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Eight US Sates are on land

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that used to belong to Mexico.

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Welcome to History Lists.

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Let's talk about things 
used to be south of Texas.

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The Mayans.

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These guys thrived
in the Yucatan Peninsula

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for over 1000 years

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The Mayans are known
for their advanced knowledge

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in astronomy and mathematics

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They understood the concept of zero
centuries before Europeans did

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and developed the only writing system

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in the pre-Columbian Americas.

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Their cities were complex.

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Housing, schools, libraries,
hospitals, and even sport arenas.

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What makes this all even more impressive

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is that the Mayans didn't have
rivers, lakes or natural springs

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providing the freshwater
the people needed.

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They had to develop
an intricate series of channels

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and chill dunes in order
to redirect and store enough rain

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to keep things going.

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Weirdly enough, by the time
the Spanish showed up in "new" world

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they were puzzled to find out
that many of these great cities

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had already been abandoned.

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Even today we are still not sure
what happened

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but it seems likely that disease
coupled with drought

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and the abuse of their environment

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led to their civilizations's collapse.

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Number 2: let's talk about some Aztecs.

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These people call themselves the Mexica

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which is where the country of Mexico

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would eventually get it's name.

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They built their society on top of chinampas

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which are manmade islands
held together by roots,

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stakes, lake sediments
and probably feces.

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Like the Mayans they enjoyed
developing chocolate,

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sacrificing humans to their gods
and playing yulama

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which was a sport that often
ended in injury or death

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and was possibly even used
to resolveconflits

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instead rather than going to war.

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They ruled over five million people
in their empire

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that stretched from coast to coast

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and they demanded a lot of tribute.

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They were not super beloved
by all their subjects

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and when Cortez rolled in

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he was able to turn much
of their empire against them.

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The Aztecs were hit 
with a civilization triple-whammy:

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famine, smallpox, 
and being betrayed from the inside.

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I'm just saying that 
sacrificing people a lot

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might have backfired on them
— just a possibility.

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and this paved the way
for Spanish colonization.

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Tenochtitlan was raised to the ground

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and built over it was Nueva España
as new Captial.

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Mexico City.

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Since the Tenochtitlan were instrumental
in defeating the Aztecs,

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the Spanish allowed them
to keep their indigenous names

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and some of their traditional
forms of government

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Other tribes did not fare so well.

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Eventually a catholic priest named
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

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called the people of Nueva España to arms

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for their country's independence

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and he was cptured and killed

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but even that didn't stop Mexico

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from becoming it's own constitutional monarchy in 1821.

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Time for some revolution.

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The country began to do pretty well

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economically under a stable
yet super corrupt dictatorship

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by Porfirio Diaz.

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Yet, native Americans
who have been assimilated

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into Mexican society

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became increasingly poor and angry,

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as they were forced to grow cash crops

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that they couldn't actually eat.

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The rising middle class were also kind of pissed

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that their government had become pay-to-play

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and both groups joined together
to take the regime down.

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They established a liberal democracy
after overthrowing the dictator

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and a wealthy idealist
named Francisco Madero

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was elected president

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and I'm not going to sugarcoat

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he was assassinated pretty quickly

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before he could do anything.

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Mexican-American War

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In the 1840's US president Polk

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had his eyes set on some Mexican territory.

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When they turned his offer down to buy them,

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he moved troops into the disputed zone

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between the Rio Grande and Nueces River.

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Mexico thought that was less than chill,

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given our recent annexation of Texas.

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And they responded by sending in a calvary

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and killing about 12 US soldiers.

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That obviously meant war and the

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And the US Army proceeded 
to defeat Mexico

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along pretty much the same route
that Cortez had taken

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when fighting the Aztecs,

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And Mexico lost.

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They were forced to sell all of their land
and north of the Rio Grande

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for 15 million dollars,