History of Mexico

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Pre-Columbian Mexico (ca. 28,000 B.C. to 1521 A.D.)

Hunter-Gatherer peoples are thought to have discovered and inhabited Mexico more than 28,000 years ago. Ancient Mexicans began to selectively breed corn plants around 8,000 B.C. Evidence shows the explosion of pottery works by 2300 B.C. and the beginning of intensive farming between 1800 and 1500 BC.

Between 1800 and 300 BC, complex cultures began to form. Some matured into advanced Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the: Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huaxtec, Purepecha,Toltec and Mexica (a.k.a. "Aztecs"), which flourished for nearly 4,000 years before first contact with Europeans.


These indigenous civilizations are credited with many inventions: pyramid-temples, cities, mathematics (becoming the first people in the world to use zero), astronomy, medicine, writing, precise calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus, complex theology, chocolate, and the wheel.

Archaic inscriptions on rocks and rock walls all over northern Mexico (especially in the state of Nuevo León) demonstrate an early propensity for counting in Mexico. These very early and ancient count-markings were associated with astronomical events and underscore the influence that astronomical activities had upon Mexican natives, even before they possessed civilization. In fact, the later Mexican civilizations would all carefully build their cities and ceremonial centers according to specific astronomical events.

At different points in time, three Mexican cities eventually became the largest cities in the world: Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan, and Cholula. These cities — among several others — blossomed as centers of commerce, ideas, ceremonies and theology. In turn, they radiated influence outwards onto neighboring cultures.

While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, Mexico can be said to have had four major, unifying civilizations: The Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Toltec, and the Mexica. These four civilizations extended their reach across Mexico — and beyond — like no others. They consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology. Other regional power players made economic and political alliances with these four civilizations over the span of 4,000 years. Many made war with them. But almost all found themselves within these four spheres of influence.

Mexico's original civilization is the Olmec. This civilization established the cultural blueprint by which all succeeding indigenous civilizations would follow in Mexico. Olmec civilization began with the production of pottery in abundance, around 2300 B.C. Between 1800 B.C. and 1500 B.C., the Olmec consolidated power into chiefdoms which established their capital at a site today known as San Lorenzo, near the coast in south-east Veracruz. The Olmec influence extended across Mexico, into Central America, and along the Gulf of Mexico. They transformed many peoples' thinking toward a new way of government, pyramid-temples, writing, astronomy, art, mathematics, economics, and religion. Their achievements would pave the way for the later greatness of the Maya civilization in the east, and the civilizations to the west in central Mexico.

The decline of the Olmec resulted in a power vacuum in Mexico. Emerging from that vacuum was Teotihuacan, first settled in 300 B.C. Teotihuacan, by 150 A.D. had risen to become the first true metropolis of what is now called North America. Teotihuacan established a new economic and political order never before seen in Mexico. It's influence stretched across Mexico into Central America, founding new dynasties in the Mayan cities of Tikal, Copan, and Kaminaljuyú. Teotihuacan's influence over the Maya civilization cannot be understated: it transformed political power, artistic depictions, and the nature of economics. Within the city of Teotihuacan itself was a diverse and cosmopolitan population. Most of the regional ethnicities of Mexico were represented in the city, such as Zapotecs from the Oaxaca region. They lived in apartment communities where they worked their trades and contributed to the city's economic and cultural prowess. By 500 A.D., Teotihuacan had become the largest city in the world. Teotihuacan's economic pull impacted areas in northern Mexico as well. It was a city whose monumental architecture reflected a monumental new era in Mexican civilization, declining in political power about 650 B.C. -- but lasting in cultural influence for the better part of a millenium, to around 950 A.D.


Contemporary with Teotihuacan's greatness was the greatness of the Maya civilization. The period between 250 A.D. and 650 A.D. saw an intense flourishing of Maya civilized accomplishments. While the many Maya city-states never achieved political unity on the order of the central Mexican civilizations, they exerted a tremendous intellectual influence upon Mexico and Central America. The Maya built some of the most elaborate cities on the continent, and made innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and writing that became the pinnacle of Mexico's scientific achievements.

Just as Teotihuacan had emerged from a power vacuum, so too did the Toltec civilization, which took the reigns of cultural and political power in Mexico from about 700 A.D. Many of the Toltec peoples were comprised of northern desert peoples, often called Chichimeca in Mexico's Nahuatl language. They fused their proud desert heritage with the mighty civilized culture of Teotihuacan. This new heritage would give rise to a new empire in Mexico. The Toltec empire would reach as far south as Central America, and as far north as the Anasazi corn culture in the Southwestern United States. The Toltec established a prosperous turquoise trade route with the northern civilization of Pueblo Bonito, in modern-day New Mexico. Toltec traders would trade prized bird feathers with Pueblo Bonito, while circulating all the finest wares that Mexico had to offer with their immediate neighbors. In the Mayan area of Chichen Itza, the Toltec civilization spread and the Maya were once again powerfully influenced by central Mexicans. The Toltec political system was so influential, that any serious Maya dynasty would later claim to be of Toltec descent. In fact, it was this prized Toltec lineage that would set the stage for Mexico's last great indigenous civilization.

With the decline of the Toltec civilization came political fragmentation in the Valley of Mexico. Into this new political game of contenders to the Toltec throne stepped outsiders: the Mexica. They were also a proud desert people, one of seven groups who formerly called themselves "Azteca," but changed their name after years of migrating. Since they were not from the Valley of Mexico, they were initially seen as crude and unrefined in the ways of Nahua civilization. Through cunning political maneuvers and ferocious fighting skills, they managed to pull off a true "rags to riches" story: they became the rulers of Mexico as the head of the 'Triple Alliance' (which included two other "Aztec" cities, Texcoco and Tlacopan) .

The Mexica-Aztecs were the rulers of much of central Mexico by about 1400 (while Yaquis, Coras and Apaches comanded sizable regions of northern desert), having subjugated most of the other regional states by the 1470s. At their peak, 300,000 Mexica presided over a wealthy tribute-empire comprising about 10 million people (almost half of Mexico's 24 million people). The modern name "Mexico" comes from the name of the ruling group of the "Aztec Triple Alliance", the "Mexica."

The term "Aztec" is actually a misnomer, an invention of an Englishman (Lord Kinsborough) and a European-American named William Prescott. The real indigenous names used were "Nahua" or "Mexica." Not even the Spanish called them Aztecs. (Although "Aztec" was not used by the Mexica, it does derive from their language, Nahuatl, and refers to their northern homeland, Aztlan.)

The Mexica (one of the Aztec groups), required education for all males, regardless of class. There were two types of schools: the telpochcalli (for practical and military studies) and the calmecac (for advanced learning in writing, astronomy, statesmanship, theology, etc).

Their capital, Tenochtitlan, is the site of modern-day Mexico City. In 1519, the Mexica capital was the largest city in the world with a population as high as 500,000 people (by comparison, London in 1519 had 80,000 people).

The Mexica left a deep and durable stamp upon Mexican culture, even to the present day. Much of what is considered Mexican culture today derives from this Mexica civilization: place-names, words, food, art, dress, symbols, and even the identity of "Mexican," itself a translation of the Mexica name.

For much of its history, the majority of Mexico's population lived an urban lifestyle: cities, towns, and villages. Only a fraction of the population was tribal and wandering. Most people were permanently-settled, agriculturally-based, and identified with an urban identity, as opposed to a tribal identity. Mexico has long been an urban land, which was graphically reflected in the writings of the Spaniards who encountered them.

Spanish Conquest

In 1519, the native civilizations of Mexico were invaded by Spain, and two years later in 1521, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was conquered. Francisco Hernández de Córdoba explored the shores of South Mexico in 1517, followed by Juan de Grijalva in 1518. The most important of the early Conquistadores was Hernán Cortés, who entered the country in 1519 from a native coastal town which he renamed "Puerto de la Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz" (today's Veracruz). Contrary to popular opinion, Spain did not conquer all of Mexico in 1521. It would take another two centuries before that would occur, as rebellions, attacks, and wars continued against the Spanish by other native peoples.

The Aztecs, the dominant power in the country, believed (according to ancient myths)"the tradition that Quetzalcoatl would return on in "Ce-Acatl" or one-reed year. The Pre-Columbian calendar was divided into 52 year periods or cycles. Every 52nd year was a Ce-Acatl year [1467] was such a year" that the Spanish conquerors were people sent by the gods (according to orthodox scholarship), so they offered little resistance initially to the advances of the conquerors. (Ironically, Cortes does not mention the alleged "god worship" episode in his letters to King Charles V of Spain.)

Modern scholarship is beginning to question this view of events, however. Noted Aztec scholars like Ross Hassig of the University of Oklahoma have demonstrated that Quetzalcoatl was in actuality a religious order of priests during the previous Toltec era. This order of priests, under the tutelage of its leader--Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl-- is famous for its exile into the eastern area of Mexico (what is now known as Yucatan). It may have been thought then, that the Spaniards were possibly of the lineage of that "Order of Quetzalcoatl," and hence, deserved serious diplomatic accommodations. They did, after all, come from the east.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs is infused with terms of humility and politeness, especially for guests. Foreign ambassadors were aways treated reverently and invited into the capital of Tenochtitlan, where they experienced all the high diplomacy expected between nations. Eventually they opposed the Spanish when it became evident that they were not of the lineage of the Quetzalcoatl priests, much less gods.

After a major battle in 1519, during which the Spanish forces were defeated and sent into retreat, the Spaniards regrouped outside the Valley of Mexico. After eight months they were back, this time with an even larger contingent of native allies. By then, Spanish smallpox had ravaged the Aztec population, drastically reducing the Aztec fighting forces. The Spaniards surrounded and laid siege to the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, bringing about the Aztecs' total defeat in 1521. Despite their metal weapons, horses, cannons, and thousands of indigenous allies, the Spanish were unable to subdue the Mexica for seven full months. It was one of the longest continuous sieges in world history.

Three major factors contributed to Spanish victory. First, the Spanish had superior military technology, including firearms, the crossbow, iron and steel weapons, and the horse. The Spanish were further aided in their conquest by the Old World diseases (primarily smallpox) they brought with them, to which the natives had no immunity, and which became pandemic, killing large portions of the native population. Finally, the Spanish enlisted the help of various subject peoples in the Aztec Empire who saw the Spanish as a means to free themselves from Aztec rule, mainly the Tlaxcalans.

With the conquest a new ethnic group was created by the Spaniards: the mestizo, a result of the conquerors taking native women as a measure against revolt by the natives and beginning the mixing of both cultures. Quite often, rape was a factor in the reproduction of mixed-race children.

The Spanish Inquisition, and its descendent, the Mexican Inquisition, continued to operate in the Americas until Mexico declared its independence.

During the colonial period, which lasted from 1521 to 1810, Mexico was known as "Nueva España" or "New Spain", whose territories included today's Mexico, the Spanish Caribbean islands, Central America up to and including Costa Rica, and an area comprising today's southwestern United States. Most of this land was dominated by Spanish landowners and their white descendents. Europeans, in fact, totally dominated the politics and economy of colonial Mexico. Mestizos came next, and native peoples occupied the lowest rung of society.

Wars of independence

Main article: Mexican War of Independence

The war for independence started September 16, 1810, and was spearheaded by Miguel Hidalgo, a priest of Spanish descent and progressive ideas. After Napoleon I invaded Spain and put his brother on the Spanish throne, Mexican Conservatives and rich land-owners who supported Spain's Bourbon royal family objected to the comparatively more liberal Napoleonic policies. Thus an unlikely alliance was formed in Mexico: liberales, or Liberals, who favored a democratic Mexico, and conservadores, or Conservatives, who favored Mexico ruled by a Bourbon monarch who would restore the old status quo. These two elements agreed only that Mexico must achieve independence and determine her own destiny.

Prominent figures in Mexico's war for independence were Father José María Morelos, Vicente Guerrero, General Agustín de Iturbide, and General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The war for independence lasted eleven years until the troops of the liberating army entered Mexico City in 1821. Thus although independence from Spain was first proclaimed in 1810, it was not achieved until 1821, by the Treaty of Córdoba, which was signed on August 24 in Córdoba, Veracruz, by the Spanish viceroy Juan de O'Donojú and Agustín de Iturbide, ratifying the Plan de Iguala.

In 1821 Agustín de Iturbide, a former Spanish general who switched sides to fight for Mexican independence, proclaimed himself emperor – officially as a temporary measure until a member of European royalty could be persuaded to become monarch of Mexico (see Mexican Empire for more information). A revolt against Iturbide in 1823 established the United Mexican States. In 1824 "Guadalupe Victoria" became the first president of the new country; his given name was actually Félix Fernández but he chose his new name for symbolic significance: Guadalupe to give thanks for the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Victoria, which means Victory.

U.S. invasion and the struggle for liberal reforms

Many presidents came and went, which brought a long period of instability that lasted most of the 19th century. The dominant figure of the second quarter of that century was the dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna. During this period, many of the territories in the north were lost to the United States. Santa Anna was Mexico's leader during the conflict with Texas, which declared itself independent from Mexico in 1836, and during the Mexican-American War (1846-48). One of the memorable battles of the U.S. invasion of 1847 was when a group of young Military College cadets (now considered national heroes) fought to the death against a large army of experienced soldiers in the Battle of Chapultepec (September 13, 1847). Ever since this war many Mexicans have resented the loss of much Mexican territory, some by means of coercion, and more territory sold cheaply by the dictator Santa Anna for personal profit.

In 1855 Ignacio Comonfort, leader of the self-described Moderates, was elected president. The Moderados tried to find a middle ground between the nation's Liberals and Conservatives. During Comonfort's presidency a new Constitution was drafted. The Constitution of 1857 retained most of the Roman Catholic Church's Colonial era privileges and revenues, but unlike the earlier constitution did not mandate that the Catholic Church be the nation's exclusive religion. Such reforms were unacceptable to the leadership of the clergy and the Conservatives, Comonfort and members of his administration were excommunicated and a revolt was declared. This led to the War of Reform, from December 1857 to January 1861. This civil war became increasingly bloody and polarized the nation's politics. Many of the Moderados came over to the side of the Liberales, convinced that the great political power of the Church needed to be curbed. For some time the Liberals and Conservatives had their own governments, the Conservatives in Mexico City and the Liberals headquartered in Veracruz. The war ended with Liberal victory, and Liberal president Benito Juárez moved his administration to Mexico City.

French intervention and an emperor

Main article: French intervention in Mexico

The presidential terms of Benito Juárez (1858-71) were interrupted by the Habsburg monarchy's rule of Mexico (1864-67). Conservatives tried to institute a monarchy when they helped to bring to Mexico an archduke from the Royal House of Austria, known as Maximilian of Habsburg (wife Carlota of Habsburg) with the military support of France, which was interested in exploiting the rich mines in the north-west of the country.

Although the French, then considered one of the most efficient armies of the world, suffered an initial defeat in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 (now commemorated as the Cinco de Mayo holiday) they eventually defeated the Mexican government forces led by the general Ignacio Zaragoza and enthroned Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. Maximilian of Habsburg favored the establishment of a limited monarchy sharing powers with a democratically elected congress. This was too liberal to please Mexico's Conservatives, while the liberals refused to accept a monarch, leaving Maximilian with few enthusiastic allies within Mexico. Maximilian was eventually captured and executed in the Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro, by the forces loyal to President Benito Juárez, who kept the federal government functioning during the French intervention that put Maximilian in power. In 1867, the republic was restored, and a new constitution was written that, amongst other things, confiscated the vast landholdings of the Catholic church (which had been acting as landlord over half the country), established civil marriages and forbade the participation of priests in politics (separation of Church and State).

After the victory, there was resentment by Conservatives against President Juárez (who they thought concentrated too much power and wanted to be re-elected) so one of the army's generals, named Porfirio Díaz, rebelled against the government with the proclamation of the Plan de Tuxtepec in 1876.

Order, progress and the Díaz dictatorship

Porfirio Díaz became the new president. During a period of more than thirty years (1876–1911) while he was the strong man in Mexico, the country's infrastructure improved greatly thanks to investments from other countries. This period of relative prosperity and peace is known as the Porfiriato. But the people were not happy with the form of government during the Porfiriato: it was attracting investors because the pay for workers was very low, which produced a very steep social division: only a small group of investors (domestic and foreign) were getting rich, but the vast majority of the people remained in abject poverty. Democracy was completely suppressed, and dissent was dealt with in repressive, often brutal ways (see, for example, Nogales, Veracruz).

Indicative of Diaz's social policies was the fact that he was of indigenous Zapotec ancestry, yet was known to dye his dark skin lighter. To Diaz, the Indigenous inhabitants of Mexico (of which he was one) were considered an obstruction to "progress" (despite their centuries of advanced, Pre-European civilizations). In Diaz's canon of terms, progress was rigidly confined to mean European.

The Mexican revolution

(See also: Mexican Revolution)

In 1910 the 80-year-old Díaz decided to hold an election to serve another term as president. He thought he had long since eliminated any serious opposition in Mexico; however, Francisco I. Madero, an academic from a rich family, decided to run against him and quickly gathered popular support, despite Díaz's putting Madero in jail.

When the official election results were announced, it was declared that Díaz had won reelection almost unanimously, with Madero receiving only a few hundred votes in the entire country. This fraud by the Porfiriato was too blatant for the public to swallow, and riots broke out. Madero prepared a document known as the Plan de San Luis Potosí, in which he called the Mexican people to take their weapons and fight against the government of Porfirio Díaz on November 20, 1910.

This started what is known as the Mexican Revolution. Madero was incarcerated in San Antonio, Texas, but his plan took effect in spite of him being in jail. The Federal Army was defeated by the revolutionary forces which were led by, amongst others, Emiliano Zapata in the South, Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco in the North, and Venustiano Carranza. Porfirio Díaz resigned in 1911 for the "sake of the peace of the nation" and went to exile in France, where he died in 1915.

The revolutionary leaders had many different objectives; revolutionary figures varied from liberals such as Madero to radicals such as Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa. As a consequence, it proved very difficult to reach agreement on how to organize the government that emanated from the triumphant revolutionary groups. The result of this was a struggle for the control of Mexico's government in a conflict that lasted more than twenty years. This period of struggle is usually referred to as part of the Mexican Revolution, although it might also be looked on as a civil war. Presidents Francisco I. Madero (1911), Venustiano Carranza (1920), and former revolutionary leaders Emiliano Zapata (1919) and Pancho Villa (1923) were assassinated during this time, amongst many others.

Following the resignation of Díaz and a brief reactionary interlude, Madero was elected President in 1911. He was ousted and killed in 1913. Venustiano Carranza, a former revolutionary general who became one of the several presidents during this turbulent period, promulgated a new Constitution on February 5, 1917. The Mexican Constitution of 1917 still guides Mexico.

In 1920, Álvaro Obregón became president. He accommodated all elements of Mexican society except the most reactionary clergy and landlords, and successfully catalyzed social liberalization, particularly in curbing the role of the Catholic Church, improving education and taking steps toward instituting women's civil rights.

While the Mexican revolution and civil war may have subsided after 1920, armed conflicts did not cease, The most widespread conflict of this era was the battle between those favoring a secular society with separation of Church and State and those favoring supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church, which developed into an armed uprising by supporters of the Church that came to be called "la Guerra Cristera."

Stabilization and the revolution institutionalized

In 1929 the National Mexican Party, PNM, was formed by the serving president, General Plutarco Elías Calles. (It would later became the PRI or Partido Revolucionario Institucional that ruled the country for the rest of the 20th century.) The PNM succeeded at convincing most of the remaining revolutionary generals to dissolve their personal armies to create the Mexican Army, and so its foundation is considered by some the real end of the Mexican Revolution.

President Lázaro Cárdenas del Río came to power in 1934 and transformed Mexico: on April 1 1936 he exiled Calles, the last general with dictatorial ambitions, managed to unite the different forces in the PRI and set the rules that allowed this party to rule unchallenged for decades to come without internal fights. He nationalized the oil industry on March 18, 1938, the electricity industry, created the National Polytechnic Institute, granted asylum to Spanish expatriates fleeing the Spanish Civil War, started land reform, started the distribution of free textbooks for children, and, in general, pursued policies that for good or ill have marked the development of Mexico until the present day.

Manuel Ávila Camacho, Cárdenas's successor, presided over a "bridge" between the revolutionary era and the era of machine politics under PRI that would last until 2000. Camacho, moving away from nationalistic autarchy, proposed to create a favorable climate for international investment, favored nearly two generations ago by Madero. Camacho's regime froze wages, repressed strikes, and persecuted dissidents with a law prohibiting the "crime of social dissolution." During this period, the PRI regime thus betrayed the legacy of land reform. Miguel Alemán Valdés, Camacho's successor, even had Article 27 amended to protect elite landowners.

Although PRI regimes achieved economic growth and relative prosperity for almost three decades after World War II, the management of the economy collapsed several times, and political unrest grew in the late sixties, culminating in the Tlatelolco massacre in 1968. In the 1970s, economic crises affected the country in 1976 and 1982, after which the banks were nationalized, having been blamed for the economic problems. On both occasions the Mexican peso was devalued, and until 2000, it had been normal to expect a big devaluation and a recessionary period after each presidential term ended every six years. The crisis that came after a devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over half a century.

On September 19, 1985, an earthquake measuring approximately 8.0 on the Richter scale struck Michoacán and inflicted severe damage on Mexico City. Estimates of the number of dead range from 6,500 to 30,000. (See Great Mexican Earthquake.)

The PRI

The PRI was the political party of Mexico that set up a new type of system, led by a caudillo. In 1934, Cárdenas removed the army from power. The PRI is typically referred to as the three-legged stool, in reference to Mexican workers, peasants and bureaucrats.

The end of PRI's hegemony

In 1995 President Ernesto Zedillo faced an economic crisis. There were public demonstrations in Mexico City and constant military presence after the 1994 rising of the Zapatista army (EZLN) of Chiapas. Zedillo also oversaw political and electoral reforms that reduced the PRI's hold on power. After the 1988 election, which was strongly disputed and arguably lost by the government party, the IFE (Instituto Federal Electoral – Federal Electoral Institute) was created in the early 1990s. It is run by ordinary citizens, overseeing that elections are conducted legally and fairly. As a result of popular discontent, the presidential candidate of the National Action Party, (PAN) Vicente Fox Quesada won the federal election of July 2, 2000, and both chambers of congress. The results of this election ended 71 years of PRI hegemony in the presidency.

Many in Mexico claim that, even if Fox won the election, President Zedillo did not give his party (PRI) a chance to dispute the results of the election by making Fox's victory "official" by addressing the nation the same night of the election, a first in Mexican politics (and in other places, too, where it is more normal for the losing candidate to admit defeat, rather than the outgoing incumbent). One reason offered for this is that Zedillo sought a quick and peaceful election in 2000 to avoid another crisis after the change of government.

Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states, even though the Mexican government has made efforts to improve these problems especially in the area of inflation. The country has continued to struggle with such issues as economic control and development, especially with the petroleum sector and the evolution of trade relations with the United States. Corruption and violence stemming from the drug trade have also brought problems to Mexico lately.

Rulers and presidents

Notable Mexican heads of State include:

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