Mexico History in 5 Minutes - Animated Timeline and Facts

Mexico is the 11th most populous country
in the world with 121 million people.

Mexico is among the world's 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 maize, 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 Zapotec

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 whose 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 Xochicalco and Cholula

During the early post classic period
central Mexico was dominated by the

Toltec culture.
Oaxaca by the Mixtec and the lowland

Maya area had important centres and
Chichen Itza and Mayapan.

The Aztecs, the last of pre-Colombian
Mexico's great native civilizations

rose to prominence in the central valley
of Mexico around 1427 by partnering with

the Toltecs and Mayans.

This triple alliance conquered smaller
cultures to the east and west until the

Aztec empire spanned Mexico from the
Pacific Ocean to the Gulf Coast.

The Spanish first learned of Mexico during
the Juan de Grijalva expedition of 1518.

The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
began in February 1519 when Hernan Cortes

arrived at the port of Veracruz.

After taking control of that city he moved
on to the Aztec capital.

In his search for gold and other riches,
Cortes decided to invade and conquer the

Aztec empire.

The territory became part of the Spanish
empire under the name of New Spain in 1535

Much of the identity, traditions and
architecture of Mexico developed during

the 286-year colonial period.

Cortes then colonized the area and named
it Nueva Espana, New Spain.

By 1574, Spain controlled a large portion
of the Aztec empire and had enslaved most

of the indigenous population.

Worse, the diseases brought into the
society by the Spaniards devastated the

indigenous population of Nueva Espana,
killing an estimated 24 million people

between 1521 and 1605.

As a result of its trade links with Asia,
the rest of the Americas, Africa and

Europe and the profound effect of
new world silver, Central Mexico was one

of the first regions to be incorporated
into a globalized economy

being at the crossroads of trade, people
and cultures, Mexico City has been called

the First World City.

The Catholic church's influence was felt
in the region when missionaries began

arriving in 1523.

The missionaries built many monasteries
and converted millions of people to

Catholicism.

Concerned about the Catholic church's
ever-growing power, King Carlos III of

Spain expelled the Jesuits from
Nueva Espana in the late 1700s.

Inspired by the American and French
revolutions, Mexican insurgence saw an

opportunity in 1808 as the King abdicated
in Madrid in Spain and was overwhelmed by

war and occupation.

The rebellion began as an idealistic
peasants and miners' movement led by a

local priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
who issued the Cry of Dolores on the 16th

of September 1810.

The day is celebrated as Independence Day.

Mexico's short recovery after the war of
independence was soon cut short again by

the civil wars and institutional
instability of the 1850s which lasted

until the government of Porfirio Diaz
reestablished conditions that paved the

way for economic growth.

Agustin de Iturbide became constitutional
emperor of the first Mexican Empire in

1822.

A revolt against him established the
United Mexican States.

Later a Republican Constitution is drafted
and Guadalupe Victoria became the first

president of the newly born country.

During this time, people had difficulty
meeting tax payments and resented the

central government's actions in collecting
customs due to limited trade.

The United States' annexation of the
Republic of Texas and subsequent American

military incursion into territory that was
part of Coahuila instigated the

Mexican American war.

The war was settled in 1848 via the
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Mexico was forced to give up more than one
third of its land to the US including

Alta California, New Mexico and the
territory claimed by Texas.

In the 1860s, Mexico was occupied by
France which established the second

Mexican Empire under the rule of Habsburg
Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria

with the support of the Roman Catholic
clergy and the Conservatives.

France never made a profit in Mexico and
its Mexican expedition grew increasingly

unpopular.

Finally, in the spring of 1865, after the
US Civil War was over, the US demanded the

withdrawal of French troops from Mexico.

Porfirio Diaz was elected the 29th
president in the late 19th century

the period known as the Porfiriato was
characterised by economic stability and

growth, significant foreign investment and
influence.

The Mexican revolution began when Madero
issued the Plan of San Luis Potosi and

declared war on the Diaz regime.

By 1911 Diaz is forced to step aside and
Madero was elected president

but conflict and violence continue for the
better part of the next decade.

World War II further stimulated the
nation's development through the

development of roads, the building of
factories and the establishment of

irrigation systems.

Until the 80s, Mexico remained a poor
country but experienced substantial

economic growth that some historians
call The Mexican Miracle.

In recent years, the Mexican economy has
had an unprecedented macroeconomic

stability.

Its economy has integrated with that of
US and also Canada after the

North American Free Trade Agreement.

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