HISTORY

A Almagro's expedition with supply ship from Peru arrive in Valparaiso’s bay in 1536, they founder the city। Despite Pedro de Valdivia's designation of the bay as the port of Santiago and the building of some churches. In 1802 Valparaiso was legally become a city.

The Valaparaiso's growth start after independence foreign merchants quickly established their presence। It is commerce was disorderly but vigorous.

The population at independence was barely 5,000, but the demand for Chilean wheat 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.

When the Panama Canal was open, the Valparaiso's economy impair, 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 until after World War II was there significant recovery, as the country began to industrialize

Actually, Valparaiso is a World’s Patrimony