Sorocaba (Portuguese pronunciation: [soɾoˈkabɐ]) is a municipality in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. With over 723,000 inhabitants, it is the seventh-largest city in the state and the second-largest outside the Greater São Paulo region, ranking behind only Campinas. It forms its own Metropolitan Region of Sorocaba, comprising 27 municipalities with a total population of 2 million inhabitants, the 15th most populous in Brazil.

With a surface area of 450,38 km² (or about 170 sq mi), Sorocaba is integrated with Greater São Paulo and the Metropolitan Regions of Campinas, Jundiaí, Paraíba Valley and North Coast and Baixada Santista, forming the São Paulo macrometropolis, which is home to over 30 million people, about three quarters of the state's population and the first such urban agglomeration in the Southern Hemisphere.

The city is highly industrialized, with its industrial production reaching over 120 countries and a GDP of over R$ 32 billion, the 19th-largest in Brazil, surpassing state capitals such as São Luís, Belém, Vitória, Natal, and Florianópolis. Over 22,000 companies operate in the city, 2,000 of which are industries.

Dom Francisco de Sousa, general governor of Brazil (1591 to 1602), believing in the existence of gold in the region, settled the Pelourinho —a Portuguese translation of the English "pillory", symbol of the Royal power, as the village Nova Vila de Nossa Senhora da Ponte de Mont Serrat. When gold wasn't found there, the governor returned to the Royal Court. Twelve years later, Dom Francisco de Sousa changed the name of the village to Itavuvu.

Baltasar Fernandes, a member of an expeditionary group called Bandeirantes, laid the foundation of Sorocaba in the 1654. The chapel of Nossa Senhora da Ponte (which is now the Cathedral located in Fernando Prestes square, downtown) was built by him, along with the São Bento de Parnaíba monastery (now São Bento monastery) years later. It was also Fernandes who brought the first Benedictine monks to teach, assist the poor and the ill, and convert the Native Americans of the region. The monastery was donated to the Benedictines in the year 1660, after which Friar Anselmo da Anunciação and Friar Mauro were chosen to take office. The first streets and houses started to spread around the neighborhood.

In the year of 1661, Baltasar Fernandes went to São Paulo to request that Sorocaba be named a village from the governor, Correia de Sá e Benevides. Thus, on March 3, 1661, Sorocaba became known as Vila de Nossa Senhora da Ponte de Sorocaba. The organization of the Municipal Council followed shortly, with the main nominees being: Baltasar Fernandes and André de Zunega (judges), Cláudio Furquim and Pascoal Leite Pais (city councillors), Domingos Garcia (procurator) and Francisco Sanches (clerk).

With the arrival of colonel Cristóvão Pereira de Abreu and his troops in 1773, begins the main chapter of the history of Sorocaba: the Tropeirismo.

The transportation of goods on the back of mules, that traversed the North-South route of the country came across Sorocaba, which was strategically placed in the main route between Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Soon Sorocaba had its own Feira de Muares (mule/horse fair), where troops from all states came to feed and rest their cavalry on the way to the mineral and forest expeditions, and buy and sell goods, horses and enslaved Africans. Given the growing number of people working in the city, the commerce and the first industries began to appear. Goods bought in Sorocaba were known from across the Country, spread by the merchant troops. The main events of Tropeirismo comprehended a hundred years of the Sorocaba history, from 1770 to 1870. The Tropeirismo is also responsible for spreading a locally manufactured type of Knife that became known in Brazil is as the Sorocaban Knife.