History

Mexico was the site of some of the earliest civilizations in the western hemisphere. Archaeological evidence suggests that the area was populated by hunting peoples as early as 21,000 B.C.E., and by agriculturalists in 8,000 C.E. A number of highly advanced cultures inhabited Mexico prior to the Spanish conquest, the most well known today being the Olmecs, the Mayas, the Toltecs and the Aztecs. When Spaniards landed in Mexico in the early 16th century, they encountered the great cities and intricate social and political structures of the Aztec empire throughout the Valley of Mexico.

During the period from 1519 to 1521, Spaniard Hernan Cortes led the conquest of Mexico and claimed the territory as a Spanish colony. In the period from 1535 to 1821, 61 Spanish viceroys ruled the colony. The Spanish government implemented the "encomienda system," which granted large pieces of land to Spanish nobles, priests and soldiers. The Native American majority became the subjugated laboring class under the encomienda system, and although reforms to the system were decreed by Spain, they were largely ineffectual because of the difficulty of enforcement. The result was the development of rigid social classes that ran along ethnic lines. Native Americans, mestizos, black slaves and freed slaves made up the bottom segment of the population. The European population made up the top echelon, but within this segment, there were other divisions. Those born and raised in Spain, the peninsulares, of pure European descent, held the highest colonial offices and were elevated above the criollos, who were born and raised in Mexico.

The colonial administration was rife with inefficiency and corruption, and by the 19th century, growing criollo resentment weakened the link between the colony and Spain. Factional struggles between peninsulares and criollos as well as opposition to the subjugation of the Native American population stimulated a political rebellion, and on Sept. 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo declared independence from Spain. This led to the Mexican War of Independence. Eleven years after the beginning of the war, a treaty was finally signed in 1821 that recognized Mexico’s independence from Spain and called for a constitutional monarchy. The planned monarchy failed, and a republic was proclaimed in December 1822 and established in 1824. Prominent figures in Mexico's war for independence were Father Jose Maria Morelos; Gen. Augustin de Iturbide, who defeated the Spaniards and ruled as Mexican emperor from 1822-23; and Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, who went on to control Mexican politics from 1833 to 1855.

Conflict arose in the 1840s with Texas, which declared its independence from Mexico in 1846. The United States then went to war with Mexico from 1846-48 over border disputes. In 1848, the Rio Grande was fixed as the boundary between the countries, and Texas became part of the U.S. The Gladsen Purchase in 1853 clarified the New Mexico border and added more territory to the U.S, thus reducing the size of Mexico.

In 1854, a liberal revolt began, marking a long and fierce struggle between the powerful elite who had dominated Mexico and the liberals who demanded greater democratization. The great leader to emerge from this revolution was Native American Benito Pablo Juárez, who occupied the Mexican presidency from 1858 to 1871, except for the period between 1864 and 1867, when the Hapsburg monarchy ruled Mexico. Napoleon III of France ordered troops to overthrow the Mexican government in response to a number of nationalist measures enacted by Juarez that affected the colonial interests of European powers in Mexico. Archduke Maximilian of Austria ruled Mexico until his deposition and execution by Juarez in 1867.

Although Juárez was re-elected president in 1871, a number of insurrections, led by Gen. Porfirio Díaz, followed, and Juárez finally died in 1872. Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada succeeded him, but in 1877, Porfirio Díaz was elected president. Diaz was president during most of the period between 1877 and 1911. His economic policies favored the elite and detrimentally impacted the Native American population whose communal lands were displaced.

Severe social and economic turmoil and inequality in Mexico led to a revolution that lasted a decade, from 1910-1920. The Mexican Revolution gave rise to the 1917 constitution that restored communal lands to the Native Americans under a system called "ejido" and implemented a number of nationalist measures. Prominent leaders in this period—some of whom were rivals for power - were Francisco I. Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Pancho Villa, Alvaro Obregon, Victoriano Huerta and Emiliano Zapata.

In 1929, a coalition of interests that emerged after the chaos of the revolution developed into a significant political force and the official government party. This entity, called the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), eventually became the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which controlled the national government throughout the rest of the twentieth century. A party designed for power, the PRI’s mechanisms for success involved a combination of repressive measures and, more frequently, measures such as hand-outs and patronage that ensured popular consent and legitimacy. The party professed no specific ideology, enabling it to adapt to changing social, economic and political forces over time. It attached itself to labor unions, civic interest movements, peasant groups and virtually all aspects of civil society, excluding business, and in this way, it become the political extension and tool of the government.

In 1932, the PNR put forth a co-operative economic plan that was oriented toward socialism. The PNR plan was enacted in 1934, with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas as president, who emphasized agrarian reform, social welfare and education. In 1938, the Cárdenas administration carried out the expropriation of U.S. and British multi-national oil corporations and the subsequent nationalization of the oil industry. Mexican nationalism soared, and minor disputes with the United States over the conditions of the expropriations ensued.

In September 1939, the first authentic opposition party to the PRI, called the National Action Party (PAN), was formed. Mainly composed of business sector members, the PAN opposed what it saw as the PRI’s populist nature and tactics. The PRI showed no resistance to the formation of the PAN because it enabled the ruling party to claim democratic competition and to more easily monitor its opposition.

In 1940, Manuel Ávila Camacho was elected president. More conservative than former President Cárdenas, Ávila Camacho fostered friendlier relations between Mexico and the U.S. As such, Mexico supported the U.S. efforts in World War II. After the war, in 1949, national elections were held, with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the former PNR, winning decisively.

In 1952, PRI candidate Adolfo Ruiz Cortines became president. Adolfo Lopéz Mateos, who, in turn, was followed in 1964 by Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, succeeded him in 1958. Díaz Ordaz enacted a program of economic development, in addition to a controversial non-interference policy on the matter of Cuban terrorists, which ultimately alienated many western hemisphere states. Well into the 1970s, anti-government agitation took place as a result of his policies and programs.

In 1970, Luis Echeverría Álvarez became president and pursued a more moderate economic and political strategy. From 1970 to 1974, the Mexican economy grew, and all levels of society appeared to benefit. By 1975, however, excessive government borrowing led to a marked decrease in overall growth. Elected in 1976, President José López Portillo nationalized banks and implemented a program of economic austerity, while continuing to borrow and spend hugely. Corruption soared, along with foreign debt, and the peso was devalued.

During the 1980s, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado was elected president, but the country was rapidly plunging into massive foreign debt. The earthquake of 1985 further burdened the already devastating financial situation.

In 1989, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, son of Lázaro Cárdenas, broke away from the PRI to form the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Mexico’s first significant left-wing force, the PRD ranged in its membership from former guerrillas and communists to middle class professionals and union leaders.

As the PRD’s candidate in the 1989 presidential elections, Cárdenas stressed anti-corruption, and was a major contender. PRI candidate Carlos Salinas de Gotari did secure the presidency, but with surprising difficulty. He received barely 50 percent of the vote to Cárdenas’ 33 percent.

Salinas carried out political reforms during his presidency that were surprising to many. The Supreme Court was given more autonomy from the executive, the National Electoral System was granted independence from the PRI, and the federal government intervened when PRI members were accused of stuffing ballots.

Salinas pursued a program of orthodox economic reforms and rapid privatization, in an effort to salvage the economy. To this end, Mexico, along with the U.S. and Canada, signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1992, which went into effect in 1994. NAFTA eliminated constraints on trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada, and placed limits on European and Asian investments. The agreement promised benefits to Mexico such as the modernization of the production system, the creation of jobs and salary increases, although those measures were not put into effect.

In an attempt to increase competition and efficiency, the Salinas administration privatized banks, as well as the state telephone monopoly, Telmex. He made the extremely risky political move of closing down the "ejido" system in 1991, which resulted in the displacement of many small landowners and rapid urban migration, in order to modernize the agricultural system. Many of Salinas’ ambitious reforms provided him with opportunities to win favors from wealthy investors, and thus, his presidency was heavy with corruption.

Unexpected and traumatic events in early 1994 shook the Mexican political scene. In January 1994, peasants in the southern state of Chiapas took up arms against the government, protesting oppression and governmental indifference to poverty. Under the leadership of a man known as Sub-Comandante Marcos, a group of Native Americans called the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) captured four towns in Chiapas and demanded social and political reform from the Salinas administration.

After nearly two weeks of fighting, the clashes were halted by a cease-fire that remains in effect. The government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) have negotiated on topics such as granting greater autonomy to indigenous people since then, but the partial peace accords that were reached have not been fully implemented.

In March 1994 PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta was assassinated. In September 1994 PRI Secretary General Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu was also assassinated. Although the gunmen in both murders and co-conspirators in the Ruiz Massieu murder were eventually tried and convicted, the Mexican public was not satisfied that all the truth behind these crimes had been uncovered. In 1995, a flurry of public scandals unfolded regarding supposed attempts at obstruction of justice in the cases and allegations of major corruption in police, judicial, military and other authorities, as well as big business, including allegations of ties in those sectors to narcotics trafficking. Raul Salinas, the brother of former President Carlos Salinas, was convicted in 1999 of being the mastermind of the Ruiz Massieu assassination.

Colosio Murrieta's successor, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, won the August 1994 election and was sworn in as president at the end of 1994. A record 78 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the 1994 presidential election. Election officials declared Luis Donaldo Colosio’s successor, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon of the ruling PRI party the winner with 48.8 percent of the vote. Conservative Partido Acción National (National Action Party or PAN) candidate, Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, received 25.9 percent, while Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano of the social-democratic Partido de la Revolución Democrática (Party of the Democratic Revolution or PRD) received 16.6 percent. Cecilia Soto Gonzalez of the Partido del Trabajo (Labor Party or PT) garnered 2.7 percent of the vote. Various other candidates accounted for the remaining vote percentage.

Despite isolated incidents of irregularities and problems, there was no evidence of systematic attempts to manipulate the elections or their results, and critics concluded that the irregularities that did occur did not alter the outcome of the presidential vote. Civic organizations fielded more than 80,000 trained electoral observers. Foreigners, many from the United States, were invited to witness the process, and numerous independent "quick count" operations and exit polls validated the official vote tabulation.