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The Araucanization (Spanish: Araucanización) was the process of expansion of Mapuche culture, influence and language from the Araucanía into the patagonic plains. Historians disagree in the time of the expansion but it would have occurred sometime between 1550 and 1850. Amerindian peoples such as the Puelches and Tehuelches adopted the Mapudungun as their main language (their own name is in Mapudungun).
Together with Quechua, Aymara, Guarani and Nahuatl, Mapudungun is among the few Amerindian languages that extended their territories after the European arrival.
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