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GUADALAJARA HISTORY
Guadalajara
history dates back to
1542. The now beautiful city actually had a few setbacks in its first
few years of settlement. Mexico came under Spanish
rule from 1521 to 1821.
What is now Guadalajara was settled by
Spanish Conquistadores on February 14, 1542. They were led by the
infamous Nuńo de Guzmán.
It has been
said that Guzmán and his followers raped, burned and pillaged their way
westward. This created much anger, hatred and hostility from once
peaceful Native American tribes. Ironically, Guzmán was arrested
by royal authorities and died in a prison in Spain the same year
Guadalajara, Mexico became an official city.
Guadalajara
was established at its present location only after three settlements
elsewhere had failed. In 1532, Nuńo de Guzmán and 63 families founded
the first Guadalajara (Arabic for shallow river)
near Nochistlan (now Zacatecas state),
naming it after Guzmán's home city in Spain.
Water
was scarce, the land was hard to farm and the indigenous people were
hostile, so in 1533 Captain Juan de Onate ordered the settlement moved
to the pre-Hispanic village of Tonala, today a suburb of Guadalajara.
Guzmán, however, disliked Tonala and in 1535 had the settlement moved to
Tlacotan, northeast of the modern city. In 1541 this was destroyed by a
confederation of indigenous tribes led by the chief Tenamaxtli. The
surviving colonists picked a new site in the valley of Atemajac beside
San Juan de Dios Creek, which ran where Calzada Independencia is today.
The new Guadalajara was founded by Onate on February 14, 1542, near
where Teatro now stands.
This
Guadalajara prospered, and in 1560 it was declared the capital of Nueva
Galicia province. The city quickly grew into one of colonial Mexico's
most important population centers and the heart of a rich agricultural
region.
It
also was the starting point for Spanish expeditions and missions to
western and
northern Nueva Espana - and as far away as the Philippines. Miguel
Hidalgo, a leader in the struggle for Mexican independence, set up a
revolutionary government in Guadalajara in 1810 but was defeated near
the city in 1811, not long before his capture and execution in
Chihuahua. Although Hidalgo was caught and beheaded by the Spanish
authorities soon after, the movement that he started went on to claim
Mexico 's independence and form the new republic. Miguel Hidalgo's
presence can be felt throughout Guadalajara in murals painted by José
Clemente Orozco and a large statue present in the Plaza de Indepencia.
The city was
also the object of heavy fighting during the War of the Reform (1858-61)
and between Constitutionalist and Villista armies in 1915.
By the late
19th century Guadalajara had overtaken Puebla as Mexico's second-largest
city. Its population has mushroomed since WWII, and now the city is a
huge commercial, industrial and cultural center.
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