Its first name was Santa Cruz de Triana. In , its population was , The city also serves as the administrative and legal center of the region.
The city's original name was Villa Santa Cruz de Triana. However, before the Spaniards arrived the area was inhabited by local Picunche tribes and had also fallen briefly under the control of the Inca Empire, whose traces can still be found near the city today. The city is famous in Chilean history as the scene of the Disaster of Rancagua of , when Chilean forces fighting for independence from Spain were defeated, marking the beginning of the period known as the Reconquista Reconquest, an attempt by Spain to regain control of Chile.
In recent years the city has become one of the most attractive cultural and tourist centers in the O'Higgins Region , mainly due to the vineyards in the area. Rancagua also offers sports centers and easy access to smaller villages and towns.
The city is connected to Santiago by the Panamerican Highway Chile Route 5 , and the Metrotren connects the metro service in Santiago to Rancagua by train. Rancagua is home of the University of Rancagua, the first private university to be established in the O'Higgins Region. El Teniente is a division of the state-owned mining enterprise, Codelco. More recently, it houses the O'Higgins professional soccer club, one of the leading teams in Chilean professional soccer.
The population of Rancagua is primarily either of Spanish descent or mestizo, with a particularly strong Basque influence. However, there are also Chileans of German, Croatian, Italian, Greek, Levantine Arab, Swiss, French, English or Irish ancestry living in the city, [4] as well as indigenous Mapuche migrant workers from the south [1] and some Roma gypsies. Furthermore, the city has seen increasing immigration from neighbouring South American countries such as Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.
