Temuco

Temuco (tāmū'kō), city (1990 est. pop. 211,700), capital of Araucania region, S central Chile, on the Cautín River. It is a commercial city dealing in cattle, lumber, wheat, and fruit. Temuco, founded in 1881, was the point from which the colonization of S Chile was begun, chiefly by German immigrants. The region was occupied by indigenous Araucanians; on a hill near Temuco, the treaty ending the last serious Araucanian uprising was signed (1881). Temuco has an Araucanian museum.