|
A lieutenant from Diego de Almagro's expedition whose troops
met a supply ship from Peru in what is now the Bahia de Valparaiso
in 1536, as the founder of the city. Despite Pedro de Valdivia's
designation of the bay as the port of Santiago and the building
of some churches, more than 2 and half centuries passed before
the Spanish crown established a cabildo in 1791. Not until 1802
did Valparaiso legally become a city.
 Spanish
mercantilism retarded Valaparaiso's growth in colonial times,
but after independence foreign merchants quickly established their
presence. One visitor in 1822 remarks that Englishmen and North
Americans so dominated the city that butfor the mean and dirty
appearance of the place, a stranger might almost fancy himself
arrived at a British settlement. It is commerce was disorderly
but vigorous.
Only a few months later, another visitor had
similar impressions, noting that although even the governor's
house and the custom-house are of poor appearance all the symptoms
of greate increase of trade are visible in the many new erections
for ware-houses.
 Valparaiso's
population at independence was barely 5,000, but the demand for
Chilean wheate brought on by the California Gold Rush prompted
such a boom that, shortly after mid-century, the city's population
was about 55,000. Completion of the railroad from Santiago was
a further boost and, by 1880, the population exceeded 100,000.
As the first major port-of-call for ships around Cape Horn, the
city had become a major commercial center for the entire Pacific
coast and the hub of Chile's nascent banking industry.
 The
opening of the Panama Canal was a notable blow to Valparaiso's
economy, as European shipping avoid the much longer and more arduous
Cape Horn route. Furthermore, Chilean exports of mineral nitrates
declined as Europeans found synthetic substitutes, indirectly
affecting Valparaiso by further reducing maritime commerce in
the region. The US Great Depression was a calamity, as demand
for Chile's other mineral exports declined. Not untill after World
War II was there significant recovery, as the country began to
industrialize.
|
