Mexico is the 11th most populous country
in the world with 121 million people.
Mexico is among the worlds' 15
largest economies and is the second
largest economy in Latin America.
Welcome to our animated show of history.
This episode presents a brief
history of Mexico.
The earliest human artifacts in Mexico
are chips of stone tools found near
campfire remains in the valley of Mexico
10,000 years ago.
Mexico is the site of the domestication
of maiz, tomato, and beans.
Which produced an agricultural surplus,
this enabled the transition from
Paleo-Indian hunter gatherers to
sedentary agricultural villages
beginning around 5,000 B.C.
In the formative era villages became more
dense in terms of population and
developing into chiefdoms.
The earliest complex civilization in
Mexico was the Olmec culture which
flourished on the Gulf Coast from around
1500 BC. Olmec cultural traits diffused
through Mexico into their formative era
cultures in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and the
valley of Mexico in the subsequent
preclassical period the Maya and Zapotecs
civilizations developed complex centers
at Calakmul and Monte Albán. Respectively
during this period the first true
Mesoamerican writing systems were
developed in the EPI Olmec and the
Zapotec cultures.
In Central Mexico the height of the
classic period saw the ascendancy of
Teotihuacán which formed a military and
commercial empire who's political
influence stretched south into the Mayan
area as well as North.
After the collapse of Teotihuacan in
600 AD. Competition ensued between several
important political centers in central
Mexico such as Xochil and Cholula
During the early post classic period
central Mexico was dominated by the
Toltec culture.