Home to Uto-Aztecan indigenous peoples such as the Huichol and Cora, the region was exposed to the conquistadores Hernán Cortés and Nuño de Guzmán in the 16th century.

Under Nuño de Guzmán, Spaniards took the region with considerable brutality, causing the indigenous inhabitants to revolt, in what was later referred to as the Mixtón War.

[citation needed] In Nayarit, the struggle for independence from Spain was initiated by the priest José María Mercado, who conquered Tepic and San Blas before being defeated and executed by Spanish royalists.

In the northeast are broad, tropical plains watered by the Río Grande de Santiago, a continuation of the Lerma River.

The main state rivers are the Río Grande de Santiago, San Pedro Mezquital, Acaponeta, Ameca, and Las Cañas.

Notable lagoons in Nayarit include Santa María del Oro, San Pedro Lagunillas and Agua Brava.

The Sinaloan dry forests now cover the northern coastal lowlands, and extend up the valleys of the San Pedro Mezquital River and the Río Grande de Santiago and its tributaries.

[21] The Jalisco dry forests ecoregion covers coastal Nayarit south of San Blas and the Islas Marías.

There are also 119 registered species of mammals, including white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), collared peccary (Dicotyles tajacu), brocket deer (Mazama americana), several types of armadillo, coyote, wild felines such as puma (Felis concolor), jaguarundi (Puma yagouarundi), bobcat or lince rojo, ocelot (Felis pardalis) and many more species.

Nayarit is the home to four indigenous groups: the Wixaritari (Huichol), the Naayeri (Cora), the Odam (Tepehuan) and the Nahuatl-speaking Mexicaneros.

The indigenous groups mostly inhabit the Nayar highlands, but are also frequently encountered in Tepic and on the Pacific coast, where they have also established colonies.

[29] Nayarit is predominantly an agricultural state, and produces a large variety of crops such as beans, sorghum, sugar cane, maize, tobacco, rice, chiles, peanuts, melons, tomatoes, coffee, mangoes, bananas, and avocados.

[30] Beginning in the late 90's, Nayarit has become known as a producer of specialty Arabica coffee, regarded for its fine taste and high density beans grown in the volcanic soils of the Sierra Madre Occidental.

Nayarit coffee is exported all over the world, including to the UK and Australia via the Grupo Terruño Nayarita farmers cooperative.