Valdivia
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Related to Valdivia: Pedro de Valdivia
Valdivia,
city (1990 est. pop. 113,500), capital of Valdivia prov., S central Chile, on the Valdivia River. It is a leading commercial and industrial center. Founded in 1552, it was a fortress in the defense against the AraucaniansAraucanians, South American people, occupying most of S central Chile at the time of the Spanish conquest (1540). The Araucanians were an agricultural people living in small settlements.
..... Click the link for more information. and was a royalist center during the war of liberation. The city did not grow until the arrival in the mid-19th cent. of German immigrants who founded the first industries (beer and shoes). Valdivia was devastated by an earthquake in 1960 but has been largely rebuilt. Valdivia has a university and an airport.
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Valdivia
1 Pedro de . ?1500--54, Spanish soldier; conqueror of Chile
Valdivia
2 a port in S Chile, on the Valdivia River about 19 km (12 miles) from the Pacific: developed chiefly by German settlers in the 1850s; university (1954). Pop.: 136 000 (2005 est.)
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