Prehispanic era An ancient indigenous settlement called Huey Colhuacan dates back to
Tecpatl, which corresponds to 628 CE. The
Aztecs built it during their pilgrimage. Its exact location is unknown, but it is generally assumed that it was close to the current town of
Culiacáncito.
Founding The city known today as Culiacán was co-founded in 1531 by
conquistadors
Lázaro de Cebreros and
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán under the name "Villa de San Miguel". Upon their arrival in the 16th century, the Spanish found that farmhouses were organized into indigenous nations by the
tribe of the
Tahues, which brought together people of the same origin and language with a common tradition. Other indigenous peoples that inhabited the original territory of Culiacán were the
Tebacas,
Pacaxes,
Sabaibo, and
Achires. After their conquest in 1531, de Cebreros and de Guzmán organized the acquired territories into three provinces. One of them was Culiacán, which was delimited to the South by the
Elota River and to the North by the Mocorito River, depending on the
Kingdom of Nueva Galicia. Organized in this way, the territory lasted until 1786, the year in which the administration system was implemented, with
Sonora and
Sinaloa forming the province of Arizpe and the older province of Culiacán remaining the same.
Independent Mexico On 6 October 1821,
independence was sworn in at Culiacán. Culiacán was granted city status on 21 July 1823, when the provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa were separated by decree from Congress. In 1824, under the
Constitutive Act of the Mexican Federation, Sinaloa and Sonora reunited to form the
Estado de Occidente. On 13 October 1830, the provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa were definitively separated by decree, with the city of Culiacán designated the capital of the state of Sinaloa. In 1861, during the conservative government of the
French Intervention, prefectures were established, and the Municipalities Law was enacted, dividing the Districts into City Councils. The
Badiraguato District was suppressed and became a municipality within the Culiacán District. From 1859 to 1873, the capital of Sinaloa was moved from Culiacán to Mazatlán. In the
Restored Republic, Governor Eustaquio Buelna confronted the merchants of the port. He returned to Culiacán, and the Local Congress granted it the status of the state capital.
Porfirian and revolutionary times In 1878, Culiacán had three City Halls, whose headwaters were Culiacán,
Quilá, and
Badiraguato. This remained the case until 1880, when Badiraguato reverted to being a district with the limits that had previously applied to it. Municipalities were established by law in 1912 as a new form of internal government. However, this law did not come into force until 1915, when political directors were abolished, thereby freeing the districts. Culiacán was established as a municipality by decree on 8 April 1915. Within its original limits was the current Municipality of
Navolato, which was segregated from Culiacán on 27 August 1982, depriving the city of of valley agriculture. Sometime later, the State Congress approved the extension of the capital city's name, giving it its current official name of Culiacán de Rosales. "Rosales" honors the great Mexican military man
Antonio Rosales, who fought in the second French Intervention and the
Reform War, along with serving as the governor of Sinaloa.
World War II and opium cultivation for morphine During
World War II, the United States experienced shortages of medical
morphine after opium supplies from Asia were disrupted by the
Pacific War. In response, Mexican authorities, in cooperation with U.S. officials, expanded regulated
opium poppy cultivation in northwestern Mexico, including rural areas surrounding Culiacán in the state of
Sinaloa. Farmers in the mountainous regions of
Sierra Madre Occidental, near the city, produced opium that was processed into legal morphine for wartime medical use by Allied forces. Although the program ended after 1945, the agricultural knowledge, smuggling routes, and local intermediary networks developed during the wartime period persisted. Historians and criminologists have identified these postwar networks as an early foundation for later illicit drug trafficking organizations in Sinaloa.
After World War II headquarters From the late 1950s onward, Culiacán emerged as a major hub for
drug trafficking to the United States. The completion of the
Pan-American Highway and the regional airport in the 1960s accelerated the expansion of workable distribution infrastructure for the enterprising few families that would later come to dominate the international
drug cartels along Mexico's Pacific Northwest. The
Sinaloa Cartel made Culiacán its primary base. On 17 October 2019, after an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to arrest one of the Sinaloa Cartel's leaders, widespread gunfights broke out across the city, leading to multiple deaths, in what has been called the "
Battle of Culiacán". One of
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's relatives,
Ovidio Guzmán, was arrested, but the police were eventually forced to release him. == Coat of arms ==