It was the Jesuit missionaries that, in the 16th century, started the colonization of the area by spreading the livestock brought from the reductions to the extensive wilderness known as "Baqueria de los Piñales". During more than a century, disputes with the Guarani Indians marked the history of the region, before it was consolidated as an official trail connecting the Plata region to Brazil. In the 19th century the fields of Vacaria were once more the stage of great battles, this time between the imperial soldiers and the republican revolutionists (Ragamuffin War).