Mexican Chronology

Ancient Mexico

Paleo-Indian

30,000 BCE (Before the Common Era): Highly mobile hunting and gathering groups cross the Bering Strait land bridge in pursuit of large game and enter North America.

10,000 BCE: A second migration crosses the Bering Strait and joins the first one.

Archaic or Preceramic

8000-2000 BCE: Disappearance of large game leads to switch to small game, gathering, fishing, and beginnings of agriculture and village life.

Formative or Pre-classic Period

2000-200 BCE: Improvements in agriculture, culture, and social structures.

2000-400 BCE: The beginnings of hieroglyphic writing & calendrics with the Olmec in Mexico. The Olmec are also known for their monolithic stone heads.

Classic Period

200 BCE - 1000 CE (Common Era): Emergence of cities, social stratification, and the flowering of material culture.

300-900 CE: High developments in astrology, calendrics, math, writing among the Maya in Mesoamerica.

300-900 CE: Architectural developments (city on high, large platform) at Monte Albán in Mexico.

450-750 CE: Theocratic empire develops at Teotihuacán in Mexico with a large urban center and Pyramids of the Sun and Moon.

Post-classic Period

1000-1492 CE: Urban, stratified, militarized, imperialistic empires with no important technological advances

950-1150 CE: The formation of militaristic empires, wars, invasions with the Toltecs in Mexico leads to population increase & pressure.

1345-1521 CE: The Mexicas (Aztecs) form a militaristic tribute empire in Mexico.

• 1325: Founding of Tenochtitlán
• 1440-1487: The Aztecs greatly expand their power and empire under Emperor Moctezuma I.
• 1487: Dedication of the Great Temple in Tenochtitlán.
• 1502: Moctezuma II becomes emperor of Tenochtitlán.

Conquest

1479: Ferdinand II and Isabella I unite the crowns of Aragon and Castille in Spain.

1492: Spanish Roman Catholics expel the last of the Muslims and Jews from Spain.

1492: Christopher Columbus is lost at sea and is rescued by Arawak Indians in the Bahamas (October 12).

• 1493: Columbus' second voyage.
• 1498: Columbus sent back to Spain in chains after his third trip to the New World.
• 1502: Columbus is marooned for a year on Jamaica during his fourth trip, but is unable to fix his ships or feed the crew.

1519-22: Hernán Cortés enters, lays siege to, and conquers Aztec capital Tenochtitlán.

• 1520: Death of Moctezuma II. He is replaced by Cuitláhuac, who reigns for only eighty days and dies of smallpox (a disease brought by the Spaniards). Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor, continues to resist the Spaniards.
• 1521: Tenochtitlan falls to the Spaniards and their Indian allies.

Colonial Period

1524: Council of the Indies established to help administer the new colonies.

1531: Virgin of Guadalupe appears to Juan Diego on a hill outside of Mexico City.

1535-1550: Antonio de Mendoza is named the first viceroy of New Spain.

1537: Pope Paul III decides Indians have souls.

1542: The Spanish Crown issues Las Nuevas Leyes (The New Laws) to protect the Indians.

1542: Bartolomé de las Casas writes Devastation of the Indies to push the "New Laws" to reform treatment of Indians.

1542: Bartolomé de las Casas named Bishop of Chiapas in southern Mexico.

1550: Debate between Las Casas and Sepúlveda at Valladolid in Spain.

1551: The University of Mexico is founded.

1570-71: The Inquisition is established in Mexico City.

1700: Philip V becomes king of Spain, and the Bourbon dynasty replaces the dynasty of the Hapsburgs.

1767: Expulsion of the Jesuits.

Independence

1793-1815: Napoleonic Wars disrupt political rule in Europe.

1799-1803: German geographer Alexander von Humboldt explores Mexico and South America.

1810: The priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issues the "Grito de Dolores" in Mexico which begins the War of Independence against Spain.

1811: Hidalgo is defeated and executed. José Maria Morelos y Pavón takes command of the insurrection.

1813: Morelos convokes the first Mexican Congress, which formally declares Mexican Independence.

1815: Morelos is defeated and executed.

1821: Agustín de Iturbide declares Mexico independent with his Plan of Iguala.

1822-1823: Iturbide is proclaimed emperor.

1823: A rebellion led by Antonio López de Santa Anna forces the abdication of Iturbide.

1823: United States issues the Monroe Doctrine which warning Europe against the recolonization of the newly independent Spanish American republics.

Nineteenth Century

1830s: Rise of caudillos, self-interested military dictators backed by private armies.

1823-1855: Period of Santa Anna in Mexico.

• 1824: The first Constitution of independent Mexico formally establishes a federal republic.
• 1833: Santa Anna becomes President for the first of eleven times.
• 1836: The State of Texas declares its independence from Mexico and begins a war against the central government. Santa Anna is defeated by the Texans.
• 1838: French forces attempt to occupy Veracruz and are defeated by Santa Anna.
• 1840s: Rise of Manifest Destiny, the belief by many people in the United States that westward and outward expansionism represented their god's plan for their country.
• 1845: Texas becomes part of the United States of America.
• 1846-1848: Mexican-American War, ending with the defeat of Mexico.
• 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo cedes northern half of Mexico to the U.S.
• 1853: With the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico, US acquires route for a railroad through southern Arizona and New Mexico.
• 1853-1855: Final presidency of Santa Anna.

1855-1876: Period of Benito Juárez in Mexico

• 1857: A new and liberal Constitution is approved, preceded by a series of laws directly opposing the interests of the Church and Mexican conservatives.
• 1858-1861: The War of the Reform between Liberals and Conservatives.
• 1861: The Conservatives are defeated. President Benito Juárez suspends payment of the foreign debt for two years. France, England, and Spain sign an agreement intended to compel Mexican payment of the debt.
• 1862: The French Army, supported by Mexican Conservatives, invades Mexico. The War of the French Intervention begins.
• 1864: The French Army and Mexican Conservatives establish the Second Mexican Empire, crowning the Austrian archduke Maximilian von Hapsburg emperor of Mexico.
• 1867: The Liberal armies defeat the Empire. Maximilian is executed. Juárez reestablishes the Republic.
• 1872: Death of Juárez. Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada becomes President of Mexico.

1876: Porfirio Díaz overthrows Lerdo de Tejada and becomes President. He will reelect himself seven times, and his dictatorship, the "Porfiriato" (1876-1911), will last thirty-four years.

Twentieth Century

1910-1920 Mexican Revolution

• 1910: Francisco I. Madero issues "Plan of San Luis Potosí."
• 1911: Porfirio Díaz leaves Mexico; Madero becomes president.
• 1911: Emiliano Zapata issues the "Plan of Ayala" and calls for Land and Liberty.
• 1913 A military coup led by Victoriano Huerta overthrows Madero, who is later murdered. Venustiano Carranza leads a rebellion against Huerta. After the victory, the Revolutionaries fight among themselves. The forces led by Carranza defeat Francisco (Pancho) Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Carranza becomes President and convokes a new Constitutional Convention.
• 1914: US forces shell and then occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico.
• 1916: Pancho Villa raids Columbus, New Mexico.
• 1916-17: US Expeditionary Force under Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing unsuccessfully pursues Pancho Villa in northern Mexico.
• 1917: Zimmermann Telegram revealed in which Germany offers to help Mexico recover territory lost to the US in exchange for support in the First World War.
• 1917: A new Constitution is issued. Carranza becomes Constitutional President.
• 1920: Carranza is overthrown and dies in an ambush. New elections lead to the presidency of Álvaro Obregón.

1924: Plutarco Elías Calles becomes President.

1926-1929: Conflicts between the government and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church lead to the Cristero Rebellio, a widespread revolt in central and western Mexico.

1928: Obregón is elected President again and assassinated a few months later. Emilio Portes Gil becomes provisional President.

1929: Plutarco Elías Calles forms the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (National Revolutionary Party, or PNR), forerunner of the current PRI.

1934: Lázaro Cárdenas becomes President of the Republic.

1938: Cárdenas nationalizes the oil industry. The PNR changes its name to the Partido de la Revolución Mexicana (PRM).

1940-1946: Presidency of Manuel Ávila Camacho.

1946-1952: Presidency of Miguel Alemán Valdés.

1946: The PRM is restructured for the last time and renamed the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).

1952-1958: Presidency of Adolfo Ruiz Cortines.

1956-1958: Labor unrest with a new teacher's union at the forefront. The movement is defeated by government repression.

1958-1964: Presidency of Adolfo López Mateos.

1958-1959: Labor unrest by the Railroad Workers Union. The movement is repressed and its leaders jailed.

1964-1970: Presidency of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.

1968: A large and important Student Movement ends with police and army firing on students at the Plaza of Tlatelolco in Mexico City.

1970-1976: Presidency of Luis Echeverria.

1976-1982: Presidency of José López Portillo. His administration bases the national economy on large, newly discovered oil reserves. A drop in the international price of oil precipitates one of Mexico's worst economic crises.

1982-1988: Presidency of Miguel de la Madrid.

1988-1994: Through elections widely regarded as fraudulent, Carlos Salinas de Gortari becomes President. He initiates important economic changes, privatizes many state enterprises, and signs the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

1994: A rebellion breaks out in the southern state of Chiapas, led by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and commanded by a charismatic leader known as Subcomandante Marcos. (For more detailed information, see this Chronological history of the peace talks between the EZLN and the Mexican government, 1994-1998.) The official presidential candidate of the PRI, Luis Donaldo Colosio, is assassinated during his campaign. Ernesto Zedillo, who replaces him, is elected President.

Parts of this chronology are reprinted with permission from Dr. Richard W. Slatta's Ancient and Colonial Latin American and US-Latin American Relations courses.

Other sources:

• Bakewell, Peter. A History of Latin America: Empires and Sequels, 1450-1930. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.
• Krauze, Enrique. Mexico: Biography of Power: A History of Modern Mexico, 1810-1996. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.