History of Mexico for children

1964

Mexico is a beautiful country, super successful, and with many tourist attractions. In today’s article, we will learn about how Mexico became a country, what native civilizations inhabited Mexican soil, and what battles allowed its independence. In addition, we will offer you additional relevant information so that you can enrich your general knowledge.

Mexico history

Before the arrival of Europeans, many Native American cultures existed in Mexico. The first was the Olmec culture in the south, which became famous for the large stone heads they made. In the Yucatan peninsula lived the Mayans, who built great cities and were ruled by kings. His time of power was between 200 and 900 AD. C.

Another great empire belonged to Teotihuacan, which was one of the largest cities of the time, until its later decline. It is there that the Toltecs became powerful. Things made by the latter have been found from the southern United States to Costa Rica. A famous Toltec god is Quetzalcóatl.

The subsequent decline of Toltec culture led to the rise of the Aztecs, who called their own empire Mexico. A famous Aztec king was Moctezuma II.

In 1519 the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico. The Aztecs thought that he was Quetzalcoatl who had returned, so they did not want to fight and, on the contrary, they ended up allying with the enemy. Two years later, they conquered the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire became part of Spain (From there it began to be called New Spain).

In 1810 the Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo began the war for Mexican independence. In 1821 the Spanish finally withdrew and Mexico became independent. The first leader of independent Mexico was Agustín de Iturbide. He established the first Mexican empire and became emperor. But the Mexicans weren’t happy with him, and in 1823 the country became a republic.

A man who was very important in Mexico at the beginning of the 19th century was Antonio López de Santa Anna, who was president of Mexico 11 times (becoming a dictator), and it is there that Texas decided to declare its independence (1836) through battle. from the Alamo. Between 1846 and 1848 there was war between Mexico and the United States. There, Mexico lost its large areas of the north, which became the southwestern United States. After it, Santa Anna was sent to Venezuela.

Between 1858 and 1861 there was war again, between liberals and conservatives. The liberal Benito Juárez won and became president until France invaded Mexico and made Maximilian of Habsburg emperor of the Second Mexican Empire. But the latter was very unpopular and, after successive wars, he was executed in 1867 to give Juarez the presidency again.

Conservatives thought that Juárez had too much power so in 1876 they expelled him and made Porfirio Díaz president, a general who had won a battle against the French. His management caused an increase in the social gap, which made the rich even richer, but the poor even poorer. Because of this, Franciso I. Madero started the Mexican Revolution in 1910.

The next 10 years the country was in chaos. There were many presidents who ruled for a short time and all kinds of people fought each other. Famous people from this period include Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and Francisco I. Madero. When Álvaro Obregón became president in 1920, the fighting died down.

In 1929, President Plutarco Elías Calles founded the Mexican National Party PNM, which was later renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI. Most of the PRI presidents were not popular, it was said that they were only popular to get rich. An exception was President Lázaro Cárdenas, who was president between 1934 and 1940.

After several decades, more and more people became unhappy with the PRI. In 1968, security forces fired on protesters, this caused several hundred deaths and became known as the Tlatelolco massacre. Another uprising was in 1994 when the Zapatistas rebelled in the province of Chiapas.

Mainly through fraud at the polls, the PRI managed to stay in power until 2000, when Vicente Fox, of the National Action Party, PAN, was elected president. In all, the PRI had ruled Mexico for 71 years.

Geography of Mexico

Mexico is located in the southern part of North America. It is triangular in shape and is more than 3,000 km (1,850 miles) long from northwest to southeast. Mexico is located between two great seas: the Pacific Ocean in the west and the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in the east. In turn, it has two large peninsulas, Baja California in the northwest and Yucatán in the southeast. In the center and west, are the Sierra Madre mountains. There is located the Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico, and other volcanoes such as Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.

Then to the north are large expanses of desert, while to the south are tropical forests. Some rivers in Mexico are the Rio Bravo (known in the United States as the Rio Grande), the Rio Balsas, the Rio Pánuco, and the Rio Yaqui.

Mexico population

Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world. It is also the second most populous country in Latin America (after Brazil). 60% of Mexicans have ancestors Native Americans and Europeans; these are called mestizos. Almost 30% of Mexicans are pure Native Americans and 10% are European. The majority of Mexicans (90%) speak Spanish. 10% of Mexicans speak a Native American language, such as Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Mayans, or Zapotecs. Most of the people in Mexico are Roman Catholic (89%) and 6% are Protestant.

Economy of mexico

The electronics industry has grown tremendously in the last decade. Mexico has the sixth largest electronics industry in the world after China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. It is the second-largest exporter of electronic products to the United States, where it exported $ 71.4 billion in 2011. The industry is dominated by OEM design and manufacture of televisions, displays, computers, mobile phones, circuit boards, semiconductors, gadgets. electronics, communications equipment and LCD modules. The Mexican electronics industry grew 20% between 2010 and 2011, above its constant growth rate of 17% between 2003 and 2009. Currently, it represents 30% of Mexico’s exports.

Mexico produces most of the cars of any nation in North America. The industry produces technologically complex components and engages in some research and development activities. The “Big Three” (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) have been operating in Mexico since the 1930s, while Volkswagen and Nissan built their plants in the 1960s. In Puebla alone, 70 industrial parts manufacturers cluster around from Volkswagen. In the 2010s, the expansion of the sector was increasing. In 2014 alone, more than $ 10 billion in investments were committed. In September 2016, Kia Motors opened a $ 1 billion factory in Nuevo León, and Audi also opened an assembly plant in Puebla the same year. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Nissan currently have plants under construction.

Tourism in mexico

Mexico has traditionally been among the most visited countries in the world according to the World Tourism Organization and is the most visited country in America after the United States.

The most notable attractions are Mesoamerican ruins, cultural festivals, colonial cities, nature reserves, and spas. The nation’s wide range of climates, from temperate to tropical, and unique culture, a fusion of European and Mesoamerican, make Mexico an attractive destination. Peak tourism seasons in the country are during December and mid-summer, with brief increases during the week before Easter and Spring holidays, when many of the beach resort sites become popular destinations for college students from the United States.

Source: paraninos.org

Mexico Daily Post