Morelos, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos, is a landlocked state located in south-central Mexico. It is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca.
Morelos is bordered by Mexico City to the north, and by the states of México to the northeast and northwest, Puebla to the east and Guerrero to the southwest.
Morelos is the second-smallest state in the nation, just after Tlaxcala. It was part of a very large province, the State of Mexico, until 1869 when President Benito Juárez decreed that its territory would be separated and named in honor of José María Morelos y Pavón, who defended the city of Cuautla from royalist forces during the Mexican War of Independence. Most of the state enjoys a warm climate year-round, which is good for the raising of sugar cane and other crops. Morelos has attracted visitors from the Valley of Mexico since Aztec times.
The state is also known for the Chinelos, a type of costumed dancer that appears at festivals, especially Carnival, which is celebrated in a number of communities in the state. It is also home to the Monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl, a designated World Heritage Site.
History
Pre-Hispanic period
Historian Ward Barrett considers that the "region now known as Morelos has a physical unity sufficient to define and set it in strong contrast to other regions of Mexico."Ward Barrett, "Morelos and Its Sugar Industry in the Late Eighteenth Century," in Ida Altman and James Lockhart, The Provinces of Early Mexico: Variants of Spanish American Regional Evolution. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center 1976, p. 155.Ward Barrett, Sugar Hacienda of the Marqueses del Valle. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1970. Much of this definition comes from its geography, which is a basin into which abundant water flows. The arrival of the Spanish shifted agriculture from subsistence maize production and cotton cultivation to sugar cane and the refining of such into sugar in nearby mills. This system would remain more or less intact until the Mexican Revolution.
Evidence of the first human inhabitants in what is now Morelos dates back to 6000 B.C. and shows these people as nomadic hunters and gatherers in the areas of Yautepec and Chimalacatlan.Secretaria, p. 30 Other early finds include clay jars and figures in the Gualupita neighborhood of Cuernavaca and three mounds in Santa María Ahuacatitlán, which are probably the remains of houses.
Francisco Plancarte y Navarrete, Cuernavaca's second bishop (1898–1911), wrote Tamoanchan—El Estado de Morelos y El Principio de la Civilizacion en Mexico in 1911. In it, he proposes that the first agriculturally based settlements in Mexico appeared around 1500 B.C. in a place called Tamoanchan which he associates with Morelos.Secretaria, p. 37 He writes, "1st - That being in the region of Tamoanchan... they fixed the ritual calendar ... 2nd - That Tamoanchan was not very far from Teotihuacan; 3rd - That to go from Tamoanchan to Teotihuacan they passed through Xumiltepec; 4th - That Tepuztecal (sic) and his companions discovered pulque in the Tamoanchan region. But as all these facts happened in... the State of Morelos ... and accordingly that Tamoanchan is not a mythological and fantastic country... but true..."Plancarte y Navarrete, Francisco. Tamoanchan—El Estado de Morelos y El Principio de la Civilizacion en Mexico, Mexico: El Mensajero, 1911.
The earliest identified culture is the Olmec, which was dominant from 200 B. C. to about A.D. 500. Evidence of this culture is found in reliefs such as those in the Cantera Mountain in Chalcatzingo and clay figures.
After the Olmec period, the area was invaded by several waves of migration from the Valley of Mexico in the north. The settlement of Mazatepec was founded in A. D. 603 by the Toltecs. A second wave of Toltecs established the city-state of Xochicalco (the City of Flowers). Their influence is evident in Teotihuacan at the temple of Quetzalcoatl, but there are also signs of Mayan, Mixtec and Zapotec influences. The last wave of Toltecs arrived in the 12th century. There are two groups from this wave. The first to arrive were the Xochimilcas, who settled in places such as Tetela, Hueyapan, Tepoztlán, and Xumiltepec. Shortly afterwards the Tlahuicas arrived and settled in and around Cuauhnáhuac (Cuernavaca) by 1250. There is evidence that indicates the Tlauhuicas probably would have been expelled from Morelos by the Xochimilcas if they had not been protected by Xólotl, lord of Acolhua, who granted territory to Tochintecutli, the first lord of Cuauhnáhuac (Cuernavaca).Secretaria, p. 47 The Tlahuicas are believed to be an offshoot of the Toltec-Chichimec group of Nahuatl-speaking peoples who have occupied the area since the seventh century.
The Tlahuica eventually became the dominant ethnic group in Morelos. They were organized into about fifty small city-states, each with a hereditary ruler (tlatoani). Each Tlahuica city-state consisted of a central town, with its temple, plaza, palace, and the surrounding countryside and villages. The largest of these were Cuauhnáhuac and Huaxtepec (Oaxtepec). These people had advanced knowledge of astronomy and a highly developed agricultural system. They were especially known for growing cotton, which was planted wherever the land could be irrigated. Tlahuica women spun and wove cloth, which became an important item for exchange and for paying tribute.
The Mexica or Aztec began to arrive as early as 1398, but efforts to dominate this area began in the 1420s. In the 1420s and 1430s, Cuauhnáhuac and Xiutepec (Jiutepec) were conquered by Itzcoatl. In the middle of the 15th century, other city-states in Morelos made war on Aztec-held Cuauhnahuac and the Aztecs used this as an excuse to conquer areas such as Yautepec, Tetlama and other locations, eventually dominating the entire state. The inclusion of the area into the Aztec Empire was sealed with marriage of Aztec emperor Huitzilihuitl to Miahuaxochitl, daughter of the lord of Cuauhnáhuac. This union produced a son who would become Aztec emperor Moctezuma Ilhuicamina. These conquered areas were allowed to keep their local political structures so long as a tribute, which mostly consisted of cotton items, was paid.Secretaria, pp. 48–49 However, the Mexica later replaced the rulers of Cuauhnahuac, Xochitepec, Tepoztlan and Oaxtepec in 1487. The territory was divided into two tributary provinces, one centered on Cuauhnáhuac and the other centered on Huaxtepec. Each of these territories had a population of over 50,000 by the 16th century.
Moctezuma Ilhuicamina succeeded Izcóatl, and tradition has it that he established a botanical garden in Huaxtepec (Oaxtepec). Moctezuma's favorite swimming area is thought to have been a pond called Poza Azul, now part of a resort run by Six Flags Hurricane Harbor.Secretaria de Educación Publica. Chipmunks: Monografía estatal: 1982, p. 51
The Mexica built a number of fortifications in the area, notably in the hills called El Sombrerito and Tlatoani near Tlayacapan. The pyramid of Tepozteco in Tepoztlán may have been designed as a fort and lookout post. During this time, the Tlauhuica built the double-pyramid known as Teopanzolco in Cuernavaca.Secretaria, pp. 51–52
Conquest and colonial period
Population estimates for the beginning of the 16th century are: Cuauhnáhuac, 50,000; Huaxtepec, 50,000; Yautepec, 30,000; Tepoztlán, 20,000; Totolapan, 20,000; and 12,000 each for Tlayacapan, Tetela, Yecapixtla, and Ocuituco.Secretaria, p. 53
The Spanish under Hernán Cortés arrived in central Mexico in 1519. After Cortés's defeat in Tenochtitlan (La Noche Triste) and retreat into Tlaxacala in 1520, he sent expeditions to Morelos. One of the first Mexicas to accept Spanish authority was in Ocuituco. Gonzalo de Sandoval then set out with 8,000 men for Huaxtepec (Oaxtepec). After a two-day fight, Sandoval returned to Texcoco to inform Cortes of his victory. Cortes returned with 20,000 men and defeated Tlayacapan on 8 April. Cortes then went to Huaxtepec, spent a night in the beautiful gardens, and moved on to Yautepec. The Spanish burned the town, and Tepoztlan surrendered. Cortes continued his march on Xiutepec (Jiutepec) and on 13 April faced the city of Cuauhnahuac (Cuernavaca). The bridges across the Ravine of Annanalco had been destroyed, but both Cortes and Bernal Diaz del Castillo relate how they were able to cross the ravine upriver via a fallen tree. The cacique of Cuauhnahuac surrendered quickly, and Cortes burned and sacked the city, and the women were raped. After spending the night in nearby Acapantzingo, Cortes moved on to Coajomulco before marching on Xochimilco.Macarzaga, César and Catalina Ramírez. Morelos Espacio y Tiempo, Tercer grado, Editorial Trillas: Mexico, 3rd edition (2002), pp. 76-79. Cortes returned to Cuernavaca after the fall of Tenochtitlan, where he established a hacienda and constructed the Palace of Cortés five years later.
Only two years after the fall of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), in the year 1523, the first church was built in Tlatenango,There is a plaque on the churchRíos Szalay, El Estado de Morelos, Reproducciones Fotomecánicas, Mexico (1997), p. 55. and over the next 50 years 500 religious constructions were built in the state.Ríos Szalay, p. 16.
In 1529, Cortés was named the Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, which gave him control over of territory in Morelos with Cuernavaca as the seat of authority over about eighty communities, eight haciendas, and two sugar cane plantations. These lands stayed in the Cortés family until 1809 when the government confiscated all of the lands of the Marquis. There are house-to-house censuses from the mid-1530s from communities around Cuernavaca that are the earliest extant local-level documentation in Nahuatl, likely due to a dispute between Cortés and the crown about the number of tributaries of the Marquesado del Valle de Oaxaca. These Indigenous censuses make it possible to establish an early colonial-era base-line for household structure, land holding, tribute obligations, and rates of baptism and Church marriage.Eike Hinz, Claudine Hartau, and Marie Luise Heimann-Koenen, eds.Azteckischer Zensus, Zur indianischen Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im Marquesado um 1540: Aus dem "Libro de Tributos" (Col. Ant. Ms. 551) im Archivo Historico, Mexico. 2 vols. Hanover: 1983.Sarah Cline, The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos. Museo de Antropología e Historia, Archivo Histórico Collección Antigua, vol. 549. UCLA Latin American Center Publications 1993.Sarah Cline, "The Spiritual Conquest Re-Examined: Baptism and Church Marriage in Early Colonial Mexico," Hispanic American Historical Review 73:3(1993) pp. 453–80.
Independence to end of 19th century
The conditions on the sugar plantations of Morelos made Father Miguel Hidalgo's call to take up arms well received by the indigenous and mestizo populations of the state. The first rebellions broke out in 1811, with some early successes. An early insurgent leader in the state was Francisco Ayala. Insurgents from the state managed to push as far as Chalco in what is now Mexico State when royalist forces pushed them back in 1812. After Hidalgo was executed (30 July 1811), José María Morelos y Pavon took over the insurgent effort, joined by Mariano Matamoros of Jantetelco.
By 1812, insurgents had control of the city of Cuautla, and royalist forces began to put it under siege. Morelos and his men held out for 58 days when reinforcement arrived, breaking the Siege of Cuautla. This was one of the early vital wins for the insurgent movement. Morelos would eventually be captured by royalists and executed in 1815, but the memory of this battle would lead to the future state being named after him.