List of Mexican states by date of statehood

This is a list of Mexican states by date of statehood, that is, the date when each state was accepted by Congress of the Union as a free and sovereign state of the United Mexican States.

The 31 states of the United Mexican States.

Background

The effective independence of Mexico reached on September 27, 1821, does not meant the independence of the states, because Mexico was the only Latin American country which became independent from Spain as a monarchy. After the fall of the Mexican Empire, the Federal Republic was established on July 12, 1823.^[1]

Although 18 of the 19 founder states can be considered official members of the federation since the enactment of the Constitutive Act of the Mexican Federation on January 31, 1824; eleven of them were ratified as states before the enactment and some of the others were included as three states (the internal States of North, Western and Eastern).^{6 7} Tamaulipas, Tabasco and Chiapas were ratified after the enactment of the act.⁸

All the later admission dates were set by law or decree of congress, except for Chiapas, whose admission was determined by its own people in a referendum.^[2]

List

This list does not account the secession of several states during the establishment of the Centralist Republic and the territorial changes made during the civil and foreign wars.

#	State		Admission1	Preceding Entity2[3]
1		México	December 20, 1823[4]	Intendancy of México, then Province of México
2		Guanajuato	December 20, 1823[4]	Intendancy of Guanajuato, then Province of Guanajuato
3		Oaxaca	December 21, 1823[4]	Intendancy of Oaxaca, then Province of Oaxaca
4		Puebla	December 21, 1823[4]	Intendancy of Puebla, then Province of Puebla de los Angeles
5		Michoacán	December 22, 1823[4]	Intendancy of Valladolid, then Province of Valladolid
6		San Luis Potosí	December 22, 1823[4]	Intendancy of San Luis Potosí, then San Luis Potosí
7		Veracruz	December 22, 1823[4]	Intendancy of Veracruz, then Province of Veracruz
8		Yucatán3	December 23, 1823[4]	Captaincy General of Yucatán, Intendancy of Yucatán, Province of Mérida de Yucatán and then Republic of Yucatán
9		Jalisco	December 23, 1823[4]	Nueva Galicia, Intendancy of Guadalajara, Province of Guadalajara
10		Zacatecas	December 23, 1823[4]	Nueva Galicia, Intendancy of los Zacatecas, Province of Zacatecas
11		Querétaro	December 23, 1823[4]	Intendancy of México, then Province of Querétaro
12		Sonora4	January 10, 1824[4]	Nueva Navarra, Province of Sonora
13		Tabasco	February 7, 1824[5]	Split off from Veracruz and Yucatán
14		Tamaulipas	February 7, 1824[4]	Nuevo Santander, then Province of Santander
15		Nuevo León	May 7, 1824[6]	New Kingdom of León, then Province of New Kingdom of León
16		Coahuila5	May 7, 1824[7]	Nueva Extremadura, then Province of Coahuila
17		Durango	May 22, 1824[8]	Nueva Vizcaya, then Province of Nueva Vizcaya
18		Chihuahua	July 6, 1824[9]	Nueva Vizcaya, then Province of Nueva Vizcaya
19		Chiapas	September 14, 1824[2]	Captaincy General of Guatemala, then Province of Guatemala
20		Sinaloa	October 14, 1830[10]	Split off from Estado de Occidente
21		Guerrero	October 27, 1849[11]	Formed from parts of México, Puebla and Michoacán
22		Tlaxcala	December 9, 1856[12]	Territory of Tlaxcala
23		Colima	December 9, 1856[13]	Territory of Colima
24		Aguascalientes	February 5, 1857[14]	Territory of Aguascalientes
25		Campeche	April 29, 1863[15]	Territory of Campeche, split off from Yucatán
26		Hidalgo	January 16, 1869[16]	Split off from México
27		Morelos	April 17, 1869[17]	Split off from México
28		Nayarit	January 26, 1917[18]	Territory of Tepic
29		Baja California	January 16, 1952[19]	North Territory of Baja California
30		Quintana Roo	October 8, 1974[20]	Territory of Quintana Roo, split off from Yucatán
31		Baja California Sur	October 8, 1974[21]	South Territory of Baja California

Notes

1.^ The order of the states admitted the same day was determined by the day of the installation of its congress.

2.^ The intendancies were created in 1776 under the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The provinces were created as part of the territorial administration of the Mexican Empire.

3.^ Yucatán joined to the federation as the Federated Republic of Yucatán (Spanish: República Federada de Yucatán).^[22]

4.^ Sonora joined to the federation along with Sinaloa as Estado de Occidente, also recognized as Sonora y Sinaloa.

5.^ Coahuila joined to the federation along with Texas as Coahuila y Tejas.

6.^ Estado Interno del Norte (north) was formed with Durango, Chihuahua and Nuevo México. Estado Interno de Oriente (eastern) was formed with Coahuila, Nuevo León and Texas. Estado Interno de Occidente (western) was formed with Sonora y Sinaloa. Only the Western State was finally ratified in the Constitution of 1824 and the other two states were divided in different states and federal territories.

7.^ The Mexican Federation was finally composed of 19 states, the Federal District and the federal territories of Alta California, Baja California, Santa Fe de Nuevo México, Colima and Tlaxcala.

8.^ Tamaulipas and Tabasco were included in the act as a state, but congress ratified its admission on February 7.