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Puebla

From early maize at Tehuacán and the pyramid of Cholula to the City of the Angels, the battle of 5 May 1862, textile mills and Volkswagen.

Capital: Puebla · Became a state: 1824 · Checked 3 Nov 2026

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Puebla Cathedral
Puebla Cathedral Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Then and now

Puebla in figures from its history

People, 1900 census1,021,133Against 6,583,278 in 2020 3
People, 2020 census6,583,278Up from 984,413 in 1895 4
Became a state1824Entered the federation under the 1824 Constitution 2
Puebla founded153116 Apr 1531; moved after a flood in 1532 1
Indigenous-language speakers615,6229.9% of people aged 3+, 2020 census 4
Largest pyramid by volume4.45 million m³Great Pyramid of Cholula, begun 3rd century BCE 7
Mechanized textiles1831First mechanized mill in the state, followed by 17 more in the city 1
Volkswagen1967First car off the Puebla line; plant of 3,000,000 m² 14
The first peoples

Maize, Cholula and the cities of the plateau

The dry caves of the Tehuacán Valley hold some of the longest records of human life in Mexico. Richard MacNeish dug there from 1960 to 1965 and found more than 10,000 early cobs at Coxcatlán Cave; the oldest maize from the valley is dated to about 3600 BCE, though later research points to the Balsas basin, to the southwest, as the first home of maize. By 900 BCE farmers on the Puebla plateau grew maize, beans, squash, chile and cotton.

Indigenous languages spoken today

Speakers aged 3 and over, census of 2020 5

Nahuatl453,162
Totonac104,194
Mazatec18,169
Popoloca15,723
Mixtec8,244

615,622 people aged 3 and over spoke an Indigenous language in 2020 (9.9%). Otomí follows closely after Mixtec, with 8,162 speakers.

The Great Pyramid of Cholula with the church on its summit
The Great Pyramid of Cholula with the church on its summit Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cholula grew into a great pilgrim city of Quetzalcoatl. Its pyramid, built in stages from the 3rd century BCE to the 9th century CE, is the largest in the world by volume. In the east, Cantona, on the road to the Gulf coast, flourished between 600 and 1000 CE and traded obsidian from nearby mountains. In the Sierra Norte, Yohualichan shared the culture of El Tajín, and in the south Tepexi el Viejo was the seat of a Popoloca lordship from 1200 to 1500. By the 15th century much of the region paid tribute to the Mexica. Five peoples still carry their own languages here: Nahuas, Totonacs, Mazatecs, Popolocas and Mixtecs, with Nahuatl spoken by more than 450,000 people.

Sources: 10178125

The colonial centuries

The City of the Angels on the road to the sea

Cortés crossed the region in 1519 on his way to Tlaxcala, and in Oct 1519 his troops carried out the massacre of Cholula. After the retreat from Tenochtitlan he founded a Spanish post at Tepeaca in 1520. The friars came next. Franciscans founded the monastery of Huejotzingo in 1525 and built the present complex between 1544 and 1570, one of the monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl now listed as World Heritage.

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AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasPueblaGuerreroHidalgoMexico CityMorelosOaxacaState of MexicoVeracruzYohualichan6Huejotzingo5Tehuacán Valley4Cantona3Great Pyramid of Cholula2Puebla1
Archaeological siteCityMissionnumbers match the cards
Click a neighbour to open its history.Tap a neighbour to open its history.

Puebla de los Ángeles was founded on 16 Apr 1531, a Spanish city laid out to secure the road between Mexico City and the port of Veracruz. A flood forced a move across the river in 1532. It became the second city of New Spain, feeding the capital with wheat and flour. Its workshops turned out glass from 1542, woollens and cotton cloth in the obrajes, the colony's textile workshops, and Talavera pottery, made by potters from Talavera de la Reina who arrived between 1550 and 1570; its golden age ran from 1650 to 1750. Indigenous towns did most of the work, and around 1810 roughly 74% of the people of Puebla still spoke an Indigenous language.

Sources: 12116

Places in its history

1

Puebla

City · 1531

Spanish city on the Mexico-Veracruz road; Talavera, mills and the forts of 1862. 6

2

Great Pyramid of Cholula

Archaeological site · 3rd century BCE-9th century CE

The largest pyramid by volume, crowned by a church built in 1594. 7

3

Cantona

Archaeological site · c. 600-1000 CE

City of streets and ball courts that traded obsidian. 9

4

Tehuacán Valley

Archaeological site · c. 3600 BCE; 1660; 1994

Caves with some of the oldest maize, later a city of mineral springs and jeans maquilas. 10

5

Huejotzingo

Mission · 1525; 1544-70

Franciscan monastery of San Miguel, a World Heritage monastery of Popocatépetl. 11

6

Yohualichan

Archaeological site · Classic period

Totonac city of the Sierra Norte, kin to El Tajín. 12

Independence to the Revolution

Mills, forts and the 5th of May

The city of Puebla stayed loyal to the viceroy during the war of Independence, while insurgents held much of the south, around Izúcar and the Mixteca, and José Francisco Osorno led the rising in the Sierra Norte from 1811. Puebla became a free state on 23 Dec 1823 and entered the federation under the 1824 Constitution. Building on its colonial workshops, it industrialised early. In 1831 the first mechanized textile mill opened, and 17 more followed in the city. In 1847, during the war with the USA, invading troops took the city and stayed until the end of the war.

1810 to 1920 in Puebla

From the timeline below, coloured by era

  1. 1811José Francisco Osorno leads the insurgency in the Sierra Norte. 2
  2. 1823Puebla becomes a free state on 23 Dec. 2
  3. 1831The first mechanized textile mill opens. 1
  4. 1862Mexican troops defeat the French army at Puebla on 5 May. 13
  5. 1863The French take Puebla on 17 May. 13
  6. 1873The Puebla-Veracruz railway is completed. 1
  7. 1910The attack on the Serdán house on 18 Nov opens the Revolution in Puebla. 2
  8. 1920Venustiano Carranza is killed at Tlaxcalantongo, in the Sierra Norte. 1

The people, then and now

Census counts, from the figures above

People, 1900 census1,021,133
People, 2020 census6,583,278

Sources: 34

On 5 May 1862 some 3,791 Mexican troops under Ignacio Zaragoza held the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe against 5,730 French soldiers, a victory still celebrated across Mexico and among Mexicans in the USA. The French returned and took the city on 17 May 1863, and were driven from the state in 1867. During the Porfiriato, Porfirio Díaz's rule of 1876-1911, the Puebla-Veracruz railway was finished in 1873 and a hydroelectric plant rose at Necaxa in 1907, as strikes spread among mill workers. On 18 Nov 1910 police and troops attacked the house of the Serdán family, an opening shot of the Revolution. The Zapatistas, the peasant army of Emiliano Zapata, then held much of the state.

Sources: 12136

How its economy turned

Cars, jeans and the road north

After the Revolution, Puebla was re-founded in 1917 with 222 municipalities, and the 1920s were years of unstable government. One of the last clashes of the armed struggle took place at Aljibes in May 1920, and Venustiano Carranza was killed soon after at Tlaxcalantongo, in the Sierra Norte. Textile mills remained the backbone of the capital's economy until a new industry arrived. Volkswagen de México was founded in 1964, and the first car rolled off its Puebla line in 1967. The plant grew to 3,000,000 m², and Beetles were built there until 2003.

The region, c. 1600 and today

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

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c. 1600

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasPuebla

Puebla: Towns, farms and workshops of the old heartland

  • Silver mining districts
  • Towns, farms and workshops of the old heartland
  • Ports, sugar and cacao
  • Indigenous south: cochineal, maize, tribute

Today

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasPuebla

Puebla: Export manufacturing

  • Export manufacturing
  • Oil and gas
  • Tourism
  • Farming and agro-exports
  • Services and government
Indigenous-language speakers615,6229.9% of people aged 3+, 2020 census 4
Largest pyramid by volume4.45 million m³Great Pyramid of Cholula, begun 3rd century BCE 7

Between 1962 and 1981 students, street vendors, Volkswagen workers and teachers led a series of popular and labour movements. In 1987 the historic centre of Puebla became a World Heritage Site. In the south, Tehuacán, known since the late 19th century for its mineral springs, filled with maquiladoras, export assembly plants sewing jeans, once the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) opened the USA market in 1994; more than 700 maquilas operated at the peak, and the city grew from about 150,000 to 360,000 people in a decade before many of them closed. Mixtec villages of the south lost people to Mexico City, northern Mexico and the USA.

Volkswagen kept building in the capital after the last Beetle in 2003, and on 30 Sep 2016 Audi opened its plant at San José Chiapa, in the east of the state; by 2021 it made the Q5 for every market except China, with the USA as its main customer. The Arco Norte toll road, open since 2009, lets that traffic bypass Mexico City. On 19 Sep 2017 a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck with its epicentre near San Juan Raboso, in the south of the state; church towers fell in Cholula, and a church collapsed at Atzitzihuacan. The city founded to guard the road between the capital and the sea still lives by the road, now carrying cars to the north.

Sources: 114106151617

Timeline

Puebla, date by date

Before the Spanish before 1519

  1. c. 3600 BCE

    Date of the oldest maize found in the caves of the Tehuacán Valley. 10

  2. c. 200 BCE

    Work begins on the Great Pyramid of Cholula (3rd century BCE). 7

  3. c. 600-1000

    Cantona flourishes on the road to the Gulf coast. 8

The colonial centuries 1519 to 1809

  1. 1519

    Spanish troops carry out the massacre of Cholula in Oct. 1

  2. 1525

    Franciscans found the monastery of Huejotzingo. 11

  3. 1531

    Puebla de los Ángeles is founded on 16 Apr. 6

  4. 1550-70

    Potters from Talavera de la Reina arrive and start the Talavera craft. 6

Independence and the Reform 1810 to 1875

  1. 1811

    José Francisco Osorno leads the insurgency in the Sierra Norte. 2

  2. 1823

    Puebla becomes a free state on 23 Dec. 2

  3. 1831

    The first mechanized textile mill opens. 1

  4. 1862

    Mexican troops defeat the French army at Puebla on 5 May. 13

  5. 1863

    The French take Puebla on 17 May. 13

  6. 1873

    The Puebla-Veracruz railway is completed. 1

The Revolution 1910 to 1920

  1. 1910

    The attack on the Serdán house on 18 Nov opens the Revolution in Puebla. 2

  2. 1920

    Venustiano Carranza is killed at Tlaxcalantongo, in the Sierra Norte. 1

Modern Mexico after 1920

  1. 1967

    The first Volkswagen rolls off the Puebla line. 14

  2. 1987

    The historic centre of Puebla becomes a World Heritage Site. 6

  3. 1994

    After NAFTA, jeans maquilas spread through Tehuacán. 10

  4. 2016

    Audi opens its plant at San José Chiapa on 30 Sep 2016. 15

  5. 2017

    A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes the south of the state on 19 Sep 2017. 17

The country in three moments

Where Puebla stood: c. 1600, 1910 and today

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c. 1600

Silver, the heartland and the frontier

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasPuebla

Puebla: Towns, farms and workshops of the old heartland

  • 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 SurCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasPuebla

Puebla: Sugar and textile mills

  • 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 SurCampecheChiapasChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasPuebla

Puebla: Export manufacturing

  • 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 Puebla

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

The book

Book 6, Where to Go in Mexico, chapter 16

Where to Go in Mexico: The Center, 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), Puebla (state), History and Demographics sections, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  2. Wikipedia (Spanish), Estado de Puebla, Historia and Demografía sections, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  3. INEGI / 1910 census, Table VI, population of the federal entities in 1895, 1900 and 1910 (Universidad Veracruzana transcription), 1910 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  4. INEGI, 2020 Census main results for Puebla, press release 50/21, 26 Jan 2021 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  5. COESPO Puebla, Indigenous-language speakers by language, from the 2020 Census (Cuadro 1), Nov 2023 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  6. Wikipedia (English), Puebla (city), 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  7. Wikipedia (English), Great Pyramid of Cholula, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  8. Wikipedia (English), Cantona (Mesoamerican site), 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  9. INAH, Zona arqueológica de Cantona (location map), 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  10. Wikipedia (English), Tehuacán, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  11. Wikipedia (English), Huejotzingo, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  12. Wikipedia (English), Yohualichan, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  13. Wikipedia (English), Battle of Puebla, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  14. Wikipedia (English), Volkswagen de México, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  15. Audi MediaCenter, 'Future is an attitude: Audi México celebrates five years of production in San José Chiapa' (press release, 2021), 2021 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  16. Wikipedia (English), Arco Norte, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  17. Wikipedia (English), 2017 Puebla earthquake, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link

Pictures

Where the sources disagree

  • Massacre of Cholula: Wikipedia (English, Puebla) gives 12 Oct 1519; Wikipedia (Spanish, Estado de Puebla) gives 18 Oct. This page says Oct 1519.
  • Population around 1900: Wikipedia (Spanish) says about 1.3 million; the 1900 census (Table VI of the 1910 census) gives 1,021,133. This page uses the census figure.
  • Oldest maize: Wikipedia (English, Puebla) gives c. 1500 BCE for the oldest sample; Wikipedia (English, Tehuacán) about 3600 BCE; Wikipedia (Spanish) 6500-2500 BCE. This page uses c. 3600 BCE.
  • Troops at the Battle of Puebla: Wikipedia (English) gives 3,791 Mexican and 5,730 French soldiers; its Puebla article says about 6,000 French. This page uses 3,791 and 5,730.
  • Epicentre of the 2017 earthquake: the USGS gives 5 km east-north-east of San Juan Raboso, Puebla; Wikipedia (English) also gives 12 km south-east of Axochiapan, Morelos. This page uses San Juan Raboso.
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Oaxaca

From Monte Albán and the Mixtec kingdoms to cochineal, Juárez and Díaz, Oaxaca kept its peoples and its languages through every century.

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Querétaro

From Sierra Gorda cinnabar miners to the 1810 conspiracy, the fall of an empire and the 1917 Constitution, Querétaro has joined Mexico's centre to its north.