Veracruz, Mexico

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sea level. Mexico's most important port is connected to the state capital Jalapa by two railway lines and several cross-country roads. Given its importance over several centuries as a customs port and centre for the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico and the tropical hinterland, it comes as no surprise that Veracruz should have had a varied history. Despite its climate, Veracruz is a vibrant city, much favoured by domestic tourists, with a sympathetic mixture of colonial buildings and modern architecture.

History

In the period before Christ the area around Veracruz (Spanish: "true cross") was probably inhabited by the mysterious people called the Olmecs and then later by the Totonacs. The capital of their empire was Zempoala, about 40km/25mi away from the present-day city of Veracruz.

On April 22nd 1519, Good Friday, Hernán Cortés landed with his Spanish soldiers on the coast near La Antigua and shortly afterwards received a delegation from the Aztec ruler Moctezuma. The latter assumed that Cortés must be Quetzalcóatl returned - the legendary ruling figure who had been driven out of the Toltec capital of Tula (Tollán) some 530 years previously and disappeared with the promise that he would return from across the sea. Cortés made the symbolic gesture of founding the town of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz ("rich town of the true cross"), before the Spanish settled shortly afterwards near the Totonac town of Quiahuiztlán. Five years later the settlement was transferred to what is present-day La Antigua, 30km/19mi distant. In the years following the Spanish in fact moved their headquarters a number of times, until they finally built La Nueva Veracruz on the site of the present-day city in 1599. Although at first the town itself did not develop to any extent, the harbour was of paramount importance for the maritime traffic between Mexico on this side of the Atlantic and Cádiz and Seville in Spain on the other. As early as the 16th c., and to a greater degree in the 17th c., Veracruz was the target of attacks by British, French and Dutch pirates. In 1821, towards the end of the War of Independence, the Mexican General Agustín de Iturbide defeated the last viceroy of New Spain, Juan O'Donojú, who subsequently recognised Mexico's independence in the Treaty of Córdoba after a ten-year struggle.

In 1838 the port was occupied by French troops, empowered to secure compensation for their government; in 1847 it was Americans who occupied Veracruz intermittently during the war between Mexico and the USA. The interference of the Spanish, French and British in the clash between Liberals and Conservatives in Mexico ended with the occupation of the port by a French expeditionary corps. Maximilian von Hapsburg, who was appointed Emperor of Mexico with the support of the French, landed here in 1864 on his way to Mexico City. His hapless fate was sealed when in 1867 the French who had come to support him abandoned Mexico for good. An intervention corps of the U.S. army occupied the port once again for a short time in 1914.