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Manuel Hidalgo, a priest in the small village of Dolores, issues his famous call for Mexican independence
El grito de Dolores set off a flurry of revolutionary action by thousands of natives and mestizos, who banded together to capture Guanajuato and other major cities west of Mexico City. Despite its initial success, the Hidalgo rebellion loses steam and is defeated quickly, and the priest is captured and killed at Chihuahua in 1811. His name lives on in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, however, and September 16, 1810, is still celebrated as Mexico’s Independence Day. -
Jose Morelos, succeeds Hidalgo as leader of Mexico’s independence movement and proclaims a Mexican republic.
He is defeated by the royalist forces of the mestizo general Agustín de Iturbide, and the revolutionary banner passes to Vicente Guerrero. -
Agustín de Iturbide
Who earlier declared himself emperor of the new Mexican state, is deposed by his former aide, General Antonio López de Santa Anna, who declares a Mexican republic. Guadalupe Victoria becomes Mexico’s first elected president, and during his tenure Iturbide is executed, -
Santa Anna himself becomes president after leading the successful resistance against Spain’s attempt to recapture Mexico in 1829.
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Defeat in the war against the United States serves as a catalyst for a new era of reform in Mexico.
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Road to Revolution
Benito Júarez, a Zapotec Indian, emerges from the War of the Reform as the champion of the victorious liberals. One of Júarez’s first acts as president is to suspend payment on all of Mexico’s debts to foreign governments. In an operation spearheaded by France’s Napoleon III, France, Great Britain and Spain intervene to protect their investments in Mexico, occupying Veracruz. -
Porfirio Díaz takes over
After another revolt–this time successful–against Júarez’s successor Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, Porfirio Díaz takes control of Mexico. Except for one four-year stretch from 1880 to 1884, Díaz will rule essentially as a dictator until 1911. During this period, Mexico undergoes tremendous commercial and economic development, based largely on Díaz’s encouragement of foreign investment in the country. -
The Mexican Revolution begins
Madero issues the Plan of San Luis Potosí, promising democracy, federalism, agrarian reform and worker’s rights and declaring war on the Díaz regime. By 1911, Díaz is forced to step aside and Madero is elected president, but conflict and violence continue for the better part of the next decade. Popular leaders like Emiliano Zapata in southern Mexico and Pancho Villa in the north emerge as the champions of the peasant and working class, refusing to submit to presidential authority. -
Trying to take Díaz down
Francisco Madero, a landowning lawyer and a member of Mexico’s liberal, educated class, unsuccessfully opposes Díaz in the year’s presidential elections. He also publishes a book calling for free and democratic elections and an end to the Díaz regime. -
Mexico remains neutral throughout World War I
Despite efforts by Germany to enlist the country as an ally. Despite the warring factions in Mexico, Carranza is able to oversee the creation of a new liberal Mexican constitution in 1917. In his efforts to maintain power, however, Carranza grows increasingly reactionary, ordering the ambush and murder of Zapata in 1919. -
Rebuilding the Nation
Lázaro Cárdenas, another former revolutionary general, is elected president. He revives the revolutionary-era social revolution and carries out an extensive series of agrarian reforms, distributing nearly twice as much land to peasants as had all of his predecessors combined. -
Miguel Alemán becomes the first civilian president of Mexico since Francisco Madero in 1911.
In the post-World War II years, Mexico undergoes great industrial and economic growth, even as the gap continues to grow between the richest and poorest segments of the population. The ruling government party, founded in 1929, is renamed the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), and will continue its dominance for the next 50 years. -
PRI in Power
As a symbol of its growing international status, Mexico City is chosen to host the Olympic Games. Over the course of the year, student protesters stage a number of demonstrations in an attempt to draw international attention to what they see as a lack of social justice and democracy in Mexico under the PRI government and its current president, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. -
By the mid-1980s, Mexico is in financial crisis.
On September 19, 1985, an earthquake in Mexico City kills nearly 10,000 people and causes heavy damage. The displaced residents, dissatisfied with the government’s response to their situation, form grassroots organizations that will blossom into a full-fledged human rights and civic action movement during the late 1980s and 1990s. -
President Carlos Salinas
He joins George H.W. Bush of the U.S. and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada in signing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which goes into effect January 1, 1994. -
Mexico Today
The corruption-plagued PRI suffers a shocking defeat, losing the mayoralty of Mexico City (also known as the Distrito Federal, or DF) to PRD candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, son of former president Lázaro Cárdenas, by an overwhelming margin. -
Vicente Fox, of the opposition Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN) wins election to the Mexican presidency, ending more than 70 years of PRI rule.