History

Inhabited for more than 20,000 years, the area produced great civilizations in AD 100-900, the Olmec, Toltec, Mayan, and Aztec. The Aztec were conquered in 1521 by Spanish explorer H. Cortés, who established Mexico City on the site of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán. Francisco de Montejo conquered the remnants of Maya civilization in 1526, and Mexico became part of the viceroyalty of New Spain.

The Modern period began with the War of Independence (1810-1821). The priest Miguel Hidalgo initiated a revolt against the Spanish rule on the 16th of September, 1810. This date is Mexico's National Day. In 1821 the first independent government was established and in 1822 Agustín de Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico.
Dictatorial rule and economic development started, foreign investment was encouraged with the aim of exploiting raw materials and promoting industrial development. However, the social unrest and the political opposition to the regime of Porfirio Díaz triggered the Mexican Revolution.
Francisco I. Madero was elected as the new President but was assassinated in 1911. With his assassination the Mexican Revolution started. Various factions lead by Emiliano Zapata in the south, Francisco Villa in the north and others, took up arms against Dictator Victoriano Huerta, who had ordered the murder of Madero and Vice President Pino Suarez.

Under the new leadership of Venustiano Carranza, the Constitution was approved in 1917, which was one of the most advanced of its time due to its high social content.

In 1929, the National Mexican Party (PNM) was formed by the serving president, General Plutarco Elías Calles. (It would later become the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) that ruled the country for the rest of the 20th century). The PNM succeeded in convincing most of the remaining revolutionary generals to dissolve their personal armies to create the Mexican Army, and so its foundation is considered by some the real end of the Mexican Revolution.

President Lázaro Cárdenas came to power in 1934 and transformed Mexico. On April 1, 1936 he exiled Calles, the last general with dictatorial ambitions, thereby removing the army from power. Cárdenas managed to unite the different forces in the PRI and set the rules that allowed this party to rule unchallenged for decades to come without internal fights.

He nationalized the oil industry on March 18, 1938, the electricity industry, created the National Polytechnic Institute, granted asylum to Spanish exptriates fleeing the Spanish Civil War, started land reform, started the distribution of free textbooks for children, and, in general, pursued policies that for good or ill have marked the development of Mexico until the present day.

In 1995 President Ernesto Zedillo faced an economic crisis. There were public demonstrations in Mexico City and constant military presence As a result of popular discontent, the presidential candidate of the National Action Party, (PAN) Vicente Fox Quesada won the federal election of July 2, 2000, but did not win a majority in the chambers of congress. The results of this election ended 71 years of PRI hegemony in the presidency.

Many in Mexico claim that, even if Fox won the election, President Zedillo did not give his party (PRI) a chance to dispute the results of the election by making Fox's victory "official" by addressing the nation the same night of the election, a first in Mexican politics (and in other places, too, where it is more normal for the losing candidate to admit defeat, rather than the outgoing incumbent). One reason offered for this is that Zedillo sought a quick and peaceful election in 2000 to avoid another crisis after the change of government.