Guadalajara is a city in western Mexico and the state capital of Jalisco. It was founded on 14 February 1542 by the Spanish conquistador Cristobal de Onate, and it was named in honor of the conquistador Nuno de Guzman's birthplace of Guadalajara, Spain. In 1575, Roman Catholic Augustinian and Dominican monks established chapters in the city, which became a center of New Spain's local evangelization efforts. The University of Guadalajara was established in 1791, and it survived several epidemics, plagues, and earthquakes to become one of New Spain's main population centers. On 6 December 1810, Miguel Hidalgo abolished slavery in Guadalajara during the Mexican War of Independence, but an army of 6,000 Royalists recaptured the city in January 1811, and the city was in Royalist hands until near the end of the war in 1821. It became capital of the new state of Jalisco in 1823, and, during the Reform War, it became the seat of Benito Juarez's Liberal Party government. It was taken by the French Army in 1864 and recaptured by the Mexican Army in 1866, and, from 1884 to 1890, electrical and railroad services were brought to the city. During the 20th century, Guadalajara transformed into a major metropolis, and it experienced relative calm during the Mexican Revolution. It experienced substantial growth after the 1930s, and an industrial park was established in 1947. Its population surpassed 1 million in 1960, and, by the 1970s, it became Mexico's second-largest city and the largest city in western Mexico. From the 1940s to 1980s, rural refugees flocked to the city, boosting its population. In 1980, Sinaloan drug traffickers Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, along with local DFS chief Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, co-founded the powerful Guadalajara Cartel, which dominated the Mexican drug trade from 1980 until its breakup on Miguel Angel's arrest in 1989. In 1992, gasoline explosions in the sewer system destroyed 5 square miles of streets in the downtown Analco district, killing 206 people, injuring 500, and leaving 15,000 homeless, while causing up to $1 billion in property damage. The affected area was later rebuilt with more modern architecture. In 1993, Guadalajara was also the site of the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo by the Tijuana Cartel. By 2007, it was regarded as the city with the most business potential in Mexico, the second-most potential in North America (After Chicago), and the most business-friendly Latin American city. In 2015, Guadalajara had a population of 1,460,148 people, while its metro area had over 5 million residents.
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