Mexico: Difference between revisions

 

== History ==

=== Early History ===

Mexico is a historic cradle of civilization, with many pre-Colombian civilizations thriving in the valley of Mexico and the in the Yucatán peninsula. The earliest complex civilization in Mexico was the Olmec culture, which flourished on the Gulf Coast from around 1500 BC. In Central Mexico, the height of the classic period saw the ascendancy of Teotihuacán, which formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area as well as north. During the early post-classic era, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, Oaxaca by the Mixtec, and the lowland Maya area had important centers at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán. Toward the end of the post-Classic period, the Mexica established dominance, establishing a political and economic empire based in the city of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City), extending from central Mexico to Guatemala. In 1519 Mesoamerican society drastically changed with the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire.

==== 2nd Dutch-Spanish War ====

[[File:1850 New Spain Gains.png|alt=|left|thumb|240x240px|Territorial Gains from the Dutch after the 2nd Dutch-Spanish War.]]

 

=== Independence and Formation of the Mexican Empire ===