ALBUQUERQUE

ALBUQUERQUE, founded as an outpost of Mexico in 1598 and named for the Spanish Duke of Alburquerque (the first 'r' was later dropped), lies in the center of New Mexico's high plateau (altitude 5,314 feet) on the east bank of the south-flowing Rio Grande. The region was part of the territory acquired by the United States in the 1848 settlement of the Mexican-American War and in many ways has retained its Hispanic character, particularly

in the Old Town area of Albuquerque. For most of the remainder of the nineteenth century, the city served as a base for the army in the campaigns to constrain the Comanche and Apache peoples. The arrival of the railroad in the early 1880s brought new commercial activities and economic opportunities. But population growth was slow, increasing from 2,315 in 1880 to only 35,449 in 1940. This growth was prompted by the warm climate, a growing military presence, and opportunities in the mining, cotton, and cattle industries. Major New Deal public works projects in dam building and irrigation eased a scarcity of water.

Substantial regional and city development came during World War II (1939–1945) and the Cold War. Kirtland Air Force Base and the Sandia National Laboratories complex provided greatly increased economic opportunities. The resultant prosperity had the effect of widening the economic gap between the poorer Hispanic population, which comprised 25 percent of the city's population in 1940, and the dominant Anglo population, mostly professionals and retirees. The impetus of growth intensified in the five decades after World War II. The city's population multiplied twenty times—to over 700,000 in 1990—while the national population merely doubled. In part, this growth was fueled by influxes of Hispanics moving from agricultural areas to urban Albuquerque, increasing their proportion of the city's population to 34 percent in 1990 and thus aggravating political friction. This, in turn, brought a government reorganization in 1972, and the expansion of education and employment opportunities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hodge, William H. The Albuquerque Navajos. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1969.

Logan, Michael F. Fighting Sprawl and City Hall: Resistance to Urban Growth in the Southwest. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995.

Luckingham, Bradford. The Urban Southwest: A Profile History of Albuquerque, El Paso, Phoenix, and Tucson. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1982.

Simmons, Marc. Albuquerque: A Narrative History. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982.

MichaelCarew