Orelie-Antoine I, King of Araucania and Patagonia.
The Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia was founded by a French lawyer and adventurer named Orelie-Antoine de Tounens in southern South America in the mid 19th century. At the time the local indigenous Mapuche population were engaged in a desperate armed struggle to retain their independence in the face of hostile military and economic encroachment by the governments of Chile and Argentina, who coveted the Mapuche lands for their agricultural potential.
While visiting the region in 1860, Orelie-Antoine came to sympathise with the Mapuche cause, and the Mapuche leaders in turn elected him to the position of King — possibly in the belief that their cause might be better served with a European acting on their behalf. Orelie-Antoine then set about establishing a government, created a blue, white and green flag, and had coins minted for the nation under the name of Nouvelle France.
His efforts at securing international recognition for the Mapuche were thwarted by the Chilean and Argentinian governments, who captured, imprisoned and then deported him on several occasions. King Orelie-Antoine I eventually died penniless in France in 1878 after years of fruitless struggle to regain his perceived legitimate authority over his conquered kingdom.
The first Araucanian king's present-day successor, Prince Felipe, lives in France and has renounced his predecessor's claims to the Kingdom, but he has kept alive the memory of Orelie-Antoine, and lent continued support to the ongoing struggle for Mapuche self-determination by authorising the minting of forty or so coins in cupronickel, silver, gold and palladium since 1988.
References
The Once and Virtual King (http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,15227,00.html) - by Deborah Scoblionkov, Wired News, 28 September, 1998.
External Links
NAARS (http://www.geocities.com/tourtoirac/) - Official site of the North American Araucanian Royalist Society
One of the songs by the group Vlkatun Mapu ("Song of the Earth" in the Mapuzungun language) was about Guacolda, wife of Lautaro, the heroic "toqui" or military chief of the Mapuche nation in the 16th century.
Araucania is home to 23.5 percent of the more than 600,000 people who identify themselves as belonging to the Mapuche nation, the main group of original people in Chile, accounting for nearly 90 percent of indigenous people in the country.
The purpose of the Araucania Social Forum is to provide an opportunity for the people of the region to meet and share their knowledge, thoughts and visions about their reality and experiences, the regional situation, and proposals and projects, the forum organisers said.
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