Epic Mexican History: Conquest & Revolution in 20th Century

Moctezuma: (1466-1520) I ruled the Aztec Empire from 1502 to 1520 when it was at its largest. During my reign, I conquered people and separated the nobles from commoners, and Europeans first came to Mesoamerica. I wasn’t sure if they were gods or enemies since Cortés fit the description of Quetzalcoatl who was prophesied to return. At first, I did nothing. Then the Spanish started to lead rebellions in our subordinate tribes, so I tried sending them gifts. They came to Tenochtitlan, so I let them stay in my palace. Next thing I knew, there was a Massacre at the Great Temple, and the Spanish took me as their prisoner. My people blamed me for letting the Spanish into our home, and they killed me. Or maybe it was the Spanish who killed me? Either way, I am responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Cuauhtemoc: (1497-1525) My cousin Moctezuma let the Spanish into our kingdom, then he was killed, then his younger brother Cuitláhuac ruled for 80 days, then I took over in 1520. Not only did I have to deal with the Spanish invasion, but there was also a small pox epidemic. (That’s what killed Cuitlahuac.) After a year of fighting, we had to flee, but the Spanish captured us. They tortured me in order to find out where more gold was. After a few years under Spanish rule, Cortés took me with him to Honduras, so I wouldn’t lead a rebellion in his absence. During this trip, he accused me of trying to kill him and had me executed. Even though I was unfairly executed, my name lives on. The people of Mexico honor me as a national hero.

The Spanish Arrive!

The Spanish Defeated the Aztecs in 11 Steps

1511: The Spanish Priest Aguilar is shipwrecked near the Yucatán Peninsula. He will later translate between Cortés and the Mayans.
November 1518: The Spanish Conquistador Cortés leaves Cuba for the mainland. The Spanish Cuban Governor Velazquez is mad at Cortés.
March 1519: Cortés and his men fight with the Mayan Potonchan. The Potonchan loose and give the white men slaves including Malinche. She translates between the Aztecs and Aguilar. Aguilar then translates between Malinche and Cortés.
1519: Cortés forms alliances with many tribes that the Aztecs had conquered. These tribes hated the Aztecs because the Aztecs made them pay “tributes” including humans for sacrifice. These tribes included the Texcocans, Chalca, and the Tepanec.
November 1519: Cortés and his 600 men enter Tenochtitlan. They soon place Montezuma under house arrest.
May 1520: Cortés leaves Tenochtitlan to deal with the Spanish Narvaez who Velazquez had sent. At the Battle of Cempoala, Córtes defeats adds Narvaez’s soldiers to his own. While he’s gone, the Spanish men left in Tenochtitlan kill thousands of Aztec nobles at the Festival of Toxcatl.
June 1520: Cortés returns to Tenochtitlan and Montezuma dies. During the Night of Sorrows, Cortes and his men try to sneak out of Tenochtitlan with treasure but are attacked. Half the Spanish men die and their treasure and their heavy artillery are lost.
July 1520: As the Aztec leader, Cuitláhuac sends every warrior he can find after Cortés, and they fight at the Battle of Otumba. Although outnumbered, Cortés sends his calvary to attack the Aztec general. The Aztec general dies, so the Aztecs retreat.
October 1520: Small pox sweeps across Mexico and kills thousands of indigenous people including Cuitláhuac. Cuauhtemoc then begins leading the Aztecs.
April to May 1520: The city of Tenochtitlan is in the middle of Lake Texcoco. To isolate the city, Cortés launches ships called brigantines into Lake Texcoco. Then the Spanish block the causeways that connect Tenochtitlan to the mainland.
August 1520: The Spanish capture Cuauhtemoc and conquer the Aztec Empire.

Video: Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs

Hernan Cortés: (1485-1547) I was a Spanish Conquistador in The Spanish Colonize America Phase 1. I went to Hispaniola and then Cuba. The Cuban governor angrily cancelled my mainland travel plans, but I went anyways. There, a shipwrecked Spanish priest helped me communicate with Mayans. We conquered a few tribes, and one gave me a slave named Malinche. She spoke Mayan and Aztec, which helped me learn that most tribes hated Aztecs for making them pay tributes. So I banded them together to rebel. I also sunk our ships, so my men couldn’t retreat. Together, we overthrew the Aztecs, and I became New Spain Governor in 1521. Meanwhile, Malinche bore me a son (the first mestizo), and my OG wife came from Spain and died. I continued exploring and occasionally visited Spain because of debt and insubordination. I eventually died in Spain, and now Mexicans protest monuments of me.

Video: Hernan Cortes: The Conquistador of the Aztecs

Malinche: (1500-1529) I was a slave girl named Malinali in the Mayan Tabasco when they gave me to Cortés’s men. Since I spoke both my native Aztec Nahuatl and the Mayan language of Tabasco, I helped Cortés communicate with local tribes. Eventually, we conquered the Aztecs, fell in love, and had a son, Martín. He’s known as the first mestizo because he is part European and part Native American. Thus, I gave birth to the Mexican race. Later, I went to Honduras with Cortés to translate with Mayan speaking people. When we returned to Mexico, he had me marry another Spanish nobleman, Jaramillo. Most Mexicans think I betrayed my people by helping Cortés, but other people realize that I was a victim of the times. My own indigenous people had forced me to become a slave and gave me over to white men. I really didn’t have a choice.

Video: La Malinche

Summary of “The Two Shores”

Part of Section 9: Spain had conquered an empire much bigger than itself which made the Spanish rich. The last thing Aguilar saw before he died was a fleet of Spanish ships filled with treasure including the wardrobes of former Mexican kings. It is a historical irony that Cortés came to Mexico with few resources and left with ships full of me, supplies, and treasures.

Section 10: The narrator is the dead Jerónimo de Aguilar who died before 1524. He had been a Spanish soldier captured by the Indians. Later he helped the conquistadors as a translator. Bernal Díaz recorded his death along with the death of other conquistadors. The conquistadors died in a variety of ways. Fortune was random. For example, Cortés killed two men for fleeing to Cuba but only cut off the third man’s toes. Most conquistadors returned to Spain without a single maravedí (Spanish copper cent). The dead Aguilar watched this all happen. He says that being dead is like standing behind a door and watching people but never interacting with them.

Colonial Mexican History

Video: Colonial Spanish Rule

Encomiendas: Spain awarded the people who helped them conquer territory encomiendas. Well, sometimes these were conquerors, other times they were nobility. People who were given encomiendas included: Cortés’s men, La Malinche’s family, and Moctezuma’s children. These holders of encomiendas could force the people living in their encomiendas to work for them or pay a tax. They were not supposed to enslave the indigenous people, but sometimes they did. The indigenous people working in the encomienda system were called vassals. The Spanish justified the forced labor and taxes of these vassals by providing them with protection from other invaders, teaching them Spanish, and saving their souls by teaching them Christianity.

Mining: Before the Spanish arrived, the indigenous people valued metals, but did not mine and sell them on a large scale. The Spanish introduced large scale mining systems in order to satisfy the demand by Eurpeans for metals. The Spanish mining techniques were dangerous and usually involved forced labor of the indigenous people. Mining dangers included deep narrow shafts, long narrow tunnels, wooden ladders and supports, ineffective tools that resulted in hard labor, underground flooding, and inadequate ventilation systems. In 1521, a gold vein was discovered near Mexico City. It was named El Oro. In 1550, a silver-gold vein was discovered and named Veta Madre. In addition to gold and silver, the Spanish also mined copper, coal, lead, and iron in Mexico. Silver was Mexico’s chief export for most of the colonial period and Mexico was the world’s chief producer of silver during the 1700s.

Caste System: Colonial Mexico had a legal racial caste system. It was imposed by the Spanish government, and one’s caste determined how high in society one could go. The caste system defined 16 distinct racial subcategories. At the top of the system were the Europeans who were born in Europe. Next were the Creoles. They were of European descent, but were born in the Americas. In the middle were the Mestizos. Mestizos were people of both European and indigeous heritage. At the bottom of the caste system were the indigenous people.

African Slaves: Much of the indigenous population of Mexico died from fighting the conquistadors and from European diseases like Smallpox. This limited who the Spanish could use as forced labor to build their cities, mine gold and silver, create textiles, and work the sugar plantations. So the Spanish imported slaves from Africa. Eventually, African slaves made up about 2% of the Mexican population. Most imported African slaves were men, so they often had relations with other ethnic groups in Mexico creating new groups in the caste system.

Mexico’s Conversion to Christianity

When the Spaniards came to the New World, they had two goals: military and spiritual conquest. Spiritual conquest meant converting the indigenous people to Christianity. It began with Priest Aguilar who was part of Cortés’s expedition. to help translate but also to convert the native people to Christianity. Some indigenous people, like Cortés’s allies, converted to Christianity right away. Others, like the Aztecs, continued to practice their own religions. Part of the Aztec religion was to sacrifice humans, which the Spanish were not able to stop until they conquered the Aztecs in 1521.

To help convert the indigenous population, Cortés requested additional Catholic priests. Twelve Franciscan priests, known as the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, came in 1524. Soon Dominican and Augustinian priests came as well. The priests began working in the most populated areas called doctrina. From the doctrina, priests would go out and visit the smaller towns called visitas. While visiting the visitas, the priests would administer the sacraments. The sacraments included being baptized, confessing sins, and getting married. Many people converted voluntarily, but the Spanish had no problem forcing people to convert when needed. Sometimes they excluded people from society until they converted.

In 1531, a religious indigenous peasant named Juan Diego began seeing visions of the Virgin Mary. Unlike the European depiction, this Mary had dark skin and spoke Nahuatl like the indigenous people. She asked Diego to build a church. The Spanish Bishop did not believe him, so Diego put flowers in his cloak. When he showed the Bishop the cloak, the flowers fell out, and there was an image of Mary as Diego had described. When other indigenous people heard this, they felt that the Catholic religion was for them, and not just the Spanish speaking white men. This caused many to convert to Catholicism.

Since native people didn’t speak Spanish, Spanish priests used plays, music, and Christian festivals to teach Catholic traditions. Meanwhile, they destroyed native temples and idols. Catholic priests often built churches on top of where native sacred grounds had been. One major hurdle for the indigenous people to understand Christianity was its monotheism. The indigenous people were used to polytheism (having many gods). However, Christianity teaches that there is only one God. For this reason, instead of using the Nahuatl word for god (teotl) to describe Him, the priests used the Spanish word (Dios). However, the incorporation of Catholic saints, like the Virgin Mary, gave native people additional beings to pray to. Sometimes, the local priests used a saint to replace an indigenous god. When native people converted to Christianity, Spanish law recognized them as humans (although still lesser human than the Spanish themselves) and granted them some humanitarian rights.

According to the Pew Research Center, today, 94.6% of Mexicans are Christians. This means that 113,620,000 Christians live in Mexico. It is the third largest Christian population (behind the United States and Brazil) in the world.

Independence, Early Governments, & Revolution

Mexican Leaders Before and During the Revolution — Click to Enlarge and Print (Does Not Include Villa)

Video: The Mexican War for Independence

Miguel Hidalgo: (1753-1811) I was a Catholic priest who worked to help the poor. In 1810, I gathered poor farmers by ringing the bells of my church. Then I gave a speech known as the “Cry of Dolores.” This triggered Mexico’s war for independence. However, many of the poor Mexican troops fled or were killed by the more advanced Spanish military in the Battle of Calderón Bridge. Soon after, I was betrayed, captured, and executed.

José Morelos: (1765-1815) was born a pardo, meaning I was part indigenous part African, and part European. I worked as a Catholic priest until Hidalgo was executed. After his execution, I led Mexico’s war for independence. It was only a few years before the Spanish army captured me, tried me for treason, and killed me. However, the Mexican people will always remember me as a great military leader!

Emiliano Zapata: (1879-1919) I led peasants in a revolt against wealthy landowners and became the leader of the Liberation Army of the South.My followers were called Zapatistas. After dictator Díaz was overthrown, a new president emerged, but he was corrupt. So I came up with the Plan de Ayala to get rid of him and give the peasants more land. There was mucho fighting between the new Mexican leaders, and I controlled my home state of Morelos until I was killed in 1919.

Benito Juárez: (1806-1872) I have a humble Zapotec indigenous background, but I married well and worked my way up through the Mexican government to become president in 1858. For awhile I had to hide out from the French who were trying to take over Mexico, but I didn’t give up my title as the President. We won some battles, like the one on Cinco de Mayo, and eventually we were able to get rid of those nasty Europeans. I died of a heart attack while still in office.

Porfirio Díaz: (1830-1915) As a general, I helped defeat the French. I wasn’t happy with Juárez or his successor because I didn’t think a president should serve multiple terms. So, I led a revolt and became president myself. Then I decided that it was okay for a president to serve multiple terms and was president off and on for 31 years during a period known as the Porfiriato. After I was elected for an eighth term, Mexicans revolted and started the Mexican Revolution.

Ruiz de Cabañas: (1752-1824) I was born in Spain where I advanced in education and became a priest. When I was promoted to bishop, I moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. There I used agriculture knowledge to boost the economy which helped Mexicans during their fight for independence. I also built what is now Hospicio Cabañas where I helped educate and house orphans, the elderly, and the homeless. A century later, Orozco painted many murals there, including a portrait of me.

José Guadalupe Posada: (1852-1913) I worked as a lithographer, meaning that I created pictures by stamping engraved images onto paper. Initially, I worked for newspapers until I was able to establish myself as an artist. I primarily used skulls and bones to convey political messages that critiqued society. My most famous work, La Calavera Catrina, critiqued the indigenous people who were trying to be like European aristocrats. Now it is an image used for Día de Muertos.

Pancho Villa: (1878-1923) As a poor peasant, I saw my rich hacienda boss rape my sister, so I shot him. I then hid in the mountains where I created a bandit gang. We stole from the rich and gave to the poor. In 1910, I joined Madero in a revolution to help the poor. I retired after a conflict with my commanding officer, Orozco. When Madero became president, Orozco tried to overthrow him. I came to help Madero, but his General Huerta accused me of stealing a horse and imprisoned me. Then Huerta killed Madero. I teamed up with Carranza to overthrow Huerta. During this rebellion, I redistributed land to the poor. Unfortunately, Carranza and I began to fight each other. Since the US supported Carranza, I attacked an American town. I retired after someone assassinated Carranza. A few years later, I was killed by one of my enemies.

Articles: Mexican Revolution

After the Revolution

Video: Mexican Revolution, PRI, & Mexican Muralism

Mexican Presidents: 1917-1952

Venustiano Carranza: (1917-1920) I was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. People called me “Primer Jefe” because I was the first boss after the Revolution and crushed any rival leaders. While I was in charge, the current Mexican Constitution was drafted. However, I didn’t carry out its most radical elements. I really didn’t need to piss off the Catholic Church or the US. However, I did piss off a lot of my allies, so they killed me in my sleep.

Adolfo de la Huerta: (1920) Carranza and I were once besties, but he “confiscated” gold and tried to mess with my home state Sonora. So Obregón and I came up with a plan of attack: the Revolution of Agua Prieta. With Carranza out of the way, I became a temporary president and brought peace to Mexico. Soon, Obregón took charge, but then he negotiated with the capitalist US, so I led a rebellion against him. I lost and had to hide in LA.

Álvaro Obregón: (1920-1924) First, I helped Carranza, but then I helped overthrow him. Once I was president, I led reforms in land, labor, and education and supported mural projects. I negotiated with the US in the Bucareli Treaty, which upset de la Huerta.He revolted, but I crushed him. The Constitution prevented me from an immediate second term, but I was re-elected in 1928. Then a nun, mad about my atheism, had me executed.

Plutarco Elías Calles: (1924-1928) Obregón helped me become president. As a populist president, I supported the people. I also took power from the Catholic Church by enforcing the anti-religious laws in the Constitution. This prompted Catholics, especially country peasants, started the Cristero War (aka La Cristiada). In 1929, I created the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Mexico’s most powerful party until the year 2000. I became “Jefe Máximo.”

Emilio Portes Gil: (1928-1930) After they killed Obregón, I stepped in as a temporary president. Calles wanted to continue as president, but the Constitution wouldn’t let him. It was a good thing because I was able to compromise with Catholics and end the Cristeros War. I also settled a university strike by letting the National University of Mexico make their own rules.Additionally, I built schools, hospitals, and housing for the people.

Pascual Ortiz Rubio: (1930-1932) As president, I got a zoo going in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, but that was about all I was able to do. Even though Calles hadn’t been president for awhile, his control of the PNR (formerly the PRI) meant he still called the shots. After two years, I got sick of him always telling me what to do, so I resigned. I didn’t want to have anyone killed, take any bribes, or be part of his corruption.

Abelardo L. Rodríguez: (1932-1934) I became president during Maximato, which means Calles, aka “Jefe Máximo,” still thought he was in charge.Even the US was behind him. They tried to have a diplomatic lunch at his house, but I cancelled the lunch and told the US ambassador he better recognize me as the man in charge of Mexico. I also put Catholic officials in their place. Despite the drama, I was able to help small famers and urban laborers.

Lázaro Cárdenas: (1934-1940) I put all of Mexico’s oil in control of a government organization called Pemex. I also took farmland from the rich, broke into pieces called ejidos, and gave it to the poor. It’s true what they say; I became president by kissing Calles’s butt. However, once I became president, I kicked that power hungry hombre out of the country. With him out of the way, I changed the PNR to the PRM and included the military.

Manuel Álvila Camacho: (1940-1946) Cárdenas hooked me up with this President gig. As president, I worked to unify the nation, especially the relationship between the Catholic Church and the government, After all, I’m Catholic myself. I also worked to have a good relationship with the US when we fought together in WWII. For these reasons, people thought of me as a gentlemen: “El Presidente Caballero.” I also changed the PRM to the PRI.

Miguel Alemán Valdés: (1946-1952) Camacho transitioned the government from a military power to a civilian operation. This meant that I could become president even though I never served in the military. During my presidency, we had peace, encouraged factory growth, and invested in our infrastructure (e.g. running water and paved roads). As a result, we had a period of intense economic growth known as the Mexican Miracle.

The Three Great Muralists

Mexican Muralists Diego Rivera José Clemente Orozco David Alfaro Siqueiros — Click to Enlarge and Print

Video: Art History – Mexican Muralist Movement

Diego Rivera: (1887-1957) I began by painting a religious mural in the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City called Creation. However, I soon stoped painting such Italian Renaissance like murals. I began painting in the Ministry of Education (SEP). There, I painted Entry into the Mine, Exit from the Mine, The Embrace, Liberation of the Peon. These murals combined biblical and revolutionary themes. Other murals there, like The New School, Partition of the Land, and Festival of the First of May were about the benefits of the Revolution. My paintings at this time echoed the style of the Aztecs and Mayans in the indigenismo style. In the SEP, I also painted Mechanization of the Countryside which shows the revolution in a less idealistic way and Arsenal which features Kahlo and Siqueiros.

While I was married to Kahlo, I painted murals at the National Agricultural School in Chapingo. These murals showed the peasants’ history with religion and land. In California and Detroit, I painted murals of the economic prosperity brought on by capitalism in the US, but in New York I painted Man at the Crossroads which showed the evils of capitalism and promoted communism. This got me fired. I guess I’m too communist for the US, but not communist enough for Mexico. Nevertheless, I continued to paint. In 1935, I painted The History of Mexico at the National Palace. It portrays a history of good people defending their nation from evil invaders. You can find most of the notable people of Mexican history in it.

Timeline: Life of Diego Rivera: His Art and his Politics

The Banquet of the Rich by José Clemente Orozco — The Banquet of the Rich – Click to Enlarge

José Clemente Orozco: (1883-1949) I followed Dr. Atl and worked on La Vanguardia. Then I painted in Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. At first, I painted like Italian Renaissance artists with a blond Virgin Mary in Maternity, but then I started painting about my people and the Revolution. These paintings included The Trench, The Destruction of the Old Order, The Strike, The Trinity and The Banquet of the Rich. Later, I painted America, the New World in the US, which showed Europeans conquering indigenous people and forcing them to live like Europeans. One panel, Modern Human Sacrifice, compared young men sacrificed in modern war to Aztec human sacrifices. During the 1930s, I painted murals in the state of Jalisco for Governor Topete. I painted Political and Ideological Exploitation, Hidalgo, and the cycle of the Spanish conquest. The cycle of the Spanish conquest included my murals Dimensions and The Violence of Conquest.

Burial of the Sacrificed Worker by David Alfaro Siqueiros — Burial of a Scarified Worker – Click to Enlarge

David Alfaro Siqueiros: (1897-1974) I followed Dr. Atl and worked on La Vanguardia. Then I published El Machete, the newspaper of the union Syndicate of Technical Workers, Painters, and Sculptors. After this, I stopped painting cute angels and started painting the history of my people and the Revolution. Eventually, I painted Burial of the Sacrificed Worker in Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. Later, I went to LA and painted Tropical America. It showed American capitalism crucifying indigenous people who had lost their fertile land. The building’s owner wasn’t too happy and initially had it covered. I am fully committed to the communist party as you can see in Portrait of the Bourgeoisie. I painted this mural in Mexico City in 1940. In addition to promoting communism, it criticized fascism and capitalism. My later work From the Porfirianism to the Revolution, featured a strike that was the catalyst to the Revolution.

Photographers of Mexican History

Augustín Casasola: (1874 – 1938) I began my journalism career as a typographer, arranging the letters to be printed on newspapers. Then I began writing stories. In 1894, I started telling stories through photographs because 85% of Mexicans could not read. Before the Revolution, I photographed the leisurely life of the wealthy, but during the Revolution, I began photographing the troubled lives of the poor and the soldiers. After the Revolution, I founded the Mexican Association of Press Photographers. My business grew, so I hired my brother, then my children, then my grandchildren, and outsiders. Altogether, about 500 photographers worked for me.

Manuel Alvarez Bravo: (1902-2002) I began my career in photography after the Revolution. While beginning my photography career, I fell in love and married Lola Alvarez Bravo in 1925. Our marriage didn’t last though, and I later married two other female photographers. Maybe it had something to do with all the nude photos I was taking of other women? I liked taking pictures of ordinary people and places but with a surrealist perspective that, like the Muralist Movement, helped redefine Mexico. During the 1940s and 1950s, I worked taking still shots for films.

Lola Alvarez Bravo: (1903-1993) I went to the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria with Frida Kahlo. Soon after, I became an assistant to a childhood friend, photographer Manual Alvarez Bravo. He taught me about photography, and we married in 1925. We bought a camera from Tina Modotti as she prepared to leave the country. This enabled me to become the first Mexican female photographer.

Edward Weston: (1886-1958) I am one of the most influential American photographers of the 20th Century. I always knew I wanted to become a photographer and spent most of my life taking pictures of beautiful California. In 1923, I left my wife and three of my children to go to Mexico with my side-chick Modotti and one of my sons. While in Mexico, I began taking pictures of everyday objects, scenery, and life, especially Modotti in the nude. After a few years, I longed for another girlfriend that lived in California, so I left Mexico to be with her. In the end, Parkinson’s decease prevented me from taking more pictures, but I kept busy supervising the printing of earlier photographs.

Tina Modotti: (1896-1942) I was born in Italy, and I came to California to pursue modeling and acting in 1913. After a time, I was tired of being in front of the camera and decided I should be behind it as a photographer. Fortunately, I met Weston who trained me. Meanwhile, my boyfriend moved to Mexico to take photographs for the government. Weston and I fell in love and decided to join my boyfriend in Mexico in 1923. While in Mexico, I became an active part of the Communist Party. I also photographed the murals that were being painted throughout Mexico City. However, the Communist Party was under attack, and I had to leave Mexico in 1930.

Mexican History after World War II

Video: The Mexican Miracle & The Dirty War

Video: Mexico 68 and The Tlatelolco Massacre

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Beyond Mexican History…

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Conquest and Revolution in 20th Century Mexican Literary and Visual Texts

Pre Colombian Mexican History