History of Mexico

The history of the territory and peoples of Mexico, from ancient civilizations through Spanish rule, independence, and the modern nation-state.

Olmec civilization: An early Mesoamerican civilization known for monumental stone sculpture and influential regional traditions. Its formative societies preceded the better-known states of central Mexico.
New Spain: The Spanish viceroyalty that governed Mexico and other territories in North America and the Pacific from 1535 to 1821. Its institutions governed the territory during the colonial era.
Mesoamerica: A cultural region of ancient Mexico and Central America linked by shared practices, crops, and traditions. Mexico's earliest complex societies developed within this wider cultural region.
Moctezuma II: The Mexica ruler who governed the Aztec Empire when Hernán Cortés arrived in 1519. His reign coincided with the crisis that ended the empire's independence.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War and transferred a vast northern territory from Mexico to the United States. It redrew Mexico's northern border and sharply reduced its territory.
Aztec Empire: A powerful alliance of Nahua city-states centered on Tenochtitlan in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Its defeat by Spain transformed the region's political order.
Encomienda: A Spanish colonial grant that assigned Indigenous communities' tribute and labor to a colonist, in principle under Crown oversight. It helped convert conquest into control over Indigenous labor and tribute.
Maya civilization: A Mesoamerican civilization known for independent city-states, hieroglyphic writing, mathematics, and monumental architecture. Maya societies flourished in parts of present-day Mexico before and after Spanish conquest.
Hernán Cortés: A Spanish conquistador who led the campaign against the Aztec Empire and founded Spanish rule in central Mexico. His alliance-building and campaigns helped establish colonial government.
Reform War: A Mexican civil war from 1857 to 1861 between liberals and conservatives over the country's political and religious order. Its liberal victory reshaped the republic before French intervention.

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