Foundation In 1519, the same year that
Hernán Cortés arrived at the port of
Veracruz, a captain named
Alonso Álvarez de Pineda carried out a brief expedition to the region of northern Tamaulipas, where he named the town known today as
Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) as Rio de las Palmas (Palms River). Nevertheless, the actual founding of Matamoros began in 1686, when Captain
Alonso de León explored the area and concluded that the Rio Grande was an excellent route for navigation, and that the area of Matamoros was an ideal spot for cattle raising. In the year 1749, thirteen enterprising families, twelve from
Camargo and one from
Reynosa, decided to invest and begin a new, influential
cattle industry in the area. Former landowners were skeptical that this new investment would be successful, since the frequent overflow of the Rio Grande caused severe floods, and because ranches were occasionally attacked by Indians. Nonetheless, these thirteen families effectively carried out their business plan and created 113 cattle-raising sites. In the year 1774, they officially named the area San Juan de los Esteros Hermosos, known today as Matamoros. In 1793, to colonize the province of
Nuevo Santander, two Franciscan missionaries named Francisco Pueyes and Manuel Júlio Silva established a parish in the main
plaza of Matamoros. They proposed a new name for the community: Villa del Refugio, in honor of the parish and patron saint, Our Lady of the Refuge of the Estuaries.
Mexican independence In 1826, the governor Lucas Fernandez dispatched a decree to change the name of the city to Matamoros, in honor of
Mariano Matamoros, a hero of the
Mexican War of Independence, who participated along with
José María Morelos. During the
Texas Revolution (1836), Matamoros was the fortress for many Mexican soldiers against rebel attacks. In 1851, the city of Matamoros was again heroic for defending against attacks by troops under
José María Jesús Carbajal, many of whom were recruited from within
Texas, who sought to establish a federal republic against the centralist government of Mexico City. The federal troops of Francisco Avalos were able to repel their enemy, and the state congress granted Matamoros the title of "Heroic", countersigned by the Mexican Congress, hence the city's official name of Heroica Matamoros. The future of the city radically changed after Matamoros declared itself an international
free trade zone in 1858. This transformation brought upon urbanization, industrialization, and the expansion of the Bagdad Port, which experienced an economic boom for being the only entrance port for mercenaries for the
Confederate States of America during the
American Civil War. The Port of Matamoros, also known as the Port of Bagdad, was during the
American Civil War one of the leading commercial ports of the world.
Texas Revolution The city of Matamoros was a strategic and fortified city during the
Texas Revolution. The
Matamoros Expedition was launched to attack Matamoros and defeat the forces of
Antonio López de Santa Anna. It proved controversial and divisive. The roots of the controversy lay in the division within the provisional government between Governor
Henry Smith and the General Council over whether to remain loyal to the
Constitution of 1824 and support the liberals of Mexico in the Federalist cause against Santa Anna or to declare independence from Mexico and seek to become an independent territory. The division, on the other hand, was mirrored within the provisional government and among the commanders in the field, who compounded the situation and contributed to the near destruction of
the Texian army.
American Civil War At the beginning of the
American Civil War, the city of Matamoros was simply a sleepy little border town across the Rio Grande from Brownsville. It had, for several years, been considered a port, but it had relatively few ships arriving. Previous to the war, accounts mention that not over six ships entered the port each year. Nevertheless, in about four years, Matamoros, due to its proximity to Texas, was to assume a new status as a port, and multiply its population. A Union general in 1865 described the importance of the port in Matamoros: The cotton trade brought together in
Bagdad, Tamaulipas, and Matamoros over 20,000 speculators from the
Union and the
Confederacy, England, France, and Germany. Bagdad had grown from a small, seashore outpost to a "full-pledge town". The English-speaking population in the area by 1864 was so great that Matamoros even had a newspaper printed in English—it was called the
Matamoros Morning Call. In addition, the port exported cotton to England and France, where millions of people needed it for their daily livelihood, and it was possible to receive fifty cents per pound in gold for cotton, when it cost about three cents in the Confederacy, "and much more money was received for it laid down in New York and European ports". Other sources mention that the port of Matamoros traded with London,
Havana,
Belize, and
New Orleans. The Matamoros and New York City trade agreement, however, continued throughout the war and until 1864, and it was considered "heavy and profitable". By 1865, Matamoros was described as a prosperous town of 30,000 people, and
Lew Wallace informed General
Ulysses S. Grant that neither
Baltimore or
New Orleans could compare itself to the growing commercial activity of Matamoros. "For Sale" signs began to sprout up everywhere, and Matamoros returned to its role of a sleepy little border town across the
Rio Grande. The conclusion of the
American Civil War brought a severe crisis to the now abandoned Port of Bagdad, a crisis that until this day the port has never recovered from. In addition, a tremendous hurricane in 1889 destroyed the desolated port. This same hurricane was one of the many hurricanes during the period of devastating hurricanes of 1870 to 1889, which reduced the population of Matamoros to nearly half its size, mounting with it another upsetting economic downturn.
French intervention During the
French intervention, the port of Baghdad was the scene of the Battle of Baghdad, where the
Mexican army defeated the
French army and its conservative allies.
Mexican Revolution During the course of the
Mexican Revolution, the generals Francisco Mújica and
Lucio Blanco executed the first
agrarian reform for land in the country (1913). Consequently, in the years to come, Matamoros enjoyed another golden era during The Cotton Age, from 1948 to 1962. This epoch placed Matamoros as the largest cotton producer and exporter in the country.
Modern era Since the 1970s, and especially during the 1990s, after the initiation of the
North American Free Trade Agreement, foreign investment has multiplied in Matamoros, resulting in an enormous population growth, prominently from other Mexican states, like
San Luis Potosí and
Veracruz. Many major crimes have occurred in Matamoros, including the
1989 murder of an American tourist, a
1999 standoff and a
2011 mass kidnapping. In 2023, four American tourists
were kidnapped. Two of them as well as a Mexican bystander were killed; the other two were rescued by Mexican authorities. ==Demographics==