It was part of a very large province, the State of Mexico, until 1869 when Benito Juárez decreed that its territory would be separated and named in honor of José María Morelos y Pavón, who defended the city of Cuautla from royalist forces during the Mexican War of Independence.

[20] In the middle of the 15th century, other city-states in Morelos made war on Aztec-held Cuauhnahuac and the Aztecs used this as an excuse to conquer areas such as Yautepec, Tetlama and other locations, eventually dominating the entire state.

[31] In 1529, Cortés was named the Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, which gave him control over 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi) of territory in Morelos with Cuernavaca as the seat of authority over about eighty communities, eight haciendas, and two sugar cane plantations.

[18] There are house-to-house censuses from the mid-1530s from communities around Cuernavaca that are the earliest extant local-level documentation in Nahuatl, likely due to a dispute between Cortés and the crown about the number of tributaries of the Marquesado del Valle de Oaxaca.

These Indigenous censuses make it possible to establish an early colonial-era base-line for household structure, land holding, tribute obligations, and rates of baptism and Church marriage.

The conditions on the sugar plantations of Morelos made Father Miguel Hidalgo's call to take up arms well received by the indigenous and mestizo populations of the state.

Ignacio Manuel Altamirano wrote a novel, set in Yautepec, about the war and the bandits, called El Zarco: Episodios de la Vida Mexicana en 1861–63.

This situation made the state ripe for the Mexican Revolution and the base for one of the best-known revolutionaries from this period, Emiliano Zapata, who was born in Anenecuilco, Ciudad Ayala.

Contrary to popular belief, the state's motto, Tierra y Libertad (Land and Liberty) did not originate with Zapata or the Plan de Ayala; it was first used by Ricardo Flores Magón in the magazine Regeneración on October 1, 1910.

The Zapatistas imposed a heavy tax on haciendas; when the owners refused to pay, the rebels burned the cane fields such as those of Chinameca, Tenango, Treinta, Atilhuayan, Santa Iñes, and San Gabriel.

[56] Groups led by Benjamin Mendoza in Coatlán del Río; Nicolas Zamora in Tetlama, Temixco; and Rafael Castañada in Alpuyeca, Xochitepec, joined the Cristeros.

[113] The state straddles two main geographic formations, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in the north and east and the Sierra Madre del Sur, which stretches south and west from Cuernavaca and Jiutepec.

A temperate and semi-humid climate covers about 10% of the territory and is found in the north of the state around the municipalities of Huitzilac, Tlanepantla, Totolapan, Tetela del Volcán and parts of Cuernavaca, Tepoztlan, Ocuituco, Tlayacapan and Miacatlán.

[120] In 2020, 37,569 people were counted as speaking an indigenous language,[121] with the municipalities of Cuautla, Cuernavaca, Ayala, Puente de Ixtla, Temixco, and Tetela del Volcàn having the highest number of speakers.

Plurinominales: Tania Valentina Rodríguez Ruiz (PT), Rosalina Mazari Espín (PRI), Dalila Morales Sandoval (PAN), Ana Cristina Guevara Ramírez (MC), Blanca Nieves Sánchez Arano (Panal), Naida Josefina Díaz Roca (PSD), Cristina Xochiquetzal Sánchez Ayala (Humanist), and Rosalinda Rodríguez Tinoco (PRD).

[130] Lauro Ortega Martínez (PRI, 1982–1988) is credited with improving the highway of Cañon de Lobos, saving the town of Huautla, and building the Mariano Matamoros soccer stadium.

[140][141] Cuauhtémoc Blanco, the Presidente Municipal of Cuernavaca and a former soccer star with Liga MX, most notably with Club América, won with 53.3% of the vote in a six-way race in 2018.

[66] In 2002, the state sold $24 million USD worth of bonds on the Mexican stock market in order to finance highways, schools, waterworks and other infrastructure projects.

[163] The secretary of tourism for the state promotes the cities of Cuernavaca and Cuautla; the Magic Towns of Tepoztlán and Tlayacapan; the archaeological site of Xochicalco; and Lake Tequesquitengo.

[164] As the center of the state's history and culture, the city of Cuernavaca has landmarks and attractions such as the Palacio de Cortés, where Hernán Cortés centered his enterprises of the Marquesado del Valle de Oaxaca, and now the site of the mural called History of Morelos, Conquest and Revolution by Diego Rivera; the Morelos and Juárez Gardens, the Cuernavaca Cathedral, and the Borda Garden.

"[citation needed] The pyramid of El Tepozteco, dedicated to the god of pulque, is located at the summit of a hill and requires a two-hour climb for a majestic view of the valley below.

[181] Civilian monuments from the Colonial era include the aforementioned Palace of Cortes and Borda Garden in Cuernavaca, as well as the many sugar cane 'haciendas' (estates or plantations) and aqueducts found throughout the state.

Zona Norte is linked to the Valley of Mexico and includes the municipalities of Cuernavaca, Tepoztlán, Tlalnepantla, Totolapan, Atlatlahucan, Yecapixtla, Ocuituco and Tetela del Volcán.

Zona Sur Oeste includes the municipalities of Tlaquiltenango, Jojutla, Zacatepec, Puente de Ixtla, Amacuzac, Coatlán del Río, Tetecala, Mazatepec and Miacatlán.

[152] In Cuernavaca, at Las Mañanitas, diners enjoy chicken in green mole, tortilla soup and trout almandine, among other selections, surrounded by tropical plants and birds.

Tacos al pastor, which is marinated pork slowly cooked by a gas flame on a vertical rotisserie and served on small tortillas, is also popular in the area.

[206] In Tepotzlan on a Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the traditional tianguis market is cleared away from the main square and hundreds of multicolored stands move onto the streets in order to make way for Carnival.

Along the main street, Paseo de la Reforma, there are numerous shapes covered with ceramic tiles in the Gaudí style, with diverse representations, including the stars, dragons, and signs of the Zodiac.

[210] As for the literary heritage of Morelos, the most important writer was Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, author of El Zarco, the story of the leader of a group of bandits based in Yautepec during the Reform War, 1857–1860.

In the first half of the 16th century, a series of fortress-like church and monastery complexes were built around the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano from Cuernavaca to Tetela del Volcán, and on into Puebla state, all related to early evangelization efforts.