Guadalajara is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the state of Jalisco. The city has a population of 1,460,148, while the Guadalajara metropolitan area has a population of 5,002,466, making it the second-largest metropolitan area in the country. Guadalajara has the second highest population density in Mexico. Guadalajara is an international center of business, finance, arts, and culture, as well as the economic center of the Bajío region, one of the most productive and developed regions in Latin America.

History

Pre-Hispanic Era

Unlike the surrounding areas, the central Atemajac Valley, where Guadalajara is located, contained no human settlements. To the east of the Atemajac Valley were the Tonallan and Tetlán peoples. At the extremes were the Zapopan, Atemajac, Zoquipan, Thesistan, Coyula, and Huentitán.

The historic city centre encompasses what was once four population centres, as the villages of the Mezquitán, Analco and Mexicaltzingo were annexed to the Atemajac site in 1669.

Foundation

Guadalajara was originally founded at three other sites before moving to its current location. The first settlement in 1532 was in Mesa del Cerro, now known as Nochistlán, Zacatecas. This site was settled by Cristóbal de Oñate as commissioned by Nuño de Guzmán, with the purpose of securing recent conquests and defending them from the still-hostile natives. This settlement did not last long due to its lack of usable water sources. In 1533 it was moved to a site near Tonalá. Four years later, Guzmán ordered that the village be moved to Tlacotán. During this time, the Spanish king Charles I granted the city the coat of arms which it retains to this day.

During the Mixtón War, settlers were attacked by the Caxcan, Portecuex, and Zacateco peoples under the command of Tenamaxtli. The war was initiated in response to the cruel treatment of indigenous peoples by Nuño de Guzmán, in particular the enslavement of captured natives. After multiple defeats, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza took control of the Spanish campaign to suppress the revolt. The conflict ended after Mendoza made concessions such as freeing Indian slaves and granting amnesty. The village of Guadalajara barely survived the war, and the villagers attributed their survival to the Archangel Michael, who remains the patron of the city to this day.

After the war, the city was moved once again—this time to a more defensible location. This final relocation would prove permanent. In 1542, records indicate that 126 people were living in Guadalajara. That same year, it was granted cityhood by the king of Spain. Guadalajara was officially founded on February 14, 1542, in the Atemajac Valley. The settlement was named for Nuño de Guzmán's Spanish hometown.

In 1559, royal and bishopric offices for the province of Nueva Galicia were moved from Compostela to Guadalajara and, in 1560, Guadalajara became the province's new capital. Construction of the cathedral began in 1563. In 1575, religious orders such as the Augustinians and Dominicans arrived, eventually making the city a centre for evangelization efforts.

While the capital of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, the city's inhabitants achieved a high standard of living, due to flourishing industry, agriculture, commerce, mining and trade.

The Guadalajara of the sixteenth century was a rather small and often overlooked community. It was mainly frequented by travelling merchants. Several epidemics drastically reduced the city's indigenous population, leading to the construction of its first hospital in 1557.

In 1791, the University of Guadalajara was established. The dedication was held in 1792 at the site of the old Santo Tomas College. While the institution was founded during the 18th century, it would not be fully developed until the 20th century, starting in 1925. In 1794, the Hospital Real de San Miguel de Belén, or simply the Hospital de Belén, was opened.

Guadalajara's economy during the 18th century was based on agriculture and the production of non-durable goods such as textiles, shoes and food products.

Despite epidemics, plagues, and earthquakes, Guadalajara would become one of the most important population centres in New Spain. The city's heyday attracted numerous architects, philosophers, lawyers, scientists, poets, writers and speakers; Francisco Xavier Clavijero and Matías de la Mota Padilla were among the most prominent. 1771 saw the arrival of one of the most notable characters in the history of Guadalajara: Bishop Fray Antonio Alcalde, who founded the Civil Hospital and the University of Guadalajara.

In 1793 Mariano Valdés Téllez ran the city's first printing press, whose first publication was a funeral eulogy for Fray Antonio Alcalde.

Independence

Guadalajara remained the capital of Nueva Galicia with some modifications until the Mexican War of Independence. Miguel Hidalgo entered San Pedro (now Tlaquepaque) on November 25, 1810, and the next day he was greeted effusively in Guadalajara. The city's workers had experienced poor living conditions and were swayed by promises of lower taxes and the abolition of slavery. Despite a soured welcome, due to the rebel army's violence toward city residents, especially royalists, Hidalgo kept his promise and, on December 6, 1810, slavery was abolished in Guadalajara, a proclamation which has been honoured since the end of the war. During this time, he founded the newspaper El Despertador Americano, dedicated to the insurgent cause.

Royalist forces marched to Guadalajara, arriving in January 1811 with nearly 6,000 men. Insurgents Ignacio Allende and Mariano Abasolo wanted to concentrate their forces in the city and plan an escape route should they be defeated, but Hidalgo rejected this idea. Their second choice was to make a stand at the Puente de Calderon just outside the city. Hidalgo had between 80,000 and 100,000 men and 95 cannons, but the better-trained royalists won, decimating the insurgent army and forcing Hidalgo to flee toward Aguascalientes. Guadalajara remained in royalist's hands until near the end of the war.

On January 17, 1817, the insurgent army was again defeated on the outskirts of Guadalajara in the Battle of Calderón Bridge. New Galicia, now Jalisco, adhered to the Plan de Iguala on June 13, 1821.

In 1823, Guadalajara became the capital of the newly founded state of Jalisco. In 1844, General Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga initiated a revolt against the government of President Antonio López de Santa Anna. Santa Anna personally ensured that the revolt was quelled. However, while Santa Anna was in Guadalajara, a revolt called the Three Hour Revolution brought José Joaquín Herrera to the presidency and put Santa Anna into exile.

President Benito Juárez made Guadalajara the seat of his government in 1856, during the Reform War. French troops entered the city during the French Intervention in 1864, and it was retaken by Mexican troops in 1866.

Despite the violence, the 19th century was a period of economic, technological and social growth for the city. After Independence, small-scale industries developed, many of which were owned by European immigrants. Rail lines connecting the city to the Pacific coast and north to the United States intensified trade and allowed the shipment of products from rural areas of Jalisco. Ranch Culture became a very important aspect of Jalisco and Guadalajara's identities during this time. From 1884 to 1890, electrical and railroad services, as well as the Guadalajara Observatory were established.

20th century

Throughout the twentieth century, seeing growth in its industrial, tourist and service industries, Guadalajara began a period of rapid transformation into the metropolis it is today. The city would gain the second largest economy in Mexico, following only by Mexico City. After the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Guadalajara became the second most populous city in the country. However, the decades that followed brought a number of regional wars in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, and Guanajuato. The aftermath of the Great Depression took a further toll on the city. Fortunately, by the 1940s the city would experience industrial, demographic, and trade growth.

In 1910, the Mexican Revolution began, bringing an end to the Porfiriato. With conflict concentrated in the capital, Guadalajara experienced relative calm. After the Cristero Conflict, peace returned to Guadalajara and the city flourished, outgrowing its colonial roots. This period saw the birth of new schools of architecture that would decorate the city from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Guadalajara again experienced substantial growth after the 1930s, and the first industrial park was established in 1947. Its population surpassed one million in 1964, and by the 1970s it was Mexico's second-largest city and the largest in western Mexico. Most of the modern city's urbanization took place between the 1940s and the 1980s, with the population doubling every ten years until it stood at 2.5 million in 1980. The population of the municipality has stagnated and even declined, slowly but steadily, since the early 1990s.

The increase in population brought with it an increase in the size of what is now called Greater Guadalajara, rather than an increase in the population density of the city. Migrants coming into Guadalajara from the 1940s to the 1980s were mostly from rural areas and lived in the city centre until they had enough money to buy property. This property was generally bought in the edges of the city, which were urbanizing into fraccionamientos, or residential areas. In the 1980s, it was described as a "divided city" east to west based on socioeconomic class. Since then, the city has evolved into four sectors, which are still more or less class-centred. The upper classes tend to live in Hidalgo and Juárez in the northwest and southwest, while lower classes tend to live in the city centre, Libertad in the northeast and southeast in Reforma. However, lower-class development has developed on the city's periphery and upper and middle classes are migrating toward Zapopan, making the situation less neatly divided.

Since 1996, the activity of multinational corporations has had a significant effect on the economic and social development of the city. The presence of companies such as Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and IBM has been based on production facilities built outside the city proper, bringing in foreign labour and capital. This was made possible in the 1980s by surplus labour, infrastructure improvements and government incentives. These companies focus on electrical and electronic items, which is now one of Guadalajara's two main products (the other being beer). This has internationalized the economy, steering it away from manufacturing and toward services, dependent on technology and foreign investment. This has not been favourable for the unskilled working class and traditional labour sectors.

The 1992 Guadalajara explosions occurred on April 22, 1992, when gasoline explosions in the sewer system over four hours destroyed 8 km (5 mi) of streets in the downtown district of Analco. Gante Street was the most damaged. Officially, 206 people were killed, nearly 500 injured and 15,000 were left homeless. The estimated monetary damage ranges between $300 million and $1 billion. The affected areas can be recognized by their more modern architecture.

Three days before the explosion, residents started complaining of a strong gasoline-like smell coming from the sewers. City workers were dispatched to check the sewers and found dangerously high levels of gasoline fumes. However, no evacuations were ordered. An investigation into the disaster found that there were two precipitating causes. The first was new water pipes that were built too close to an existing gasoline pipeline. Chemical reactions between the pipes caused erosion. The second was a flaw in the sewer design that did not allow accumulated gases to escape.

Arrests were made to indict those responsible for the blasts. Four officials of Pemex (the state oil company) were indicted and charged on the basis of negligence. Ultimately, however, these people were cleared of all charges. Calls for the restructuring of PEMEX were made but they were successfully resisted.

The 1990s were marked by events such as the explosions of April 22, 1992, the Mexican peso crisis of 1994, and the murder of the Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo in 1993. The 1992 explosions caused massive infrastructure damage to hundreds of houses, avenues, streets, and businesses in the Analco colony, "without a clear delineator of information and responsibilities to date," in one of the most tragic events in the history of Guadalajara. The investigation of the facts lasted more than 11 years in which insufficient evidence was found to appoint a manager, investigations are now closed attributing the events to an accident. This event, in addition to Mexico's 1994 economic crisis, resulted in the loss of Guadalajara's industrial power.

Modern era

The city has hosted numerous important international events, such as the first Cumbre Iberoamericana in 1991; the Third Summit of Heads of State and Governments of Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union in 2004; the Encuentro Internacional de Promotores y Gestores Culturales in 2005; and the 2011 Pan American Games. It was named the American Capital of Culture in 2005 and the Ciudad Educadora (Educator City). in 2006. It was recognized as Mexico's first Smart City due to its use of developing technology.  During each government period, the city went through structural plans with which new areas and commercial hubs were born and with which transnational corporations and international industries arrived in the city. The city housed the first shopping malls in Mexico.

The city expanded rapidly before merging with the Zapopan municipality. Among the developments created during this period were the Guadalajara Expo, the light rail, shopping centres, the expansion of streets and avenues, and the birth and development of road infrastructure, services, tourism, industrial, etc. The first shopping centre in Latin America emerged in the city, the first urban electric-train system in Latin America, and the first autonomous university in Mexico.

In a 2007 survey entitled "Cities of the Future", FDi magazine ranked Guadalajara first among major Mexican cities and second among major North American cities in terms of economic potential, behind Chicago. The magazine also rated it as the most business-friendly Latin American city in 2007.