HISTORY
Early Civilizations
Ancient Mexico and Central America were home to some of the earliest and most advanced civilizations in the western hemisphere. This region is known historically as Mesoamerica, a term that refers to the geographic area and cultural traditions of the pre-Columbian civilizations of Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Evidence indicates that hunting and gathering peoples populated Mesoamerica more than 15,000 years ago and that crop cultivation began around 8000 BC. The bottle gourd, useful for holding water and other liquids, is believed to have been one of the earliest domesticated crops; corn, beans, and squashes became the basis of the Mesoamerican diet during the period between 8000 and 2000 BC.
Mesoamerican civilization began to emerge around 2500 BC, as agriculture increasingly provided a reliable food source that could support larger and larger populations. Freed from having to constantly search for food, the formerly nomadic peoples were able to establish permanent settlements. The shift from a hunting-gathering existence to one that revolved around agriculture and village life also gave people more time to devote to architectural and cultural pursuits. This made possible large public projects such as irrigation canals and temples, as well as the creation of fired clay objects such as dishes and containers.
One of the first major Mesoamerican civilizations was established by the Olmec, a people who flourished between about 1500 and 600 BC in the swampy lowlands of what are now the Mexican states of Tabasco and Veracruz. Many scholars consider Olmec civilization to be one of the primary cultures from which subsequent Mesoamerican civilizations drew many of their beliefs, traditions, and architectural styles. The Olmec appear to have been the source of the widespread worship of several Mesoamerican deities. They began developing mathematics, used a calendar based on observation of the planets, and produced a variety of intricate jade figurines. Between 900 and 400 BC the major sites of the Olmec were destroyed.
The city-state of Teotihuacán, located in the Valley of Mexico about 40 km (25 mi) northeast of modern-day Mexico City, in turn became a powerful cultural center. Teotihuacán flourished as an important commercial and religious center between about AD 100 to 650. It had a population of about 125,000 at its height, making it one of the largest cities in the world. Teotihuacán's wealth and productivity enabled its inhabitants to construct great monumental structures, including the Pyramid of the Sun, more than 60 m (more than 200 feet) high, and the slightly smaller Pyramid of the Moon. Teotihuacán's influence declined around ad 650, and the city was destroyed by a natural disaster or invasion. The fall of the "city of the gods" dispersed its people and culture across Mesoamerica.
The Zapotec people began building their religious center and capital at Monte Albán around 500 BC. Located on a mountaintop in what is now the state of Oaxaca, Monte Albán was one of the first cities in the Americas and rivaled Teotihuacán as a center of Mesoamerican culture. At its height, about AD 500, the city was home to approximately 25,000 people. The Zapotecs developed one of the earliest writing systems in the Americas, using pictorial characters known as hieroglyphics to convey simple ideas. They left numerous hieroglyphic inscriptions on the buildings and temples of Monte Albán.
Maya civilization flourished in southern Mexico and Central America between AD 250 and 900, a time known as the Classic period. The Maya built large religious centers that included ball courts, homes, and temples. They developed a method of hieroglyphic notation and recorded mythology, history, and rituals in inscriptions carved and painted on stone slabs or pillars known as stelae. Maya religion centered around the worship of a large number of nature gods and chronology among the Maya was determined by an elaborate calendar system. Although highly complex, this calendar was the most accurate known to humans until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century.
About ad 900, the Maya centers were mysteriously abandoned, and some Maya migrated to the Yucatán Peninsula. During the Postclassic period, from 900 to the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, Maya civilization was centered in the Yucatán. A migration or invasion from central Mexico strongly influenced Maya culture and art styles during this period. Chichén Itzá and Mayapán were prominent cities.
The Toltecs rose to power in the 10th century AD and are the first people in Mesoamerica to leave a relatively complete history. Their capital of Tula, whose ruins are located near the town of Tula de Allende 75 km (47 mi) north of Mexico City, extended its political influence over much of central Mexico. Other groups paid them tribute. The Nahuatl-speaking Toltecs established colonies along their northern frontier, protecting the region against hostile groups and greatly expanding the amount of land given over to agriculture. In the 12th century droughts in the north central region weakened the Toltec hold on the region. Desperate and starving people from the north surged southward, eventually overwhelming the Toltecs and forcing them to abandon Tula. Toltec survivors migrated south to the Valley of Mexico, where they joined with other peoples.
Not all Native American groups reached the complex levels of culture achieved by those of southern and central Mexico. In general, as one moved northward the indigenous peoples tended to be more tribal and nomadic, with exceptions such as the Pueblo in what is now the southwestern United States. Native Americans in northern Mesoamerica, typically warlike and nomadic, could not be easily conquered and resisted intruders until well into the 19th century in some areas.
The Aztec Empire
A century after the collapse of the Toltec civilization, several allied tribes of Nahuatl-speaking people moved into the Valley of Mexico from the north. The principal tribe was known as the Mexica and collectively the tribes came to be known as the Aztecs. The Mexica eventually dominated the other tribes and became the major force in the establishment of the Aztec Empire in central Mexico. The name Mexico is derived from the word Mexica. Aztec civilization, drawing on the cultural advances of the Toltec and other peoples that had lived in the region, reached high levels of artistic, economic, and intellectual development.
When the Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico, most likely in the mid-13th century, they were surrounded by powerful neighbors who exacted tribute from them. They were forced to occupy a swampy area on the western side of Lake Texcoco, where their only piece of dry land was a tiny island surrounded by marshes. According to legend, the Aztecs established their settlement on the site where they observed an eagle with a serpent in its grasp on top of a cactus. The eagle and the serpent are the state symbol of modern Mexico and can be found on the nation's flag and currency.
Tenochtitlán
As the Aztecs grew in number, they established powerful military and civil organizations. Their island settlement, known as Tenochtitlán, soon grew from a small village of huts into a large city of adobe houses and stone temples. It became the Aztec capital, serving as the center for Aztec trade and military activity throughout the region. It is estimated that at the time of the Spanish invasion in the early 1500s, the city was the largest in Mesoamerica and supported a population of more than 200,000 people.
Tenochtitlán's military strength increased, and under Itzcoatl, the first Aztec emperor, the Aztecs extended their influence throughout the entire Valley of Mexico. By the 15th century, the Aztecs had become the preeminent power in central and southern Mexico.
The political organization of the Aztec Empire extended far beyond Tenochtitlán and rested on a triple alliance between the city-states of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. The alliance, which was established in the mid-1400s, was soon dominated by the Aztecs. A series of military campaigns extended the Aztecs' power and influence well beyond the central valley and across Mesoamerica. On the eve of the Spanish conquest, Aztec-controlled territory reached west to the Pacific Ocean, east to the Gulf of Mexico, and south nearly to the modern-day border with Guatemala. Because of resentment against Aztec rule and internal strife within the far-flung Aztec Empire, Spanish invaders would later be able to ally with a number of Native American peoples who would help them to defeat the Aztecs.
Religion
As an agricultural society, Aztec civilization was greatly affected by the forces of nature; Aztec mythology, consequently, revolved around the worship of gods who represented the earth, rain, and the sun. The appeasement of such gods through human sacrifice, a practice already well established in Mesoamerica, was an indispensable part of Aztec religion. According to one Aztec belief, the sun required daily offerings in order to ensure that it would rise again the next day.
Aztec priests typically offered the gods human hearts and blood from just-killed victims-most often male prisoners who had been captured in battle and later marched or dragged to the top of a ceremonial pyramid. The need for new sacrificial victims was one factor that pushed the warlike Aztec to continuously seek new territory and peoples to conquer.
Aztec religion also included worship of the plumed serpent Quetzalcoatl, the god of wind and learning. According to Aztec legend, Quetzalcoatl had been tricked and disgraced by another god, Tezcatlipoca, and then traveled to the east. He vowed to return and destroy those who worshipped his enemies. By the early 1500s, word of the arrival of the Spaniards in the Caribbean Sea had traveled to the Aztecs, triggering rumors that an angry Quetzalcoatl had returned to exact his revenge. While the Aztecs would soon learn that the Spanish conquerors were not gods, the prophecies of great destruction coming from the east would prove to be a reality.
The Conquest
The Spanish assault on the Aztec Empire in 1519 represented the second major stage of Spanish expansion in the Americas. The first stage had established permanent settlements in the Caribbean Sea, including the city of Santo Domingo (now the capital of the Dominican Republic) and outposts on the island of Cuba. These settlements made it possible for the Spaniards to probe the mainland of Mexico and Central America knowing that they could quickly return to their island outposts.
The first governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez, sponsored three expeditions in the early 1500s that sought to explore the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The first expedition, commanded by Spanish navigator and conqueror Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, set sail from Cuba in 1517 and explored uncharted territory along the Yucatán Peninsula. When Spanish soldiers went ashore to seek water and food they were often attacked by Maya warriors. The Spaniards and the Maya engaged in a major battle in Champóton, now a port in the modern state of Campeche. More than half the Spanish expedition was killed. While the expedition ended in failure, it provided the Spaniards with more detailed knowledge of the native inhabitants of the region and sparked new interest in Mexico.
In 1518 Governor Velázquez sponsored another expedition, this time under the command of his nephew, Juan de Grijalva. The Spaniards returned to Champóton, where they avenged the defeat of the previous expedition, forcing the Maya to retreat inland after three days of fierce fighting. The expedition continued exploring the Gulf Coast, eventually encountering friendly Mayan-speaking peoples who told the Spaniards of a powerful empire to the west. Although the Spaniards did not realize it, they had reached the outer limits of the Aztec Empire.
The ruler of the Aztec Empire at this time, Montezuma II, had received reports of the Spanish explorations, as well as the battles at Champóton. He ordered his subjects along the Gulf Coast to greet the foreigners, offer them a large feast and gifts of gold and jewelry, and then ask them to leave the region. Montezuma knew of the Aztec legends and omens predicting future destruction, and is reported to have wondered whether the arrival of the Europeans heralded the return of an angry Quetzalcoatl.
The Cortés Expedition
Grijalva returned to Cuba and relayed to Governor Velázquez the tales of a powerful and wealthy Native American empire located in the interior of Mexico. This news spurred Velázquez to authorize a third expedition, this time commanded by Hernán Cortés.
As Cortés loaded his ships and recruited additional men in Cuba, some of his enemies complained that he was a poor choice to lead the expedition. They convinced Velázquez to cancel Cortés's commission to lead the force. Cortés ignored the orders and set sail in February 1519 with about 600 men, as well as a few cannons and horses. On the Yucatán Peninsula, the expedition rescued a shipwrecked survivor, Jerónimo de Agúilar, who had been held captive by the Maya for eight years. He would provide the Spaniards with a valuable translator of the Mayan language.
The expedition sailed west along the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf Coast, engaging in a major battle against Tabascan warriors at the mouth of the Grijalva River. Cortés quickly realized the value of horses in battling the Native American peoples-the Tabascans had never seen horses and many fled in fear. The expedition sailed north in search of a good harbor and established a town, La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, at what is now the city of Veracruz. Cortés organized an independent government, renounced the authority of Governor Velázquez, and acknowledged only the supreme authority of the Spanish Crown. In order to prevent any of his men from deserting because of these actions, Cortés destroyed his fleet.
When Cortés started to march inland he had about 500 men remaining. The Spaniards soon encountered the Tlaxcalan people, who lived east of the Aztec Empire and resented Aztec domination. Despite this resentment, the Tlaxcalans initially battled the Spanish invaders. After two weeks of fighting and heavy native losses, the Tlaxcalans surrendered and became allies of the Spaniards against the Aztecs. Until the conquest was achieved in 1521, the Tlaxcalans were important allies of the Spaniards and helped create a combined European/Native American army that numbered in the thousands.
In October 1519 the Spaniards and several thousand of their Tlaxcalan allies marched into Cholula, an ancient city devoted to the god Quetzalcoatl. Cholulan priests and leaders welcomed the Spaniards but demanded that the Tlaxcalans camp outside the city. After three days in the city, the Spaniards were informed of an impending ambush. Cortés reacted by summoning all the nobles of Cholula and locking them in a room, which left the Cholulans leaderless. The Spaniards, with the assistance of the Tlaxcalans, then massacred many of the city's residents, killing more than 3000 people in all.
As the Spaniards subdued the region around Cholula and began exploring the road to the Aztec capital, an increasingly desperate Montezuma decided not to oppose the invaders. Although about 4000 Tlaxcalans accompanied the Spaniards as they marched toward Tenochtitlán, the combined force was still relatively small and vastly outnumbered by the Aztec warriors. On November 8, 1519, Cortés met Montezuma outside the city, the two leaders politely greeted each other, and the Aztecs led the Spaniards into their city. The Spanish soldiers established a headquarters in a large communal dwelling and were allowed to roam through the city, where they found much gold and other treasures in Aztec storehouses.
Despite the friendly reception given the Spaniards, Cortés believed that the Aztecs would attempt to drive him out. To safeguard his position, he seized Montezuma as a hostage and forced him to swear allegiance to the king of Spain, Charles I, and to provide an enormous ransom in gold and jewels. Over the next several months the Spaniards began devising strategies to conquer the entire region.
Meanwhile, Governor Velázquez had dispatched an expedition to Mexico to arrest Cortés and return him to Cuba. In April 1520 Cortés received word that the expedition had arrived on the Gulf Coast. Leaving 200 men at Tenochtitlán under the command of Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés marched with a small force to the coast. He entered the Spanish camp at night, captured the leader, and induced the majority of the Spaniards to join his force.
Battle for Tenochtitlán
In Tenochtitlán, Alvarado feared an Aztec attack and instituted a number of harsh rules while Cortés was absent from the city. When Alvarado's men attacked and killed hundreds of worshippers at a religious ceremony, the city's outraged population revolted and besieged the Spaniards in the building where Montezuma was still being held prisoner. The revolt was underway when Cortés returned to the city.
Cortés and his men, as well as 3000 Tlaxcalan allies, were allowed to enter the city and join Alvarado, but they were immediately surrounded and attacked. At Cortés's request, Montezuma addressed the Aztecs in an attempt to quell the revolt. The Aztec ruler was stoned by his people, and he died three days later. Immediate retreat from the city appeared to be the Spaniards' only option for survival. On June 30, 1520-a rainy night that became known as the Noche Triste ("Sad Night")-the Spaniards attempted a panicked retreat. Fleeing across a causeway, they were chased by Aztec warriors and attacked on both sides by Aztecs in canoes. More than half the Spaniards were killed, all of their cannons were lost, and most of the treasure they attempted to carry out was abandoned or lost in the lake and canals. The Aztecs pursued the retreating Spanish troops, but the survivors of the Noche Triste managed to find refuge in Tlaxcala.
During the summer of 1520, Cortés reorganized his army in Tlaxcala with the aid of reinforcements and equipment from Veracruz. He then began his return to the capital, capturing Aztec outposts along the way, and subduing Aztec settlements around Lake Texcoco. By May 1521 the island capital of Tenochtitlán was isolated and surrounded by the Spaniards. Spanish artillery mounted on ships specially constructed for the shallow lake bombarded Tenochtitlán. Spanish soldiers launched daily attacks on the city, whose supplies of food and fresh water had been cut. Famine, dysentery, and smallpox ravaged the Aztec defenders. On August 13, 1521, after a desperate siege of three months, Cuauhtémoc, the new emperor, was captured and Tenochtitlán fell. More than 40,000 decomposed bodies littered the destroyed city and bloated corpses floated in canals and the lake. A fabulous city and its empire had been destroyed.
Colonial Mexico
The Spaniards were well aware of the political importance of the Aztec capital, and they decided to raze the city and build their Spanish city on the same site. The Spaniards set about establishing a governing bureaucracy, known as the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and expanded the reach of Spanish power north and south of the Valley of Mexico. Colonists were brought over from Spain, and the city became the principal European metropolis in the Americas. Mexico City has been the political and economic center of Mexico ever since.
Church
A defining characteristic of colonial Mexico was the position and power of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic missionaries entered the country with the Spanish conquerors and immediately began working to convert Native Americans to Christianity. The church became enormously wealthy. In 1859 church holdings were nationalized.
The church played an important role in transferring Spanish culture and civilization to Mexico. Missionaries set up hospitals, monasteries, and schools in urban areas, and they established missions on the frontiers. They helped to expand and solidify Spanish control over the indigenous peoples of colonial Mexico, introducing Spanish culture and language to the Native Americans as they attempted to covert them to Christianity. The missionaries also became important intermediaries in conflicts between Native Americans, colonial settlers, and royal officials.
The Spanish Inquisition, a judicial institution established in Europe during the Middle Ages, was formally established in New Spain in 1571. The Inquisition enforced Catholic doctrine. It identified, tried, and sentenced religious heretics-people who held beliefs or opinions that disagreed with official church doctrine. The Inquisition also banned books that the church considered to be heretical.
The Spanish Crown controlled the church through the device of the Patronato Real, or royal patronage, which gave the king the ability to select clerics and collect tithes. A tithe was a donation, equivalent to one-tenth of a person's income, that Catholics were expected to give to the church for its support. Even papal bulls, or decrees, had to be approved by the king before they could be sent to the Americas.
Overall, the Catholic Church affected virtually every aspect of life in colonial Mexico. Social services-including education, hospital care, and assistance for the elderly, the poor, or the mentally disturbed-were offered primarily by the church rather than the colonial government or private operations. The church provided loans for some business ventures and kept records of births, deaths, and marriages. Priests taught in primary and secondary schools, as well as in universities, and they frequently counseled colonial officials on government matters.
Race and Social Class
The intermingling of races and cultures created a hybrid society in colonial Mexico. After the conquest, the Native American population declined dramatically due to European diseases such as smallpox and measles, to which the Native Americans had no resistance. These diseases spread quickly through the Native American population, killing large numbers of people. Estimates of the population decline vary, with the most extreme calculations suggesting a drop from about 25 million in 1519 to about 1 million by 1620.
Whatever the actual figures, the decline resulted in the emergence of a multiracial society made up of people of mixed Native American, European, African, and Asian heritage. Mestizos, or people of mixed European and Native American descent, were the biological and cultural bridge between Spaniards and Native Americans. The number of mestizos grew rapidly, as many Spanish men took Native American wives and had large families; by the 19th century mestizos would form the largest ethnic group in Mexico.
African contributions to the region began as soon as the Spaniards arrived. A free black, Juan Garrido, took an active part in the conquest of the Aztec Empire, and Hernán Cortés introduced African slaves into central Mexico shortly after the fall of Tenochtitlán. Several hundred slaves arrived in the first decade after the conquest; an estimated 200,000 African slaves were brought to New Spain over the course of the colonial period. Racial mixing and intermarriage produced a sizable population of mulattos, or people of European and African descent, as well as zambos, who were people of African and Native American descent. By the 19th century, however, people of African descent had been almost completely absorbed into Mexico's mestizo population.
Race was a sure indicator of social class immediately after the conquest. The highest social class was the peninsulares, a racial distinction that referred to people who were living in Mexico but had been born in Spain. The peninsulares were sent from Spain to hold the highest colonial offices in both the civil and church administrations. The peninsulares never made up more than 1 percent of the population of the colony and they held themselves aloof from the criollos, people of European descent born in the Americas, who occupied the next step on the social ladder. Criollos were almost never given high office. The resentment of the criollos against the more privileged peninsulares became an influential force in the later movement for Mexican independence. Below the criollos were the mestizos, followed by the Native Americans and the blacks.
Gradually class became more important than race as a measure of social status in colonial Mexico. Individuals of mixed racial background who became wealthy and socially important often claimed criollo status. The number of claimants to criollo status prompted the Spanish Crown in the 18th century to create a legal device that, in return for a fee, would establish a person's legal whiteness.
Economy
An important aspect of the early colonial economy of Mexico was the exploitation of Native Americans. Although thousands of Native Americans were killed during the Spanish conquest, they were still the great majority of inhabitants and inevitably became the laboring class. Native Americans performed much of the farming, mining, and ranching work in the colony. Although Spain had decreed that the Native Americans were free and entitled to wages, they were often treated little better than slaves. Their plight was initially the result of the encomienda system, by which European settlers, explorers, and soldiers were granted access to Native American labor to work their large land holdings.
The government of Spain made several attempts to regulate the exploitation of Native American labor on farms and in mines in the mid-16th century. The New Laws of 1542 forbade the enslavement of Native Americans, prevented the granting of any new encomiendas, and declared that existing encomiendas would revert to the Spanish Crown upon the death of their holders. Because the colonists strongly opposed the reforms and threatened general revolt, Spain relaxed its position on the inheritance of encomiendas. Spanish officials were largely unable to enforce the remaining measures.
Another system of forced labor, known as the repartimiento (division), emerged in the mid-16th century. The repartimiento required Native American communities to supply a quota of workers that would be available for hire by the Spanish settlers. This system could be burdensome and harsh, especially in silver mines, and it diverted native laborers away from their own agricultural tasks.
Slave and free blacks worked in the ports of cities such as Veracruz and Acapulco, and labored in mines, factories, plantations, and sugar mills. Some slaves worked as household servants in urban areas, while some free blacks managed rural properties for absentee owners or were put in charge of Native American workers. Colonial Mexico witnessed several slave riots and some runaway slaves managed to establish independent communities in rugged, isolated regions.
European crops such as wheat, oats, barley, and a variety of secondary items were introduced after the conquest and soon flourished. Cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, oxen, mules, burros, and horses added new food stocks as well as draft animals. By 1600 an estimated 10 million animals of European origin roamed the countryside. Land holdings varied in size depending on climate. In the north, scarce water and dry grasses required vast haciendas, or estates, to support cattle. In more fertile areas in central Mexico, the land holdings were much smaller, and hacienda owners generally engaged in mixed agricultural activities.
Mining operations centered on silver deposits. Cortés owned the first silver mine in New Spain, which opened in Taxco, located about 110 km (70 mi) southwest of Mexico City. Small, but disappointing strikes followed until 1546, when rich silver deposits were discovered to the northwest of the capital, in what is now the state of Zacatecas. Other major strikes followed, mostly in the north, drawing miners and settlers into that region. Unlike agricultural items, silver enjoyed an instant market in Europe and Asia, and its high value covered the cost of transportation. Mining, exporting, and trading silver made possible a complex and diversified economy in colonial Mexico.
Large merchants tended to dominate commerce in New Spain. Merchants dealt in products imported from Spain, as well as items obtained from trade with other nations. This trade was illegal, as Spain required Mexican colonists to export to Spain raw materials such as silver and sugar, and to buy processed goods only from Spanish merchants. These attempts at strict regulation of trade in colonial Mexico were largely ineffective. Thus, much of Mexico's silver was used to buy goods from foreigners and found its way into the pockets of Spain's competitors; an estimated one-third of the silver mined in colonial Mexico ended up in Asia.
Education
According to royal decree, every municipality in New Spain had the obligation to operate a primary school; most did not do so. People with sufficient resources sent their children to church schools; in a small village a priest might offer some instruction. Young girls sometimes attended convent schools or private secular schools operated by women, and secondary schools for young women opened shortly after the conquest. Secondary education for males was largely in the hands of Jesuit missionaries, who arrived in Mexico in 1572. Only a limited number of students attended school at any level, however. In general, wealthy individuals employed private tutors and the lower class remained illiterate. Blacks, Native Americans, people of mixed ethnicity, and women of any race had limited educational opportunities. Nevertheless, a determined individual could acquire a basic education, regardless of class.
Higher education began with the founding of the University of Mexico in 1551. Theology and law dominated the curriculum, but the university had chairs in medicine and Native American languages. Mexican-born don Carlos de Sigüenza y Gongora, who held the chair of mathematics and astronomy, demonstrated the high intellectual achievement made possible by the colonial educational system. Women could not attend the university, however. The great 17th-century Mexican intellectual, Juana Inés de la Cruz, begged to be allowed to enter the university, even offering to attend dressed as a man.
Government
Soon after the conquest, Hernán Cortés established a basic but functional local governmental structure based on the municipality, or city. Municipalities controlled smaller towns and villages. In 1528 the Spanish Crown established a high court, known as the Audiencia, and by 1530 it was staffed by well-trained judges and had established a degree of royal control. In 1535, nearly 15 years after the fall of the Aztec empire, the Spanish government established the Viceroyalty of New Spain and appointed the first Spanish viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, who was an accomplished administrator . The viceroy served as the head of the Audiencia, chief executive of New Spain, and military leader of the viceroyalty under the title of captain-general.
Theoretically, the viceroys controlled all of New Spain, which eventually included what is now Mexico, the Philippine Islands, Central America, the islands of the Antilles, California, New Mexico, and uncharted territory along the Gulf Coast. In reality, however, the viceroy exercised direct authority only over the central regions of New Spain. In other areas, distance and poor communications made it necessary to rely upon governors and other officials.
The administration of New Spain also relied on other bodies, including the Consulado (merchant guild), which dealt with commercial matters. A special tribunal, the Juzgado de Indios, was established in 1573 to hear appeals from Native Americans against the actions of district governors. A variety of lesser bodies dealt with the needs of a complex colonial society.
Independence
During the late 18th century, after Spain suffered a number of military defeats in Europe, the Spanish monarchy determined to improve the defenses of its empire. To pay for these improvements, it attempted to increase revenues. The Spanish Crown was also concerned about inefficiency and corruption in the bureaucracy of its colonial governments. Bribery and extortion were common, despite periodic royal investigations. In the late 1700s the Crown instituted a series of administrative changes, known as the Bourbon Reforms, that aimed to raise money for defense and centralize government authority. Spain sent one of its leading bureaucrats, José de Gálvez, on a visita, or official tour of inspection, of New Spain between 1765 and 1771. Gálvez reorganized tax collection methods and changed the tax structure.
One of the most significant reforms, decreed in 1778, lifted restrictions on colonial trade. The measure allowed colonists a greater role in commerce and permitted widespread trade between the Viceroyalty of New Spain and other Spanish colonies in the Americas. Another reform, aimed at centralizing the colonial government, created important administrative positions and filled them all with peninsulares. As part of the effort to defend its empire, Spain created colonial armies by enlarging existing militias.
The extensive tax and administrative changes received little sympathy in Mexico, where many had prospered under the old system. Attempts to institute reforms provoked riots and antigovernment protests, which were put down by force, further upsetting many Mexicans. Many colonists disapproved of Spain's attempt to strengthen its political control. Criollos, in particular, were upset that they had been excluded from the new administrative jobs in the viceroyalty. The colonists' new-found economic freedom also increased their resentment against Spain-many colonists believed they would benefit even more if they broke away from Spain completely and ran their own economic affairs.
Efforts by the Spanish Crown to limit the power of the Catholic Church also aroused opposition in New Spain. The church and various religious orders, most notably the Jesuits, had amassed great wealth and held large amounts of land in the colony. The Crown viewed the church as an economic and political rival and moved to limit its power by curtailing church privileges. In 1767 the Crown expelled the Jesuits from Spain and its colonies, and confiscated the economic holdings of the religious order. The Spanish monarchy went even further in 1804, seizing additional land and economic assets from the Catholic Church. These actions angered many colonists and priests, and induced many clergy to begin to support the idea of independence.
By the beginning of the 19th century, criollo resentment against the peninsulares and the government of New Spain had seriously weakened the link between the colony and the parent country.
To these internal conditions was added the influence of the Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement that challenged many political and social institutions, such as class distinctions, monarchy, and religion. Many criollos in New Spain read the works of leading Enlightenment writers and began to question the legitimacy of their colonial relationship with Spain. The Mexican colonists were also influenced by the political examples of the American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799), both of which overthrew a monarchy and established a republican form of government.
Crisis in Spain
The immediate crisis that moved Mexico to take the final steps toward independence came as a result of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain. In 1808 French troops of Napoleon I flooded into Spain, and the Spanish royal family was lured to France, where it passed the Spanish Crown into Napoleon's hands. He then gave it to his brother. On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid began a revolt that spread throughout Spain.
With central authority in Spain weakened, the leaders of New Spain began to quarrel among themselves. The viceroy, under pressure from influential criollos, permitted some criollos to participate in the administration. A small group of peninsulares objected to the viceroy allowing the criollos to have more influence. The peninsulares staged a coup d'etat and overthrew the viceregal government.
Hidalgo's Rebellion
The struggle for power between various political factions eventually set off a rebellion that led to civil war. On September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest who was familiar with the ideas of the Enlightenment, launched a revolt that aimed to free Mexico from the oppression of the Spanish colonial government and the peninsulares. Hidalgo called for the immediate abolition of slavery and an end to taxes imposed upon Native Americans.
The effort to overthrow the colonial government soon turned into a social rebellion as tens of thousands of Native Americans near Mexico City-suffering from the effects of rising food prices and declining wages-joined thousands of mestizos in the uprising. Hidalgo recruited an army of at least 60,000 troops and enjoyed some initial military success. When they encountered armed resistance in the city of Guanajuato, the rebels massacred loyalist forces and looted the city. The extreme violence and destruction of the revolt appalled many criollos, and few of them joined the rebellion; many sided instead with the peninsulares, who offered stability.
The rebels marched south toward Mexico City, fighting royalist forces near the capital on October 30, 1810. The royalists retreated from the battle, opening the way for Hidalgo's troops to march on the city. Hidalgo's force had suffered heavy casualties, however, and many of his inexperienced soldiers deserted. Aware that a large royalist force was approaching, and fearing that his army would turn into an unruly mob if it entered the capital, Hidalgo abandoned his plans to occupy the city. As the rebels withdrew to the northwest, many of Hidalgo's followers drifted away. In January 1811, the remains of Hidalgo's army were soundly defeated near Guadalajara by a smaller group of Spanish soldiers. Hidalgo fled to the north but was captured in March and executed on July 30, 1811.
Morelos
The leadership of the popular insurgency next fell to another priest, José María Morelos y Pavón. Like Hidalgo, he called for racial and social equality in Mexico, in addition to independence, but he was a better military leader. Under Morelos, the rebel forces captured considerable territory, including the city of Acapulco, and declared Mexican independence at the Congress of Chilpancingo in 1813. Royalist forces, however, still controlled Mexico City and most of the viceroyalty. Morelos's army suffered a major defeat in December 1813 at the hands of royalist forces under Agustín de Iturbide, a criollo general. Morelos was captured by royalist forces in 1815 and executed. After Morelos was killed, the revolution continued under Vicente Guerrero, who headed a comparatively small army. The rebels fragmented into small groups, however, often mixing banditry with politics.
Iturbide
The Spanish revolution of 1820 altered the rebellion in Mexico. This revolution restored the liberal Spanish constitution of 1812 and emphasized representative government and individual liberty. These liberal political tendencies in Spain dismayed some Mexican leaders, but of more concern to Mexico's elite was the instability in Spain. Reflecting elite consensus, Iturbide met Guerrero in 1821 and signed a compromise agreement in which the two agreed to combine their forces to bring about independence. Their plan, known as the Plan of Iguala, set forth three mutual guarantees: Mexico would become an independent country, ruled as a limited monarchy; the Roman Catholic Church would be the state church; and criollos would be given the same rights and privileges as peninsulares. The viceroy took no active measures against Iturbide and was forced to resign. The last viceroy of New Spain arrived in Mexico in July 1821 and was forced to accept the Treaty of Córdoba, marking the formal beginning of Mexican independence. See also Latin American Independence.
The hero of the moment, Iturbide, became emperor of Mexico. He held the position with some difficulty until 1823, when he was deposed by a military revolt. A republic was proclaimed, and Guadalupe Victoria became the first president. With the end of the Mexican Empire, Central America broke away from Mexico to become the United Provinces of Central America.
The Early Republicm
Mexico was unprepared for the task of creating a new republic. Civil war had destroyed both social stability and the economy. Tax revenue fell to disastrously low levels as the economy struggled to revive. Moreover, few had the political experience to bind the nation together. Regional elites viewed with suspicion any attempt by Mexico City to establish a degree of central control. Deciding the actual role of the federal government required time and debate. The first constitution, promulgated in 1824, gave state legislators the power to elect both the president and the vice president. As a result, a series of weak presidents struggled to form an effective government.
During this time, Mexico's political elite began to divide into two opposing factions: conservatives and liberals. The conservatives favored a highly centralized government, even a dictatorship if necessary, and wanted to maintain the Catholic Church's power and control of educational facilities. The conservative faction was composed primarily of church leaders, rich landowners, criollos, and army officials. The liberals wanted a federation of states that was not strictly controlled by a central government. They also sought to limit the power of the Catholic Church, foster public education rather than church-controlled education, and institute social reforms.
Vicente Guerrero, who had become a leader in the liberal faction, became president in 1829, but was shot and killed in 1831 by forces led by conservative political and military leader Anastasio Bustamante. Revolt followed revolt until 1833, when Antonio López de Santa Anna, a military commander, was elected president. Santa Anna-who had led the military revolt that brought down Iturbide and the short-lived Mexican Empire-was a man of considerable egotism, energy, and intelligence. Shortly after he came to power, his policies involved the new republic in war over the future of Texas.
The Texas Revolution
In the early 1800s Texas was a sparsely populated and weakly governed region that functioned as part of the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas. In 1820 Moses Austin, a U.S. citizen, received permission from the Mexican government to bring American settlers to the region. He died shortly thereafter, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, was allowed to continue with the project in 1821. By the 1830s most of the residents of Texas were immigrants from the southern United States. These new residents of Texas soon had differences with the Mexican government, which had abolished slavery in 1829 and in 1830 had passed a law that prohibited further immigration from the United States.
In 1834 a political crisis resulted in the overthrow of the constitution of 1824, which had created the federal republic of Mexico. A new centralist constitution, which stripped the Mexican states of their autonomy, was enacted in 1836. Protests and revolts rocked the country, but the conservatives prevailed. However, the protests against centralization encouraged the Texans to rebel against Mexican authority in 1835, in what came to be known as the Texas Revolution. President Santa Anna, alarmed and anxious to avoid the unraveling of the nation, arrived in San Antonio, Texas, in early 1836, where his troops defeated a small group of Texans at the Alamo, a Franciscan mission that had been converted into a fort.
The subsequent execution of more than 280 Texan prisoners at Goliad, by order of Santa Anna, ended any hope of political compromise. At the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, Santa Anna's forces were defeated by troops under the command of Texan leader Sam Houston. In May Santa Anna signed the Treaty of Velasco, in which he agreed to order Mexican troops in Texas to retreat south of the Río Grande, a major river known as the Río Bravo in Mexico, and to persuade the Mexican government to accept the independence of Texas. Mexico refused to acknowledge the independent republic but made no serious effort to regain control of the territory.
Meanwhile, Texans elected Houston to be the first president of the Republic of Texas. The short-lived republic was annexed by the United States less than a decade later. The Texas Revolution and the annexation of Texas by the United States were among the factors that led to the outbreak of war between the United States and Mexico in 1846.
The Mexican War
In November 1845 U.S. president James K. Polk sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to seek border adjustments in Texas in return for the U.S. government's settlement of the claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico, and also to make an offer to purchase California and New Mexico. The Mexican authorities refused to negotiate with Slidell. After the failure of this mission, a U.S. army under General Zachary Taylor advanced to the mouth of the Río Grande, the river that the state of Texas claimed as its southern boundary. Mexico, claiming that the boundary was the Nueces River, to the northeast of the Río Grande, considered the advance of Taylor's army an act of aggression and sent troops across the Río Grande in April 1846. Polk, in turn, declared the Mexican advance to be an invasion of U.S. soil, and the U.S. Congress declared war on Mexico on May 13, 1846. See Mexican War.
Santa Anna, who had been deposed and exiled to Cuba in 1844, was called back to the presidency to attempt to save the republic. Mexican forces were defeated in battle after battle, however, and U.S. troops occupied much of northern Mexico by the end of the year. Mexico City fell on September 14, 1847, and Mexican forces surrendered soon thereafter. Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, the Río Grande was fixed as the southern boundary of Texas. Territory now forming the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming became part of the United States.
During the Mexican War, the Maya people of the Yucatán Peninsula had launched a major revolt against the white and mestizo population of the region. This struggle, known as the Caste War of the Yucatán, began in 1847 and was an effort to end the exploitation of the Maya and stop nonnatives from taking over communal Maya lands. The rebellion was largely defeated by 1853, and the war drove many Maya across the Yucatán Peninsula into remote regions of what is now the state of Quintana Roo. These eastern Maya maintained an independent state in the region until Mexico's federal army occupied their land and subdued them in 1901.
Famine, disease, and battlefield casualties combined to kill at least 30 percent of the prewar population of the Yucatán Peninsula during the Maya revolt. The conflict also decimated the sugar industry of southeastern Yucatán, and induced much of the region's remaining population to move to the northwest. In addition, the rebellion strained relations between the Maya and nonnatives throughout southern Mexico, resulting in more racially motivated conflicts later in the century.
After the Mexican War, Mexico was confronted with a grave reconstruction problem. Finances were devastated, and the prestige of the government, already weak, had diminished considerably. Santa Anna, who had been compelled to resign after the war, returned from exile in 1853 and, with the support of conservatives, declared himself dictator. Later that year, Santa Anna sold the Mesilla Valley in northwestern Mexico to the United States for $10 million. Known as the Gadsden Purchase, the deal clarified the New Mexico boundary and gave an additional strip of territory (now southern Arizona and a slice of southwestern New Mexico) to the United States. This was the last territorial transfer made by Mexico.
Early in 1854 a group of young liberals launched a revolt against Santa Anna; after more than a year of intense fighting, the liberal forces prevailed and took over the government. Santa Anna fled into exile, and liberal rebel leader Juan Álvarez became the provisional president of Mexico. The rebellion was the first event in a long, fierce struggle between the powerful conservative elites that had traditionally dominated Mexico and the liberals.
Juárez and the French Occupation
The 1855 takeover of the government by the liberals began a period known as La Reforma, in which liberal leaders sought to reduce the power of the church and the military in Mexican politics and society. Later that year President Álvarez was replaced by Ignacio Comonfort, a liberal who sought a more gradual pace of reform. In 1857 the liberals enacted a new constitution, which reestablished a federal form of government. It provided for individual rights, universal male suffrage, freedom of speech, and other civil liberties. The constitution also abolished special courts for members of the military or clergy, and ordered the church and other institutions to auction off any land or buildings not absolutely necessary for their operation.
Conservative groups bitterly opposed the new constitution. With Spain supporting the conservatives and the United States supporting the liberals, a bitterly divided Mexico sank into a period of civil strife known as the War of the Reform (1858-1860). This violent struggle between conservative and liberal groups devastated Mexico.
The great leader to emerge from the liberal faction during this period was Benito Pablo Juárez, a Native American who became famous for his integrity. Juárez served as the minister of justice in President Álvarez's cabinet, and for the next 15 years he would be the principal influence in Mexican politics.
In 1858 a political revolt overthrew President Comonfort and Juárez became provisional president. Soon afterward conservatives who had participated in the revolt forced Juárez to flee Mexico City; he established a new seat of government in Veracruz. Mexico now had two competing governments: one led by conservatives based in Mexico City, and one led by liberals based in Veracruz. Conservative forces controlled much of central Mexico, but they were unable to drive the Juárez forces from Veracruz. As provisional president, Juárez issued a decree nationalizing church property, separating church and state, and suppressing religious orders. The Juárez government gradually gained the upper hand, and by 1861 the liberal armies had decisively defeated the conservative forces.
Juárez moved his government to Mexico City, was elected president in 1861, and set about trying to establish order in the troubled country. He attempted to ease the financial chaos caused by the civil war by suspending interest payments on foreign loans incurred by preceding governments. Angered by his decree, France, Great Britain, and Spain decided to intervene jointly to protect their investments in Mexico.
The prime mover in this decision was Napoleon III of France, who believed that Mexico would welcome the creation of a monarchy. He hoped that a Mexican monarchy would protect Latin America from the Anglo-Saxon republicanism of the United States. A joint expedition occupied Veracruz in 1861, but when Napoleon's colonial ambitions became evident, the British and Spanish withdrew in 1862.
The French encountered unexpected resistance at Puebla, as General Ignacio Zaragoza repulsed the invaders on May 5, 1862. That date, known as Cinco de Mayo in Spanish, henceforth became a popular national holiday. A shocked and angered Napoleon III dispatched another 30,000 troops, who spent two months capturing Puebla before sweeping into Mexico City in June 1863. A provisional conservative government proclaimed a Mexican empire and offered the Crown, at Napoleon's request, to Austrian archduke Maximilian.
Meanwhile, Juárez and his cabinet had fled northward with a small force. By early 1865 only the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and part of Michoacán-in southern Mexico-and Chihuahua and Sonora-in northern Mexico-remained under liberal control. While the United States continued to recognize the Juárez regime, it could offer little help because of its own civil war. Just as Maximilian hovered on the verge of establishing control over the entire country, events in Europe prompted the French to withdraw their troops in 1867. The Juárez forces reconquered the country, and troops under General Porfirio Díaz occupied Mexico City. Maximilian was besieged at Querétaro and forced to surrender. He was executed by a Mexican firing squad in 1867.
The Restored Republic
Although Benito Juárez now faced some opposition from other liberals who opposed his efforts to alter the Mexican constitution, he won the presidential elections of December 1867. In the struggle to put down chronic political and social violence in the aftermath of the French intervention, Juárez sought to draw liberals and conservatives together in some sort of political consensus. He also suspended some constitutional guarantees and worked to strengthen the presidency, which prompted critics to accuse him of running a dictatorship.
Juárez's decision to run for a fourth term in 1872 split his followers. After an indecisive election in 1871, the congress of Mexico declared Juárez president. Díaz, who had been defeated in the election, led an unsuccessful insurrection. Juárez died in office in 1872 and was succeeded by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, head of the Mexican supreme court. In 1876, when Lerdo de Tejada sought reelection, Díaz led another revolt. Successful this time, he became president in 1877.
Díaz used his first term to consolidate his position and then stepped aside for a personally selected successor, General Manuel González. In 1884 Díaz once again became president. He would remain in office until 1911 and his long rule would become known as the Porfiriato.
The Díaz Years
Porfirio Díaz projected a statesmanlike image of calm strength that reassured the country. He accepted the notion that Mexico's future depended upon modernization and foreign investment. Completion of the nation's railway network and its links with that of the United States received considerable attention, and Díaz did everything in his power to attract foreign investment. In 1888 Mexico negotiated a debt consolidation plan that opened the way for a flood of foreign money to pour into the nation. The country opened up new markets for its mineral and agricultural products and brought new land under cultivation. Díaz also laid the foundation for industrial development.
Concentration of land ownership during the Porfiriato, coupled with the loss of communal holdings, made it difficult for people to practice subsistence agriculture. Díaz favored the rich owners of large estates, increasing their properties by allowing them to absorb communal lands that belonged to Native Americans. Many landless peasants fell into debt peonage, a system of economic servitude in which workers became indebted to their employers for both money and supplies and were forced to labor in mines or plantations until the debt was paid. Sometimes the debt was handed down from generation to generation, forcing the children of indebted laborers to work to pay off their parents' debts. By 1910 some 90 percent of the rural inhabitants of central Mexico were landless.
During the Porfiriato a two-tier society emerged, as those able to take advantage of modernization became rich and the poor sank further into poverty. As many rural inhabitants and Native Americans lost land to large commercial interests, agricultural workers failed to secure a reasonable share of the nation's growing wealth. Large operations intent on achieving the most production at the lowest cost kept wages low. Most employees had no paid holidays, sick leave, or industrial accident insurance. This started to change in 1904, when legislation began to address the problems.
Real wages relative to purchasing power declined approximately 20 percent in Mexico between 1876 and 1910. Moreover, agricultural production for internal consumption dropped as agricultural exports reduced food stocks. Corn and beans, the core of the lower-class diet, had to be imported. Sporadic food riots occurred throughout the country. In 1905 the government sold food at subsidized prices, and in 1909 it opened 50 subsidized food stores in Mexico City.
Unbalanced economic progress was one problem that marred the Porfiriato, but there were others. Díaz gave insufficient attention to social needs, paying little attention to education for the people. He also favored the church, ignoring the secularization policy of 1859. Finally, he failed to modernize the political system, allowing regional elites to control the country's economic and political affairs. Although elections were held at all levels of government, they were generally meaningless. Only handpicked candidates were allowed to win, and the president appointed his loyal friends to political offices throughout the country.
Discontent and a spirit of revolt increased throughout Mexico. Many working-class Mexicans became sympathetic to the ideas of people such as Ricardo Flores Magón, a journalist and labor activist who founded the newspaper Regeneración in 1900 to oppose the Díaz dictatorship. The paper was shut down the next year and Flores Magón was arrested. He continued to criticize the tyranny of the government in other newspapers and was eventually banned from publishing in Mexico; in 1904 he renewed publication of Regeneración from Texas. Flores Magón's attacks on the Díaz regime in turn influenced other radical reformers such as Emiliano Zapata, in the state of Morelos, and Felipe Carrillo Puerto in Yucatán.
Aware of the growing discontent, Díaz announced in 1908 that he would welcome an opposition candidate in the 1910 election. The candidate put forward by a liberal group was Francisco Indalecio Madero. However, Díaz had Madero arrested and Díaz won the election. After Madero was freed, he fled to San Antonio, Texas, where he proclaimed a revolt. His first call to arms met with little response, but across the border in Mexico, small groups began to gather recruits and oppose the Díaz regime with violence. Madero soon found himself at the head of an unexpectedly successful movement. Díaz resigned on May 25, 1911, and went into permanent exile in Europe. See also Mexican Revolution.
The Mexican Revolution
Madero was swept into office with few concrete ideas. As a wealthy northerner, he envisioned political reform, not revolution. Radical groups who had pinned their hopes on Madero quickly became disenchanted. Emiliano Zapata soon understood that Madero had no interest in revolutionary change. When Madero adopted a cautious policy on land reform, Zapata revolted and issued his Plan of Ayala in November 1911. The proclamation called for the immediate transfer of land to peasant farmers and insisted on the right of Mexican citizens to choose their own leaders. In the north, Madero's former followers, most notably supporters of rebel leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa, felt betrayed and also took up arms against Madero.
Many feared that Madero could not control the increasingly chaotic situation. Anti-Madero conspiracies and an attempted coup further unsettled the nation. The head of Madero's army, Victoriano Huerta, seized control of Mexico City and became provisional president in February 1913. Four days after assuming power, Huerta had Madero murdered. Huerta attempted to make peace with Zapata, but Zapata did not trust him and the fighting continued. A third group, known as the Constitutionalists, was outraged at the blatant seizure of power. This group, led by the governor of the state of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza, also challenged the federal army.
In the United States, President Woodrow Wilson refused to recognize the Huerta government because Huerta had taken power illegally. Under Wilson's order the U.S. Navy seized the port of Veracruz to prevent the delivery of weapons to Huerta's forces. To Wilson's surprise the occupation of Veracruz set off violent anti-American protests throughout Mexico. Nevertheless, Huerta resigned in July 1914.
Huerta's resignation further split the rebels into factions. Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata pressed for social change and land reforms, while Carranza thought primarily in terms of political reforms. The two rebel leaders eventually teamed up against Carranza; by December 1914 rebel forces had occupied Mexico City and Puebla. Carranza's general, Alvaro Obregón, succeeded in driving Villa and Zapata out of Mexico City, and his forces eventually dominated the country.
As head of the Constitutionalist forces, Carranza became provisional president in 1914 and manipulated events along the border to force the United States to recognize his government. Carranza insisted he could not control cross-border violence unless the United States recognized his authority. Mexican rebels had attacked a ranch, derailed a passenger train, and engaged in other types of violence on the U.S. side of the border, killing more than 100 people. In August 1915 a commission representing eight Latin American countries and the United States recognized Carranza as the lawful authority in Mexico. The rebel leaders, with the exception of Villa, laid down their arms.
In March 1916 Pancho Villa sent a raiding party into Columbus, New Mexico, apparently attempting to demonstrate that Carranza did not control northern Mexico. He evidently hoped to provoke a reaction from the United States-perhaps an arms embargo that might deny his enemies the weapons they needed. As a result of the raid, a punitive expedition under U.S. General John J. Pershing chased the rebels for more than a year, but failed to capture Villa.
The Constitution of 1917
Carranza called for a constitutional convention, which met in Querétaro in 1917 to draft a new constitution. Many of the delegates shared Carranza'a belief that political reform combined with some minor social reforms were all that the country needed. Others insisted that social issues needed more attention. In the end, the document that emerged was clearly more radical than the president desired.
The new constitution provided for a labor code that established the right of workers to organize and strike. It also stated that all subsoil minerals, including petroleum and silver, belonged to the people of Mexico. This measure aimed to curb foreign ownership of mineral properties and land and represented a sharp break with Mexico's past natural resources policies, which had encouraged foreign investment in the nation's economy. In addition, the constitution prohibited a president from serving consecutive terms, placed severe limitations on the ability of the Roman Catholic Church to own land, and restored communal lands to Native Americans. Many provisions were, for their day, quite radical. The constitution fostered the development of organized labor in Mexico, severely reduced the role of the Catholic Church in education, and laid the groundwork for the nationalization of Mexico's petroleum industry in the 1930s. It also paved the way for the land reforms that would occur from the 1920s through the 1940s.
Carranza, who was elected president in 1917, did not enforce many of the constitutional provisions, and turbulence continued. In 1920 three leading generals-Plutarco Elías Calles, Obregón, and Adolfo de la Huerta-revolted against Carranza, who was killed in the ensuing conflict. Obregón was elected president in 1920.
Obregón hoped to end the widespread violence, restore the nation's shattered economy, and make the social reforms necessary to establish class cooperation. He instituted some land reforms and established rural schools, but he also used bribes, concessions, or force to gather support. Obregón secured U.S. recognition for his regime in 1923 when he consented to arbitrate and adjust the claims of U.S. oil companies. Later in the year, the United States supported the Obregón regime during an abortive revolt. Obregón chose Plutarco Elías Calles to succeed him as president.
The Calles Years
President Calles continued Obregón's land and education policies and cut the army's budget to free money for social needs. He also rehabilitated Mexican finances, instituted an educational program, and succeeded in adjusting the dispute with the foreign oil companies. In carrying out religious reforms, however, Calles provoked considerable opposition; relations between the church and the Mexican government became severely strained. The church resisted the placing of primary education under secular supervision, the required registration of priests, the expulsion of foreign-born priests, and the closing of 73 convents.
In 1926 a general religious strike suspended all public religious services. In what came to be known as the Cristero Rebellion, Catholic insurgents burned schools, dynamited troop trains, and even murdered rural schoolteachers. The states of Jalisco, Michoacán, and Colima echoed with the cry, "Viva Cristo Rey" (Long Live Christ the King). The tension was lessened largely through the mediation of Dwight W. Morrow, who became U.S. ambassador to Mexico in 1927. The Mexican government eventually compromised on some of the most anticlerical measures. At least 90,000 Mexicans died during the three year conflict.
Presidential succession again resulted in a crisis after Obregón was assassinated on July 17, 1928, at a dinner to celebrate his reelection. Calles devised a solution in which he would effectively run the country through a series of puppet presidents. He established an official party, the Partido Nacional Revolucionario, or PNR, known in English as the National Revolutionary Party. The PNR was the forerunner of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI, known in English as the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The PRI has dominated Mexican politics since its formation. Calles became known as the undisputed Jefe Maximo, or Maximum Chief, of Mexico and his period of rule via puppet presidents was known as the Maximato.
The Cárdenas Era
In 1934 Calles selected Lázaro Cárdenas as the PNR candidate and Cárdenas was elected easily. Cárdenas turned out to be much more independent than the puppet presidents who had preceded him, which surprised and angered Calles. After his election, Cárdenas moved to reduce the role of the army in Mexican politics, and emphasized land reforms, social welfare, and education. When Calles opposed some of these reforms, he was sent into exile.
Cárdenas established a reputation as a revolutionary reformer. By the end of his term, one-third of the country's population had received land, usually as a member of a communal farm known as an ejido. Workers became a major political force and were able to press for improved wages and working conditions.
In 1936 an expropriation law was passed enabling the government to seize private property whenever it was deemed necessary for public or social welfare. The national railways of Mexico were nationalized in 1937. In 1938, after foreign-owned oil companies refused to pay workers a wage set by arbitration and backed by the Mexican supreme court, the Mexican government took over the property of the foreign oil companies. A government agency called Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, was created to administer the nationalized industry. The expropriations seriously affected the Mexican oil industry, making it difficult for Mexico to sell oil in U.S., Dutch, and British territories. Mexico was forced to arrange barter deals with Italy, Germany, and Japan. The oil trade with these nations, however, was cut short by World War II (1939-1945).
Cárdenas's successor, Manuel Ávila Camacho, was selected to strengthen the economy as well as consolidate the social reforms. To those who viewed Cárdenas as a true revolutionary, the election of 1940 represented the effective end of the Mexican Revolution. Ávila Camacho softened anticlericalism and cut back on land reforms. World War II also shifted the country's focus. Mexico declared war on the Axis powers on May 22, 1942, and cooperated fully with the U.S. war effort. Approximately 250,000 Mexicans served in the U.S. military, and one received the Medal of Honor. Mexican workers, both agricultural and industrial, worked in the southwestern United States during the war under a contract labor arrangement known as the Bracero program.
Postwar Mexico
Miguel Alemán Valdés, the first Mexican president without a military background since Francisco Madero, assumed office in December 1946. His government began recruiting administrators from among university graduates, rather than military professionals. In 1947 Alemán became the first Mexican president to visit the United States as head of state. Alemán emphasized large-scale industrial and agricultural growth, as well as foreign investment. During his presidency government-financed dams and irrigation projects brought large areas of Mexico into cultivation and tripled the nation's output of electricity. A dual society began to emerge during this period-one based on capital-intensive industrial and agricultural wealth, and the other tied to labor-intensive activities with poor wages. Economic growth helped Mexico's growing middle class, but it failed to benefit many poor Mexicans and contributed to growing social inequality. Alemán promised to battle growing corruption in local and state PRI organizations, but his own administration became tarnished by bribery and corruption at all levels.
Dissatisfaction and anger over government corruption resulted in the selection of Adolfo Ruíz Cortines as president in 1952. Ruíz Cortines initiated an anticorruption drive that made some progress in restoring the government's credibility, but did little to combat the custom of the mordida (bite), a bribe that was often demanded by minor bureaucrats, or to stop larger payoffs to officials who awarded government contracts. In 1953 the president helped to pass a constitutional change that gave women the right to vote. Increasingly, the Mexican government relied upon troops and police to quell protests or social unrest.
Growing Social Problems
In the 1960s student activism and clashes with the police agitated the country. Presidents Adolfo López Mateos (1958-1964) and Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (1964-1970) both underestimated the extent of social discontent in Mexico. Díaz Ordaz, anxious to avoid disruption of the Olympic games in Mexico City in 1968, stepped up the repression and set the stage for a disaster. On October 2, 1968, some 10,000 students in the Plaza of the Three Cultures in Tlateloco were fired upon by soldiers and police. At least 325 died, many more were wounded, and thousands were jailed. The massacre shocked the country, which was already facing an increasingly grim reality of political failure, runaway population growth, and economic decline.
Uncontrolled urbanization began to pose a major social problem in the 1970s, when annual population growth reached 3.4 percent. Between 1940 and 1970, 4.5 million Mexicans moved from rural areas into cities. By 1975 about 2600 people a day were arriving in Mexico City. Unemployment increased, and malnutrition became commonplace, with over half the population severely undernourished. Cities were unable to house the massive influx of residents and urban slums grew unchecked. Netzahualcóyotl, a slum settlement near Mexico City, became one of the largest cities in the republic in the 1970s.
In an effort to undercut growing opposition, the government decreed wage increases and distributed land to some 9000 peasants. In 1970 Luis Echeverría Álvarez became president; the former interior minister had been elected as the candidate of the PRI. During his six-year term Echeverría criticized the growing gap between rich and poor nations and tried to establish Mexico as a leader of developing countries around the world. He also adopted measures to reduce foreign control of the economy, and attempted to loosen the economic and cultural ties between Mexico and the United States. He urged the people of Mexico to stop emulating U.S. customs and business practices, and he negotiated economic accords with several Latin American nations, Canada, and the European Community (now called the European Union).
Echeverría made a point of appearing sympathetic to students and other protesters, calling on Mexicans of all classes to work together for social change and economic progress. In reality, the populist rhetoric of his administration was not matched by concrete action; upper-income Mexicans continued to benefit from the government's economic policies while living conditions declined for poor and middle-income citizens.
Economic Crisis
In 1976 widespread voter apathy resulted in the PRI candidate, José López Portillo, being elected without opposition. A former finance minister, López Portillo followed a program of economic austerity after taking office. He called on workers to reduce wage demands and asked businesspeople to hold down prices and to increase investment expenditures. In foreign affairs, López Portillo improved ties with the United States. A brief period of euphoria occurred when Mexico discovered vast oil reserves in 1974 and 1975 in the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, and Veracruz. Oil production more than doubled during the latter half of the 1970s, and this economic strength allowed Mexico to adopt a more independent foreign policy, especially regarding the United States. But the promise of wealth from oil revenues led to reckless government spending, corruption, and a staggering foreign debt. Mexico borrowed billions of dollars at high interest rates in anticipation of increased oil revenues. When oil prices dropped sharply in the early 1980s, Mexico's income from petroleum production dropped as well. The nation soon faced a severe economic recession and an enormous foreign debt. Mexico announced that it was postponing payments on its foreign debt, causing international banks to rethink their policy of providing large loans to developing countries. The United States government alleviated the situation somewhat by agreeing to buy oil and gas at a price that was higher than what Mexico would have been able to get on the world market.
Both López Portillo and his immediate successor, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado (1982-1988), favored technocrats (technical experts) over politicians when filling political appointments. Graduates from Yale, Harvard, and other foreign universities staffed the Mexican government. Under de la Madrid, the nation tried to stabilize its economy by renegotiating its large foreign debt. Mexico accepted a bailout loan of $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on the condition that the Mexican government raise taxes, cut public spending, and limit imports. De la Madrid also launched another campaign against government corruption, which was often linked to drug traffickers. Narcotics generated vast amounts of money, which drug traffickers used to bribe police, the army, and government officials. Several high-ranking government officials-including a senator who was the former head of the state-owned oil company, Pemex-were jailed and charged with fraud during this campaign.
Perceived mismanagement and corruption strengthened the appeal of opposition political parties in Mexico. The inability of the state to deal with significant problems, including the aftermath of a major earthquake in Mexico City in 1985, angered the country's citizens and increased criticism of the PRI government. Many Mexicans were increasingly skeptical of a political process they believed was rigged and elections they felt were fixed. Although opposition parties were allowed to function and participate in national elections, the PRI's control of the government and its vast resources ensured that the party was always able to mobilize enough voters to win. In many instances, citizens were paid to go to the ballots and vote for the PRI, or local PRI officials threatened small business owners with harassment and retaliation of they did not go vote for the PRI.
1988 Election
In 1987 the PRI underwent the first major split in its history. A so-called "Democratic Current" within the PRI feared that multiparty democracy could not be delayed and pushed for reform from inside the party. The selection of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, a Harvard-educated technocrat, as the PRI candidate in 1988 further divided the party. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas-a dissident PRI member and the son of the popular former president Lázaro Cárdenas-challenged the PRI in the election. Cárdenas attacked the IMF-imposed austerity programs, which had sped the decline in the standard of living for most Mexicans, and called for a moratorium on interest payments to foreign creditors. When Cárdenas announced his candidacy for the PRI's 1988 presidential election, he was expelled from the party. Cárdenas ran as a candidate of his own leftist coalition, the National Democratic Front, and the campaign saw the growth of unprecedented opposition to the ruling PRI.
Salinas was declared the winner with 51 percent of the vote, although many election observers believe Cárdenas actually won. Cárdenas carried Mexico's large cities, where balloting was closely monitored, but Salinas carried the rural areas where observers claimed that much of the balloting was fraudulent and dishonestly counted. A conservative party, the Partido de Accíon Nacional (PAN), known in English as the National Action Party, demonstrated increasing strength in northern Mexico in the 1988 elections. A PAN candidate won the governorship of the state of Baja California. The PAN, together with the National Democratic Front, won nearly half the seats in the Chamber of Deputies in the 1988 elections, underscoring the growing strength and influence of Mexico's opposition parties.
Salinas turned out to be a remarkably resourceful politician. While facing enormous economic problems and political opposition, he was initially able to revitalize Mexico's economy by stimulating exports, supporting free trade with the United States, and lowering inflation. The Salinas administration accelerated privatization efforts, selling off hundreds of state-owned companies. The president also allowed U.S. oil companies to explore for oil in Mexico for the first time since the petroleum industry was nationalized in 1938.
Most significant, perhaps, were Salinas's efforts to stimulate foreign trade. In 1991 he led the effort to establish a free trade agreement among Central American countries. He was instrumental in working out the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which promised economic development and prosperity for Mexico. NAFTA is a trade agreement among Canada, Mexico, and the United States that aims to lower tariffs and other trade barriers among the three nations; it went into effect on January 1, 1994.
Rebellion and Recession
Also in January 1994, an uprising in the state of Chiapas by a group of Native Americans known as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (known by its Spanish acronym EZLN), stunned the country and shook international confidence in the Mexican government. The group, also known simply as the Zapatistas, was named for Emiliano Zapata, the early 20th-century Mexican revolutionary leader and agrarian reformer. The Zapatistas captured four towns in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and demanded economic and political reforms from the Salinas government. Although Mexican troops quickly recaptured most of the territory held by the rebels and a cease-fire was called soon afterward, the Zapatistas generated momentum for political reform in Mexico.
The 1994 Mexican elections were marred by tragedy. In March the PRI presidential candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, was assassinated while campaigning in Tijuana. He was replaced as a candidate by his campaign manager Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, who won the election in August.
Shortly after Zedillo took office, the government devalued Mexico's currency. The devaluation, coupled with the Zapatista uprising, caused foreign investors to withdraw millions of dollars they had invested in the Mexican economy. The result was the near collapse of the economy, which was propped up by a multi-billion-dollar loan from the United States and prompt action by the International Monetary Fund. In return, Mexico had to pledge some of its future oil revenues. To make Zedillo's difficulties even worse, charges of massive corruption and involvement with drug dealers swirled around ex-president Salinas and his brother, Raul Salinas de Gortari. This controversy further damaged the reputation of the governing PRI.
President Zedillo nevertheless pressed ahead with political reforms. In 1995 he replaced the country's entire Supreme Court-which then began to rule against government agencies on a regular basis-and picked a member of the main opposition party to be his attorney general. He also began transferring some power from the office of the president to Mexico's national legislature and 31 states. Zedillo oversaw a major overhaul of the country's social security and health care systems in 1995. He also managed to bring the Zapatistas and their leader, Subcommandante Marcos, to the negotiating table to seek a political compromise.
The Zedillo administration faced a broad array of economic problems throughout 1995 and into 1996, including soaring inflation, labor unrest, a decline in investor confidence, and a prolonged recession. Zedillo worked to implement the economic austerity measures that had been a condition of the U.S. financial bailout and continued efforts to privatize state-owned petroleum and transportation enterprises. Plans to sell part of the enormous state-owned oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), prompted thousands of protesters to blockade oil wells in the southern Gulf state of Tabasco during January and February of 1996.
On January 1, 1996, on the two-year anniversary of the armed uprising in the state of Chiapas, the Zapatistas announced the formation of a new civilian political organization to be called the Zapatista National Liberation Front (known by the Spanish acronym FZLN). Leaders of the FZLN said that the new organization would seek to foster democracy through constitutional reforms. In February Zapatista representatives and the Mexican government signed the first of six peace accords that aimed to address the issues highlighted by the Zapatista rebellion. The accord proposed constitutional amendments that would give Native Americans in Mexico adequate representation in congress and exempt them from a law that a candidate had to be a member of a political party to run in an election. The PRI had used the law to limit political participation in Chiapas.
In the summer of 1996 another guerrilla group, the Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (EPR), or Popular Revolutionary Army, emerged and briefly rattled the government. The EPR made its first appearance on June 28, in the state of Guerrero, when dozens of masked men and women carrying weapons appeared at a memorial service commemorating the deaths of 17 people who had been killed by police the year before. The rebels called for the overthrow of the government and then quickly left the area. On August 28 the EPR launched simultaneous attacks on local police and military offices in the states of Guerrero, Mexico, Oaxaca, and Puebla, leaving at least 12 dead. Former presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas denounced the EPR, while Zapatista leaders denied any relationship with the group.
In September 1996 the Zapatistas again broke off peace talks with the Mexican government, claiming that the Zedillo administration had failed to carry out promised political reforms. The rebels also claimed that federal troops were violating a cease-fire agreement by harassing and threatening Zapatista fighters and their Native American supporters.
By the end of 1996 it became apparent that, despite the continuing economic and political crisis, President Zedillo was firmly in control of the country. Drastic economic measures, including steep cuts in social services, had helped to stabilize the economy. These cuts came at great expense to the majority of the Mexican people, who suffered from reduced government spending on education, health care, and price subsidies for basic food items. The austerity programs also raised interest rates and kept the value of the peso low, which resulted in many Mexicans losing their jobs or businesses. These actions enabled Mexico to refinance its foreign debt on more favorable repayment terms. In January 1997 the United States received the last payment on its emergency loan, three years ahead of schedule.
In February 1997 Mexico faced a major domestic crisis when the head of the country's National Institute to Combat Drugs, Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, was arrested and charged with protecting one of Mexico's most prominent drug traffickers. Gutiérrez had been appointed to head Mexico's antidrug efforts in 1996, and his arrest indicated the possibility that drug corruption in the country had reached high into the government.
The Gutiérrez scandal led many U.S. politicians to demand that the United States decertify Mexico as a drug-war ally. Each year the U.S. government determines which countries it feels have been cooperative with U.S. efforts to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. Cooperative countries are certified as U.S. allies, while uncooperative countries are decertified and can face trade sanctions. Despite the criticism of Mexico's antidrug efforts, U.S. president Bill Clinton recertified Mexico in late February.
Continuing disagreements over drug policies and immigration issues strained relations between Mexico and the United States in early 1997. President Zedillo rejected proposals that U.S. antidrug agents be allowed to carry sidearms in Mexico, and that U.S. officials be allowed to give lie detector tests to Mexicans who applied for positions at Mexico's antidrug agencies. President Clinton visited Mexico in May and the presidents of the two countries emphasized the importance of cooperation but did not propose any new strategies for dealing with the problems facing both nations.
In July 1997 voters dealt a major setback to the PRI, which lost its majority in the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in its history. The PRI also lost gubernatorial races in several states and lost the first election for mayor of Mexico City since 1928 to opposition candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution. Previous mayors had been appointed by Mexico's president.
The history section of this article was contributed by Colin MacLachlan. The remainder of the article was contributed by Roderic Ai Camp.
