Departments of the Second Mexican Empire

The departments of the Second Mexican Empire were the administrative divisions that the nation was organized into during the short rule of Emperor Maximilian I. He commissioned Mexican scholar Manuel Orozco y Berra to draw boundaries based on geography of Mexico. Each of the 50 departments was to be governed by a prefect. There were many new departments in the plan, carved out of existing Mexican states: Acapulco, Álamos, Arizona, Autlán, Batopilas, Coalcomán, Ejutla, Fresnillo, Huejuquilla, Iturbide, La Laguna, Mapimí, Matamoros, Matehuala, Mazatlán, Nazas, El Potosí, Tancítaro, Tehuantepec, Teposcolula, Toluca, Tula, Tulancingo, Tuxpan, and Valle de México (Mexico City). This plan was never implemented in full before the fall of Maximilian's regime and the return of republican rule under President Benito Juárez.

The fifty departments of the Mexican Empire

List of departments

Population by department

Number	Department	Total population	Capital	Prefect[1]	Population	Surface (Sq Leagues)	Pop. Density
XXL	Acapulco	97,949	Acapulco		3,000	1,965	49.85
XXX	Aguascalientes	433,151	Aguascalientes	Francisco R. de Esparza	23,000	1,768	244.99
XLIV	Álamos	41,041	Álamos		6,000	2,657	15.45
XLVI	Arizona	25,603	Altar	José Moreno Bustamante	1,000	4,852	5.28
XXVII	Autlán	82,624	Autlán		3,000	1,394	59.27
XLVIII	Batopilas	71,481	Hidalgo		3,000	2,967	24.09
L	California	12,420	La Paz		500	8,437	1.47
II	Campeche	126,368	Campeche	Manuel Ramos	15,500	2,975	42.48
V	Chiapas	157,317	San Cristóbal de las Casas		10,500	1,871	84.08
XLIX	Chihuahua	65,824	Chihuahua	Luis Terrazas	12,000	5,341	12.32
XXXVIII	Coahuila	63,178	Saltillo	Francisco de la Peña y Fuentes	9,000	3,996	15.81
XXIV	Coalcomán	96,450	Coalcomán	Antonio Pallares	3,000	993	97.13
XXV	Colima	136,733	Colima	José María Mendoza	31,000	1,131	120.90
XLII	Durango	103,608	Durango	Buenaventura G. Saravia	14,000	3,394	30.53
VIII	Ejutla	93,675	Ejutla		7,128	1,157	80.96
XXXII	Fresnillo	82,860	Fresnillo	Mariano Rodríguez	12,000	2,299	36.04
XXIX	Guanajuato	601,850	Guanajuato		63,000	1,452	414.50
XX	Guerrero	124,836	Chilpancingo		3,000	1,668	74.84
XLVII	Huejuquilla	16,092	Jiménez		3,000	4,479	3.59
XVIII	Iturbide	157,619	Taxco	Francisco Casanova	5,000	833	189.22
XXVI	Jalisco	219,987	Guadalajara	Mariano Morett	70,000	1,252	175.71
III	La Laguna	47,000	El Carmen	Manuel Maria Sandoval	5,000	1,685	27.89
XXXIX	Mapimí	6,777	San Fernando de Rosas		1,000	4,528	1.50
XXXVI	Matamoros	41,000	Matamoros	Pedro J. de la Garza	41,000	2,195	18.68
XXXIV	Matehuala	82,427	Matehuala		3,500	2,097	39.31
XL	Mazatlán	94,387	Mazatlán	Gregorio Almeda	15,000	2,116	44.61
XXII	Michoacán	417,378	Morelia	Ramon Mendez	25,000	1,750	238.5
XXVIII	Nayarit	78,605	Acaponeta	Manuel Rivas	2,000	1,718	45.75
XLIII	Nazas	46,495	Indé		5,000	3,089	15.05
XXXVII	Nuevo León	152,645	Monterrey	Jose Maria Garcia	14,000	2,379	64.16
VII	Oaxaca	235,845	Oaxaca	Juan P Franco	25,000	1,839	128.25
XXXIII	El Potosí	308,116	San Luis Potosí		34,000	2,166	142.25
XII	Puebla	467,788	Puebla	Alonso Manuel Peon	75,000	1,141	409.98
XIX	Querétaro	273,515	Querétaro	Manuel Gutiérrez	48,000	946	289.13
XLI	Sinaloa	82,185	Culiacán		9,000	2,576	31.90
XLV	Sonora	80,129	Ures	Santiago Campillo	7,000	4,198	19.09
IV	Tabasco	99,930	San Juan Bautista		6,000	1,905	52.46
XXXV	Tamaulipas	71,470	Ciudad Victoria	José de Emparan	6,000	1,969	36.30
XXIII	Tancítaro	179,100	Tancítaro		2,000	1,194	150.00
VI	Tehuantepec	85,275	El Suchil	Luciano Prieto	-	1,999	42.66
IX	Teposcolula	160,720	Teposcolula		1,200	1,352	118.88
XIII	Tlaxcala	339,571	Tlaxcala	Bibiano Beltran	4,000	1,030	329.68
XVII	Toluca	311,853	Toluca	González Fuentes	12,000	1,095	284.80
XVI	Tula	178,174	Tula	Eligio Ruelas	5,000	617	288.77
XV	Tulancingo	266,678	Tulancingo	Agustín Ricoy	6,000	1,030	258.91
XI	Tuxpan	97,940	Tuxpan		6,000	1,325	73.92
XIV	Valle de México	481,796	Mexico	José María Mendoza	200,000	410	1,175.11
X	Veracruz	265,159	Veracruz	Domingo Bureau	10,000	2,119	125.13
I	Yucatán	263,547	Mérida	José García Jurado	24,000	4,902	53.76
XXXI	Zacatecas	192,823	Zacatecas	José María Avila	16,000	1,785	108.02

The information from this table was the estimate for the year 1865.^[2]

See also

• Administrative divisions of Mexico
• Territorial evolution of Mexico