Acapulco - Colonial History of Acapulco, Guerrero

Colonial History of Acapulco, Guerrero

Colonial History of Acapulco

Acapulco Bay or more correctly La Bahía de Santa Lucia was the perfect port for the Spaniards to stumble across. Not only is it wonderfully sheltered from anything but the wildest hurricanes but also it is deep. Add to that the fact that it is one of the biggest on the whole Eastern Pacific Seaboard and it really couldn't fail. Acapulco Bay was without doubt the most important seaport on that coast for well over 300 years.

So… very quickly the conquering heroes started using it as a base to explore north as far as Alaska, south to Peru and Chile as well as East to the Philippines and China. Its major disadvantage was the rough terrain required to be crossed to get to Mexico City. For that reason, the settlement at Acapulco was virtually autonomous. Obviously there was a road to Mexico City and beyond which was essential to facilitate the transport of trade goods across the mainland to Veracruz and beyond to the Mother Country but this was used only when absolutely necessary.

In the mid 1650's the first Galleon set off for the Orient to return full of trade goods (a round trip of a year) not just to be shipped on to Europe but also for the luxury starved and increasingly wealthy residents of New Spain. This became an annual event and soon there was even a sparkling fair attended by his Excellencies the Viceroy and the Governor General and all the nobs from the other side of the mountain.

You can just imagine the wonderful stuff on sale… Silk, spices (cinnamon, cloves, tea, pepper) ceramics of the Ching dynasty and earlier, cotton in bolts and already made up, ivory, jewels , the list goes on forever.

Then, as now, this vast wealth attracted undesirables (for the Spanish anyway). The most successful were of course the pirates Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish.

Drake did not become a 'Sir' for nothing… his plundering of the coast swelled the coffers of Spain's arch-rival England considerably and Cavendish was a brilliant sailor and a highly successful pirate too (the English prefer to call them 'Privateers') These men did not confine themselves to bumping off Galleons and were regularly successful in sacking ports along the coast and in this Acapulco was frequently a victim… just allowing enough time for the booty to build up between raids.

Eventually the whole pirate thing got to be too much so in 1615 the Viceroy, one Diego Fernandez de Córdoba built the Fuerte San Diego, a magnificent fort, to protect his income and as a by product the locals. It is a star shaped edifice, straight out of adventure stories, which has recently been restored from it's former parlous state. Go see.

Acapulco became a safer place (relatively speaking) and continued to grow and prosper until the natives revolted… but that's another story.