How did Mexico create new states?

Was there any sort of plan, a formula or something, set up by the government to decide the size of each new state that was carved out of the old ones? And was there a plan for how new states would be created from the territories in the north?
 

TFSmith121

Banned
In a VERY general sense, the process of statehood for territories

In a VERY general sense, the process of statehood for territories followed that in the US; basically, when population growth got to the point that one faction or another benefitted from the elevation, or there was sufficient internal agitation for a state to be split, (Campeche and Merida, for example, or Colima and Michoacan) it happened.

That varied from one political era to another in Mexico (imperial, republic, etc.) and from one constitution to another, but one thing to keep in mind is that unlike the US, almost all of Mexico's current territory was already divided for administrative purposes at independence. Mexico did not gain territory from conquest or purchase from other nation states post-independence; basically, Mexico's borders (generally) were at their greatest extent at independence.

As an example, today's state of Sonora (basically) follows the borders of the Spanish audiencia of Nueva Andalusia, as laid out in (IIRC) 1637...when Mexico gained independence in 1824, the former imperial province joined the Mexican union as a state. Sonora was not a "new" territory, in the sense of what became the US southwest after the Mexican Cession was for the US.

And the US concept of an open frontier that was organized into territories that then applied for statehood when they reached a certain population is the legacy of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787; the basic concept then was to settle the overlapping claims of some of the eastern seaboard states, and once it was demonstrated as a pretty successful policy (in terms of reducing internal conflict and providing for legitimized local government), it was followed (more or less) for the remainder of the territorial growth of the United States.

Best,
 
Thank you for your post. I meant more though, by what process did they decide to create new states, and what geographic features to use as their borders, or if it was completely ad-hoc?
 
Thank you for your post. I meant more though, by what process did they decide to create new states, and what geographic features to use as their borders, or if it was completely ad-hoc?

The southern states were generally created by merging land granted to various nobility by the royalty (hence the needlessly wonky borders). Up north it was based on population and generally followed the US’ method (crests of mountains, river or two, etc.). Very rarely–if at all–lines of lat and lon, of course.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Well, the process was political, whether decree in the

Thank you for your post. I meant more though, by what process did they decide to create new states, and what geographic features to use as their borders, or if it was completely ad-hoc?

Well, the process was political, whether decree in the imperial/monarchial eras, or legislative in the republican.

Geographic features tended to be coastlines, crestlines, and rivers, much as anywhere else, but there are plenty of "surveyor's line" type boundaries in Mexico, notably in the northern states - obviously the divide between Baja California and Baja California Sur, the majority of Sonora's borders, the three-way divide of the Yucatan peninsula between Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo...

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Best,
 
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