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Before Columbus

Despite its modern facade, Acapulco has been well known as a traveler's crossroads for at least a millennium. Its name comes from Nahuatl (Aztec) words that mean "plane of dense reeds."

The earliest discovered local remains, stone metates and pottery utensils, were left behind by seaside residents around 2,500 B.C. Much later, sophisticated artisans fashioned curvaceous female figurine, which archaeologists unearthed at Las Sabanas near Acapulco during the mid-20th century. Those unique finds added fuel to speculation of early Polynesian or Asin influences in Pacific Mexico as early as 1,500 years before Columbus.


Other discoveries, however, resemble artifacts found in highland Mexico. Although undoubtedly influenced by Tarascan, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec civilizations and frequented by their traders, Acapulco never came under their direct control, but instead remained subject to local chieftains until the conques.

Conquest and Colonization

The Aztecs had scarcely surrendered when Cortes sent expeditions south to build ships and find a route to China. The first such explorers sailed out form Zacatula, near
present-day Lazaro Cardenas on the coast 250 miles north-west of Acapulco Bay. By a royal decree dated 25 April 1528, "Acapulco and her land.... where the ships of the south will be built...." passed directly into the hands of the Spanish Crown.

Voyages of discovery set sail from Acapulco for Peru, the Gulf of California, and to Asia. None returned from the across the Pacific, however, until Father Andres de Urdaneta discovered the northern Pacific tradewinds, which propelled him and his ship, loaded with Chinese treasure, to Acapulco in 1565.

From then on, for more than 200 years, a special yearly trading ship, renowned as the Nao the China and England as the Manila Galleon, set sail from Acapulco for the orient. Its return sparked an annual merchant fair, swelling Acapulco's population with traders jostling to bargain for the Manila Galleon's shiny trove of silks, porcelain, ivory, and lacquerware.

Acapulco's yearly treasure soon attracted marauders, too. In 1579, Francis Drake threatened, and in 1587, off Cabo San Lucas, Thomas Cavendish was the first to capture the Manila Galleon, the Santa Anna. The cash booty alone, 1.2 million gold pesos, severely depressed the London gold market.

After a Dutch fleet invaded Acapulco in 1615, the Spanish rebuilt their fort, which they christened Fort San Diego in 1617. Destroyed by an earthquake in 1776, the fort was rebuilt by 1783. But Mexico's War of Independence (1820-21) stopped the Manila Galleon forever, sending Acapulco into a century-long slumber.