In the 16th and 17th century Central Chile was a melting pot for uprooted indigenous peoples and it has been argued that Mapuche, Quechua and Spanish languages coexisted there, with significant biligualism, during the 17th century. This coexistense explains how Quechua became the indigenous language that has influenced Chilean Spanish the most. Besides Araucanian Mapuche and Quechua speaking populations a wide array of disparate indigenous peoples were exported to Central Chile by the Spanish for example peoples from Chiloé Archipelago, Huarpes from the arid areas across the Andes, and likely also some Chonos from the Patagonian archipelagoes.