The name of Tucumán bore along the whole history, great resonance, the natives with its clamor against the Spanish conquest, the linking with the gold of the Indias that granted the first Spaniards, its mythical location like the earth of the white gold, demonstrated that these lands always exercised a great power of attraction. The Tucumán of the times of the conquest embraced a vast territory, it covered from Córdoba to the north, until the Gulch of Humahuaca, current territory inside the northwest region of the Argentina Repúblic, region where the the diaguitas towns settled, the most advanced in the south of the continent, possessors of an agriculture of the watering, a fine ceramic and textile art and an extensive perception of the world and of life after death. During the colonial period " Tucumán " was the demographic, economic and commercial center of the Rio de La Plata; since it constituted the forced route from and toward the High Peru. Later, when being broken the colonial knots, the Provinces should look toward the Atlantic. Tucumán was possessor of a great economic growth based on the sugar exploitation in the first decades of the present century. The capital City and the province harbored to an important immigration and consequent mixture of races, the culture and customs of the city became cosmopolitans losing their northern, provincial and Andean root.

Before the arrival of the conquerors, the region was inhabited by different indigenous towns: the diaguitas-calchaquíes, located in the whole mountainous area of the west tucumano; and toward the east of the province fewer towns evolved as the lules and vilelas. The first ones were devoted to the cultivation of the corn, the pumpkin and the quinoa in an complex of platforms and terraces endowed with an advanced irrigation systems. They were skilled weavers and potters, the raw materials for their looms were obtained from the guanacos, llamas and vicuñas that also provided meat and milk. An incipient mining activity provided them of weapons and utensils. They were organized under the direction of a cacique, in spite of being peaceful, they made use of their weapons when their territories were threatened. The lules inhabited by the river Sali and lived off hunting and fishing, they were followers of dancing and music, they were very good warriors and they stood out for their ferocity.

The first Europeans that intruded this territory were Diego of Almagro who in route to Chile in 1535, crossed the Valles Calchaquíes; the same journey was made by Diego de Rojas later to establish a nexus between Lima and the Atlantic coast advancing through the oriental plains, but his conquest was frustrated finding death in a poisoned arrow. In 1549 Juan Nuñez del Prado, also coming from the Peru penetrated in the territory of Tucumán and he lifted the first settlementcalled: city of The Ship. This city was transferred twice of place. The second time it was settled definitively by the Dulce River, with the name of Santiagodel Estero, becoming the first stable Hispanic population of the province of Tucumán, Juríes and Diaguitas, created in 1564 and governed by Francisco Aguirre. To contain the attacks of the diaguitas, governor Aguirre commended his nephew Diego de Villaroel the foundation of a new establishment in the exit of the mountainous cords of the Aconquija and, the protection of the roads that they advanced through the plains to assure them. In 1565, San Miguel of Tucumán was born, under the archangel's invocation San Miguel. There were several reasons for settling down in the region: the fertility of the floor, suitable for crops, the kindness of the climate and the apparent meekness of the indigenous towns that inhabited it. 250 inhabitants lived there. They exploited the area with the cotton cultivation, the breeding of mules and bovine and the exploitation of wood However, toward 1630, a calchaquí rising put an end to so much splendor. In the wars Calchaquíes, the natives were practically eliminated. To the constant harassment of the native, it was added the quality of the water, to which were attributed illnesses like the goiter. A Royal Decree authorized the transfer of the city to its current location, the lieutenant governor Miguel de Salas and Valdés founded it again in 1685. In that time, Tucumán embraced besides its current territory, about 700.000 km2 where the cities of Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca, The Rioja, Santiago del Estero and Córdoba were located. When in 1776 the Viceroyalty of the Rio de La Plata was created it became part of it and seven years later itwas integrated to the county-intendency of Salta.

Tucumán echoed the events of May which took place in Buenos Aires in 1810. It became scenario of fundamental facts of the Argentinean history, lending support to Belgrano in the battle of Tucumán, or being headquarters of the Congress which declared the Independence of the homeland the 9 of Julio 1816.