The Mapuche resisted Inca expansion and later confronted Spanish colonisation with extraordinary resilience.

From 1598 onward they defended their lands along the Bio Bio River frontier, achieving a unique diplomatic recognition of their autonomy through a series of treaties with the Spanish Crown. This period created a strong political identity anchored in territorial stewardship, warrior traditions, and the Mapudungun language.  After the independence of Chile and Argentina, both states gradually advanced into Mapuche lands during the nineteenth century. These military campaigns, known as the Occupation of Araucania in Chile and the Conquest of the Desert in Argentina, resulted in large scale land dispossession, cultural suppression, and forced assimilation. The Mapuche were confined to small reserves and excluded from national political life. In the twentieth century, land conflicts intensified as agricultural, forestry, and industrial projects expanded into areas historically managed by Mapuche communities.  Modern activism emerged in the late twentieth century with organisations calling for territorial rights, cultural revitalisation, and in some cases political autonomy. The term Wallmapu has become a central marker of national identity and a framework for expressing collective claims.

Although independence is not universally sought, segments of the movement advocate a restored Mapuche state or a plurinational political arrangement. Wallmapu symbolises an enduring relationship between people and land, and it continues to animate debates in Chile and Argentina about indigenous rights, historical memory, and the future of state structure in the Southern Cone.