The periods of conquest, colonization and expansion of the new republics had a profound effect on indigenous settlements and their ancestral territories,8 and a considerable impact on their
subsequent reconfiguration. The colonization of the so-called “empty spaces” by States in the
nineteenth century for mainly geopolitical reasons (Rodríguez, 2002) resulted in the invasion and
pillaging of indigenous territories. Subsequent settlement movements towards the interior of each
country saw geopolitical and economic factors combine with demographic and regionalistic ones,
along with economic diversification, which promoted the formation of urban settlements. This led to a
rearrangement in the spatial distribution of the hegemonic society and consolidated the appropriation
of indigenous spaces, lands, territories and natural resources. In a sense, current territorial conflicts
between indigenous peoples and rural settlers are one of the negative after-effects of that process.