Tabasco

Tabasco, southwestern state in Mexico on the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico. The capital city is Villahermosa. Petroleum is the major resource of this flat, marshy region. Food crops, such as bananas and sugar cane, along with rubber, resins, and hardwoods constitute the important products of this state. Conflicts between native Mexicans (the Olmec) and the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortés took place here in the early 1500s.