History
The tale of Mexico's past, accompanied by an overwhelming amount of physical remains, is as romantic, blood-curdling, dramatic, and complex as it gets.
The first of Mexico's known ancient civilizations, the Olmecs, lived in what are now the eastern states of Veracruz and Tabasco. They worshipped a jaguar God, built cities; constructed massive stone carvings, and spread throughout central and southern Mexico until their civilization mysteriously vanished around 400 BC.
In their wake came the Teotihuacan, the Zapotecs and Mixtecs of Monte Alban, the Maya of Yucatan, the Toltecs, Aztecs, and dozens of smaller, citied groups. These civilizations had pantheons of gods, and most practiced human sacrifice, a fact that often overshadows their great achievements in the realms of mathematics, astronomy, architecture, textile weaving, art, and pottery. The Aztecs are the most famous of Mexico's early civilizations. Though it is arguable that others achieved greater artistic and scientific feats, none advanced as quickly or ruled as much territory.
By 1473, they ruled the largest empire Mexico had ever seen. Their capital of Tenochtitlan, set in the lake, was a picturesque city of pyramids, mile-long floating roads, aqueducts, animated marketplaces, and one hundred thousand residents. Leading a highly developed government was an all-powerful emperor who exacted taxes from the conquered and distributed land to his people, especially the warriors.
The Conquest of New Spain, a great and tragic history, begins in April of 1519 when a Cortez lands in Veracruz, about 200 miles from the Aztec capital. Cortez had a singular mission: defeat the Aztecs and take their gold. To do so, he had less than 400 soldiers, 16 horses, 14 pieces of artillery, 11 ships, plenty of guns and ammunition. His first act upon landing was to burn all but one of his ships - he wanted no turning back.
According to an Aztec myth, the white-faced god, Quetzacuatl - their most important god - had long ago fled to the east, but would one day return. When the Aztec ruler, Moctezuma II, saw Cortez and his light-skinned men upon their arrival in Tenochtitlan, he believed them to be emissaries of the great Quetzacuatl himself. The opportunistic Cortez did not attempt to correct him. Cortez returned the emperor's hospitality by taking him hostage. A compliant Moctezuma ordered his people to stand down, and by the time the Aztecs began to resist Cortez had already brought in reinforcements from the coast.
When the Aztecs finally laid siege to the palace, Cortez and his men snuck away in the middle of the night and ran for the coast. On the way, over half his force was killed by the pursuing army, but the survivors returned with thousands of Indian allies to conquer the city a year later.
Mexico, with its fertile plains and great mineral wealth, was the crown jewel of Spain's colonies. It was heavily taxed, ruled directly from Spain, with no autonomy. The Spanish monarchs distributed land to settlers in the form of encomiendas (the predecessor to the hacienda), which were worked by Indian slaves that the settler's were charged to protect and convert to Christianity.
A caste system developed: there were Espanoles (Spaniards born in Spain), criollos (Mexican-born, but with Spanish blood), mestizos (Spanish and Indian), and finally the indigenes, the Indians.
If the seeds of Mexican independence had not already been planted in the soil, then they were planted when Napoleon conquered Spain in 1808 when the French conqueror placed his brother on the Spanish throne, Mexico's elite began to talk of self-rule. The man who turned talk into action was a Catholic priest named Father Miguel de Hidalgo y Costilla, who led an armed rebellion in 1810. Though he was eventually captured and executed, Hidalgo's leadership began a war of independence that culminated on September 27, 1821, when the rebel leader Vicente Guerrero and the royalist Agustin de Iturbide signed the Treaty of Cordoba. Unfortunately, with independence Mexico's troubles were just beginning.
For almost a century, the new country would be wracked by bloody conflict and almost incessant fighting. Power and corruption were the rule. The infamous men from this time period include names like Santa Ana, Benito Juarez, Maximilian, Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Victoriano Huerta, and Pancho Villa. The Mexican Revolution started in 1910 and was the next historical turning point. It was one of the bloodiest internal conflicts in world history.
Mexico's post-revolution history has been marked by the tenacity of a single political party, the Partido Revolucionario Institutional, or PRI. General Lazaro Cardenas, the party's most loved president, instituted widespread land reform, strengthened unions, and nationalized the petroleum industry. Throughout the last century, election fraud has been endemic. The PRI ruled Mexico until election of 2000 when Vincente Fox of the National Action Party defeated the PRI candidate to became president. In the 2006 election, Felipe Calderon became the second National Action Party candidate to win. He won by only .58% of the vote.
This article is a condensed history from www.geographia.com/mexico
