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History
Mexico’s history is very rich as a result of the enormous cultural heritage of different pre-Hispanic cultures, among the most important of which are the Maya and Aztec.
The Mayas established themselves in the south of Mexico and the north of Central America, where today their constructions can still be seen as a testimony to their grandeur. In addition to creating a much more precise solar calendar than the one we use today, we owe them the invention of the “zero” in their mathematical system and an astronomic development that even in the 21st century continues to surprise scientists. Likewise, the Mayas achieved a refined technique in sculpture, painting, ceramics and other arts. The sculptured façades of their temples and palaces rival with those of ancient Greece and Rome.
The Mexica or Aztec tribe, for their part, founded México-Tenochtitlán in 1325. Urged by their god Huizilopochtli to leave their place of origin (Aztlán) and look for the land they had been promised, this tribe undertook a long pilgrimage that culminated at the place where Mexico City now stands, where they found the sign that their god Huitzilopochtli had indicated: an eagle standing on a prickly pear plant devouring a snake.
In less than a century, the Aztecs extended across the central high plateau and then toward the coasts. They dominated part of today’s states of Puebla, Mexico, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Guerrero, Morelos and the Federal District.
By the time the Spaniards arrived, Tenochtitlán was a beautiful city with palaces, schools, large markets, botanical gardens and zoos. Everything communicated by causeways and channels.
In 1521 Cortés and his allies took the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán and founded a great viceroyalty known as the New Spain.
Mexico was the center of a very valuable colonial life. During this period there was a mixing of races between the indigenous people and the Spaniards. The latter imposed their religion and made the indigenous build magnificent churches on top of many of their edifices and pyramids.
After 300 years of Spanish domination, the restlessness that was disrupting European politics began to have some repercussions in the New Spain, but above all it was the French Revolution that impressed some bold minds such as that of Miguel Hidalgo, who in 1810 began the Independence movement, which culminated after a war that lasted more than 10 years with the entry of the army of the three guarantees into Mexico City on September 27th, 1821.
For almost the entire 19th century the young country faced rebellions, invasions (United States and France), secessionism (Texas and Central America), internal struggles between Liberals and Conservatives, and dismemberment of the northern half of its territory (Mexico-United States War), among others. During the long period that General Porfirio Díaz occupied the Presidency of the Republic (33 years), there was enormous development as well as great inequalities.
At the beginning of the 20th century a social natured revolution shook the country, the result of which was the downfall of General Porfirio Díaz and the creation of the new Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, which was enacted on February 5th, 1917 and since then has governed the institutional life of all Mexicans. In 1929 the National Revolutionary Party was formed. This political party was the forerunner of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
In 2000, the National Action Party (PAN) won the presidential elections after the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had governed the country for 71 years. Since then, Mexico has been immersed in a historic process of transformation and is living a sound, plural democracy in which multiple institutions prevail. This process of change has furthered the construction of agreements through dialogue among the different political forces.
