Mexican History

Mexico was originally the Aztec, Maya and others Indian nations. Great warriors, they could also be cruel, often killing people in human sacrifices. Cortes conquered them and brought Christianity to the country, after holding one of their leaders, Montezuma, hostage and murdering him. It became independent in 1810 when Miguel Hidalgo, a priest, started the independence war.

Revolution

The Mexican Revolution started in 1910. First the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz was overthrown by the democrat Francisco Madero. Later anarchists and socialists also joined the revolution. American president Woodrow Wilson sent the navy to occupy the city of Veracruz to help the revolutionaries against a new dictator, Victoriano Huerta. In the revolution Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa became wellknown heroes in Mexico. However, Villa also attacked the United States. Because of this the American government sent an expedition to Mexico to capture Villa, but they couldn't find him.

The revolution ended when a new constitution was written in 1917. Venustiano Carranza became the new president.

20th century

After the revolution a socialist government was installed. Atheist president Plutarco Elías Calles introduced various anti-Christian laws in the 1920's. The cristeros started a rebellion against the government to defend their religion. Calles also started the PRI, a socialist party which ruled Mexico for the rest of the century. President Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized the country's oil in 1938. Mexicans are still very proud of this but other countries believe that the Mexican government stole their property in Mexico.^{[Citation Needed]} However, Mexico was lucky because the United States needed Mexico's help in World War II, so the United States decided not to make a point of it.^{[Citation Needed]}

In the 1970's because of the high spending of the liberal presidents Luis Echeverría and José López Portillo the Mexican economy started to get bad. The economy started to recover after the introduction of free market policies. NAFTA, which is one such free market policy, was signed in 1994. Because the country's economy was badly managed, many Mexicans migrate to the United States.^{[Citation Needed]}

Recently Mexico became democratic, and Felipe Calderon is the current president.

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