It takes its name from the Moluche language of the indigenous confederation, or aillarehue, that occupied both sides of the Claro River and made up the greater confederation, or Butalmapu, between the Itata and Bio Bio Rivers.
In 1603, then Royal Governor of Chile under Spanish rule Alonso de Ribera was to declare the erection of the areas first fort naming it Nuestra Señora de la Buena Esperanza (Our Lady of Good Hope).
The origins of Rere are directly related to the frontier war which had raged between the Spanish and Mapuches since the beginning of Colonization.
During the 16th century the process of founding cities and seizing of property and lands from a then consolidated indigenous population, ran into problems in the area of the Río Biobío.
[1] At that time a governor arrived in Chile, Alonso de Ribera who, seeing the failures of his predecessors, drew up a plan aimed at giving a new dynamism to the process of European Conquest decided there were to be constructed a series of forts along the length of the Bío Bío.