History of Mexico

Mexico is the southern neighbor of the USA. It is a modern country with roots in an ancient civilization. It was a major colony of Spain. A large native Indian population still exists there. It offers a sumptuous fare for the avid traveler with snow capped volcanoes, virgin beaches, ancient ruins, deserts and modern cities.

Mexico was inhabited about 20,000 years before Columbus. The Olmecs ruled from 1200 to 600 BC. After them came the Aztecs. The tribes in the north were basically hunters and gatherers. The rest of the population were agriculturists. In the early sixteenth century Spain invaded the Yucatan and Mexican coasts. Herman Cortes and Henadez de Corboda were the officers in charge of the invasion. The native population declined from 25 million to one million by 1605.The first revolt was led by Miguel Hidalgo Costilla, a parish priest in 1810. In 1811 Hidalgo was hanged. Jose Maria Morelos Pavon, another parish priest declared Mexico to be independent from Spain. A Spanish firing squad executed him in 1815. The independence movement resorted to guerilla warfare which was led by Vicente Guerrero. Yanqui Sam Houston defeated Antonio López de Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto in 1836 and won the independence of Texas

From 1846 to 1848 there was the Mexican-US war in which Mexico lost Texas, California and New Mexico to America. Benito Juarez enacted a new constitution in 1857. Land reforms did nothing however to ameliorate the lives of the majority of the population lived in poverty and were not benefited by the land reforms. There was civil war between the liberals led by Juarez and the conservatives in 1858. Juarez prevailed and some of his subsequent reforms helped to reduce the excessive power of the church and the army. In 1876 Porfio Diaz came to power and ruled for the next 30 years. In 1917, a new constitution was formulated. It restored communal land to the native Indian population. Francisco Madero led the 1910 revolt. Diaz was forced to leave his post. Madero became the President of Mexico. Madero was killed in 1913 by army chief Victoriano Huerta. Huerta became president and resigned in 1914, and Venustiano Carranza become president. The three main leaders of the 1910 revolution - Madero, Carranza, and Zapata, were dead by 1920.

The PRI or institutional revolutionary party was founded in 1929. In 1966 university students in Mexico City demonstrated against the Diaz Ordaz administration. A major student uprising was suppressed in 1968. In the late 70's there was a boom in the Mexican oil industry. Miguel Aleman Valdes ruled from 1946 to 1952. He oversaw massive public-works projects, including irrigation schemes in the northwest and hydroelectric power in the south. Luis Echeverria Alvarez was the ruler of Mexico from 1970 to 1976. He was responsible for devaluing the peso. Jose Lopez Portillo ruled from 1976 to 1982. He presided over the oil boom. Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado ruled from 1982 to 1988. The PRI candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari was elected president in July 1988. In July 1996 Zedillo and Mexico's main opposition parties signed a landmark agreement toward political reform. The agreement eliminated the PRI's control of election procedures and ballot counting and placed limits on campaign spending and added 17 new amendments to Mexico's constitution. The PRI did not face any significant opposition in election till 1988. The PRI lost the presidential election for the first time in 2000 to Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party. In 1994 Mexico joined NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).