No one really knows where the people came from who first brought their civilization to Mexico. One theory is that nomadic tribes came from Asia by way of Alaska thousands of years ago and slowly worked their way south to settle in Mexico. Some of the tribes built cities, and their remains are still dotted all over the country, many of them virtually unexplored to this day.

Perhaps the most remarkable of these tribes were the Maya. About the time of Christ the Maya occupied Guatemala, where they built great cities and developed an advanced civilization. Some years later they migrated to Yucatan, where the ruins of their cities are some of the most exciting in the world.

These ingenious people discovered the lunar months, the length of the year, developed a calendar, chronology and writing. Their period of influence lasted almost seven hundred years, and why they abandoned their cities is still a mystery to scholars.

Another of the earliest settlers were the Toltecs, an aggressive, warlike people from the north. They settled around the valley of Mexico and evidently were driven south by other tribes, filtering down to Yucatan. They left behind ruins of temples and palaces. In Mexico a Toltec temple is built over and around a Mayan one-- an example being Chichen Itza in Yucatan.

Other tribes included the Olmecs, possibly the earliest group, the Zapotecs, builders of Monte Alban outside of Oaxaca and the Mixtecs whose capital was Mitla, famous for its palaces.

Then came the Aztecs from the northwest. They were a dominating, fearless people who had little trouble conquering less warlike tribes. Around 1300 A.D. they founded Tenochtitlan. As the story goes, they were instructed by their gods to build a capital city where they found an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake. This they did, building their city on two islands in the middle of a lake called Texcoco.

The Aztec civilization was well advanced by the time Columbus arrived in the new world. Tenochtitlan was a splendid city; its emperor Moctezuma ruled an empire larger than any monarch before him. At its height, nearly a million people lived in the capital and practically the whole South Mexico was under the Aztec empire, with trade routes extending to Yucatan and Guatemala.

In 1517, Yucatan was discovered by a Spaniard, Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba. Two years later, in 1519, an expedition set out from Cuba to conquer the land which had been named New Spain. The leader of the expedition was a man named Hernan Cortes, a swordsman, horseman, explorer, statesman, orator and historian, a Christian from Catholic Spain. He had with him around 500 soldiers, eleven ships, some horses, cannons and a great deal of determination.

Landing on a barren beach, he christened it Villa Rica de La Vera Cruz, or Veracruz. From there he proceeded to the Aztec capital, making allies of the Indians he fought and conquered en route.