Transcription
Mexico is a country that has spread over 2 million square kilometers and stretches over 7,000 kilometers along the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, despite its extensive coastlines, it does not have any major cities on its shore.
The way Mexico's population is distributed is very odd. If we study the population density map of Mexico, it becomes clear that around 40 percent of Mexico's entire population, around 52 million people, are clustered together in a tight inland area that covers only seven percent of the country's total area. The remaining 60 percent of the population are spread out over the remaining 93 percent of the entire country.
Mexico's coastlines are diverse and breathtaking with sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, and lush vegetation. It's no surprise that many tourists flock to these shores every year to enjoy the warm weather and beautiful scenery. The cities of Cabo, Cancun, and Tijuana are popular tourist attractions, but why aren't there more people living and working along these coastlines?
Most of the large metropolitan areas in Mexico lie inland and have done so for centuries. This is quite odd, as in most countries around the world, some of the largest cities can be found on coastlines due to the many, many resources that humans take from the ocean, as well as the fact that the sea has been the main mode of transport and trade for centuries before air travel became prevalent.
What makes Mexico so different? Well, the climate of Mexico plays a massive role in making it different. Mexico is run through the Tropic of Cancer, which means the country lies within both the temperate and the tropical zones. Due to this and its long coastline, the country has a varied climate. In fact, Mexico has seven different climate regions. These seven different types of climate all play a major role in influencing how Mexico's population is distributed.
The majority of Mexico's coastline falls under the tropical wet, tropical wet and dry, and arid climates. This means that these regions either suffer from hot and swampy weather conditions or hot and dry desert-like climates. These are obviously not conditions in which people would prefer to live, especially when the interior of the country has a much more favorable climate type, being temperate with dry winters. If you consider the region around Mexico City, you can see that almost the entire area lies within the temperate zone, as this is the most favorable of all the different types of climates that Mexico has. While the tropical zones may be desirable for tourists from colder climates searching for warmth, for the natives of Mexico, they would much rather live where the weather is nicer all year round.
Another reason the climate forces a lack of coastal cities in Mexico is hurricanes. Due to its long coastline with warm currents on either side, both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Mexico are vulnerable to hurricanes. These hurricanes build up over the warm oceans and hit the coasts of Mexico before sweeping northwards into the United States and are an almost annual occurrence. In fact, the period between June and November every year is known as the hurricane season in Mexico due to the frequency of high-level storms that form within this time period. The threat of hurricanes is a telling factor on why large coastal cities are rare in Mexico.
Further, the coastlines are characterized by rugged terrain with steep cliffs and rocky shores. This makes it difficult to build large cities along the coast, as the land is not suitable for construction. And on both the sides, Mexico, like the United States, is relatively far away from the closest continents, separated from Africa and Europe by the Atlantic Ocean in the East and separated from Asia by the gigantic Pacific in the West. Due to this, even the available sea routes are extremely long, and with the availability of air travel to make transport quick and efficient, port cities have become kind of obsolete.
Mexico, like most countries in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, suffered under a long era of European colonization. The primary colonizers of the Mexican subcontinent were the Spanish, who came to its shores in search of new lands to conquer. They slaughtered the native Aztecs in their thousands, colonizing those who survived. The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan is the same site where the modern capital of Mexico City was founded by the Spanish.
The Spanish weren't used to the heat and humidity present in the East Coast of Mexico, so they too established their center of power further inland where the climate was more like what they were used to in Europe. The Spanish were in search of silver and gold to take back to their homeland, and many of the cities established were around the areas where the Spanish found what they were looking for, and most of these were in the interior areas. Mexico City was established in an already inhabited area that was a capital and where gold was plentiful. The next largest cities at the time were also founded around the mining of silver, which was again inland.
Another reason the Spanish founded their cities away from the coast was that it was easier to defend inland cities than coastal ones. The other European nations they were competing with in the region would have to transport their war equipment inland, which was much more difficult than sailing with it to attack coastal cities. The only large port city established at the time was the port of Veracruz, which was the colonial entry point for the Spanish and the main port from which they sent back the resources they had plundered to Europe.
Even in the present times, economically speaking, the country's economy is heavily focused on agriculture, mining, and manufacturing, which are centered in the interior of the country rather than along the coast. As a result, the coastal areas have not seen the same level of economic development as the inland areas, which has discouraged people from settling there. The relatively underdeveloped infrastructure of the country made it difficult for large cities to develop along the coastline, and as far as trade is concerned, Mexico does not have much of a need for seaports, as the majority of its trade takes place using land routes with the United States to the north and to the South with all the countries of South America. It tends to go through the land route of Guatemala. Since the majority of the exports and imports happen to the North and South by land, and not to the East and West by sea, the need for port cities on the coastlines is not very high, and with the development of air travel now, the need for shipping routes is even less.
However, at present, certain coastal cities are beginning to boom in terms of economy and population in Mexico. Cities like Tijuana, Cancun, and Cabo are all internationally known as popular tourist destinations for people looking for warm weather, beaches, nightlife, and relatively lax regulations. These Mexican cities have become attractive to people from around the world, but especially the United States, due to its proximity. Tourism is helping them grow in the present in a way that was never possible in the past. Over the next decade or two, these cities on the Mexican coastline could become thriving economic centers as they receive an influx of foreign investment and attention.
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