Native Americans from the Orinoco region kept moving through this region to colonize or trade with the regions around the Tacarigua Lake (the native name for Lake Valencia).
Fray Cirilo Bautista of Sevilla founded Santa Clara de Caramacate in 1750. Bishop Mart� wrote some of the first reports about the area in 1760. That year missionaries Fray Gabriel de San Lucas and Fray Salvador of C�diz founded the city of San Carlos. The original name was San Carlos de Austria. Nuestra Se�ora de la Chiquinquir� of El Tinaco was founded by Fray Pablo de Orichuela on the same year. El Pao was founded one year later, in 1661. The towns and the areas around them became cantons under jurisdiction of the Province of Caracas.
After the independence, the territory became part of Carabobo Province, one of the 11 Provinces of Venezuela at independence
