history of Mexico

…a French satellite state in Mexico. The battle, which ended in a Mexican victory, is celebrated in the national calendar of Mexican holidays as Cinco de Mayo (5th of May).

The French intervention in Mexico (1862–67), although not a success for France, proved the salvation of the legion, once again on the verge of disbandment. It participated in some interesting tactical experiments, such as mounted units, and also staked out what would become its defining legend on April 30,…

…Austria and the emperor of Mexico, a man whose naive liberalism proved unequal to the international intrigues that had put him on the throne and to the brutal struggles within Mexico that led to his execution.

…brief and minor conflict between Mexico and France, arising from the claim of a French pastry cook living in Tacubaya, near Mexico City, that some Mexican army officers had damaged his restaurant. A number of foreign powers had pressed the Mexican government without success to pay for losses that some…

The independence of Mexico, like that of Peru, the other major central area of Spain’s American empire, came late. As was the case in Lima, Mexican cities had a powerful segment of Creoles and peninsular Spaniards whom the old imperial system…

…that declared the independence of Mexico from Spain and drafted a constitution, which received final approval (Oct. 22, 1814) at the Congress of Apatzingán. José María Morelos y Pavón, who called the congress at Chilpancingo, had assumed leadership of the Mexican independence movement after the execution of its initiator, Miguel…

…plan called for an independent Mexico ruled by a European prince (or by a Mexican—i.e., Iturbide himself—if no European could be found), retention by the Roman Catholic Church and the military of all of their powers, equal rights for creoles and peninsulares (those of Spanish ancestry on both sides, born…

…viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico). In 1821 they became independent from Spain, and in 1822 they were joined to the ephemeral empire of Mexico, ruled by Agustín de Iturbide. Following Iturbide’s abdication in March 1823, delegates from the Central American provinces, representing mostly upper-class creoles, assembled at Guatemala City…

…the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The pact effectively created a free-trade bloc among the three largest countries of North America. NAFTA went into effect in 1994 and remained in force until it was replaced in 2020.

…of the 30-year dictatorship in Mexico and the establishment of a constitutional republic.

…10, 1919, Morelos) was a Mexican revolutionary, champion of agrarianism, who fought in guerrilla actions during and after the Mexican Revolution (1910–20).

…bring genuine political democracy to Mexico. The dictatorship, decaying from within, collapsed, but it was many years before the country settled down, since Madero’s uprising unleashed forces that neither he nor anyone else could control. Miners, urban workers, and peasants saw an opportunity to seek redress of their own grievances,…

…1864 she accompanied Maximilian to Mexico to accept the Mexican crown offered him by Napoleon III of France. The ambitious Carlota welcomed her authority in Mexico, learned Spanish, and became genuinely interested in Mexican history, art, and culture. When in 1866 Napoleon withdrew his troops in the face of Mexican…

…the United States, drove a Mexican force from San Antonio and occupied the Alamo. Some Texan leaders—including Sam Houston, who had been named commanding general of the Texas army the month before—counseled the abandonment of San Antonio as impossible to defend with the small body of troops available, but the…

Mexico had been experiencing economic, political, and social problems since the Mexican Revolution (1910–20). As a result, many of the country’s citizens immigrated to the United States. During U.S. involvement in World War I (1914–18), Mexican workers helped support the U.S. economy. However, after the…

…including the many migrants and Mexican nationals who cross the border in harvest seasons. Long abused, migrant laborers organized in the late 1960s under the leadership of Cesar Chavez and began lengthy strikes that drew nationwide support in the form of consumer boycotts. Thereafter, however, Chavez’s United Farm Workers union…

…settlers known as Californios when Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821. Between 1833 and 1840 the mission ranches were parceled out to political favorites by the Mexican government. The padres withdrew, and the Native Americans were cruelly exploited and diminished. In 1841 the first wagon train of settlers left…

…conquest of much of northern Mexico by the United States in 1848. Known in Mexican history as the sale of the Mesilla Valley, it assigned to the United States nearly 30,000 additional square miles (78,000 square km) of northern Mexican territory (La Mesilla), now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico,…

…of more than half of Mexico’s territory to the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War in 1848. The ceded territory covered more than 525,000 square miles (1,360,000 square km), including land that is now part of the U.S. states of…

…on a special mission to Mexico in 1822 and 1823, publishing an account of his experiences in Notes on Mexico in 1824. In 1825 he became the first U.S. minister to Mexico, a post he held until 1829. Deeply involved in Mexican politics, he finally became persona non grata to…

…the mark of Spain and Mexico in their architecture and place-names. With the urbanization of the state in the late 20th century and the decrease in the demand for agricultural workers, large Hispanic populations have converged on the major metropolitan centers that lie farther from the border. Spanish remains the…

…signed on February 2, 1848, Mexico gave up its claim to Texas and also ceded area now in the U.S. states of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, and western Colorado. Texas claimed most of this additional area but later relinquished it in the Compromise of 1850.

Mexico, which was torn by revolution and counterrevolution, proved most vexing of all. First adopting a policy of “watchful waiting” and then seeking to overthrow the military dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta only dragged the United States into interventions by the navy at Veracruz in 1914…

…administration with an uprising in Mexico, set off when a military usurper, Victoriano Huerta, murdered liberal president Francisco Madero and seized the executive power in February 1913. It was difficult for the United States to remain aloof because Americans had invested heavily in Mexico and 40,000 U.S. citizens resided there.

…in that same month the Mexican president, Venustiano Carranza, whose country’s relations with the United States had been critical since March, had virtually offered bases on the Mexican coast to the Germans for their submarines. Zimmermann on January 16, 1917, sent a coded telegram to his ambassador in Mexico instructing…

…of a sensational proposal to Mexico to enter into an alliance against the United States.