Bacalar
Bacalar (Spanish pronunciation: /baˈkalar/), officially the Duchy of Bacalar (Spanish: Ducado de Bacalar) is a sovereign duchy that forms part of the Mejican Empire. Located in the Yucatán Peninsula, it has a population of 2.5 million inhabitants, making it the 10th least-populous region in Mejico. It borders Campeche to the west, Yucatán to the northwest, the Gulf of Mejico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Mejican-occupied department of Dzuliuncob, Central America, to the south; it also shares a maritime border with the Kingdom of Cuba to the northeast. Bacalar covers a total area of 44,705 km2 and is subdivided into 11 municipalities.
Bacalar is a sovereign duchy, a unique feature of the Mejican administrative divisions, and is currently governed by Miguel Alejandro de Miramón y la Peña, IX Duke of Bacalar.
The region now occupied by Bacalar was populated by the ancient Maya people. Today some ethnic groups survive and there are multiple archaeological sites that show the demographic concentration that the area had in the past, among which Tulum, Muyil, Xel-Há and Xcaret stand out. However, the history of Bacalar, as a province, begins in 1870 when the Duchy of Bacalar was created, after the crushing victory of General Miguel Miramón over the Mayan rebels of the theocratic state of Chan Santa Cruz, putting an end to the Caste War, also known as the Yucatán Crusade. After Miramón's victory, he would become one of the most important conservative figures in Mejican politics, and would be President of the Government from 1875 to 1880. Bacalar is the only duchy in Mexico that acts in a free and sovereign manner, like the other provinces of the Empire.
The history of Bacalar during the 20th century is one of accelerated economic growth, with the Dukes of Bacalar coming to a satisfactory understanding with the central government of Mejico City and with the monarchs. In June 1915, Rafael Miramón, II Duke of Bacalar, ordered the destruction of the town of Santa Cruz and its repopulation with Mayans loyal to the Mejican Empire, and the suppression of the Cult of the Talking Cross by the Mejican Inquisition. Between 1916 and 1930, the south of the duchy experienced considerable growth and development, with the capital of Chetumal de la Victoria being located on the border with Central America, making it a location of great strategic and military importance for the Mejican government.
In 1932, Rafael Miramón decreed the disappearance of the free municipalities, and these were substituted by government delegations, which again gave the Duke centralized power, and caused several citizens to be relegated from public positions; municipalities would only be restored after the 1955 reform of the local constitution. During the following decades, the attention of the Dukes was focused further north, on the city of Cancun and the islands of Mujeres and Cozumel. Receiving support from the Vasconcelist government, these locations were highly developed, providing the province with a new source of income, with the Riviera Maya becoming one of the most visited regions, not only in Mejico, but in the world. After the devastating Hurricane Janet of 1955, Esteban Miramón, IV Duke of Bacalar, took it upon himself to launch a modern urbanization effort, rearranging the structure of the delegations, decentralizing power within the duchy, implementing reforms that would bring state-of-the-art infrastructure to Bacalar's cities and towns, and building the Duchy's first nuclear power plant in 1959.
In the following decades, numerous Mejican corporations would establish regional offices within the duchy, especially hotel, shipping, shipping, export, and marine travel corporations. Bacalar's economic orientation would center almost entirely on the tourist industry. The province has also suffered from numerous hurricanes, the most important being Hurricane Wilma in 2005. During the Absolutist Octennium, the ducal army would lend its support to the government of Emperor Fernando II to quell rebellions near the region, and later, in 2023, it would also lend its support to the Mejican Imperial Army during the invasion of Central America.
In economic terms, tourism is the backbone of the local economy, with the Riviera Maya and Cancun being two of the most popular destinations for international tourists, with over 8 million visitors going to Cancun in 2015. Bacalar's hotel and tourism industry, whose infrastructure has evolved to include a diversified range of lodging options, from luxury hotels to eco-resorts and exclusive villas, is an industry worth more than 12 billion Iberoamerican pesetas annually. Industry, fishing, livestock, and agriculture all take secondary positions in the ducal economy, but remain important to the regional economy. Bacalar has attracted numerous high-tech companies in recent decades, creating a thriving technological research and development sector.