History Of Acapulco

Acapulco City

Acapulco which is formally known as Acapulco de Juarez is a chief sea port and a city on the Pacific coast of Guerrero state of Mexico. From the Mexico City it is 300 kms southwest. It is situated on a semicircular bay.

It is a port for cruising lines and shipping which runs between San Francisco and Panama, United States and California. According to the data of 2005 consensus the urban population area was 616,394 people whereas there are 717,766 people in the administrative municipality area.

This municipality is 1,882.6 square kilometers in area. It has plentiful miniature localities in the exterior of the city. The origin of the name Acapulco is from the Nahuatl language meaning a place of big reeds.

Archaic Era

Mexican Archaic Era

The evidences by the archeologists show that the city Acapulco has been settled ever since before 3000 BC. The first remnants of human existence consist of pottery made of stone, ceramic and clay. The most primitive known ceramics from Mexico City were found in Puerto Marques which is in the coastal region. They are believed to be as old as Mesoamerica.

Many cave paintings and petroglyphs from 1200BC have been revealed in Pie de la Cuesta. This has indicated the primitive existence of hunting and agriculture as secondary actions, with fishing settlements. 18 massive granite stones imprinted with anthropomorphic and calendaric beads, geometricball sackal and zoomorphic facts have been found in the projection near Palma Sola located in Veladero National Park.

They are intended to have been formed somewhere between 200 BC and 600 AD. Nomadic tribes of the northeastern area of Mexico entered during this period which is now known as the state of Guerrero.

The Spanish Colony

The primary mention to Acapulco was given in 1519 in the olden times of the ‘Viceroyalty of New Spain’ by Bernal Diaz del Castillo in his book ‘Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de Nueva Espana’ which means the factual history of capture of New Spain. Numerous expeditionary groups were sent to the Mexican Pacific coasts to discover a novel commercial path towards Asia.

Acapulco in 1532 by the royal order became an enslavement of the Spanish Crown. It was named as Ciudad de los Reyes which means the capital of kings.

It soon became a chief port for the ships of Spain which carried spices that were gathered from the region of Asia- Pacific.

The present day Acapulco is a tourist attraction and has made various advancements.