Mexican History
The story of Mexico is complex and fascinating. Perhaps most amazing is that this tangled and often tragic story has given rise to such extraordinary people, among the happiest and most artistically creative on earth. Understanding something about this path is critical to understanding the Mexican national character and the exceptional times in which Mexicans now live.
Early occupants lived in agricultural villages clustered along the Gulf Coast and the wetter inland valleys. Corn was domesticated and pottery-making flourished, by 1500 BC, the mother culture of indigenous peoples arose. The Olmecs established a highly developed civilization with a calendar and number system, hieroglyphic writing, organized religion, art, and architecture (including their renowned colossal stone heads).
The Mayan civilization built on these achievements to produce a fully developed written language, spectacular art, monumental architecture, and sophisticated mathematical and astronomical systems. At its peak, this was one of the most densely populated and culturally sophisticated societies in the world. Intensive agriculture supported an empire of independent city-states such as Tikal, Palenque, Copán and Calakmul. Magnificent religious pyramids and palaces became enduring showcases to their accomplished mastery of art and architecture. Huge stone slabs preserved a detailed recorded history.
The Maya engaged in extensive trade with other Mesoamerican cultures of this time, which included the Zapotec, Cholula, Mixtec, Veracruz, Monte Albán, and the metropolis of Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan may have reached a population of 200,000 at its peak around 500 AD. Witnessing the ruins of this spectacular city centuries later, the Aztecs named it the “Place Where Gods Are Made.”
By 900 AD, most of the Mayan ceremonial centers had been abandoned for reasons that remain obscure. Proposed causes for this collapse range from the environmental (overpopulation, famine, epidemics, and ecological devastation) to the political (warfare, foreign domination, political strife, and revolt by the peasants).
After 900 AD, power and culture shifted to the Anahuac Valley (present-day location of Mexico City), with the establishment of the Aztec empire. The Aztecs achieved political and military dominance over large portions of Mesoamerica during this period. This was accomplished through an alliance of three major Aztec groups, all of whom had the Nahuatl language in common:
- The Mexica from Tenochtitlán
- The Acolhua from Texcoco
- The Tepanecs from Tlacopan
According to traditional lore, the Mexica wandered the deserts of modern Mexico for 100 years before they discovered the then thick forests of the central valley around 1300 AD. After an extended violent campaign, they became the prevailing force, allying with former enemies to form a dominant alliance.
In 1345, the god of war, Huitzilopochtli, told the priest-king, Tenoch, to build a city in the place where he found an eagle perched atop a cactus that was devouring a snake. The following day, Tenoch discovered this location on an islet in the western part Lake Texcoco. A temple in honor of Huitzilopochtli was immediately constructed. This marked the establishment of the city of Tenochtitlán, the spiritual heart of the Aztec empire.
In 1428, under the command of Nezahualcoyotl, the Mexica consolidated their power. This famous poet-king ushered in a renaissance of scholarship, engineering, and the arts. (See the History & Money section for more details.) Revered as a sage and reformer, he instigated judicial reform and established a golden age for philosophers, artists, and musicians. He was also a gifted designer and architect who created magnificent hilltop gardens and sculptures, a massive aqueduct coupled with intensive agricultural irrigation systems, as well as extensive works for water treatment and flood control. The dams associated with these systems were destroyed by the Spanish conqueror Cortez in 1519. Mexico City now occupies the location of the dry lakebed.
At its pinnacle, Aztec culture embodied remarkably rich and complex spiritual and mythological traditions, including astronomical observations of startling sophistication. A particularly striking element of their religious observances was the ritual practice of human sacrifice.
Between 1519 and 1521, a few hundred Spanish soldiers of fortune, or conquistadores, under the leadership of Hernán Cortés Pizarro, managed to virtually destroy this proud civilization. Cortés was aided by superior firepower and armament, horses and vicious dogs, as well as a proclivity for bloody-minded treachery. The conquistadores artfully exploited the animosity of tribes defeated by the Aztecs and also carried deadly diseases for which the native inhabitants had no immunity. By the time the final battles occurred, over half the indigenous population was dead from disease.
In addition, the conquistadores benefited from the woefully mistaken impression on the part of the Aztec king, Moctezuma II, that Cortés represented the promised return of the god Quetzalcoatl. Moctezuma II was removed from office and later stoned to death by a mob enraged by his weakness. He was succeeded by his brother Cuitlahuac, who died of smallpox in less than three months. Cuauhtemoc, who led the Aztecs in the final battles and is remembered as a hero, was captured in 1521.
In an epic moment that still reverberates in the Mexican psyche, a great civilization was essentially wiped out and replaced by an alien culture and political system. Mexico City was built on the rubble of Tenochtitlán and became the capital of a vast colonial empire that stretched from Honduras to the Pacific Ocean and from Kansas to Panama. Stones from Aztec monuments were recycled into magisterial cathedrals by native laborers, the now enslaved former allies of Cortés.
The discovery of rich silver mines supported a new colonial society that was radically stratified by race and wealth. The Spanish ruled, a middle class of mixed race served (populated by rape), and the surviving descendants of native peoples essentially became serfs. The Roman Catholic Church was omnipresent in religion, education, and politics.
Chocolate, tobacco, indigo, silver, and gold were extracted by the forced labor of the indigenous population. Within 80 years, the original population was reduced from 9 million to 2½ million by smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, influenza, starvation, and over-work.
The New Spain conquerors were awarded vast parcels of land by the Spanish monarchs. Many beautiful buildings were constructed, providing a rich architectural heritage. Over the next three centuries, a thriving mixed (mestizo) culture emerged.
A racial and social hierarchy was stratified with great detail. Above the various classes of mixed-blood mestizos, but below the Spanish-born colonists (peninsulares), were ranked the criollos. Criollos were pure-blooded Spanish, but born in Mexico. Spanish authorities reserved all important positions for the peninsulares. Criollos, even affluent ones, were not allowed to hold substantive positions. This led to increasing resentment and tension as the peninsulares resisted demands to share power.
These cultural dynamics, as well as the influence of the French and American revolutions, inspired a burgeoning independence movement at the turn of the century. Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in 1807 provided additional encouragement.
Given that the church was actively engaged in all facets of society, it is not surprising that members of the church (representing different social classes) ended up on opposite sides of the revolution. The ecclesiastical hierarchy generally operated in accord with the governing authorities. However, many local parish priests ministering to indigenous peoples tended to fall on the revolutionary side of things.
Thus, it was that a particularly iconoclastic parish priest and social activist, Miguel Hidalgo (see the History & Money section for more details), instigated the call to arms. In 1810, he uttered his famous Grito de Dolores (see the Calendar for more details), by ringing a church bell and crying for revolt against Spanish oppression. He is considered the Father of Mexican Independence. Traditionally, Mexican Presidents ring the same bell and repeat his shout of freedom on Independence Day.
Starting in the fall of 1810, Hidalgo recruited two hundred thousand men, mostly indigenous. This largely impoverished population was quick to follow. The image of the revered dark-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe became the emblem of the independence movement. Hidalgo was eventually captured and executed with other revolutionary leaders. Eleven years and 600,000 casualties later, the peninsulares were overthrown and the criollos had won their independence from Spain.
Despite widespread hopes that independence would bring political and economic justice, in the end reform was subverted and substantive changes only occurred at the top. A collection of monarchs and dictators held power up until the disastrous war of 1848 that resulted in General Antonio López de Santa Anna ceding more than half of Mexico’s territory to the United States for USD $15 million.
This led to a civil war in the late 1850s that set the stage for a brief democratic interlude under President Benito Juárez. He was an indigenous Zapotec shepherd, an impoverished orphan, who became arguably Mexico’s most popular president. He was a lawyer, judge, Governor of Oaxaca, and Supreme Court Justice before serving as President from 1857 until his death in 1872. He is remembered for being a progressive reformer who abolished special privileges for the military and clergy and declared all Mexicans equal, including the nation's indigenous Indian population. At one time, Santa Anna exiled him to New Orleans.
The Mexican government had been saddled with an enormous national debt, on which Juárez suspended payments. France, Britain, and Spain all sent troops to collect. Eventually, Juárez defeated the occupying forces against very long odds and won a civil war against conservative elites who favored a monarchy. He promoted the separation of church and state. His era is known in Mexican history as La Reforma (the reform). This was a drive for modernization, which included the expropriation of church lands, bringing the army under civilian control, land reform, and adoption of a federalist constitution. Some consider him to have been an autocrat in his relentless attacks on the feudal social order.
Alas, this era of enlightened governance was followed by a 40-year dictatorship under the rule Porfirio Díaz, known as the Porfiriato. On the one hand, he opened the country to development, building a modern system of railroads, roads, factories, and schools. However, the wealth generated by this political stability and increased trade was concentrated in the hands of a small upper class. Meanwhile, the situation of the lower classes degenerated. European culture was slavishly imitated, while the rights and traditions of indigenous people were suppressed. Modernization without social improvement created unendurable social conditions and set the stage for revolution.
In 1910, lower-class activists who were fed up with conditions of grinding poverty found partnership with politically disenfranchised middle-class intellectuals. This led to a decade of chaos known as the Mexican Revolution. As Díaz fled, rebel groups of peasants, revolutionary activists, and cynical opportunists turned on each other and the central government in a shifting cauldron of regional and political alliances. Although they sometimes violently disagreed on who should be in charge, revolutionary leaders like Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Madero and Pancho Villa shared a call for social justice, land reform, and a new sense of nationalism based on Mexico’s indigenous heritage.
After six years of fighting, resulting in one to two million casualties, the country was exhausted and the economy was in shambles, which set the stage for a new series of autocrats. One of them, Plutarco Elias Calles, was an atheist who shared a grievance against the church hierarchy dating back to the revolutionaries of the previous century. His rigid enforcement of draconian measures against the clergy inspired the Christero War for church rights from 1927-1929. The government eventually backed off as part of an agreement to end the civil war. However, the secularization of Mexican government was accomplished and enshrined in the Constitution of 1917.
This constitution, still in effect, established the present government framework and is revolutionary in tone. The Roman Catholic Church was stripped of most of its properties and formal power, and the political power of the armed forces was greatly reduced. Much of the land was taken from large landowners and organized into ejidos or communal land holdings for the lower classes.
The political party, PRI, was formed in 1929 to carry out the constitution's goals. Administrations in the 1920s and 1930s adhered more faithfully to these ideals, including the nationalization of the petroleum industry. After the war, government tended to focus more on political stability and economic growth than on land reform or new social programs. PRI candidates held uninterrupted power in Mexico for more than 70 years until the election of Vicente Fox of the PAN party in 2001.
The PRI legacy of political stability was based on widespread fraud and corruption. Economic reforms failed to deliver opportunity to the rural and, increasingly, urban poor. Widespread dissatisfaction led to a gradual collapse in PRI dominance in the mid-1980s. A massive Mexico City earthquake in 1985 underscored institutional corruption and incompetence. Self-help groups formed in response became the nucleus of political opposition.
The national elections of 1988 were a turning point. An opposition candidate was narrowly defeated after a week-long malfunction in the electoral computing system. For the first time, the PRI lacked a two-thirds governing majority in Congress. Unexpectedly, the PRI winner, President Carlos Salinas, used the virtually autocratic powers of his office to remove PRI officials (including several state governors) who resisted his reform efforts or whose fraudulent election victories were too blatant to ignore. His PRI successor, Ernesto Zedillo, continued this initiative. Zedillo’s government was hurt by the collapse of the banking system, followed by a deep recession.
Throughout its long rule, the PRI did provide stability and generally eschewed overt abuse and repression for classic machine politics, currying favor with subsidies and handouts. As the only party with access to power, the PRI could avoid taking public positions, thus making it harder to mount effective opposition.
In 2000, President Vicente Fox and the PAN party wrested power from the PRI in a peaceful regime transition. One could argue that this is the first time this has happened in Mexico since before the Aztecs. It is a monumental change, fraught with challenges, the positive effects of which are still gathering.
The US Library of Congress has an excellent online research database, with easily accessible briefs on Mexican historical events, social institutions, geography and climate, the economy, government and politics, and national security issues.