BAJA CALIFORNIA

formerly Baja California Norte, state, northwestern Mexico, bounded north by the United States, east by the Gulf of California, west by the Pacific Ocean, and south by the state of Baja California Sur. Its territory (26,997 square miles [69,921 square km]), occupying the northern half of the Baja California peninsula, consists of rugged granitic mountains, the Sierra de Jurez and the Sierra San Pedro Mrtir. Coastal plains are narrow except in the extreme northeast, where the Colorado River forms a delta. Although the state of Baja California has long been inhabited, settlement of the area remains sparse. In 1887 it was made a federal district, with its capital first at Ensenada and subsequently at Mexicali (q.v.). It was redesignated a federal territory in 1931 and was made a state in 1952; it was renamed Baja California Norte in 1974 to distinguish it from the newly created state of Baja California Sur to the south. By 1979 the state was again officially called Baja California. Since the 1950s the stateespecially the border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali and, to a lesser extent, Ensenadahas experienced phenomenal growth. This has been partly due to its proximity to U.S. markets, though its production has been increasingly directed toward central Mexico. Expanded agriculture (predominantly cotton, followed by wheat, grapes, and olives) and industry (cottonseed and food processing, fish packing, and the making of beer, wine, and soap) have absorbed many immigrants, but a large, idle surplus of unskilled workers, formerly employed seasonally in the United States but denied entry beginning in the late 1960s, has remained a problem. Wages and the cost of living, while higher than in the rest of Mexico, are lower than in the United States, and foreign companies have established factories in the border region. The virtual absence of communications isolated all of the Baja California peninsula for centuries. Since the late 1960s, however, paved roads have connected the principal cities in the north, and both a railroad and a good highway unite Mexicali with the state of Sonora to the east and the rest of Mexico. A new road to Baja California Sur, originating at Tijuana, was completed in the mid-1970s, extending southward for 1,061 miles (1,708 km). There are harbour facilities at Ensenada. Airlines provide frequent service to the largest cities. Pop. (1950) 226,965; (1960) 520,165; (1985 est.) 1,328,687. English Lower California peninsula, northwestern Mexico, bounded north by the United States, east by the Gulf of California, and south and west by the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula is approximately 760 miles (1,220 km) long and 25 to 150 miles (40 to 240 km) wide, with a total area of 55,366 square miles (143,396 square km). Politically, it is divided into the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The basic geological feature is a fault block rising precipitously on the gulf side and dropping gently into the Pacific, crowned by a chain of rugged peaks trending in a northwestsoutheast direction. The granitic Jurez and San Pedro Mrtir mountains, the latter rising to 10,154 feet (3,095 m) above sea level, form the divide in the north, with lower parallel ranges much interrupted by erosion along both coasts. The centre of the peninsula is dominated by volcanoes and vast lava flows extending westward in a subpeninsula. Volcanoes include Las Tres Vrgenes (6,548 feet), last reported active in 1746. In the vicinity of the city of La Paz the mountains disappear in a low, narrow isthmus, after which they reemerge in a final, lofty (7,100-foot) granite range. The most extensive plains are along the Pacific shore in the south, from near La Paz to Ojo de Liebre (Scammon's) Lagoon. At the head of the Gulf of California is a delta formed by the alluvium of the Colorado River. Baja California has 2,038 miles of coastline, with many islands on both sides. There are sheltered deepwater harbours on the western coast as well as on the Gulf. With the exception of the Colorado River, which runs along the extreme northeast part of the peninsula, surface water is confined to a few permanent streamlets in the northwest and extreme south and to rare springs forming oases elsewhere. Three zones of climate determine the region's plant and animal life. The northwestern corner of the peninsula receives winter cyclonic cold fronts bringing rain and fog from the north. Precipitation in this part ranges from 5 to 11 inches (130 to 280 mm) annually, and the vegetation and fauna are similar to those of southern California in the United States. Southward from El Rosario and east of the JurezSan Pedro Mrtir mountains is an excessively arid zone extending through the waist of the peninsula to La Paz. Parts of this great central desert are quite barren, but most of it is covered with forests of plants adapted to arid conditions, notably the giant cactus, or cardon (Pachycereus), and two other species, the boojum tree (Idria columnaris) and the elephant tree (Bursera microphylla). The region south of La Paz receives late summer tropical rains averaging 5 inches annually on the coast and 25 inches (635 mm) or more in the higher mountains, with desert shrub in the lowlands and semideciduous forests in the more humid mountains. Lowland temperatures in the peninsula range from below freezing (even in the south) to higher than 100 F (37.8 C). The Gulf coast is hot and humid in summer, while the Pacific side is much cooler. Humans first moved into Baja California from the north perhaps 9,000 or 10,000 years ago, when the climate was more humid and huge Pleistocene mammals roamed the area. When the Spaniards landed in 1533, they found what were among the most primitive cultures in the Americas. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 Indians lived at that time in small groups, each exploiting a definite territory for hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. Attempts to colonize the peninsula were fruitless until Jesuit missionaries established the first of a number of permanent settlements at Loreto in 1697. These missionaries congregated, clothed, and catechized the Indians and taught them agriculture and livestock husbandry, but the Indians were practically exterminated in a series of epidemics unwittingly introduced by the Spaniards. In 1768 the Jesuits were replaced by Franciscans, who in turn left the peninsular missions to the Dominican order five years later. By this time few Indians remained in the southern part of the peninsula, and the Dominicans concentrated on founding new missions in the north to convert the still undecimated tribes there. Independence from Spain, recognized in Baja California in 1822, was little noticed. The missions were gradually abandoned, and the vanished Indians were replaced by a sparse population of mestizo farmers and cattlemen. After the Mexican War (184648), the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave California proper to the United States and assigned Lower California, i.e., the Baja peninsula, to Mexico. The construction and improvement of highways, harbour facilities, and airfields began in the 1960s and continued during the 1970s with completion of a 1,061-mile (1,708-km) highway running the length of the peninsula between Tijuana and Cabo San Lucas. Baja California's isolation began to be alleviated. Agriculture and mining have expanded, and industries have developed in the northern half of the peninsula, while the more isolated southern half has developed more slowly.