kārāˈtärō, officially Santiago de Querétaro, city (1990 pop. 385,503) and capital of Querétaro de Arteaga state, central Mexico. It is a distribution center with industries producing machinery and farm implements; the city's cotton mills are among the most important in Mexico. Querétaro is also a popular tourist center. An Aztec city, Querétaro was conquered by the Spanish in 1531. The conspiracy (1810) under Hidalgo y Costilla and Allende that led to the revolution against Spain was planned there. The city was the temporary capital of Mexico when the United States invaded (1847) during the Mexican War. In 1867, Emperor Maximilian and his generals Miguel Miramon and Tomás Mejia were forced to surrender and then taken out and shot on a hill outside the city. In 1917 the Mexican Constitution was written in Querétaro, which retains numerous colonial landmarks and is famous for its 18th-century aqueduct.

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