History of Mexico

This article summarizes the history of Mexico .

The Mexico is a country of North America, located at the south of the the United States and bordered in the south by the Guatemala and the Belize.

With more than 107 million inhabitants, including 20 million in the capital Mexico City, Mexico is the most populated countries of language Spanish E. After the Argentinian , this country is the third in the face of Latin America and the second in population.

Prehispanic times

Paléoaméricains

The first men would have arrived by North, while crossing the Bering Strait. The human presence attested with the Mexico goes back to approximately 50 000 years. Many vestiges of this period were found, such as for example celebrates it fossil man of Tepexpan.
Les many prints of steps fossilized on the site of the volcano Cerro Toluquilla (with Puebla with the Mexico), were discovered in 2005. These human traces are old 40.000 years. The many prehistoric sites of Baja California located in the peninsula of Low Mexican California, reveal a human occupation going back to 40.000 years. The bones discovered point out those of the Femme of Peñon (agglomeration of Mexico City) gone back to 13.000 years as of the Homme of Tlapacoya (District of Mexico City) gone back to 11.000 years whose craniologic studies revealed craniums dolichocéphales and mésocéphales (assumptions current: europoïde types or mélanésien).

Amerindians

Great civilizations followed one another in the territory of current Mexico: Olmèque S, Maya, Zapotèques, Mixtèques, Toltèque S and Aztec S, inter alia. The name of Mexico City would come according to certain sources from the Aztec god Mextli, or according to others of the name of a class of Aztec leaders, the Meshika . A third assumption, most usually allowed in Mexico, is that this name would come from the “Mexica”, Indian people descended from the north, which would have founded Aztec civilization while settling in the basin of Tenochtitlan - currently the town of Mexico City.

Spanish conquest

Hernández de Córdoba and Juan de Grijalva explored the southernmost coasts of Mexico, respectively in 1517 and 1518. The Conquistador Hernán the Cortes invades the country under Spanish banner in 1519, after having unloaded near current the Veracruz. He baptized in fact this city along the coast Villa Rica of Vera Cruz . At that time, the Aztèque S were the group dominating in the local population. They took initially the Spanish conquistadors, in accordance with the old toltèques legends, for envoys of the gods. For this reason, the Aztec ones did not show that little initial opposition in advance of the Conquistador S, but later, they marked their opposition when they realized that they were not the initially admired divine messengers.

After several battles, during which the Spanish armies were several times close to the defeat (in particular at the time of the Noche Triste of June 30th, 1520), the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was attacked by an alliance between the Spaniards and Tlaxcaltecas (principal enemies the Aztec ones), who started the seat. The Aztec ones were demolished in 1521 and their shaven capital.

Colonial time

It is about the period which extends between the defeat from the Aztec empire and independence from Mexico, i.e. between 1521 and 1821.

The conquest and the colonial time made emerge a new ethnicity: Mongrel. They are the children that the Conquistador S had with the women Indigène S. the mongrel ones incarnate the beginnings of the mixture of the two cultures, an ethnic co-education which marks Mexico durably since approximately 60 % of the inhabitants of the country are mongrels.

Current the Mexico belonged to the viceroyalty of the News-Spain ( Nueva España in Spanish). News-Spain recovered the territory of current Mexico, but also gradually approximately two million other km ² in the Western South of the the United States. The Scandinavian border of News-Spain was not defined besides with precision but can be read with the Hispanic character of the geographical names preserved nowadays.

Independence at the years 2000

The war of independence

Wars against the United States

The Texas populated of 85% of American immigrants proclaimed his independence (with the assistance as men, agent, weapons of Washington) the April 21st 1836, after the victory of the San Jacinto, acquired under the control of Sam Houston which benefitted from the weakness of the governments of Miguel Barragan (1835-36) and Jose Justo Corro 1836-37)) and of vétusteté of the troops sent under the orders of the general Antonio López de Santa Anna. Then engaged a conflict with the the United States, which Mexico always so weak in spite of the efforts of the Santa-Anna general left overcome (1846-1848). The Traité of Guadalupe Hidalgo of February 2nd, 1848 ratified the loss of very large territories, which were then " vendus" under the presidency of Handbook of Pena there Pena in the United States for 15 million dollars. So most of the northern half of the country was thus lost with the profit of the United States, that is to say Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.

French intervention

Porfiriat

The mode of Porfirio Díaz, also known under the name of Porfiriato , began some time after the death of Benito Juárez. This mode lasted approximately thirty years, although he had declared before arriving at the capacity which he was opposed to the re-elections. Díaz encouraged the overseas investments; it was also pressed on the councils of positivist S known under the name of cientificos . The movements of oppositions were repressed sometimes hard, such as for example at the time of the strikes of the workmen of the textile with Nogales, in the State of Veracruz. The country made during this period of great progress and was modernized quickly.

The Mexican Revolution

The Partido Revolucionario Institucional with the capacity

In 1925 is founded the organization which will become the PRI (Partido of Revolucion Institucional), which seizes the power in 1929 and until in 2000 will keep it. At the end of the years 1920, because at the same time of anticlericals measurements defended by the president Plutarco Elías Holds and of the need for land reform in the rural population, the Guerre of Cristeros opposes the governmental troops to rebellious catholic peasants. In 1938, the president Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized the production of oil by creating Pemex. At the end of the War of Spain, the Mexican government offered asylum to the opponents with Franco.

The installation of a system of corporatism strongly dependant on the Mexican civil society, the trade unions and its companies, made it possible the party to ensure its perenniality during 70 years.

Germany ran two Mexican ships during the month of May 1942. In front of the refusal to pay damages, the Mexican Parliament declared the war on June 2nd, 1942. Mexican aviation took part in the War of the Pacific. The government of Manuel Ávila Camacho entered thus the Second world war to the sides of the Allies.

The October 2nd 1968, hardly a few days before the opening of the Olympic Games of summer, the police force shot at students with Tlatelolco, in the capital. Three hundred people would have been killed, and of many people were stopped.

Carlos Salinas de Gortari, candidate of the Partido of Revolucion Institucional (PRI), gained the presidential election of 1988 against the candidate of the PRD Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. L Electoral Federal Instituto , organization charged to organize the elections and to ensure good progress of it, was created with the beginning of the year 1990

The electoral campaign of 1994 was sullied by the assassination with Luis Donaldo Colosio. Year 94 was also remembered by several events. On the one hand, the ALENA, agreement of free trade between the three countries of North America, came into effect on January 1st; in addition, an economic serious attack struck the country because of the strong recession which involved the Dévaluation peso. Moreover, Ernesto Zedillo succeeded Carlos Salinas with the presidency.

The PRI is member of the international Socialist.

The 21e century

Elections presidential and legislative took place the July 2nd 2000.

Vicente Fox Quesada, member of the SIDE (Partido Acción Nacional), gained the presidential election and became the first president not belonging to PRI ( Partido Revolucionario Institucional ) since more than seventy years. Indeed, Vicente Fox had collected 43 % of the voices, whereas Francisco Labastida obtained 37 % of votes (PRI) and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas 17 % (Partido of Revolución Democrática)

The PRI obtained 209 seats with the House of Commons and 60 with the Senate, SIDE 208 and 46, the PRD 51 and 15.

In 2003, the crisis Iraq ienne had put the government in a somewhat delicate situation: 80 % of the exports go to the the United States, a big part of the population was against the war, although the number of Mexicans being useful in the army of the USA in Iraq is high. Mexico occupied one of the fifteen seats to the Safety advice of the United Nations. Moreover, the United States refused to regularize the clandestine ones, in spite of the promises of Fox to obtain a migratory agreement with Bush. Moreover, Mexico occupied the presidency at the Safety advice in April 2003. With regard to the Immigration, the United States ignored since the attacks of September 11th, 2001 the regularization the few four million illegal to the the United States, which disappointed the government and the opinion.

The July 12th 2002, violent one clashes oppose the police force has inhabitants of Atenco, a city not far from Mexico City. Thirty-three people would have been wounded following a protest against expropriations and the creation of a new airport, not far from the capital of Mexico. The construction project of the airport was deferred after a strong resistance of some of the inhabitants, all not being against the arrival of the new airport. The PRD (left) is with the head of the municipality of Atenco.Les main leaders of the protesters (Ignacio del Valle Medina, Hector Galindo and Felipe Alvarez) were condemned in May 2007 has 67 years and 6 months of prison. They had 5 days to appeal. They will have to still face two other lawsuits for other loads weighing against them.

The financial stakes also played, one speaks of more than 2 billion euros is approximately 28 billion pesos what made it possible to mobilize many people partisans like adversaries of the project of airport, it was a thankless struggle between speculators with the diverging interests (el universal), the ones wanting to create a new airport, the others of which the interests auraients injured by this new arrival.

Monday March 29th 2004, Mexico signs the Traité nonproliferation of the nuclear weapons and is thus committed authorizing surprised inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Mexico becomes the 81e country to be adhered to this pact

In July 2006 the presidential election which gives the outgoing party (right-hand side) victorious.

The loser as it is usually in Mexico deposited a document showing several hundreds of frauds and irregularity at the time of the elections and the countryside which preceded them. Simple anomalies all like arithmetic errors (for example number of voters higher or lower than the number of bulletins deposited) are proposed. Objectivity wants that one points out that same the " erreurs" were detected in favor of the PRD. The electoral Federal court confirmed the victory of the candidate of the SIDE, with the detriment of the PRD.

See too

Chronology of Mexico
List of the viceroys of News-Spain
Festivals of Mexico
Presidents of Mexico

External bonds

Article in Spanish in Free Enciclopedia

Cinema

The Alamo , of John Wayne (1960)
Alamo: thirteen days of glory (The Alamo: 13 days to Glory), Burt Kennedy (1987)
Giants of the West (The Undefeated), John Wayne (1969)
Hero without fatherland (One Man' S Hero), of Lance Hool (1998)
Veraz Cruz , Harold Hecht (1954)

Documentary

the Mystery of the Mayas: Vestiges of all the splendor of Maya civilization , IMAX (in france, Ang., Esp. & Mandarin)

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