This part of the future state of Veracruz was brought under Aztec sway in or around 1450 under Emperor Moctezuma Ilhuicamina.

In 1627, Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia, owner of the sugar mill at the time, was named the First Count of the Valley of Orizaba by Philip III of Spain.

On 27 October 1812, during the War of Independence, the sugar mill was taken by surprise by General José María Morelos, who used it as a staging post for his attack on the royalist forces in Orizaba the next day.

On 14 June 1862, with the invading French army stationed in Orizaba, General Ignacio Zaragoza set up his headquarters in Nogales.

On 7 January 1907, in the years of tension leading up to the Mexican Revolution, Nogales textile workers protesting their treatment by French textile-mill owners were massacred by the federal troops of President Porfirio Díaz.