German settlers began to arrive in neighboring southern Chile from the 1840s. Some of these settlers and their descendants began a lucrative leather industry obtaining leather from indigenous communities across the Andes. In the 1880s the Argentine Army displaced indigenous communities disrupting this trade forcing leather merchants in Chile themselves to cross the Andes to obtain supplies. This way numerous entrepreneurs from Chile, many with a German background, established cattle and trade business in the area of Lácar and Nahuel Huapi lakes.