Large and complex civilizations developed in the center and southern regions of Mexico (with the southern region … See more

During the pre-Columbian period, many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige. Ancient Mexico can be said to have produced five major civilizations: the Olmec, Ma… See more

A phase of inland expeditions and conquest followed the first mainland explorations. The Spanish crown extended the Reconquista effort, completed in Spain in 1492, to non-Catholic people in new territories. I… See more

The capture of Tenochtitlan marked the beginning of a 300-year colonial period, during which Mexico was known as "New Spain" and ruled by a viceroy in the name of the Spanish monarch. Colonial Mexico had key elemen… See more

This period was marked by unanticipated events that upended the three hundred years of Spanish colonial rule. The colony went from rule by the legitimate Spanish monarch and his appointed viceroy to an illegitimate … See more

In much of Spanish America, soon after its independence, military strongmen or caudillos dominated politics, and this period is often called "The Age of Caudillismo." In Mexico, from the late 1820s to the mid-1850s, the … See more

Liberals ousted conservative Santa Anna in the Plan of Ayutla and sought to implement liberal reforms in a series of separate laws, then in a new constitution, which incorporated them. Mexico experienced civil war… See more