History of Mexico

The country faced numerous challenges in the 19th century, including regional conflicts, caudillo power struggles, the Mexican–American War, and foreign interventions like the French invasion.

Throughout the 20th century, Mexico implemented land reforms, nationalized key industries, and expanded social welfare, but these achievements were marred by corruption, violence, and economic crises.

The election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2018 marked another significant shift, as his government has aimed to combat corruption, reduce inequality, and address the violence that has plagued the country for decades.

[6] The diet of ancient central and southern Mexico was varied, including domesticated corn (or maize), squashes, beans, tomatoes, peppers, cassavas, pineapples, chocolate, and tobacco.

Great masks with gaping jaws and monstrous features in stone or stucco were often located at the entrance to temples, symbolizing a cavern or cave on the flanks of the mountains that allowed access to the depths of Mother Earth and the shadowy roads that lead to the underworld.

The empire relied upon a system of taxation (of goods and services), which was collected through an elaborate bureaucracy of tax collectors, courts, civil servants, and local officials who were installed as loyalists to the Triple Alliance.

The small contingent of Spaniards controlled central Mexico through existing indigenous rulers of individual political states (altepetl), who maintained their status as nobles in the post-conquest era if they cooperated with Spanish rule.

Colonial Mexico had key elements to attract Spanish immigrants: dense and politically complex indigenous populations that could be compelled to work and vast mineral wealth, especially major silver deposits.

Although the Spanish explored much of North America, seeking the fabled "El Dorado," they made no concerted effort to settle the northern desert regions in what is now the United States until the end of the 16th century (Santa Fe, 1598).

Imports did not pay, contraband drove prices down, private and public debts went unpaid, merchants suffered all manner of injustices and operated at the mercy of weak and corruptible governments.

"[30] Inspired by the American and French Revolutions, Mexican insurgents saw an opportunity for independence in 1808 when Napoleon invaded Spain, and the Spanish king Charles IV was forced to surrender.

With the Plan of Tacubaya in December 1857, conservative General Félix Zuloaga led a coup in the capital in January 1858, creating a parallel government in Mexico City.

In mid-1867, despite repeated Imperial losses in battle to the Republican Army and ever-decreasing support from Napoleon III, Maximilian chose to remain in Mexico rather than return to Europe.

After a half-century of stagnation, where per capita income was merely a tenth of the developed nations such as Britain and the US, the Mexican economy took off during the Porfiriato, growing at an annual rate of 2.3% (1877 to 1910), which was high by world standards.

[55] At the meeting, Díaz told John Hays Hammond, "Since I am responsible for bringing several billion dollars in foreign investments into my country, I think I should continue in my position until a competent successor is found.

Most scholars consider it to span the years 1910–1920, from Francisco I. Madero's call for armed rebellion in the Plan of San Luis Potosí until the election of General Álvaro Obregón in December 1920.

Within a month of the coup, rebellions started spreading in Mexico, most prominently by the governor of the state of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza, along with old revolutionaries demobilized by Madero, such as Pancho Villa.

On 19 January 1917, a secret message (the Zimmermann Telegram) was sent from the German foreign minister to Mexico proposing joint military action against the United States if war broke out.

Their life experience in Mexico's northwest, described as a "savage pragmatism"[79] was in a sparsely settled region, conflict with Natives, secular rather than religious culture, and independent, commercially oriented ranchers and farmers.

[98][99] Nazi propagandist Arthur Dietrich and his team of agents in Mexico successfully manipulated editorials and coverage of Europe by paying hefty subsidies to Mexican newspapers, including the widely read dailies Excélsior and El Universal.

[105] Even before the outbreak of hostilities between the Axis and Allied powers, Mexico aligned itself firmly with the United States, initially as a proponent of "belligerent neutrality," which the U.S. followed before the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

[108] Following losses of oil ships in the Gulf (the Potrero del Llano and Faja de Oro) to German submarines, the Mexican government declared war on the Axis powers on May 30, 1942.

By supplying raw and finished war materials to the Allies, Mexico built up significant assets that, in the post-war period, could be translated into sustained growth and industrialization.

[117] Government policies transferred economic benefits from the countryside to the city by keeping agricultural prices artificially low, which made food cheap for city-dwelling industrial workers and other urban consumers.

[119] Although PRI administrations achieved economic growth and relative prosperity for almost three decades after World War II, the party's management of the economy led to several crises.

The United States intervened rapidly to stem the economic crisis, first by buying pesos in the open market and then by granting assistance in the form of $50 billion in loan guarantees.

[133][134] Emphasizing the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, integrate with the U.S. economy, and allow private investment in the energy sector, Vicente Fox Quesada, the candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), was elected president of Mexico on 2 July 2000, ending PRI's 71-year-long control of the office.

[140] After taking office in 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pursued an alternative approach to dealing with drug mafias, calling for a policy of "hugs, not gunshots" (Abrazos, no balazos).

His presidency has been marked by efforts to reduce violence, stimulate economic growth, and promote social programs, while also facing challenges such as managing relations with the United States and addressing criticism over his administration's approach to governance and policy implementation.

Claudia Sheinbaum, López Obrador's political successor, won the 2024 presidential election in a landslide and upon taking office in October became the first woman to lead the country in Mexico's history.