Lably
Skip to content

Quintana Roo

State of Mexico

  • 9 min read
  • 10 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Man and the Biosphere Programme

Lab · Class 6–12Himalayan Geography

Quintana Roo is located on the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula and is bordered by the states of Campeche to the west and Yucatán to the northwest, and by the Orange Walk and Corozal districts of Belize, along with an offshore borderline with Belize District to the south. As Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo has a coastline to the east with the Caribbean Sea and to the north with the Gulf of Mexico. The state previously covered 44,705 square kilometers (17,261 sq mi) and shared a small border with Guatemala in the southwest of the state. However, in 2013, Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation resolved the boundary dispute between Quintana Roo, Campeche, and Yucatán stemming from the creation of the Calakmul municipality by Campeche in 1997, siding with Campeche and thereby benefiting Yucatán.

Quintana Roo is home to the city of Cancún, the islands of Cozumel and Isla Mujeres, and the towns of Bacalar, Playa del Carmen and Akumal, as well as the ancient Maya ruins of Chacchoben, Cobá, Kohunlich, Muyil, Tulum, Xel-Há, San Gervasio and Xcaret. The Sian Ka'an biosphere reserve is also located in the state. The statewide population is expanding at a rapid rate due to the construction of hotels and the demand for workers. Many migrants come from Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, and Veracruz. The state is frequently hit by severe hurricanes due to its exposed location, among the most severe being Hurricane Dean in 2007, which made landfall with sustained winds of 280 km/h (170 mph), with gusts up to 320 km/h (200 mph).

History

The area that makes up present-day Quintana Roo was long part of Yucatán, sharing its history. Beginning around 2000 BC, the Mayans transformed the area that would become Quintana Roo into an agricultural forest. Selective management of forest trees was developed that has continued to shape the region's forests. Archaeological evidence also shows the presence of ancient home gardens, including managed tree plots and cacao groves.

Spanish colonization affected the region beginning in the 16th century. With the Caste War of Yucatán, which started in the 1840s, all non-Indigenous peoples were driven from the region. The independent Maya nation of Chan Santa Cruz was based on what is now the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. For decades, it maintained considerable independence, having separate trade and treaty relationships with British Honduras, now Belize.

The Territory of Quintana Roo was created by decree of President Porfirio Díaz on November 24, 1902. It was named after an early patriot of the Mexican Republic, Andrés Quintana Roo. The Mexican Federal Army succeeded in subjugating most of the indigenous Maya population of the region during the 1910s. In 1913, the area was again declared to be legally part of the state of Yucatán, but was again declared a separate territory in 1915. The territory of Quintana Roo was granted statehood within the United Mexican States on October 8, 1974.

In the last quarter of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st, Quintana Roo developed rapidly, with tourism being a driving force, notably with the development of Cancún. As a result of this development, the northern part of Quintana Roo has been increasingly touristified. By contrast, the south has continued with a traditional economy of forestry and wood extraction.

Archaeological findings

Ancient human remains have been discovered in a system of submerged caves and sinkholes in the Tulum area of Quintana Roo. To date, a total of nine skeletons have been found in these caves, including one of the oldest human skeletons found on the American continent. In 2016, underwater archaeological exploration of a cave known as Chan Hol found a skeleton of a female who lived in the region at least 9,900 years ago, during the Paleo-Indian period. Dating revealed that the skeleton was probably about 30 years old at the time of death. Three different scars on the skull of the woman showed that she was hit with something hard and her skull bones were broken. Her skull also had crater-like deformations and tissue deformities that appeared to be caused by a bacterial relative of syphilis.

According to study lead researcher Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, "It really looks as if this woman had a very hard time and an extremely unhappy end of her life. Obviously, this is speculative, but given the traumas and the pathological deformations on her skull, it appears a likely scenario that she may have been expelled from her group and was killed in the cave, or was left in the cave to die there".

The skeleton found by the 2016 exploration was 140 m (150 yd) away from a site where a previous expedition found human remains known as Chan Hol 2. Although archaeologists assumed the 2016 expedition had rediscovered Chan Hol 2, Stinnesbeck concluded that the two skeletons represent different individuals.

Due to their distinctive features, study co-researcher Samuel Rennie suggested the existence of at least two morphologically diverse groups of people living separately in Mexico during the transition from Pleistocene to Holocene.

Sign in to keep reading

9 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Regions and countries

British ColumbiaProvince of CanadaKeralaState in southwestern IndiaMassachusettsU.S. stateVirginiaU.S. stateNative Americans in the United StatesIndigenous peoples of the United StatesKarnatakaState in southwestern India