Español
← Mexico by state: all 32The Pacific Border

Baja California Sur

Painted caves of the Cochimí, pearls and Jesuit missions, a French copper town, and a remote territory that became a state and a tourist coast in 1974.

Capital: La Paz · Became a state: 1974 · Checked 3 Nov 2026

Interactive maptap or click a state to open its page

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasBaja California Sur
The Texas-Facing NorthThe Pacific BorderThe Bajío and Center-NorthThe CenterThe WestThe Gulf and the IsthmusThe PeninsulaThe Deep South: Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas
The waterfront of La Paz
The waterfront of La Paz Photo: Cvmontuy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Then and now

Baja California Sur in figures from its history

People, 1900 census40,041Southern district; against 798,447 in 2020 1
People, 2020 census798,447About 20 times the 1900 count 3
Became a state1974Southern Territory 1931; state 8 Oct 1974, the 31st 1
Capital founded1535Cortés lands at the bay of Santa Cruz, 3 May 1535; capital since about 1830 5
Indigenous-language speakers, 202013,581Aged 3 and over; 1.79% of that population 3
Great Murals rock artc. 250 sitesSierra de San Francisco; dated from c. 5500 BCE; World Heritage 1993 9
El Boleo copper1885-1954French Compagnie du Boleo mines at Santa Rosalía for nearly 70 years 10
First permanent mission1697Loreto, 25 Oct 1697; capital of the Californias until 1777 6
The first peoples

Pericú, Guaycura, Cochimí and the painted sierras

People have lived at the southern tip of the peninsula for at least 10,000 years, and some finds on Isla Espíritu Santo may be far older. They lived as hunters, gatherers and fishers, sheltering in caves and rock overhangs. When the Spanish arrived they recorded distinct peoples. The Pericú lived in the cape region, the Guaycura in the centre, and the Monqui and the Cochimí in the north. None of them built cities, and all of them knew the desert, the sierras and the sea in great detail.

Indigenous languages spoken today

Speakers aged 3 and over, census of 2020 4

Nahuatl4,020
Mixtec3,205

INEGI's 2020 census counted 13,581 speakers aged 3 and over (1.79% of that population). INEGI's state panorama gives only the two largest languages, as shares of that total (Nahuatl 29.6%, Mixtec 23.6%); the counts above apply those shares to the total and are rounded. The original languages of the peninsula's south, Pericú, Guaycura and Cochimí, are no longer spoken.

The Sierra de San Francisco, home of the great rock paintings
The Sierra de San Francisco, home of the great rock paintings Photo: Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones from México D. F., México, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Their great work is on rock. The state holds one of the largest concentrations of rock painting sites in Mexico. In the Sierra de San Francisco some 250 sites carry the Great Murals, human figures and animals painted larger than life high on cave walls. Radiocarbon dates run from as early as 5500 BCE to the 18th century, and the paintings are likely the work of the Cochimí. UNESCO inscribed them as World Heritage in 1993. The peoples themselves, worn down by epidemics, war and mission life, did not survive the colonial centuries, and only a few words of their languages remain. The 13,581 speakers of Indigenous languages counted in 2020 speak mainly Nahuatl and Mixtec.

Sources: 1291234

The colonial centuries

Pearls, Jesuits and the long mission road

The first Spanish attempts failed. In 1533 a ship sent by Hernán Cortés mutinied under the pilot Fortún Ximénez, who landed on the bay and was killed in a clash with its people. Cortés himself arrived on 3 May 1535 and named it Santa Cruz; his colony lasted almost two years, and Francisco de Ulloa abandoned it in 1539. Pearls kept drawing ships back, and the name La Paz was adopted in 1596.

Interactive maptap or click a state to open its page

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasBaja California SurSinaloaSonoraMulegé6San José del Cabo5Santa Rosalía (El Boleo)4Loreto3Sierra de San Francisco2La Paz1
Archaeological siteCityMineMissionBattlefieldnumbers match the cards
Click a neighbour to open its history.Tap a neighbour to open its history.

Lasting settlement came with the Jesuits. Juan María de Salvatierra founded the mission of Loreto on 25 Oct 1697, and Loreto served as capital of the Californias until 1777. In all, 16 missions were founded in what is now the state, among them Santiago (1724) and San José del Cabo (1730). The missions rested on Indigenous labour, and the diseases that came with the colonists cut Native numbers hard. In 1734 the Pericú rose, angered by the missionaries' attacks on their customs, sacked Santiago and killed its missionary, Lorenzo José Carranco. After the Jesuits were expelled in 1768, the Franciscans used Loreto as a base for the north; the Portolá expedition left it on 24 Mar 1769 for Alta California. The Dominicans followed in 1773, and by the early 19th century most missions had closed.

Sources: 125687

Places in its history

1

La Paz

City · 1535; capital c. 1830

Bay where Cortés landed in 1535; pearl port and capital since about 1830. 5

2

Sierra de San Francisco

Archaeological site · c. 5500 BCE-1700s

Some 250 rock art sites with the Great Murals; World Heritage since 1993. 9

3

Loreto

Mission · 1697

First permanent mission in the present state; capital of the Californias until 1777. 6

4

Santa Rosalía (El Boleo)

Mine · 1885-1954

French-built copper town with its metal church of Santa Bárbara. 10

5

San José del Cabo

Mission · 1730

Jesuit mission of 1730 in Pericú country; later the heart of Los Cabos. 7

6

Mulegé

Battlefield · 1847

Mission town (1754) where local militia under Manuel Pineda repelled a USA landing on 2 Oct 1847. 13

Independence to the Revolution

A distant territory defends itself

Independence reached the peninsula as news from far away. In 1822 it was divided into four municipalities, and from 1824 it was a federal territory, governed directly from Mexico City. Loreto, wrecked by heavy rains in 1828, gave up its role as capital, and by 1830 La Paz held it for good. During the war with the USA, American forces landed on the peninsula, but local militia held on; at Mulegé on 2 Oct 1847, Manuel Pineda's men drove off a landing party of marines and sailors. In 1853 the filibuster William Walker, a USA adventurer bent on a republic of his own, seized La Paz with about 45 men before Mexican forces expelled him.

1810 to 1920 in Baja California Sur

From the timeline below, coloured by era

  1. 1830After rains ruin Loreto, La Paz becomes the capital. 1
  2. 1847Militia under Manuel Pineda repel a USA landing at Mulegé on 2 Oct. 11
  3. 1853William Walker seizes La Paz with about 45 men and is driven out. 1
  4. 1885-1954The French Compagnie du Boleo mines copper at Santa Rosalía. 10
  5. 1914Local revolutionary troops take La Paz. 1

The people, then and now

Census counts, from the figures above

People, 1900 census40,041
People, 2020 census798,447

Sources: 13

Under the Porfiriato, Porfirio Díaz's rule of 1876-1911, the south became a separate federal territory and foreign capital was invited in. The French Compagnie du Boleo founded Santa Rosalía in 1884 and mined copper there from 1885 to 1954 and set up the metal church of Santa Bárbara. Pearl fishing in the bay of La Paz remained an industry. The Revolution, fought far from the peninsula, arrived late, when local troops took La Paz in 1914. In 1931 the Territorio Sur de Baja California was set up as its own unit, and until 1974 it was run by governors appointed by the federal government.

Sources: 12611105

How its economy turned

From copper and fishing to the road and the resorts

For half of the 20th century the territory stayed small and isolated. It had fewer people in 1921 (39,294) than in 1910 (42,512), and only 60,864 in 1950. Fishing shaped the cape: in 1917 an American company set up a floating tuna platform off Cabo San Lucas, and about ten years later a fish-processing plant followed. When the French company closed El Boleo in 1954, a state-owned Mexican firm reopened the mines, which finally shut in the 1980s.

The region, c. 1600 and today

What each state turned on, by the era table below; Baja California Sur outlined in gold.

Interactive maptap or click a state to open its page

c. 1600

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasBaja California Sur

Baja California Sur: Frontier: missions, presidios, independent peoples

  • Silver mining districts
  • Frontier: missions, presidios, independent peoples

Today

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasBaja California Sur

Baja California Sur: Tourism

  • Export manufacturing
  • Tourism
  • Farming and agro-exports
  • Mining

Its places in the modern era

Numbered as on the map above

  • 4Santa Rosalía (El Boleo) · 1885-1954
    French-built copper town with its metal church of Santa Bárbara. 10

The turn came in the 1970s. The Transpeninsular Highway, 1,711 km from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas, was finished in 1973 and tied the south to the rest of the country by land. From 1974 the federal government built infrastructure to make Cabo San Lucas a major tourist centre, and on 8 Oct 1974 the territory became Mexico's 31st state, with three municipalities. Los Cabos became a municipality of its own in 1981 and Loreto in 1992. Cabo San Lucas grew to 16,059 people by 1990, and the state as a whole went from 128,019 in 1970 to 424,041 in 2000, with tourism as its most dynamic sector.

Tourism carried the state into the 21st century, and Los Cabos grew into a resort area for foreign visitors, most of them from the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom. That dependence showed in Sep 2014, when Hurricane Odile came ashore near Cabo San Lucas, tied as the strongest storm to strike the peninsula in the satellite era. About 26,000 foreign visitors were stranded, the Los Cabos airport lost part of its terminal roof, and full reopening was expected to take about 10 days. A territory once too remote to govern itself, joined to the mainland by road only in 1973, was by 2014 living largely from the people who flew in.

Sources: 1212101415

Timeline

Baja California Sur, date by date

Before the Spanish before 1519

  1. c. 8000 BCE

    People are living at the cape at least 10,000 years ago. 12

  2. c. 5500 BCE

    The earliest radiocarbon dates for the Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. 9

The colonial centuries 1519 to 1809

  1. 1533

    Fortún Ximénez, leader of a mutiny on a ship sent by Cortés, lands at the bay of La Paz and is killed. 1

  2. 1535

    Hernán Cortés lands at the bay of Santa Cruz, today La Paz, on 3 May. 5

  3. 1697

    Juan María de Salvatierra founds the mission of Loreto on 25 Oct, the first permanent one in the present state. 6

  4. 1730

    The mission of San José del Cabo is founded on the Río San José. 7

  5. 1734

    The Pericú revolt begins at Santiago, where the missionary Lorenzo José Carranco is killed. 8

  6. 1768

    The Jesuits are expelled and the Franciscans take over the missions. 1

  7. 1769

    The Portolá expedition leaves Loreto on 24 Mar for Alta California. 6

Independence and the Reform 1810 to 1875

  1. 1830

    After rains ruin Loreto, La Paz becomes the capital. 1

  2. 1847

    Militia under Manuel Pineda repel a USA landing at Mulegé on 2 Oct. 11

  3. 1853

    William Walker seizes La Paz with about 45 men and is driven out. 1

The Porfiriato 1876 to 1910

  1. 1885-1954

    The French Compagnie du Boleo mines copper at Santa Rosalía. 10

The Revolution 1910 to 1920

  1. 1914

    Local revolutionary troops take La Paz. 1

Modern Mexico after 1920

  1. 1931

    The Southern Territory of Baja California is formally set apart from the north. 1

  2. 1973

    The Transpeninsular Highway is completed from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas. 14

  3. 1974

    Baja California Sur becomes a state on 8 Oct; tourism building begins at Cabo San Lucas. 1

  4. 1993

    UNESCO inscribes the rock paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco as World Heritage. 9

  5. 2014

    Hurricane Odile comes ashore near Cabo San Lucas in Sep, stranding about 26,000 foreign visitors. 15

The country in three moments

Where Baja California Sur stood: c. 1600, 1910 and today

Interactive maptap or click a state to open its page

c. 1600

Silver, the heartland and the frontier

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasBaja California Sur

Baja California Sur: Frontier: missions, presidios, independent peoples

  • Silver mining districts
  • Towns, farms and workshops of the old heartland
  • Ports, sugar and cacao
  • Indigenous south: cochineal, maize, tribute
  • Maya lands under encomienda or beyond Spanish rule
  • Frontier: missions, presidios, independent peoples

1910

The Porfiriato at its height

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasBaja California Sur

Baja California Sur: Mining

  • Mining
  • Oil
  • Henequén
  • Sugar and textile mills
  • Haciendas: grain, pulque, cattle
  • Export crops: coffee, tobacco, cacao, chicle, timber
  • Steel, cotton and the railway north
  • Ranching frontier
  • The national capital

Today

What each state turns on now

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasBaja California Sur

Baja California Sur: Tourism

  • Export manufacturing
  • Oil and gas
  • Tourism
  • Farming and agro-exports
  • Mining
  • Ports and logistics
  • Services and government

Why Mexico's own reading of what each state's economy turned on in that period, drawn from the sources listed in each state's room; a classification, not a measurement.

Keep going
Rutanamex

Today's numbers for Baja California Sur

Output, exports, jobs, wages and investment now, each with its source and date.

The book

Book 6, Where to Go in Mexico, chapter 14

Where to Go in Mexico: The Pacific Border, the corridor this state belongs to.

Why Mexico

The national timeline

The turning points of the whole country, each dated, each with its source.

Sources, each with its date

  1. Wikipedia (English), Baja California Sur, History section and historical population table, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  2. Wikipedia (Spanish), Baja California Sur, Historia section, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  3. INEGI, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020, results for Baja California Sur (press release 31/21), 26 Jan 2021 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  4. INEGI, Panorama sociodemográfico de Baja California Sur, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020, 2021 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  5. Wikipedia (English), La Paz, Baja California Sur, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  6. Wikipedia (English), Loreto, Baja California Sur, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  7. Wikipedia (English), San José del Cabo, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  8. Wikipedia (English), Misión Santiago de Los Coras, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  9. Wikipedia (English), Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  10. Wikipedia (English), Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  11. Wikipedia (English), Battle of Mulegé, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  12. Wikipedia (English), Cabo San Lucas, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  13. Wikipedia (English), Mulegé, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  14. Wikipedia (English), Mexican Federal Highway 1, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  15. Wikipedia (English), Hurricane Odile, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link

Pictures

Where the sources disagree

  • Earliest presence: Wikipedia (English, state) reports remains on Isla Espíritu Santo dated to 40,000 years but most evidence at 10,000-21,000; Wikipedia (Spanish) gives about 14,000. This page says "at least 10,000 years".
  • Fortún Ximénez: Wikipedia (English) and Wikipedia (Spanish, state) give 1533; Wikipedia (Spanish, Baja California) gives 1534. This page uses 1533.
  • Southern Territory: Wikipedia (English) says the peninsula was divided in 1888 and formalised in 1931; Wikipedia (Spanish) gives 1930, and 14 Dec 1887 for the districts. This page uses 1931.
  • Loreto as capital: Wikipedia (English, state) says rains destroyed Loreto in 1828 and La Paz was capital by 1830; its Loreto article says Loreto stayed capital until 1829. This page says "by 1830".
  • Jesuit expulsion: Wikipedia (English, state) gives 1768; its Loreto article gives 1767 for the order. This page uses 1768, when it took effect on the peninsula.
← Previous

Baja California

Yuman peoples and their painted rocks, a thin chain of missions, a desert frontier settled late, then irrigated cotton, border towns and the factories of the 1960s.

All 32 on the mapNext →

Campeche

Campeche runs from Calakmul's Snake Kingdom to a walled port that shipped logwood and fought off pirates, then to chicle camps in the forest and the oil of Cantarell.