| Tampico | |
| |
| Nation: | Spain |
|---|---|
| Region: | New Spain |
| Info: | Conquerable Port |
| Resources: | Fertile Soil (Cactus) Abundant Game Sulfur Deposits Iron Deposits |
| NPC Level: | Unknown |
History
Tampico is in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The name "Tampico" is of Huastec origin: tam-piko, meaning "place of otters", (literally "water dogs"). The city is surrounded by rivers and lagoons which hosted a large population of otters in the past. (This is why the resource of "plentiful game" meaning fur bearing animals is located here.)
The area currently known as Tamaulipas has been inhabited for at least 8000 years. Several different cultures (north coastal, south coastal, lowlands, and mountains) existed during that period. The region had several Huastec settlements, among them the important site at Las Flores, which flourished between 1000 and 1250. Although Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs rather quickly, it took a gradual process for Spain to subjugate the inhabitants of Tamaulipas in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Franciscan priest Andrés de Olmos established a mission in the area in 1532. At his bequest, the Spanish settlement called San Luis de Tampico was established in 1554. More work along these lines was done by Franciscan missionaries, although repeated indigenous rebellions kept the area unstable. Pirates also made Tampico unstable. Its population was relocated in 1684 to the south of the Pánuco River due to pirate attacks, among them a particularly destructive incursion by Captain Laurens de Graaf.