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A (Probably) Mad King's Lasting Legacy in Patagonia

By Mat Youkee

Often dismissed as a 19th-century scheme, the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia lends credence to Mapuche claims in Chile and Argentina.

This article is adapted from Americas Quarterly's print issue on Venezuela after Maduro.

On a hillside in Southern France lies a lichen-speckled tombstone commemorating a distant and ephemeral realm, and the man who almost made it last: “Here Lies De Tounens, Antoine Orélie, First King of Araucanía and Patagonia.”

For a brief period in the 1860s, Tounens — a lawyer turned adventurer from the nearby town of Tourtoirac — united Mapuche tribes...

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