Campeche - History

History

The name of Campeche is derived from the Mayan name of a settlement called “Ah-Kin-Pech” where the city of Campeche is now. When the Spanish first arrived to the area in 1517, they made contact there and hispanicized the pronunciation. The original mean “place of snakes and ticks.”

The first people to dominate the state were the Mayas, who arrived to Campeche from Guatemala, Honduras and Chiapas. The main Mayan cities were Edzna, Xtampak, and later Calakmul and Becán. The Mayan civilization reached it height between 600 and 900 From 1000 on, the Mayan cities collapsed and were abandoned for unknown reasons. This led to the establishment of smaller settlements and a mixing of the Mayan and Chontal people in the south of the state, which had commercial ties to the central highland cultures of Mexico. From the 11th century to the 16th century, Campeche was divided into smaller dominions.

The first Spaniard in the area was Francisco Hernández de Córdoba y Antón de Alaminos in 1517, who landed at a settlement called Can-Pech, part of the Sol Garrapata dominion. He renamed it San Lázaro. He moved onto the territory of Chakanputon (today Champotón) where he and his men were attacked by the warriors of this dominion. Hernandez de Cordoba died of his wounds from this battle, prompting the Spanish to call this bay the “Bahía de Mala Pelea” (Bay of the Bad Fight) . The conquest of Campeche and the rest of the Yucatán Peninsula began in earnest in 1540, under Francisco de Montejos, senior and junior .

The Spanish introduced sugar cane and other crops in the area, starting in the 1540s, but the main value of the area was the port of Campeche, established in 1540 where the old Mayan village used to be. During the colonial era, it was commercial port equal to Havana and Cartagena even though piracy was a constant threat. It shipped valuable exports such as agricultural goods, tropical hardwoods and dyewood, then a widely used textile dye in Europe. It also handled gold and silver from other areas in Mexico going to Spain. Imported items to the port included luxury items to such as Italian marble and crystal chandeliers from Austria . The Spanish built a European based colonial city here and as it became rich, it was filled with large mansions. However, to survive in the hot and humid environment, the Europeans also adapted a number of Mayan products such as hammocks for sleeping and storing drinking water in hollow gourds. They also built with the area’s local red cedar, mahogany and “sahcab” a local limestone. The shipping in these waters attracted pirates such as John Hawkins, Francis Drake, Diego the Mulatto, Henry Morgan, Cornelis Jol, Bartolomeu Português, Lewis Scot and Roche Braziliano . Most of the attacks were at the port of Campeche but Champontón also suffered significant attacks in 1644 and 1672. Fortification of the city of Campeche began as early as 1610, but these structures were insufficient. The worst pirate attack occurred in 1685, when Laurens de Graaf sacked the city of Campeche and the surrounding haciendas for over thirty days, killing about a third of the area’s population. This prompted far more extensive fortification with numerous forts and a wall around the city that measured 2,560 meters in an irregular polygon shape. Most of the forts survive but only 500 meters of the original wall remains. These fortification cut the threat of pirate attacks but it remained walled until 1890. Campeche was officially recognized as a city in 1774 (the first in southeast Mexico) and in 1784 was declared a minor port. In 1804, the port was closed due to the war between Spain and England. This caused discontentment in the city and fomented insurgent tendencies.

Campeche remained a wealthy and important port until the early 19th century, when a number of events brought on decline. In 1811, the port of Sisal was opened in what is now the State of Yucatán, taking much of the city’s business. Another issue was that Independence brought the abolition of slavery, cutting agricultural production. The lack of shipping made the city relatively isolated from Mexico City.From the 19th century until the latter 20th, the state’s economy was dependent on agriculture, fishing, logging and salt mining.

In September 1821, the city of Campeche proclaimed its adherence to the Plan of Iguala and the new Independent government of Mexico, forcing out its last Spanish governor a month later. At Independence, Campeche was one the two most important cities on the Yucatán Peninsula, along with Mérida. There was political friction between the two. Campeche was the more liberal of the two, and supported the 1824 Mexican Constitution which established a Federal Republic. In 1824, Campeche’s representative proposed that the peninsula be divided into two states: Mérida and Campeche but this was not accepted. Political divisions intensified along with the nationwide struggle between Liberals and Conservatives .

Despite Campeche’s and Mérida’s differences, both were involved in an insurrection against Mexico City headed by Jerónimo López de Llergo in 1839 with the aim of creating an independent state of Yucatán. After initial victories, López de Llergo proclaimed the peninsula independent and in 1841, the Constitution of the Yucatán was promulgated on federalist principles. Yucatán independence did not solve the peninsula’s internal political problems. Mérida’s trade with Havana continued but Campeche’s trade with Mexico City was cut off. Campeche wanted to rejoin Mexico for this reason and Andrés de Quintana Roo tried to work out a settlement between the two cities. Mexican president Santa Anna then sent an expedition to force the Yucatán back into Mexico. More fighting came with the outbreak of the Caste War, in 1847, an indigenous rebellion that took place in Campeche and the rest of the Yucatán. This and foreign pressure to pay debts, forced the Yucatan to formally reintegrate into Mexico in 1849.

The Mexican Constitution of 1857 completely broke the schism between Campeche and Mérida with various rebellions breaking out. During one of these 150 men took over one of the main forts of Campeche and demanded a political union consisting of it, Champotón and Isla del Carmen. Other settlements in the west of the peninsula expressed its desire to be partition with these areas as a new state. In 1858, representatives from Campeche and Mérida signed an agreement to divide the peninsula, which was ratified to make the division official.

During the French Intervention in Mexico, forces under Felipe Navarrete took Campeche and forced the state to rejoin the rest of the Yucatán. In1864, insurgents defeated the imperial army in Hecelchakán and in 1867, they retook Campeche to regain the state’s independence.

During the Mexican Revolution, Manuel Castilla Brito took up arms in Campeche in support of Francisco I. Madero. However, the insurgents were defeated by General Manuel Rivera, a Victoriano Huerta supporter in 1913. Forces loyal to Venustiano Carranza entered Campeche in 1914. Slavery and serfdom was abolished on the haciendas. In 1917, Campeche wrote its current constitution.

There was some improvement in the state’s economy starting in the 1950s when fishing and timber industries became more developed and there was better communications between the state and Mexico City. In 1955, the University of Campeche was founded and a state system of middle schools was begun. However, Campeche’s main economic change come with the discovery of oil off its shores in a shallow water region called the Sonda de Campeche. This oil was discovered by a fisherman named Rudesindo Cantarill in 1971, who reported an oil slick. In 1975, the first oil platform, called Chac Number One began operations. The first set of offshore platforms were completed by 1979. The find has made the state the top producer of petroleum in Mexico, providing 70% of all oil pumped in the country. The economic boom tripled the population of the city of Campeche in ten years, and nearly doubled that of Ciudad del Carmen, which before was only a small fishing village. However, the production of oil has brought environmental problems to the area, especially fishing yields, as well as internal strife between locals and newcomers.

In the mid 1980s, about 25,000 Guatemalan refugees had fled into the state to escape civil war there .

The oil money allowed for the revitalization of the city of Campeche starting in the 1980s. The State Office of Cultural Heritage Sites and Monuments bought abandoned properties to restore them for use as museums, schools, theaters and a library. More than a thousand facades and monuments have been refurbished in the historic center and the oldest residential areas.

In the 1990s, a number of textile mills of the “maquiladora” type were opened in the state. The capital was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO .

The most recently created municipality is Candelaria in 1998.