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Mexico Travel :: State of Guerrero

Before the arrival of the Spanish, Guerrero's fate was to be surrounded by larger and more powerful Indian cultures. The Olmec Culture, based on the Veracruz coast, contributed remarkable cave paintings (900-700 BC) found near Oxtotitlan and Juxtlahuaca, in the eastern Guerrero sierra. At one time or another Guerrero's tribes were conquered by and had to pay tribute to Teotihuacan and the Toltecs from the Valley of Mexico, the Mixtecs from Oaxaca, the Tarascans from Michoacan and, finally, the Aztecs. Many Guerreran ceremonial objects have been found in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City).

In 1523, an expedition sent by Cortes reached the mouth of the Rio Balsas, and the deep natural harbor of Acapulco was discovered shortly thereafter. After silver was found at Taxco and other sites, Spanish settlers poured into the region. Acapulco became the sole legal port for the Nao de China, the galleon that plied the Pacific between Mexico and the Orient. A road was built to carry the silks, spices and other luxuries up to Mexico City, and African slaves were imported to work in the harbor. Guerrero became a show-place of the Virreynato, and many distinguished visitors, including a Japanese delegation in 1614 and Alexander von Humboldt in the early 19th century, visited Acapulco and the silver mines.

In 1809, Miguel Hidalgo delegated Jose Maria Morelos to take the battle for independence into the south. With the help of Vicente Guerrero, after whom the state is named, he formed a ragged army that had great early success, capturing Taxco in 1811 and Acapulco, briefly, in 1813. That same year, insurgent delegates from throughout Mexico convened a congress in Chilpancingo to determine the country's future shape; they signed the Act of Independence in early 1814. The tide of battle turned in 1815, when Morelos was captured and executed, leaving Guerrero to continue the fight. Guerrero went on to become a liberal president of Mexico in 1829-30, until he was overthrown and executed by his conservative vice president. After independence in 1821, Acapulco lost its lock on trade to the Orient and began a slow decline that lasted until the beginnings of tourism in the 1920s. In this century, poverty, corruption and unequal distribution of power have led to frequent peasant rebellions in Guerrero, and many governors have resigned or been ousted before serving full terms.

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