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68°F / 20°C
(Passing Clouds. Mild.)
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People have inhabited the Valley of Mexico and areas surrounding it for over 10,000 years. The native peoples in this area from 9500 BCE-7000 BCE lived under the rule of the Olmec culture, which spanned over most of Central and South America. Due to the lack of a natural water outlet, inhabitants migrated to the fertile lakeshores of the Valley of Mexico, especially Lake Texcoco. Not far from the shores of this lake sprang up the legendary city of Teotihuacan, its earliest building dating from the year 200 BCE. The civilization of Teotihuacan thrived here for hundreds of years, achieving a population estimated to be around 100,000 inhabitants and covering over 30 square kilometers. The decline of the Teotihuacan culture came about sometime during the 7th or 8th Century, its exact reason is unknown.
After the fall of Teotihuacan, the city of Tenochtitlan was built on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco by the Nahua Aztec (Mexica) Tribe in the year 1325, when the wandering purportedly had a prophecy fulfilled involving a vision of an eagle perched on a cactus, with a serpent in its claws. If this vision sounds familiar, it is because it is now the image in the center of the Mexican Flag. The location of the city forced the Aztecs to build an elaborate system of chinampas (canals), remnants of which exist today in the area south of the city known as Xochimilco. Tenochtitlan and the Aztec people grew to be an extensive empire, covering the majority of what is modern day Mexico, with estimates of the the population of the city reaching 200,000, and growing in size, connecting surrounding lakes by a system of bridges, aqueducts and roads. However, all of this was about to change.
On November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan. According to legend, the conquistador was at first believed to be the plumed serpent god Quetzalcoatl by the King Moctezuma and his court because of previous prophecies predicting the arrival of the god and many coincidental occurrences. Meetings between the Aztecs and the Spanish were translated with the help of a slave woman known today as La Malinche who translated from Nahuatl (the Aztec language) and Maya, and Spaniard Geronimo de Aguilar translated from Maya to Spanish. Not much later, the Spaniards, already prepared for battle, took Moctezuma captive, and during this captivity, tensions between the Aztecs and the Spanish began to mount dramatically. When it came time for the Aztecs to celebrate the festival of Tóxcatl, the Spanish attacked the vulnerable Aztecs during the festivities in what came to be known as the Massacre in the Main Temple, which sparked a passionate revolt against the Spanish by the Aztec people.
On the first of July, 1520, the Spaniards were forced to flee Tenochtitlan due to the unceasing Aztec revolt against them. This exodus, known as La Noche Triste (“the sad night), did not go unnoticed by the Aztecs, who chased the Spaniards out of the city and along the lake, where the Spaniards were headed to Tlacopan. The Spaniards purportedly lost about 2/3 of their forces during la noche triste along with a large amount of gold, jewels and other valuables they had gotten from the city. After a year of back and forth plotting and fighting, in addition to a smallpox epidemic that wiped out about 40% of the population of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs finally surrendered to the Cortéz and his army on August 13, 1521.
Once the Spanish had control of the city and all the surrounding areas, they set up the viceroyalty of Nueva España in 1535, with the first Viceroy being Antonio de Mendoza. Under this viceroyalty, the Spanish empire continued to explore Latin America, founding cities and increasing their territories.
Mexico remained under Spanish control until the Mexican War of Independence in 1810, however it was not officially gain its independence until 1821. In 1824, Mexico City was named the Mexico Federal District. In 1847 a new war arose, this time the Mexican-American war, resulting in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which forced Mexico to give up the territories of Nuevo Mexico and Alta California, which today consist of California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Utah and Wyoming.
Beginning in 1876 was the period known as the Porfiriato, the period of dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, which brought about a very distinctly French influence in Mexico City. It was during this 30 year period that many of the beautiful landmarks of Mexico City were constructed, including the Ángel de la Independencia, the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Paseo de la Reforma. However, Díaz was forced to resign during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The time after the Mexican Revolution really saw Mexico City’s most flourishing time of growth in hundreds of years.
In 1968, Mexico City was granted the honor of hosting the Olympic Games, which was tarnished by the killing of hundreds of students by army and police forces just ten days before the Games in what has come to be known as the “Tlatelolco Massacre, which is just one of the controversies surrounding this only Olympic event ever held in Latin America. Mexico City has also played host to the 1970 FIFA World Cup, as well as the same event in 1986, which came just one year after an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 damaged over 3,000 buildings and left 10,000 people dead. However, the hosting of the FIFA World Cup stood as a testament to the city’s rapid recovery.
Today, Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world with over 8 million inhabitants. Mexico City is also the Federal District of Mexico and the Capital of the United Mexican States. Featuring two UNESCO World Heritage Sites (3 including Teotihuacan), Mexico City is today the center of culture and politics in Mexico as it has been throughout its very long, dramatic, and sometimes tragic history. However, today Mexico City is anything but tragic, attracting tourists from all over the world and serving as a main representative for this incredible country.
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