Valencia [key], city (1990 pop. 903,621), capital of Carabobo state, N Venezuela. It is Venezuela's fourth largest city and one of its major industrial centers. Products include motor vehicles, chemicals, textiles, cattle feed, and consumer goods. Lying in a leading agricultural region, the city is a market for sugarcane and cotton and for cattle driven from the Orinoco llanos. Valencia was founded in 1555. It was briefly the national capital in 1812 and again in 1830, when a convention held there proclaimed Venezuela's secession from Gran Colombia. Valencia's industrialization dates from the 1950s. It is the seat of the Universidad de Carabobo.
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