1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:05,425 Mexico is the 11th most populous country in the world with 121 million people. 2 00:00:05,878 --> 00:00:09,321 Mexico is among the world's 15 largest economies and is the second 3 00:00:09,321 --> 00:00:10,928 largest economy in Latin America. 4 00:00:11,258 --> 00:00:13,194 Welcome to our animated show of history. 5 00:00:13,194 --> 00:00:16,027 This episode presents a brief history of Mexico. 6 00:00:16,407 --> 00:00:20,067 The earliest human artifacts in Mexico are chips of stone tools found near 7 00:00:20,067 --> 00:00:23,203 campfire remains in the valley of Mexico 10,000 years ago. 8 00:00:23,203 --> 00:00:27,203 Mexico is the site of the domestication of maize, tomato, and beans. 9 00:00:27,203 --> 00:00:30,913 Which produced an agricultural surplus. This enabled the transition from 10 00:00:30,913 --> 00:00:34,810 Paleo-Indian hunter gatherers to sedentary agricultural villages 11 00:00:34,810 --> 00:00:36,537 beginning around 5,000 B.C. 12 00:00:36,737 --> 00:00:40,737 In the formative era villages became more dense in terms of population and 13 00:00:40,737 --> 00:00:42,290 developing into chiefdoms. 14 00:00:42,406 --> 00:00:46,406 The earliest complex civilization in Mexico was the Olmec culture which 15 00:00:46,406 --> 00:00:51,211 flourished on the Gulf Coast from around 1500 BC. Olmec cultural traits diffused 16 00:00:51,211 --> 00:00:55,211 through Mexico into their formative era cultures in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and the 17 00:00:55,211 --> 00:00:59,471 valley of Mexico in the subsequent preclassical period the Maya and Zapotec 18 00:00:59,471 --> 00:01:04,011 civilizations developed complex centers at Calakmul and Monte Albán. Respectively 19 00:01:04,041 --> 00:01:07,451 during this period the first true Mesoamerican writing systems were 20 00:01:07,451 --> 00:01:10,140 developed in the EPI Olmec and the Zapotec cultures. 21 00:01:10,140 --> 00:01:13,860 In Central Mexico the height of the classic period saw the ascendancy of 22 00:01:13,860 --> 00:01:17,630 Teotihuacán which formed a military and commercial empire whose political 23 00:01:17,630 --> 00:01:21,134 influence stretched south into the Mayan area as well as North. 24 00:01:21,134 --> 00:01:26,064 After the collapse of Teotihuacan in 600 AD, competition ensued between several 25 00:01:26,064 --> 00:01:30,663 important political centers in central Mexico such as Xochicalco and Cholula 26 00:01:30,663 --> 00:01:34,663 During the early post classic period central Mexico was dominated by the 27 00:01:34,663 --> 00:01:37,676 Toltec culture. Oaxaca by the Mixtec and the lowland 28 00:01:37,676 --> 00:01:41,087 Maya area had important centres and Chichen Itza and Mayapan. 29 00:01:41,377 --> 00:01:45,377 The Aztecs, the last of pre-Colombian Mexico's great native civilizations 30 00:01:45,377 --> 00:01:50,157 rose to prominence in the central valley of Mexico around 1427 by partnering with 31 00:01:50,157 --> 00:01:51,477 the Toltecs and Mayans. 32 00:01:51,661 --> 00:01:55,661 This triple alliance conquered smaller cultures to the east and west until the 33 00:01:55,661 --> 00:01:59,263 Aztec empire spanned Mexico from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf Coast. 34 00:01:59,353 --> 00:02:04,058 The Spanish first learned of Mexico during the Juan de Grijalva expedition of 1518. 35 00:02:04,238 --> 00:02:09,367 The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire began in February 1519 when Hernan Cortes 36 00:02:09,367 --> 00:02:11,164 arrived at the port of Veracruz. 37 00:02:11,164 --> 00:02:14,623 After taking control of that city he moved on to the Aztec capital. 38 00:02:14,623 --> 00:02:18,753 In his search for gold and other riches, Cortes decided to invade and conquer the 39 00:02:18,753 --> 00:02:19,757 Aztec empire. 40 00:02:19,969 --> 00:02:24,976 The territory became part of the Spanish empire under the name of New Spain in 1535 41 00:02:25,236 --> 00:02:29,236 Much of the identity, traditions and architecture of Mexico developed during 42 00:02:29,236 --> 00:02:31,405 the 286-year colonial period. 43 00:02:31,405 --> 00:02:35,765 Cortes then colonized the area and named it Nueva Espana, New Spain. 44 00:02:35,981 --> 00:02:41,091 By 1574, Spain controlled a large portion of the Aztec empire and had enslaved most 45 00:02:41,091 --> 00:02:42,672 of the indigenous population. 46 00:02:42,973 --> 00:02:47,203 Worse, the diseases brought into the society by the Spaniards devastated the 47 00:02:47,203 --> 00:02:52,061 indigenous population of Nueva Espana, killing an estimated 24 million people 48 00:02:52,061 --> 00:02:54,835 between 1521 and 1605. 49 00:02:54,946 --> 00:02:58,946 As a result of its trade links with Asia, the rest of the Americas, Africa and 50 00:02:58,946 --> 00:03:02,946 Europe and the profound effect of new world silver, Central Mexico was one 51 00:03:02,946 --> 00:03:06,369 of the first regions to be incorporated into a globalized economy 52 00:03:06,369 --> 00:03:10,924 being at the crossroads of trade, people and cultures, Mexico City has been called 53 00:03:10,924 --> 00:03:12,435 the First World City. 54 00:03:12,435 --> 00:03:16,135 The Catholic church's influence was felt in the region when missionaries began 55 00:03:16,135 --> 00:03:17,561 arriving in 1523. 56 00:03:17,561 --> 00:03:21,213 The missionaries built many monasteries and converted millions of people to 57 00:03:21,213 --> 00:03:22,113 Catholicism. 58 00:03:22,113 --> 00:03:26,113 Concerned about the Catholic church's ever-growing power, King Carlos III of 59 00:03:26,113 --> 00:03:30,113 Spain expelled the Jesuits from Nueva Espana in the late 1700s. 60 00:03:30,113 --> 00:03:34,113 Inspired by the American and French revolutions, Mexican insurgence saw an 61 00:03:34,113 --> 00:03:38,902 opportunity in 1808 as the King abdicated in Madrid in Spain and was overwhelmed by 62 00:03:38,902 --> 00:03:40,259 war and occupation. 63 00:03:40,318 --> 00:03:44,318 The rebellion began as an idealistic peasants and miners' movement led by a 64 00:03:44,318 --> 00:03:49,288 local priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla who issued the Cry of Dolores on the 16th 65 00:03:49,288 --> 00:03:50,806 of September 1810. 66 00:03:51,086 --> 00:03:53,549 The day is celebrated as Independence Day. 67 00:03:53,549 --> 00:03:57,549 Mexico's short recovery after the war of independence was soon cut short again by 68 00:03:57,549 --> 00:04:01,999 the civil wars and institutional instability of the 1850s which lasted 69 00:04:01,999 --> 00:04:05,999 until the government of Porfirio Diaz reestablished conditions that paved the 70 00:04:05,999 --> 00:04:07,500 way for economic growth. 71 00:04:07,500 --> 00:04:11,500 Agustin de Iturbide became constitutional emperor of the first Mexican Empire in 72 00:04:11,500 --> 00:04:12,695 1822. 73 00:04:13,055 --> 00:04:16,043 A revolt against him established the United Mexican States. 74 00:04:16,202 --> 00:04:20,745 Later a Republican Constitution is drafted and Guadalupe Victoria became the first 75 00:04:20,745 --> 00:04:22,590 president of the newly born country. 76 00:04:22,590 --> 00:04:26,590 During this time, people had difficulty meeting tax payments and resented the 77 00:04:26,590 --> 00:04:30,000 central government's actions in collecting customs due to limited trade. 78 00:04:30,130 --> 00:04:33,858 The United States' annexation of the Republic of Texas and subsequent American 79 00:04:33,858 --> 00:04:37,458 military incursion into territory that was part of Coahuila instigated the 80 00:04:37,458 --> 00:04:38,750 Mexican American war. 81 00:04:38,750 --> 00:04:42,750 The war was settled in 1848 via the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 82 00:04:43,245 --> 00:04:47,075 Mexico was forced to give up more than one third of its land to the US including 83 00:04:47,075 --> 00:04:50,774 Alta California, New Mexico and the territory claimed by Texas. 84 00:04:50,906 --> 00:04:55,576 In the 1860s, Mexico was occupied by France which established the second 85 00:04:55,576 --> 00:05:00,418 Mexican Empire under the rule of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria 86 00:05:00,418 --> 00:05:03,658 with the support of the Roman Catholic clergy and the Conservatives. 87 00:05:03,658 --> 00:05:07,658 France never made a profit in Mexico and its Mexican expedition grew increasingly 88 00:05:07,658 --> 00:05:08,448 unpopular. 89 00:05:08,448 --> 00:05:13,918 Finally, in the spring of 1865, after the US Civil War was over, the US demanded the 90 00:05:13,918 --> 00:05:15,927 withdrawal of French troops from Mexico. 91 00:05:15,927 --> 00:05:20,279 Porfirio Diaz was elected the 29th president in the late 19th century 92 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:24,849 the period known as the Porfiriato was characterised by economic stability and 93 00:05:24,849 --> 00:05:27,683 growth, significant foreign investment and influence. 94 00:05:27,683 --> 00:05:32,233 The Mexican revolution began when Madero issued the Plan of San Luis Potosi and 95 00:05:32,233 --> 00:05:34,343 declared war on the Diaz regime. 96 00:05:34,343 --> 00:05:38,816 By 1911 Diaz is forced to step aside and Madero was elected president 97 00:05:39,096 --> 00:05:42,906 but conflict and violence continue for the better part of the next decade. 98 00:05:42,906 --> 00:05:46,356 World War II further stimulated the nation's development through the 99 00:05:46,356 --> 00:05:49,816 development of roads, the building of factories and the establishment of 100 00:05:49,816 --> 00:05:50,888 irrigation systems. 101 00:05:51,228 --> 00:05:55,228 Until the 80s, Mexico remained a poor country but experienced substantial 102 00:05:55,228 --> 00:05:58,748 economic growth that some historians call The Mexican Miracle. 103 00:05:58,748 --> 00:06:02,748 In recent years, the Mexican economy has had an unprecedented macroeconomic 104 00:06:02,748 --> 00:06:03,741 stability. 105 00:06:03,741 --> 00:06:07,471 Its economy has integrated with that of US and also Canada after the 106 00:06:07,471 --> 00:06:09,370 North American Free Trade Agreement. 107 00:06:09,370 --> 00:06:13,050 Thank you for watching. 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