The history of Mexico, similar to its upper neighbor of the United States, includes a
significant period of colonization followed by a war for independence.
After the Spaniards toppled the Aztec Empire in the 16th century, their influence spread
throughout the region until the Napoleonic occupation of Spain complicated matters in
the 1800s.
A rebellion was inevitable as the Mexican people grew tired of their overbearing colonizers
and finally reached their limit.
The Spanish had first become involved in Mexico back in 1519 when Hernán Cortés set sail
with an ultimate goal of colonization.
Originally, Governor Diego Velázquez authorized Hernán’s expedition to Mexico but pulled
out his support before the latter could leave.
Cortés was unbothered by the governor’s change of mind and decided to go nevertheless.
Along the way, he made a stop in Trinidad in order to pick up more men and horses before
finishing his journey with roughly 11 ships, 500 men, and 13 horses.
He then anchored in Tabasco in February of 1519 and was eventually invited by the Aztec
Emperor, Montezuma II, to the capital of Tenochtitlán due to the emperor’s belief that Cortés
may be the serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, who was prophesied to return that year.
Emperor Montezuma treated Cortés as an honored guest, completely unaware of his true intentions,
or the fact that the conquistador had kindled many new friendships and found local allies,
who were unsatisfied with the Aztec rule, throughout his quest to Tenochtitlán.
Cortés saw his chance and jumped on it, taking the emperor himself hostage and commanding
a raid of the capital city, which housed over 140,000 inhabitants.
While Cortés was leading his so-far-successful incursion, he got news of another Spanish
expedition on its way from Cuba led by Pánfilo Narváez to arrest Cortés for sailing to
Mexico without Governor Diego Velázquez’s support and end his conquest.
Cortés refused to be stopped and decided to leave the city temporarily to face Narváez
head-on, leaving Pedro de Alvarado and a few hundred soldiers, a combination of Spanish
and Tlaxcaltecs, to maintain control of Tenochtitlán until his return.
Unfortunately, Alvarado decided to handle things with extreme measures and massacred
some of the empire’s chiefs, sparking a vicious rebellion from the Aztec troops.
When Cortés returned, he and his troops were forced to retreat as the Aztecs triumphantly
fought back.
Although the Spaniards managed to kill Emperor Montezuma, they lost most of the progress
they had made before the retreat.
In one night, the Spaniards are believed to have lost around half of their forces on what
is known now as the Night of Sorrows.
Those who managed to escape were wounded and plagued with exhaustion, as well as having
lost their cannons along with their men.
Most of their gunpowder was also spent and they were lucky to find a friendly province,
Tlaxcala, to recuperate.
Meanwhile, the Aztecs’ new emperor, Cuitláhuac, was in no mood to forgive and forget.
Instead, he brought together as many soldiers as he could to create a highly numbered army
under the command of his brother, Matlatzincatzin, and sent them off to crush the Spaniards one
final time.
The worn-down remainder of Cortés’ troop met with the Aztecs at the Valley of Otumba
either on or near July 7th of 1520.
While the Aztecs profoundly outnumbered Cortés and his army, the Spanish were experienced
veterans and had notably more superior armor and weaponry.
Still, the Aztecs seemed to take the upper hand early on into the conflict.
Cortés was unwavered by this though, and concocted a new dangerous yet genius plan.
After catching sight of Matlatzincatzin and his generals thanks to their brightly colored
apparel, the Spaniard gathered his most highly skilled horsemen, Alonso de Avila, Cristobal
de Olid, Juan de Salamanca, Pablo de Sandoval, and Pedro de Alvarado, and made a sudden rush
toward the Aztec captains.
The latter were completely bewildered and the surprise sent Matlatzincatzin stumbling,
giving Juan de Salamanca the chance to strike him down with his lance.
The Spaniards turned the tide of the battle in their favor and the Aztec army, now without
command, retreated.
Although the unexpected and quite frankly miraculous victory was remarkably important
for the Spanish conquistadors, it still left Cortés himself severely wounded, and some
of his men dead.
When they returned to Tlaxcala once again to rest and recover, Cortés fell into a coma
for a few days while his men awaited their next mission.
Nonetheless, by mid-August 1521, the Spaniards retook Tenochtitlan and officially toppled
the Aztec Empire.
Cortés was now able to begin colonizing Mexico, which he named Nueva España, or New Spain.
By 1547, the Spaniards dominated the majority of what had once been the Aztec Empire’s,
whilst they enslaved the indigenous people who did not already die from the deadly diseases
the conquistadors has brought with them.
It is estimated that by 1605, roughly 24 million natives had been killed by such diseases.
The Spanish also began to convert the locals to Catholicism as early as 1523 when missionaries
arrived in New Spain.
The building of churches and monasteries began, and the Catholic Church started to gain an
influence over the region.
After a couple centuries of the Catholic Church’s impact on New Spain continued to grow, Spains
contemporary king, King Carlos III, became concerned about their increasing power in
the colony.
His main criticism was aimed at the Society of Jesus.
The Jesuits had gradually expanded their influence in New Spain as they evangelized the indigenous
people and worked to educate the elite class of criollo, which were Spaniards born in the
colony.
King Carlos was unwilling to risk losing the crown’s hold over the region and expelled
678 Jesuits from New Spain in 1767 and sent them into exile in Italy.
Many of the locals, both indigenous and criollos, were angered by the king’s decision, adding
on to the already lengthening list of complaints against Spain from their colony.
Still, the first sign of weakness from the colonizing nation only came in 1808 when Napoleon
Boneparte entered the picture.
The eruption of the Peninsular War in the Iberian Peninsula distracted the Spanish from
some of their outward endeavors, as Napoleon attempted to occupy both Spain and Portugal
in response to a Portuguese refusal to cut off trade with the British and issue a declaration
of war.
Although Spain and France had been allies since 1796, Bonaparte ordered 30,000 men to
march through Spain and into Portugal, in the fall of 1807 and seemed to throw out any
notion of remaining loyal to his Iberian ally.
When the French troops took Portugal, they also began to occupy parts of northern Spain,
forcing King Charles IV of Spain to attempt to leave the country, just as his Portuguese
counterparts had done, fleeing to Brazil before the French could capture them.
The king’s escape was interrupted by revolutionaries known as the Ferdandista faction who forced
Charles to abdicate in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII.
While Charles was busy dealing with this obstacle, Napoleon seized his chance to take Madrid
and sent General Joachim Murat to do just that.
Using both bribery and intimidation, Bonaparte was then able to get Charles and Ferdinand
to attend conferences in Bayonne, during which Ferdinand abdicated in favor of Charles, who
then gave the throne up to Napoleon on May 5th, 1808.
Napoleon agreed to allow Spain to stay an independent Roman Catholic nation, and placed
it under the rule of his brother, Joseph Bonaparte.
At this point, the Spanish began a steady fight for independence, which continued to
distract their focus and involvement from New Spain, where tensions continued to rise.
On September 16th, 1810, a Catholic priest from the town of Dolores in New Spain, by
the name of Miquel Hidalgo y Costilla, called for a rebellion against their colonizers.
His demand became known as Grito de Dolores, or the Cry of Dolores, after reading it aloud
in the town for all to hear.
This kicked off the Mexican War of Independence, all while Spain was still locked in Napoleon’s
Peninsular War.
Thousands of indigenous men and mestizos, those of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent,
answered Hidalgo’s call and a populist army was formed.
Initially, the priests mission was a failure, as he and his rebels were defeated at Calderón
in January of 1811 after attempting to take the capital.
Though they had captured some cities along their way to the capital, Hidalgo himself
faced a gruesome end in a short matter of time.
Following an attempt to flee further north into the United States, the rebel was captured,
stripped of his priesthood and executed by firing squad.
Still, the people of New Spain were far from finished.
Another revolutionary priest, José María Morelos y Pavón, teamed up with a former
Spanish Royalist army general, Agustín Iturbide, in additon to other rebel leaders such as
Vicente Guerrero.
When a new liberal government came to power in Spain as of 1820, they attempted to settle
the revolution and appease their colony with new reforms, but the conservative portion
of New Spain was unsatisfied with the new plan and joined the call for independence.
The following year, Agustín de Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero authored the Plan of Iguala,
which would establish the colony’s independence and create a new constitutional monarchy.
The new independent Mexico would also remain aligned with the Roman Catholic Church and
treat the Spaniards born in Mexico as any other Spaniard.
Indigenous Mexicans or those of mixed descent would not have equal rights or privilege,
however.
The remaining Royalist forces who opposed the revolution were finally defeated and the
new Spanish viceroy was put in a difficult position.
Being devoid of any necessary resources or even troops he’d require to refuse, the
viceroy, Juan de O’Donojú signed the Treaty of Córdoba on August 24th, 1821.
This treaty recognized Mexican independence and confirmed the formation of a constitutional
monarchy.
When no ruler of Bourbon blood could be found, Iturbide was crowned the first emperor of
Mexico instead.
Iturbide’s reign was short lived though and Antonio López de Santa Anna alongside
Guadalupe Victoria overthrew the emperor and wrote a new constitution that would replace
the empire with a federal republic made up of 19 states and four territories.
Guadalupe Victoria become the first president and Antonio López de Santa Anna became a
general, most notably known for his successful siege of the Alamo during Texas’ war for
independence in 1836.
General Lopez and his Mexican troops won the Battle of the Alamo, although Texas would
gain independence later that year, which Mexico bluntly ignored until the end of the Mexican-American
War that cost them Texas, California, and the Southwest.
While General Lopez also spent some time serving as President of Mexico, he was eventually
exiled after multiple times been so before, and was unable to return until shortly before
his death in 1876.
By this point, France had already occupied Mexico for a short time before leaving in
1867, and Porfírio Díaz became a new controversial president in the 1870s.
His dictatorship led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, triggering a civil war costing roughly
2 million lives.
Finally, beginning in 1934, the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas brought much needed stability
and development for the nation.
Today, although Mexico still has its struggles and challenges, it is a fully independent
country and a founding member of the United Nations.