It has been a populated settlement since the Pre-Inca period, and is today an important cultural, educational, political, and commercial centre.

The valley of Cochabamba has been inhabited for thousands of years due to its fertile productive soils and mild climate.

[citation needed] The name Cochabamba is a Spanish spelling of the Quechua compound noun qucha pampa (literally 'lake plain', phonemically /qutʃa pampa/, phonetically [ˈqɔtʃa ˈpampa]).

His son Huayna Capac turned Cochabamba into a large production enclave or state farm to serve the Incas.

The local population was possibly depleted during the Inca conquest and Huayna Capac imported 14,000 people, called mitimas, to work the land.

The maize was stored in 2,400 storehouses (qollqas) in the hills overlooking the valley or transported by llama caravan to storage sites in Paria, Cusco, of other Inca administrative centres.

He purchased the majority of the land from local tribal chiefs Achata and Consavana through a title registered in 1552 at the Imperial City of Potosí.

It was to be an agricultural production centre to provide food and wood[6] for the mining towns of the relatively nearby Altiplano region, particularly Potosí which became one of the largest and richest cities in the world during the 16th and 17th centuries — funding the vast wealth that ultimately made Spain a world power.

In fact, anthropologist Jack Weatherford and others have cited the city of Potosí as the birth of capitalism because of the money and materialism it provided Spain.

Surrounded by five thousand Spaniards, they resist with battered tin guns and a few arquebuses; and they fight to the last yell, whose echoes will resound throughout the long war for independence.

Whenever his army weakens, General Manuel Belgrano will shout those words which never fail to restore courage and spark anger.

[citation needed] In 1998, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to give Bolivia a loan of $138 million to control inflation and promote economic growth.

However, it only agreed to do so on the condition that Bolivia sell "all remaining public enterprises," including its national oil refineries and the local water company, SEMAPA.

The march was meant to be peaceful, but after two days the police used tear gas against the protestors and injured about 175 people and killed 1 and blinded two.

[10] The Defense of Water and Life held an unofficial referendum and 96% of 50,000 people wanted Aguas del Tunari's contract to terminate, but the government refused.

The protests only grew and the entire world began to watch forcing Bechtel to leave its contract and return SEMAPA to the public.

The first democratically elected Prefect of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa, had allied himself with the leaders of Bolivia's Eastern Departments in a dispute with President Evo Morales over regional autonomy and other political issues.

The protestors blockaded the highways, bridges, and main roads, having days earlier set fire to the departmental seat of government, trying to force the resignation of Reyes Villa.

In July 2007, a monument erected by veterans of January's protest movement in honour of those killed and injured by government supporters was destroyed in the middle of the night, reigniting racial conflicts in the city.

La Cancha, the largest open-air market in South America, is also an active place where locals can buy a range of items.

In contrast, the Zona Sur, a remote area adjacent to the Wilstermann International Airport is visibly impoverished, with adobe homes and unpaved roads, which is often the first impression visitors acquire while commuting into the city.

Although the Spanish that is spoken in the Cochabamba region is generally regarded as rather conservative in its phonetics and vocabulary, the use of Quechua terminology (wawa [child] and wistupiku [mouth or twist lips][28]) has been widely incorporated into its standardized form.

[27] Like other cities that share the same ethnic group quadrants like Salta or Cuenca, Cochabamba's demographics consist of the following visible groups in order of prevalence: Indigenous (mostly of Quechua and Aymara ethnicity) people, Mestizo, or mixed Indigenous and Spanish European, and people of Spanish (Criollos) and other European descent.

[citation needed] Cochabamba is also the industrial hub of Bolivia, producing cars, cleaning products, cosmetics, chemicals, and cement.

Other domestic airlines that serve the airport include Línea Aérea Amaszonas, Ecojet and Transporte Aéreo Militar.

An annual mild climate, abundant greenery, mountain vistas, and a progressive local economy are factors that have contributed to the city's appeal to Bolivian nationals, expatriates and foreigners alike.