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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.

Capital: Campeche · Became a state: 1863 · Checked 3 Nov 2026

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The walled port city of Campeche
The walled port city of Campeche Photo: xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Then and now

Campeche in figures from its history

People, 1900 census86,542Down to 76,419 in 1921; 928,363 in 2020 3
People, 2020 census928,363Census of Mar 2020 4
Became a state1863Decree of 29 Apr 1863, after separating from Yucatán 2
Campeche founded15404 Oct 1540; a first Salamanca de Campeche in 1531 6
Indigenous-language speakers, 202091,80110.4% of people aged 3+ 4
The city wall2,560 mEight bastions, built 1686-1704 against pirates 6
Chicle and the treasuryAbout 60%Share of the state budget from chicle, 1939-43 2
Calakmul at its heightc. 50,000 peopleLate Classic, seat of the Snake Kingdom; World Heritage 2002 8
The first peoples

Edzná, Becán and the Snake Kingdom

The earliest signs of people in what is now Campeche date to around 550 BCE. Over the next 1,500 years the Maya filled the land with cities in several styles. Edzná, inland from the coast, was inhabited by 400 BCE and had grown into a major city by 200 CE. Becán, in the Río Bec country, was ringed in about 250 CE by a ditch and ramparts enclosing 25 hectares. Off the coast, the small island of Jaina became an elite burial ground with an estimated 20,000 graves, famous for its clay figurines.

Indigenous languages spoken today

Speakers aged 3 and over, census of 2020 5

Yucatec Maya70,603
Ch'ol11,470
Tseltal2,379
Q'anjob'al1,639

In all, 91,801 people aged 3 and over spoke an Indigenous language in 2020, 10.4% of that age group. Mam and Tsotsil are also spoken.

A pyramid of Calakmul above the forest
A pyramid of Calakmul above the forest Photo: Lugares INAH, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In the southern forest rose Calakmul, seat of the Kaan, the Snake Kingdom, which dominated much of the Classic Maya world through alliances and war and drew Edzná into its orbit. At its height it held some 50,000 people in a city of over 70 km², and Structure 2 rises more than 45 m. Its long war with Tikal ended in defeat in 695. After about 1000 CE the great cities emptied and smaller Maya and Chontal domains took their place, among them Chakán Putum, today's Champotón. Maya is still spoken by 70,603 people in the state, alongside Ch'ol, Tseltal and Q'anjob'al.

Sources: 1210111289135

The colonial centuries

Logwood, shipyards and the walled port

Francisco Hernández de Córdoba landed at Can Pech in 1517, then lost a battle at Chakán Putum, which the Spanish called the Port of the Bad Fight. He died of his wounds some days later. Francisco de Montejo founded a first Salamanca de Campeche in 1531, and his son founded San Francisco de Campeche on 4 Oct 1540. Franciscans and sugar cane reached Champotón in 1546. The port became a trade hub of the Spanish Caribbean, compared with Havana and Cartagena. It shipped farm goods, tropical hardwoods and logwood, the palo de Campeche used to dye cloth, and its shipyards were well known.

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Archaeological siteCityBattlefieldOil fieldnumbers match the cards
Click a neighbour to open its history.Tap a neighbour to open its history.

Wealth drew pirates. William Parker sacked the town in 1597, and more raids followed in 1633 and 1663. In 1685 Laurens de Graaf took Campeche and about twenty nearby towns and held them for weeks. Between 1686 and 1704 the town was closed in by a hexagonal wall 2,560 m long with eight bastions. Down the coast, English logwood cutters held the Isla de Tris for generations until Alonso Felipe de Andrade drove them out in Jul 1717 and died in the fighting, and the town took the name of the Virgin of Carmen. Charles III made Campeche a city on 1 Oct 1777.

Sources: 1671314

Places in its history

1

Campeche

City · 1540

Capital, founded 4 Oct 1540 and walled in 1686-1704. 6

2

Calakmul

Archaeological site · Late Classic peak

Seat of the Snake Kingdom, rival of Tikal. 8

3

Edzná

Archaeological site · c. 400 BCE-1500 CE

Major city by 200 CE, later within Calakmul's sphere. 10

4

Becán

Archaeological site · c. 550 BCE-1200s

Río Bec city ringed by a ditch and ramparts. 11

5

Champotón

Battlefield · 1517

Maya Chakán Putum, where the Spanish lost the 'Bad Fight'. 13

6

Ciudad del Carmen

Oil field · 1717; 1971

Pirate island won back in 1717; base of the Cantarell oil boom. 14

Independence to the Revolution

Breaking from Mérida, dyewood and haciendas

Campeche backed the Plan of Iguala, the 1821 agreement that sealed independence, in Sep 1821, but independence was hard on the port. Sisal, opened in 1811, had already pulled trade toward Mérida, and the end of slavery cut farm output. A proposal to split the peninsula into two states was turned down in 1824. After the Caste War began in 1847 and new revolts followed the Constitution of 1857, an 1858 agreement divided the peninsula. Benito Juárez recognised the new state on 19 Feb 1862, and the final decree came on 29 Apr 1863, with Pablo García as first governor. During the French Intervention of 1862-67, which set Maximilian on a Mexican throne, republicans won at Hecelchakán in 1864 and retook the city in 1867.

1810 to 1920 in Campeche

From the timeline below, coloured by era

  1. 1863Campeche becomes a state by decree of 29 Apr. 2
  2. 1896Logwood exports reach their peak. 2
  3. 1914Decree No. 6 abolishes disguised slavery on the haciendas. 2

The people, then and now

Census counts, from the figures above

People, 1900 census86,542
People, 2020 census928,363

Sources: 34

Under the Porfiriato, Porfirio Díaz's rule of 1876-1911, the state lived on dyewood, timber and haciendas. Logwood exports peaked in 1896 and had fallen sharply by 1915. Between 1900 and 1910 fourteen landowners held 147 haciendas, about a fifth of the state, and in 1910 seven North American timber companies were registered in Carmen. The first concession in the chicle zones, where workers tapped the sapodilla tree for the gum used in chewing gum, was granted in 1886. The Revolution came without great battles. In 1914 Governor Joaquín Mucel issued decree No. 6, which ended debt peonage, the disguised slavery that bound workers to the haciendas through debts they could never repay, and a new state constitution followed in 1917.

Sources: 12

How its economy turned

From chicle and shrimp to the oil of Cantarell

The forest economy peaked and then emptied the land. Large volumes of chicle passed through the customs houses of Campeche and Carmen from 1930 to 1942, and in 1939-43 it supplied about 60% of the state budget, but the market fell away after the Second World War. Of the settlements counted in 1920, 231 had vanished by the 1940 census, after timber and chicle extraction peaked. From 1946 shrimp companies settled in Ciudad del Carmen, and shrimp shaped its economy for some 35 years.

The region, c. 1600 and today

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

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c. 1600

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasCampeche

Campeche: Maya lands under encomienda or beyond Spanish rule

  • Ports, sugar and cacao
  • Indigenous south: cochineal, maize, tribute
  • Maya lands under encomienda or beyond Spanish rule

Today

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasCampeche

Campeche: Oil and gas

  • Oil and gas
  • Tourism
  • Farming and agro-exports
  • Services and government
Indigenous-language speakers, 202091,80110.4% of people aged 3+ 4
The city wall2,560 mEight bastions, built 1686-1704 against pirates 6

Then came oil, found offshore. A fisherman, Rudesindo Cantarell, reported an oil slick in the Sound of Campeche; technicians came to investigate in Mar 1971, the field was confirmed in 1976, and the first Cantarell barrels flowed in 1979. The state grew from 251,556 people in 1970 to 420,553 in 1980, and Ciudad del Carmen became the base of the offshore industry. Oil money restored more than a thousand facades in the old city. In the 1980s about 25,000 Guatemalan refugees found shelter in the state and Mennonite farmers settled around Hopelchén and Hecelchakán. Textile maquiladoras, assembly plants producing for export, opened in the 1990s, and the walled city became a World Heritage Site in 1999.

Then the oil that had carried the state began to run down. Pemex started injecting nitrogen into Cantarell in 2000 to hold up its pressure, the field reached its peak in 2004, and from 2005 its output fell year after year. Calakmul became a World Heritage Site in 2002, and the Tren Maya, opened on 15 Dec 2023, now stops at Campeche, Edzná, Escárcega and Xpujil, near Calakmul, with the stated aim of drawing visitors inland. From logwood to chicle to Cantarell, Campeche has lived on what its forests and its sea sold to outside markets, and each boom has ended; the Maya cities and the forest are now part of what it offers.

Sources: 1214715168

Timeline

Campeche, date by date

Before the Spanish before 1519

  1. c. 550 BCE

    The earliest known signs of human settlement in today's Campeche. 2

  2. c. 200

    Edzná has grown into a major city. 10

  3. c. 250

    Becán is ringed by a defensive ditch and ramparts. 11

  4. 695

    Tikal defeats Calakmul, ending the Snake Kingdom's height. 8

  5. 1517

    Hernández de Córdoba lands at Can Pech and is beaten at Champotón. 13

The colonial centuries 1519 to 1809

  1. 1540

    Montejo the Younger founds San Francisco de Campeche on 4 Oct. 6

  2. 1685

    Laurens de Graaf takes and sacks Campeche. 7

  3. 1686-1704

    The 2,560 m wall with eight bastions is built. 6

  4. 1717

    English logwood cutters are driven from the Isla de Tris, now Carmen. 14

  5. 1777

    Charles III grants Campeche the title of city on 1 Oct. 6

Independence and the Reform 1810 to 1875

  1. 1863

    Campeche becomes a state by decree of 29 Apr. 2

The Porfiriato 1876 to 1910

  1. 1896

    Logwood exports reach their peak. 2

The Revolution 1910 to 1920

  1. 1914

    Decree No. 6 abolishes disguised slavery on the haciendas. 2

Modern Mexico after 1920

  1. 1939-43

    Chicle supplies about 60% of the state budget. 2

  2. 1971

    Rudesindo Cantarell's oil slick is investigated off Ciudad del Carmen. 14

  3. 1979

    The first barrels flow from the Cantarell field. 2

  4. 1999

    The walled city of Campeche becomes a World Heritage Site. 7

  5. 2004

    The Cantarell field reaches its peak; its output falls from 2005. 15

  6. 2023

    The Tren Maya opens on 15 Dec, with stops at Campeche, Edzná, Escárcega and Xpujil. 16

The country in three moments

Where Campeche stood: c. 1600, 1910 and today

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c. 1600

Silver, the heartland and the frontier

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasCampeche

Campeche: Maya lands under encomienda or beyond Spanish rule

  • 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 CaliforniaBaja California SurChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasCampeche

Campeche: Henequén

  • 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 CaliforniaBaja California SurChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasCampeche

Campeche: Oil and gas

  • 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 Campeche

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

The book

Book 6, Where to Go in Mexico, chapter 19

Where to Go in Mexico: The Peninsula, 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), Campeche, History section, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  2. Wikipedia (Spanish), Campeche, history section, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  3. Tercer Censo de Población 1910, Table VI, population by federal entity in 1895, 1900 and 1910 (digital copy, Universidad Veracruzana), 1910 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  4. INEGI, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020, results for Campeche (press bulletin), Jan 2021 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  5. Por Esto!, "Disminuye 2% los hablantes de lengua indígena en Campeche: INEGI", speaker counts by language, 28 Nov 2021 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  6. Wikipedia (Spanish), San Francisco de Campeche, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  7. Wikipedia (English), Campeche, Campeche (city), 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  8. Wikipedia (English), Calakmul, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  9. INAH, Lugares INAH, Ancient Maya City and Protected Tropical Forests of Calakmul, Campeche (World Heritage), 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  10. Wikipedia (English), Edzna, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  11. Wikipedia (English and Spanish), Becan / Becán, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  12. Wikipedia (English), Jaina Island, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  13. Wikipedia (English), Champotón, Campeche, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  14. Wikipedia (English), Ciudad del Carmen, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  15. Wikipedia (English), Cantarell Field, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  16. Wikipedia (English), Tren Maya, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link

Pictures

Where the sources disagree

  • City title: Wikipedia (Spanish, San Francisco de Campeche and Campeche) gives 1 Oct 1777 (Charles III); Wikipedia (English, Campeche) gives 1774. This page uses 1777.
  • World Heritage listing of the walled city: Wikipedia (English, city) and Wikipedia (Spanish) give 1999; Wikipedia (English, state) gives 1997. This page uses 1999.
  • Laurens de Graaf's sack of 1685: Wikipedia (English) says over thirty days and about a third of the population killed; Wikipedia (Spanish) says two months. This page says for weeks, with no death toll.
  • Cantarell (both articles read 5 Nov 2026): Wikipedia (English, Cantarell Field) dates Rudesindo Cantarell's sighting to 1972 and the discovery to 1976; Wikipedia (Spanish, Complejo Cantarell) has Pemex exploring the slick in Mar 1971, ten years after he found it. Both give 1979 for the first production. This page leaves his report undated and gives Mar 1971 for the investigation.
  • First Cantarell well (read 5 Nov 2026): Wikipedia (English, Cantarell Field) dates the discovery to 1976 and first production to 1979; Wikipedia (Spanish, Complejo Cantarell) puts the first producing well, Chac, eight years after 1971. Neither gives a month. This page gives 1976 and 1979.
  • Becán: Wikipedia (English) says occupied by about 550 BCE and probably abandoned by about 1200; Wikipedia (Spanish) says from about 600 BCE and fully abandoned about 1450. This page uses the English dates.
  • Speakers by language: Por Esto! (2021), reporting INEGI census data, totals INEGI's 91,801; DataMexico gives other 2020 figures. This page uses Por Esto!.
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