Campeche

Campeche is the name of both a state in Mexico and its capital city. This article is about the state.
For the city, see: Campeche, Campeche; for the Puerto Rican artist, see José Campeche.

State of Campeche
Flag Coat of arms
Location within Mexico
Country	Mexico
Capital	Campeche
Municipalities	11
Largest City	San Francisco de Campeche
Government
- Governor	Fernando Ortega Bernés (PRI)
- Federal Deputies	PRI:2
- Federal Senators	PRI:2 PAN:1
Area Ranked 18th
- Total	50,812 km2 (19,618.6 sq mi)
Population (2005)
- Total	754,730 (Ranked 30th)
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
HDI (2004)	0.826 - high Ranked 9th
ISO 3166-2	MX-CAM
Postal abbr.	Camps.
Website	http://www.portal.camp.gob.mx/default.aspx

The State of Campeche is a state in the south-east region of the Mexican Republic. It is bordered by the Mexican states of Yucatán to the north east, Quintana Roo to the east, and Tabasco to the south west. To the south it is bordered by the Petén department of Guatemala and to the west by the Gulf of Mexico.

The area of Campeche is 56,798 square kilometers (21,929.8 sq mi), and the population was only 754,730 inhabitants at the 2005 census. This makes Campeche one of the states with the lowest population densities in Mexico (fifth behind Baja California Sur, Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua).

The capital city of the state is the city of San Francisco de Campeche, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

In addition to the city of Campeche, the state of Campeche includes the cities of Champotón, Ciudad del Carmen, and Escárcega, the towns of Bolonchén, Calkiní, Dzitbalché, Hecelchakán, Hopelchén, Lerma, Tenabo, and Sabancuy, and many ruins of the Maya civilization such as Becán, Calakmul, Silvituc, Dzibilnocac, Edzná, Hocchob, Holactún, Río Bec, Uxul, Xicalango, Xpuhil, and Xtampak.

Campeche derives from the name of the Mayan city of Kan pech, which became today's San Francisco de Campeche.

History

Campeche was home to the ancient Mayan culture. Their advanced cultural and scientific development made the Maya's one of the most important pre-Hispanic cultures in Latin America. Many Maya ruins that still stand in Campeche, such as Calakmul, Chicanna, Becan, Edzna, Xpujil, Hormiguero, Balamku, and El Tigre, among many. The name Campeche has Maya origins, however its meaning has had different interpretations: the most accepted one is that Can means snake and Pech means tick, or “Site of Ticks and Snakes”; this matches the sculpture of a large snake with a tick on its head found within one of its temples.

When the Spaniards first landed on the coast of Campeche in 1517, they were defeated several times by the local leader Moch Couoh. After his death and thanks to territorial conflicts among the indigenous groups, the Spaniards were able to take control and in 1540 gave the settlement the official name of Villa de San Francisco de Campeche to honor Francisco de Montejo, “El Mozo”. The polytheist religion of the Maya civilization, which controlled every aspect of their lives, made the evangelization process of the Spaniards specially difficult to achieve in Mayan territory.

The new government readily took advantage of the geographical location of the port and this was soon reflected in a commercial boom. Salt; timber; and Palo de Tinta, timber from a tree called Tinta, were exported to foreign countries. This boom not only attracted the conquistadores, it attracted European pirates as well; during the XVII century Campeche was attacked repeatedly by them until 1704, when the fort, which includes 4 bulwarks and has an octagonal form, was completed. Any ship that wished to reach Campeche had to go through this fortress.

In 1821, at the end of the war for Independence, the new sovereign country was witness to political conflicts between liberals, conservatives, centralists and federalists. The indigenous rebellion known as the "War of Casts" began at this time in the Yucatan peninsula, included the states of Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. The Mayas rebelled against the “white government” to regain control of their land.

The peninsula was also one of the regions in the country that rejected the imposition of a federal government. And to top it all, Campeche and Yucatan had economic conflicts between them at the same time. It wasn’t until May 3, 1858 that Campeche was formally separated from Yucatan. But it was only recognized as a sovereign region in 1863 by president Benito Juarez.

The state economy has been based on the exportation of timber and salt since the government of Porfirio Diaz. Corn and sugar cane are the main agricultural products. In 1975, the state’s economy was impelled by the discovery of an oil bed off its coasts in the Gulf of Mexico

Municipalities

The State of Campeche is divided into 11 municipalities (Spanish: municipios), each headed by a municipal president (mayor).

Demographics

• Inhabitants: 754,730
• Age Average: 24 years.
• Annual Population Growth: 1.46%
• Population at the Capital: 216,900.
• Population that speaks a native tongue: 89,000.
• Population that does not speak Spanish: 3,140

Data from the II Conteo de Población y Vivienda 2000, INEGI.

Twilight at the Bay of Campeche.

External links

• Yucatan Today - The leading tourist guide to Meria and YUcatan - article about Campeche
• (Spanish) Campeche State Government
• (Spanish) Towns, cities, and postal codes in Campeche
• (Spanish) Instituto de Cultura

v • d • e Political divisions of Mexico States of Mexico: Aguascalientes · Baja California · Baja California Sur · Campeche · Chiapas · Chihuahua · Coahuila · Colima · Durango · Guanajuato · Guerrero · Hidalgo · Jalisco · México · Michoacán · Morelos · Nayarit · Nuevo León · Oaxaca · Puebla · Querétaro · Quintana Roo · San Luis Potosí · Sinaloa · Sonora · Tabasco · Tamaulipas · Tlaxcala · Veracruz · Yucatán · Zacatecas Federal District

Coordinates: 18°50′11″N 90°24′12″W / 18.83639°N 90.40333°W / 18.83639; -90.40333