Baja << BAH hah >> California is a state in northwestern Mexico. It covers the northern half of the Baja California Peninsula and shares its northern border with California, in the United States. The name Baja California means lower California. Before 1848, the U.S. state of California was known as Alta California, meaning upper California, and was part of Mexico.
Baja California has an area of 26,997 square miles (69,921 square kilometers). It lies between the Pacific Ocean, to the west, and the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortés, to the east. Two mountain ranges—the Sierra de Juárez and the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir—extend from north to south in the northern part of the state. Baja California has an extremely dry climate, with deserts on both coasts and in the Colorado River valley. At the time of the 2020 census, the population was 3,769,020. Most of the people live near the U.S. border in such cities as Tijuana and Mexicali, the capital.
The economy of Baja California is based on manufacturing and is closely connected with the economy of California. Assembly plants called maquiladoras furnish partially manufactured goods to U.S. factories north of the Mexican border. Tourists from the United States and migrant workers also contribute to the economy.
Before the Spanish colonized Baja California in the 1530’s, it was home to a sparse population of Native Americans, including the Cochimí, Guaycura, and Pericú. In the 1690’s, Jesuit friars established the first Roman Catholic missions in the region. In 1848, as a result of the Mexican War (1846-1848), the United States annexed Alta California.
Few people lived in Baja California before the late 1800’s, when the discovery of precious metals led to the development of a mining industry. Baja California became a Mexican state in 1951. In 1989, the victory of the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party), or PAN, in the election for governor marked the first statewide victory of a party opposed to the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party), or PRI, since 1929.
On April 4, 2010, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck northeastern Baja California just south of the Mexico-U.S. border. Few people died, but the quake affected about 25,000 people, many of whom lost or fled their homes. Several hundred aftershocks (weaker earthquakes) followed the main quake.
