Coahuila

Coahuila, state in north-central Mexico. Coahuila has significant mineral resources and is home to much of the country’s iron and steel industry. The state borders Texas along its northern frontier with the United States. It also borders the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Durango on the west, Zacatecas on the south, and Nuevo León on the east.

Coahuila is Mexico’s third largest state. The rugged Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range crosses the state from north to south. Much of the rest of Coahuila is covered by an extended plain that spreads toward Texas to the north and the east. The climate is hot, and rainfall is sparse throughout the state. The Río Grande, a river known in Mexico as the Río Bravo, is a major source of irrigation water for both sides of the international border and forms Coahuila’s entire northern boundary. Until irrigation projects delivered water to the western part of the state, much of that region was barren desert. A severe drought in 1995 prompted the Mexican government to petition the U.S. and Texas governments for a loan of water from U.S. reservoirs fed by the Río Grande. The U.S. State Department rejected the request, saying such a loan would only worsen drought problems in southern Texas. Balneario de los Novillos National Park is located just across the border from Del Rio, Texas, and protects a lagoon that stands out as an oasis in the high desert terrain. The state covers an area of 149,511 sq km (57,727 sq mi).

Coahuila’s most important cities include Monclova, a mining and steelworks center; Torreón, the state’s major commercial hub; and Saltillo, the state capital. A historically prominent institution of higher education located in Saltillo, the Ateneo Fuente de Saltillo (1867), was renamed the Autonomous University of Coahuila in 1957. In 1990 Coahuila’s literacy rate ranked fourth highest of 31 Mexican states. The state’s population in 2005 was 2,495,200.

Coahuila had one of the healthiest regional economies in the country in the mid-1990s. It is typically ranked among the most economically developed states in Mexico. Coahuila’s diversified economy is noted for agriculture, mining, ranching, and manufacturing. Industrialized agriculture on irrigated lands, including the important La Laguna farming region in the southwest, is among the most productive in Mexico. Important manufacturing ventures include Mexico’s largest steel plant and two large auto plants operated by Chrysler and General Motors.

The Spanish first settled in the region in the 1570s, when they established the city of Saltillo. Coahuila and Texas were established as a single Mexican state in 1824. In 1836 Texas residents launched a rebellion known as the Texas Revolution, in which they broke away from Coahuila, declared their independence from Mexico, and, after a number of battles with the Mexican army, eventually formed the independent Republic of Texas. U.S. soldiers occupied Saltillo during the Mexican War (1846-1848), and the state lost all of its territory north of the Río Grande as a result of Mexico’s defeat in that conflict. Coahuila merged with the state of Nuevo León in 1857, and then became a separate state in 1868. The state played a major role during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and produced several of the conflict’s most important leaders. The revolt by General Francisco Indalécio Madero, a native of the state of Coahuila, against Mexican president Porfirio Díaz was based in Coahuila and helped launch the revolution in 1910. Another native of the state, Venustiano Carranza, led a relatively conservative faction that gained control of the revolution in 1915. He led the country from that point until 1920.