Eight US States are on land
that used to belong to Mexico.
Welcome to History Lists.
Let's talk about things used to be south of Texas.
The Mayans.
These guys thrived in the Yucatán Peninsula
for over a 1000 years
The Mayans are known for their advanced knowledge
in astronomy and mathematics
They understood the concept of zero centuries before Europeans did
and developed the only writing system
in the pre-Columbian Americas.
Their cities were complex.
Housing schools, libraries, hospitals, and even sport arenas.
What makes this all even more impressive
is that the Mayans didn't have rivers, lakes or natural springs
providing the freshwater the people needed.
They had to develop an intricate series of channels
and chill dunes in order to redirect and store
enough rain to keep things going.
Weirdly enough, by the time the Spanish showed up in the "new" world
they were puzzled to find out that many of these great cities
had already been abandoned.
Even today we are still not sure what happened
but it seems likely that disease coupled with drought
and the abuse of their environment
led to their civilizations's collapse.
Number 2: let's talk about some Aztecs.
These people call themselves the Mexica
which is where the country of Mexico
would eventually get it's name.
They built their society on top of chinampas
which are manmade islands held together by roots,
stakes, lake sediments and probably feces.
Like the Mayans they enjoyed developing chocolate,
sacrificing humans to their gods and playing ulama
which was a sport that often ended in injury or death
and was possibly even used to resolve conflicts between states
rather than going to war.
They ruled over five million people in their empire
that stretched from coast to coast
and they demanded a lot of tribute.
They were not super beloved by all their subjects
and when Cortez rolled in
he was able to turn much of their empire against them.
The Aztecs were hit with a civilization-ending triple-whammy:
famine, smallpox, and being betrayed from the inside.
I'm just saying that sacrificing people a lot
might have backfired on them — just a possibility.
and this paved the way for Spanish colonization.
Tenochtitlan was razed to the ground
and built over it was Nueva España as new Capital.
Mexico City.
Since the Tlaxcalans were instrumental in defeating the Aztecs,
the Spanish allowed them to keep their indigenous names
and some of their traditional forms of government
Other tribes did not fare so well.
Eventually a catholic priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
called the people of Nueva España to arms
for their country's independence
and he was captured and killed
but even that didn't stop Mexico
from becoming it's own constitutional monarchy in 1821.
Time for some revolution.
The country began to do pretty well economically
under a stable, yet super corrupt dictatorship
by Porfirio Diaz.
Yet, native Americans who have been assimilated
into Mexican society
became increasingly poor and angry,
as they were forced to grow cash crops
that they couldn't actually eat.
The rising middle class were also kind of pissed
that their government had become pay-to-play
and both groups joined together to take the regime down.
They established a liberal democracy after overthrowing their dictator
and a wealthy idealist named Francisco Madero
was elected president
and I'm not going to sugarcoat it
he was assassinated pretty quickly
before he could do anything.
Mexican-American War
In the 1840's US president Polk
had his eyes set on some Mexican territory.
When they turned his offer down to buy them,
he moved troops into the disputed zone
between the Rio Grande and Nueces River.
Mexico thought that was less than chill,
given our recent annexation of Texas.
And they responded by sending in the cavalry
and killing about 12 US soldiers.
That obviously meant war and the
And the US Army proceeded to defeat Mexico
along pretty much the same route that Cortez had taken
when fighting the Aztecs,
And Mexico lost.
They were forced to sell all of their land north of the Rio Grande
for 15 million dollars.