The history of Juliaca -from the quechua word xullasca, which means covered in snow- goes back thousand of years. The first evidence of life ever found was from the year 10000 a.C of hunters and gatherers. The reason for this, it is believed, was the weather -less aggressive in those years- which contributed to the proliferation of many animals like vizcachas, deers and camelids (llamas, alpacas, vicunas) and birds, all of these, apparently, favorite food of the new habitants.
Then, with the discovery of pottery, a new culture emerged. Qaluyo -the first of the area-, later followed by cultures like Pukara -around mountain Waynarroque- and Tiwanaku, and by the III and IV century d.C, Qaluyo became a society now known as Waynarroque Culture. The Waynarroque dedicated to agriculture, livestock, fishing and hunting.
Approximately from the VII to the X century, Tiwanaku’s colonist state -the most important pre Inca civilization- took control of great part of the plateau that would later became into Kollasuyo. The Juliaca people, however, in spite of geographically being under the domain of Tiwanako, did not receive much of its cultural influence -this allowed them to developed almost independently- because Juliaca belonged to the Aymara Kingdom of Qolla.
The Incas would have come later. Guided by Pachacutec, they fought -and won- against the Qolla army that was ruled by Chuchi Capac. The victories occurred in Ayaviri and Pukara, which would have become from that moment a part of Tawantinsuyo´s territory. The Qollas rebelled in many occasions but by 1474 they were subjugated and later relocated to settlements, where they were found by the spanish that came with the conquest around the XVI century and with the purpose of transforming Xullaca town into Juliaca, incorporating it to the Buenos Aires viceroyalty.
