Acapulco (Officially: Acapulco de Juárez) is a city and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, 300 kilometres (190Mi.

Acapulco (Officially: Acapulco de Juárez) is a city and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, 300 kilometres (190 mi) southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay. It is a port of call for shipping and cruising lines running between Panama and San Francisco, California, United States. As of the 2005 census, the population of the urbanized area was 616,394, while that of the administrative municipality was 717,766 people. The municipality, which has an area of 1,882.6 square kilometres (726.9 sq mi), includes numerous small localities outside of the city. The tourist resort city of Acapulco is the largest city in the state, far larger than the state capital Chilpancingo.

The name "Acapulco" comes from the Nahuatl language, and means "place of big reeds".







Geography
The town was built on a narrow strip of low ground, scarcely half a mile (800 m) wide, between the shoreline and the lofty mountains that encircle the bay to the north and east. Access to the town from inland is through the mountains via a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) tunnel that was constructed in the 1990s. A passage through the mountains, called Abra de San Nicolas, has been constructed, and it allows cooling sea breezes to reach the city.

The climate is tropical, with warm to hot temperatures year-round. Precipitation is heavily concentrated in summer, while winter is mostly dry and sunny.


History

[edit] Archaic Era
Archeological evidence shows that Acapulco has been inhabited since before 3000 BC. The first vestiges of human presence consist of figures and pottery made of clay, stone, and ceramic. The pieces found in the coastal region of Puerto Marqués are the earliest known ceramics from Mexico, and they could be the oldest in Mesoamerica.

Cave paintings from 1200 BC and petroglyphs have been discovered on Pie de la Cuesta. They indicate the early presence of fishing settlements, with agriculture and hunting as secondary activities. In a mountainside near Palma Sola, situated in the Veladero National Park, calendaric beads and 18 giant granite stones engraved with anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and geometrical details have been found. They were created between 200 BC and AD 600. During this period, nomadic tribes from the northeast of Mexico entered what is now the state of Guerrero. Evidence of their presence has been found near the city.


Spanish colonial period

A 1628 Spanish relief map of Acapulco BayThe first reference to Acapulco in the history of the Viceroyalty of New Spain was made as early as 1519, by Bernal Díaz del Castillo in his "Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de Nueva España" (True History of the Conquest of New Spain). Spanish captain Hernán Cortés sent several expeditionary groups to the Mexican Pacific coasts in order to find a new commercial route towards Asia. The expedition led by Francisco Chico discovered Acapulco on December 13, 1521, Santa Lucía's day, after whom he named the new found bay. Later, in 1523, Juan Rodríguez Villafuerte led Zacatula's expedition, arriving first at Zihuatanejo, where he built the first shipyard of the New Spain. Then, after producing several caravels and brigantines, he sailed to Acapulco, where he formally took possession of the port in the name of the Kings of Spain, driving in the sand the cross and the staff with the banner of Castille and Aragón.

In 1532, by royal order, Acapulco became a direct dependency of the Spanish Crown, receiving the name of Ciudad de los Reyes (City of the Kings). Later, in 1550, Carlos V, King of Spain and Emperor of Germany and the Indias Occidentales (Western Indies), promoted it to historical city by royal decree.

It soon became a major port for Spanish ships carrying silks and spices gathered from the Asia-Pacific area.

For more than 256 years, a trading movement, known as the Manila-Acapulco Galleon, or locally as Nao de China, set sail from Acapulco to the Philippine Islands. Its trade started an annual merchant fair in Acapulco where traders bargained for the galleon's cargo of spices, silks, porcelain, ivory, and lacquerware.

Acapulco's yearly treasure soon attracted pirates from both England and the Netherlands, who had sailed from the Caribbean sea. In 1579, Francis Drake attacked the coast of Acapulco, but failed to capture the Spanish Galleons; but in 1587, off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Thomas Cavendish seized the Santa Anna, taking most of the treasure.

After a Dutch fleet invaded Acapulco in 1615, the Spaniards rebuilt their fort, which they christened Fort San Diego in 1617. The fort was destroyed by an earthquake in 1776 and was rebuilt by 1783. The Mexican War of Independence, between 1810 to 1821, put a permanent stop to the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade.