Mexico is the 11th most populous country in the world with 121 million people.
Mexico is among the world's 15 largest economies and is the second
largest economy in Latin America.
Welcome to our animated show of history.
This episode presents a brief history of Mexico.
The earliest human artifacts in Mexico are chips of stone tools found near
campfire remains in the valley of Mexico 10,000 years ago.
Mexico is the site of the domestication of maize, tomato, and beans.
Which produced an agricultural surplus. This enabled the transition from
Paleo-Indian hunter gatherers to sedentary agricultural villages
beginning around 5,000 B.C.
In the formative era villages became more dense in terms of population and
developing into chiefdoms.
The earliest complex civilization in Mexico was the Olmec culture which
flourished on the Gulf Coast from around 1500 BC. Olmec cultural traits diffused
through Mexico into their formative era cultures in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and the
valley of Mexico in the subsequent preclassical period the Maya and Zapotec
civilizations developed complex centers at Calakmul and Monte Albán. Respectively
during this period the first true Mesoamerican writing systems were
developed in the EPI Olmec and the Zapotec cultures.
In Central Mexico the height of the classic period saw the ascendancy of
Teotihuacán which formed a military and commercial empire whose political
influence stretched south into the Mayan area as well as North.
After the collapse of Teotihuacan in 600 AD, competition ensued between several
important political centers in central Mexico such as Xochicalco and Cholula
During the early post classic period central Mexico was dominated by the
Toltec culture. Oaxaca by the Mixtec and the lowland
Maya area had important centres and Chichen Itza and Mayapan.
The Aztecs, the last of pre-Colombian Mexico's great native civilizations
rose to prominence in the central valley of Mexico around 1427 by partnering with
the Toltecs and Mayans.
This triple alliance conquered smaller cultures to the east and west until the
Aztec empire spanned Mexico from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf Coast.
The Spanish first learned of Mexico during the Juan de Grijalva expedition of 1518.
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire began in February 1519 when Hernan Cortes
arrived at the port of Veracruz.
After taking control of that city he moved on to the Aztec capital.
In his search for gold and other riches, Cortes decided to invade and conquer the
Aztec empire.
The territory became part of the Spanish empire under the name of New Spain in 1535
Much of the identity, traditions and architecture of Mexico developed during
the 286-year colonial period.
Cortes then colonized the area and named it Nueva Espana, New Spain.
By 1574, Spain controlled a large portion of the Aztec empire and had enslaved most
of the indigenous population.
Worse, the diseases brought into the society by the Spaniards devastated the
indigenous population of Nueva Espana, killing an estimated 24 million people
between 1521 and 1605.
As a result of its trade links with Asia, the rest of the Americas, Africa and
Europe and the profound effect of new world silver, Central Mexico was one
of the first regions to be incorporated into a globalized economy
being at the crossroads of trade, people and cultures, Mexico City has been called
the First World City.
The Catholic church's influence was felt in the region when missionaries began
arriving in 1523.
The missionaries built many monasteries and converted millions of people to
Catholicism.
Concerned about the Catholic church's ever-growing power, King Carlos III of
Spain expelled the Jesuits from Nueva Espana in the late 1700s.
Inspired by the American and French revolutions, Mexican insurgence saw an
opportunity in 1808 as the King abdicated in Madrid in Spain and was overwhelmed by
war and occupation.
The rebellion began as an idealistic peasants and miners' movement led by a
local priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla who issued the Cry of Dolores on the 16th
of September 1810.
The day is celebrated as Independence Day.
Mexico's short recovery after the war of independence was soon cut short again by
the civil wars and institutional instability of the 1850s which lasted
until the government of Porfirio Diaz reestablished conditions that paved the
way for economic growth.
Agustin de Iturbide became constitutional emperor of the first Mexican Empire in
1822.
A revolt against him established the United Mexican States.
Later a Republican Constitution is drafted and Guadalupe Victoria became the first
president of the newly born country.
During this time, people had difficulty meeting tax payments and resented the
central government's actions in collecting customs due to limited trade.
The United States' annexation of the Republic of Texas and subsequent American
military incursion into territory that was part of Coahuila instigated the
Mexican American war.
The war was settled in 1848 via the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Mexico was forced to give up more than one third of its land to the US including
Alta California, New Mexico and the territory claimed by Texas.
In the 1860s, Mexico was occupied by France which established the second
Mexican Empire under the rule of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria
with the support of the Roman Catholic clergy and the Conservatives.
France never made a profit in Mexico and its Mexican expedition grew increasingly
unpopular.
Finally, in the spring of 1865, after the US Civil War was over, the US demanded the
withdrawal of French troops from Mexico.
Porfirio Diaz was elected the 29th president in the late 19th century
the period known as the Porfiriato was characterised by economic stability and
growth, significant foreign investment and influence.
The Mexican revolution began when Madero issued the Plan of San Luis Potosi and
declared war on the Diaz regime.
By 1911 Diaz is forced to step aside and Madero was elected president
but conflict and violence continue for the better part of the next decade.
World War II further stimulated the nation's development through the
development of roads, the building of factories and the establishment of
irrigation systems.
Until the 80s, Mexico remained a poor country but experienced substantial
economic growth that some historians call The Mexican Miracle.
In recent years, the Mexican economy has had an unprecedented macroeconomic
stability.
Its economy has integrated with that of US and also Canada after the
North American Free Trade Agreement.
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