| Timeline of Events |
| 1519: Mesoamerica's population estimated at 25 million people. Hern�n Cort�s leaves Cuba for an expedition to Mexico. Cort�s founds Vera Cruz and initiates the exploration of Mexico. By the end of the year he meets with Moctezuma II, the Aztec emperor. 1521: On August 13th Spain's Hern�n Cort�s conquers Tenochtitlan with the help of the Tlaxcaltecs and subdues the Aztecs. During the next 25 years, most of central and southern Mexico is christened New Spain. Chiapas forms part of Guatemala. 1535: La Casa de Moneda, first mint of the Americas, was established in Mexico City. 1539: The first printing shop in the Americas is established in Mexico City by Juan Pablos. 1810: On September 15th, in the town of Dolores, father Miguel Hidalgo issues a cry for Mexico's independence from Spain. 1820: On December 23 Moses Austin presents his proposal for a colony in San Antonio de B�xar to the Congressional Committee on Colonization Questions. It was the beginning of the settlement of Texas by Anglo-Americans. 1821: On February 24th Agustin de Iturbide, with Guadalupe Victoria and Vicente Guerrero, proclaims the Plan de Iguala: the Mexican Declaration of Independence to free Mexico from Spain. Finally, on September 28th Mexico becomes an independent nation with Agustin de Iturbide as Head of State. Moses Austin is given permission to settle part of Texas with 300 non-Mexican families. 1824: On October 10th the Congress elects Guadalupe Victoria as Mexico's first President and Nicolas Bravo as Vice President. The Constitution divides Mexico into nineteen states and five territories. 1836: On March 6 Santa Anna attacks the Alamo. On April 22 Sam Houston defeats Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto. Texas declares independence from Mexico. 1846: The U.S. Congress declares war on Mexico following a bloody skirmish between U.S. and Mexican troops on the frontier with Texas. After U.S. Marines capture the capital, Mexico sues for peace and, in a treaty signed in February 1848, cedes nearly half of its national territory to the United States. 1910: On November 20th Francisco Madero calls for an armed revolt against Diaz and sparks the Mexican Revolution, throwing the country into political upheaval that lasts until 1917. 1929: A year after leaving office, former President Plutarco Calles founds the National Revolutionary Party. Later rechristened the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the party wins the 1929 presidential election and enjoys uninterrupted national rule for the next seven decades. 1938: On March 18th President Lazaro Cardenas nationalizes Mexico's oil industry as part of a sweeping populist program that also strengthens labor unions and redistributes millions of acres of land from the wealthy to small farmers. The program enshrines Cardenas as the most beloved Mexican president of the 20th century. 1968: On October 2nd soldiers and police open fire on thousands of students protesting in Mexico City's Plaza de Tlatelolco, giving birth to a new era in Mexican politics. 1985: On September 19th an earthquake strikes Mexico City, causing an estimated $4 billion in damage. The government puts the death toll at 7,000, but aid groups say that as many as 30,000 people lost their lives. 1992: The leaders of Mexico, Canada and the United States sign the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. The agreement will erase most trading barriers between the three countries by 2009. 1994: December 21st the government of President Zedillo devalues the peso, and foreign investment flees the country, triggering one of the worst economic crises in Mexican history. 2000: On July 2nd Vicente Fox, the candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), wins the presidential election in a stunning upset, breaking the PRI's 71-year hold on the nation's top office. On December 1st Vicente Fox becomes the first opposition president of Mexico since the Mexican Revolution of 1910 |
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