EARLY HISTORY OF MEXICO The authentic history of Mexico began with the year Azetcs 1325, when the Aztecs (now known as Mexicans) of whose prehistoric career but little is known, ended their wanderings by making a permanent settlement on the site then called Tenochtitlan but now known as the City of Mexico. The ruins of Mitla (150 miles southeast from Mexico City), Palenque, Uxmal, Chin-Chen-Itzla, and others along the Yucatan border in the extreme southern portion of Mexico are mute monuments of their unknown past. The wonderful pyramids of San Juan (near the City) and Cholula (three miles south of Puebla) testify to the skill and life currents of the Mayas, Quiches, Toltecs, and Chichimecs otherwise long since forgotten. Spanish Invasion and Conquest On April 21, 1519, Hernando Cortez, the Spanish explorer, with his army of inva sion, landed at Vera Cruz, Mexico. His convoy consisted of eleven ships carrying 110 sailors, 553 foot soldiers and 16 horsemen, together with 200 Cuban Indians; also ten large and four small cannon. They at once began their march through the unknown land, their progress inland towards Tenochtitlan being one of conquest and spoilation. They battled with the fierce Tlaxcalans and the cultured Cholulans and swept everything before them, their vanquished foes becoming their allies. Having learned from the Indians that Tenochtitlan was a city of great wealth, Cortez pressed thitherward, arriving outside of that place (now Mexico City) during November, 1519. There he and his followers were received by the King, Moctezuma, who came out to meet them with all the ceremony and pomp belonging to one of Cortez' fame. However, in spite of the Spaniards' protestations of friendship, the Mexicans too soon realized the true object of the quest of the Spaniards-the treasures of the land. This greed for gold, necessary religious intolerance, and haughty and cruel treatment of the natives soon brought on feuds and war. The Aztecs endeavored to drive the Spaniards from the land and became enraged when Moctezuma allowed himself to be made a prisoner by them. Ciltahuatzin, Moctezuma's brother, was named as the leader and immediately the Aztecs besieged the Spaniards. During the siege, the Spaniards craftily took Moctezuma to a house top overlooking a large park and caused him to implore his people to treat for peace. The people listened in silence and when Moctezuma ceased speaking he was struck on the head by an arrow shot from the crowd of listeners. From this wound he died a few days later. Upon the death of Moctezuma, Cortez began a retreat from Tenochtitlan, and on the night of July 1, 1520, suffered a disastrous defeat. However, he succeeded in evading capture. Later, in the spring of 1521, having been reinforced and his supplies having been recuperated, supported by a thousand or more Indian allies, Cortez again attacked the Aztec stronghold. Cuahtemoc, a nephew of Moctezuma, had become the chief. On August 13, 1521, after having been besieged for eight months, his people starved and shrunken with disease, Cuahtemoc evacuated. He, his wife, who was a daughter of King Moctezuma II, and his principal warriors were taken prisoners while trying to escape over the waters of the lake which lies adjoining the City of Mexico. It is said that in their flight they carried with them the wonderful treasures of Moctezuma, of which Cortez had heard and which, it is alleged, he at one time saw under circumstances which forbade even his unscrupulous hand to touch. It always has been contended that the treasures were cast in the Lake Texcoco, where even to this day searches are made for them. The Spaniards reigned in Mexico from August, 1521, until the year 1810. The first viceroy of the newly acquired Aztec country was Felix Berenguer de Marquina, chief of the squadron and ex-governor of the Mariana islands. He deserves mention chiefly because he was possessed of ideas far ahead of the time, and even at that early date endeavored to suppress bullfights. As early as 1696, the students of the University of Mexico began to oppose ecclesiastical influence in civil affairs in Mexico. During 1767, after many terrible "autos de fe" (public executions by burning) practiced by the church in the burning of Fernando Molina and others, by order of the Marquis de Croix, all the Jesuits in New Spain (Mexico) were imprisoned and subsequently expelled from the country. During the reign of Marquis de Valero, Don Juan Texas de Acuna, Marques de Casafuerte, beginning in 1722 and continuing for twelve years, the town of San Antonio de Bexar (now in Texas) was established. Mexico The plague swept over Mexico in 1736 and many thousands died. Statistics give the population of the City of Mexico in 1747 as 50,000 Spanish European and Creole families, 40,004 Mestizos, Mulattoes, and Negroes, and 8,000 native Indians. In 1776, Don Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Ursua, of the Order of San Juan and lieutenant-general of the army of Spain, established the Monte de Piedad (National Pawnshop) which was founded by Pedro Romero de Terreros, Count of Regla, who endowed it with $300,000 capital. The object of this institution was to lower the usurious rates of the money-lenders and to enable the poor to borrow money upon personal pledges, at lower rates of interest. There was a general famine and plague in 1784 and 1785, the result of the losses of harvest due to many snow storms. While excavating in Mexico City, in 1790, for the foundation of the present cathedral, the wonderful "Calendar Stone" was unearthed, and later in 1791 the "Sacrificial Stone," both of which are now exhibited in the museum of the City of Mexico. Mexico On September 16, 1810, the priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, since called "The Father of Mexican Independence," headed an uprising of the natives against Spanish rule. With General Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama, Abasolo, and Jimenez, at 2 o'clock on the morning of September 16, 1810, Hidalgo captured the prison of Dolores, near Guanajuato, liberated the prisoners, armed them with swords, and began the war. On March 21, 1811, Hidalgo and Allende were betrayed and captured by a Spanish officer named Elizondo at a place called Acatita de Bajan, and were taken to Monclova. On July 30, 1811, Hidalgo was executed in front of his prison in Chihuahua and later on the same day, Allende Aldama and Jimenez. Their heads were cut off and placed upon pikes at the four corners of the Alhondiga de Granaditas, a stone warehouse for grain in Guanajuato, Mexico. At this date, 1916, the building still stands. The death of Hidalgo brought forward many leaders, a priest, Morelos, achieving almost as great distinction as Hidalgo. During Morelos' leadership a congress was organized and on the sixteenth day of November, 1813, a declaration of Independence was framed. Morelos was captured and shot on the morning of December 22, 1815, at San Cristobal Ecatepec. He was betrayed by one of his men |