Why Doesn't Mexico Have Large Coastal Cities

Most countries that have a coastline have a number of major cities established along it to make use of the resources provided by the ocean and to establish trade routes by sea. But Mexico, despite having a long coastline, has relatively few coastal cities. Why is that? Watch the video to find out!

TIMECODES
0:00 - Introduction
1:10 - Reasons
1:37 - Climate of Mexico
3:46 - Geography of Mexico
4:26 - Colonisation of Mexico
6:13 - Economy of Mexico
7:23 - Present and the Future

Why Doesn't Mexico Have Large Coastal Cities
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[geopolipedia]

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[ShonnMorris]

Hurricanes are not really the reason for a lack of larger coastal cities. Miami, Tampa, New Orleans and Houston all prove that to be false. Mexico's real problem is it's overall geography with mountain ranges on each side with a central high platau in the middle. The other thing hurting Mexico is its lack of navigable rivers due precisely to this geography. Rivers have to drop very steep and fast making them unsuitable for navigation and a lot of coast cities are port cities located at river deltas like New Orleans. Hamburg, and Rotterdam. The coastal geography that was mentioned prevents ports from being built like those of Los Angeles which doesn't rely on a river but is more suitable for overland and rail access.

[someopinion]

So, Mexican export to South America goes through the Darien Gap? Imagine how much bigger it would be if there actually was a road there?

[healthdios]

I was born in Central Mexico and lived there until my late teens, I never traveled far away from even my state of Guanajuato and I've got the shock of my life when I went to Veracruz in March and that humidity and warm weather hit me.
Later on, I moved to Texas and realized how good I had it in my hometown since life would be unbearable without air conditioning or building insulation in the east coast of the US.
The higher altitude and dryer weather is the place to be if you're born south of the border.

[nategz]

Tijuana is a major coastal city. Honestly I think Matamoros should be bigger. Its a coastal city near the Texas boarder and has a port. I think Matamoros growth stopped because Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey has been better at getting factories and corporations to move there.

[pepegalvan_]

There is a HUGE MISTAKE in how we make export/import with Sout America: is not by land trough Guatemala and Central America, Is by ship... It's immposible to do it by land because the Darien Gap in Panama (a super dense rain forest area), that's te reason a Panamerican Road doesn't exist.

[world_mem]

Tremendous country!. Rich history, culture, traditions, human capital and wonderful landscapes. Mexico has the largest number of world heritage sites recognized by UNESCO in the Americas!. Central Mexico probably has one of the best weathers on earth, that´s why population has concentrated in that area for centuries. Civilizations present for three millennia!
Interesting vid!

[HypnoticChronic]

As a Floridian I vehemently disagree with the assertion hurricanes play a large factor in terms of settlement, I mean you just have to look at Florida's population density demographics as evidence for that and we get slammed with more hurricanes as well as ones of greater strength due to the trade winds than Mexico does on average.
Most of the ones that do end up hitting Mexico have already hit us or the various Caribbean islands first and lose a good bit of their strength, they may pick up some strength in the Gulf but its typically not enough to change their category by time they hit Mexico.

I would say the topography of the coasts is of greater factor, due to a large lack of flat land to allow for easy construction especially on the Pacific side, given that Mexico is a very mountainous country in general it makes moving goods from the mountainous interior to the semi flatter coasts difficult to say the least, plus given that Mexico's largest trading partner is the US by multitudes of volume, it makes little sense to build a port to ship those goods when they can be more easily taken over the border via land.
Evidence to that is history the largest coastal cities in the world were built and expanded upon because of commerce, despite many of them not being in the most ideal of locations (Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans etc.) but people persisted in building there because trade was so important.

I'd argue if Mexico expanded its trade in greater volume to say the European market for example, you'd see a greater expansion and growth in say Veracruz to facilitate that influx of commerce, which by all projections is likely to happen as the market for Mexican manufactured goods is ever increasing, as the worlds current primary manufacturing hub of China is becoming increasingly more risky and hostile for those nations with large economies that currently import cheap manufactured goods from there.
To which Mexico is seen as a better alternative due to its less hostile government and shorter less risky shipping routes due to its geographic location to those aforementioned large economic nations.

[jaiboregio]

So the fact that the 5th largest metropolitan area of Mexico is Tijuana, right on the California coastline, we are going to ignore that?

[alejandrocorteshernandez]

En la escuela me dijerin que el México independiente era una nación vulnerable a los ataques y si su capital o ciudad más importante estaba en un puerto seria fácilmente invadida. Al poner la ciudad capital lo mas alejada de las costas y fronteras le daba tiempo de organizar sus defensas.
Otro dato: La CDMX es la unica magapolis y capital que no esta junto al mar o un río.

[pdruiz]

You missed a very crucial reason why Mexico's cities and most of her population are located in the central highlands--the fertility of the soil there. The region from Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, through Mexico City to Puebla is endowed with deep, fertile volcanic soils. These soils, in turn, come from the 40 or so high volcanoes that define this region. That's very different from the coastal regions of Mexico, where the soils are thin and not as productive. That's a prime reason why Maya civilization collapsed in the Yucatan in the 900s AD--the very thin soils of this flat coastal peninsula were exhausted. Thus for 2, 000 years, the great empires of Mesoamerica arose in the central highlands, first with Teotihuacan, then the Toltecs and finally the Aztecs, with their three great capital cities becoming the largest settlements in the New World before 1492. All of this was possible because whoever controlled the central highlands, controlled the most agriculturally productive regions of Mesoamerica. This was not lost on the Spanish, who also settled in the most fertile region of Mexico once they finished their conquest. It wasn't only precious metals that kept the Spanish in the central highlands--it was food.

[manamaster]

I'm Mexican and grew up wondering about this, but something important to consider is the centralization of the economy and power in Mexico, with all major secretaries, government institutions, private companies and federal investment being established in the capital or close to it, the only other developed cities are Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Querétaro, while touristic destinations like Cancún and Acapulco being taken by drug cartels and politicians who milked them, it is difficult for cities to grow and develop.

[WineSippingCowboy]

This is incomplete 😢

Missing: Acapulco. The Acapulco-Manila trade was huge! This affected the State of Colima. Mexicans there can trace Filipino ancestors there.

The trade also led to Filipino influence throughout all the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Food is the obvious: rice, pineapples 🍍, papayas, bananas 🍌, coconuts 🥥

[keithprice]

Just a (not so!) little correction: The land connection from Mexico to South America is blocked by the Darien Gap in southern Panama and northern Colombia. All commerce (at least the legitimate sort) has to go by boat around it or by air. Trekking the Gap is VERY dangerous.

[roverworld]

Hurricanes is one reason. Progreso with its very long pier that ends in what basically is an artificial island, is a major seaport (though it needs to be dredged again, which is not easy since the bottom is hard rock) up to a draft of 41FT but the city is not in Progreso but in Merida, 30KM inland and safe from a storm surge. Merida is already past one million inhabitants and it has always been dependent on its historical seaports: Campeche, Sisal and since 1872 Progreso.

[f.w.ordemorton]

One of the most important reasons before 1900 was the extreme unhealthiness of the coastal lowlands; yellow fever and malaria. Acapulco was deserted except when the Manila Galleon was expected.

[GringosOnTheGulf]

Great video
As 2 Canadians 🇨🇦 that now call Mexico 🇲🇽 home we are blessed to be in such a rich beautiful country. ❤

[BimmerBros]

Acapulco, Tijuana, Puerto Vallarta, Veracruz, La Paz, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Cancun, there is plenty of large cities in the Mexican coast, they are more designed for tourism than for commerce though, and since it’s biggest trading partner is literally across a large land border there was less need to go out to seas.

[hanslueschen]

Tijuana is not such a tourist hot spot but an extremely busy border crossing. Many people cross to work in San Diego or for medical treatment in Tijuana.

[yankinwaoz]

In general, this is sort of correct. But it has many mistakes:
At 03:24 it sh ows Atlantic Hurricanes from the Gulf of Mexico crossing the deserts and the Sierra Madra into California. That doesn't happen. A hurricane can not cross that terrain. It also fails to show the eastern Pacific Hurricanes that hit the Baja Peninsula the the mainland Pacific Coast (the Mexican Riveria).
At 07:00 it claims that Mexico trades with South American via the land route of Guatamala.
That is not possible. There is no road or rail that connects South American and Central America. The Darian Gap in Panama is blocking through roads
At 07:30 it claims that Tijuana is a internationally known popular tourist destination. No it isn't.