Central America · Independence and the federations
Mexico
Federal Republic, 1821/1867–present
Modern Mexico dates its independence to 1821, but its enduring federal republic was consolidated with the "Restored Republic" of 1867 under Benito Juárez, following the fall of Maximilian.
- Existed
- Federal Republic, 1821/1867–present
- Shown on the map
- 1868–1912, 1920–2024 (2 periods)
- Peak area
- 2.0M km²
- Region
- Central America
Overview
Modern Mexico dates its independence to 1821, but its enduring federal republic was consolidated with the "Restored Republic" of 1867 under Benito Juárez, following the fall of Maximilian. The subsequent long rule of Porfirio Díaz (the "Porfiriato," 1876–1911) brought railways, foreign investment, and modernization at the price of dictatorship and deep inequality, provoking the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) — a vast and violent upheaval (Madero, Zapata, Villa, Carranza, Obregón) that produced the socially progressive 1917 Constitution. The post-revolutionary order was institutionalized under the party later known as the PRI, which governed continuously for 71 years (1929–2000), presiding over the 1938 oil nationalization under Lázaro Cárdenas and the mid-century "Mexican Miracle."
Later history and present status
Democratic alternation finally arrived in 2000 with Vicente Fox's victory, ending PRI hegemony. The 21st century has been shaped by deep economic integration with the United States (NAFTA, later USMCA), large-scale migration, and a devastating drug war. In 2018 Andrés Manuel López Obrador (MORENA) won a landslide, and in 2024 Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico's first female president. Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world and a regional power; its capital, Mexico City, stands atop the ruins of Tenochtitlan — a symbolic thread binding modern Mexico to the Mesoamerican civilizations with which this compendium began.
Common questions
- What was Mexico?
- Modern Mexico dates its independence to 1821, but its enduring federal republic was consolidated with the "Restored Republic" of 1867 under Benito Juárez, following the fall of Maximilian.
- When did Mexico exist?
- Mexico existed Federal Republic, 1821/1867–present. On this map it is drawn 1868–1912, 1920–2024.
- How large was Mexico?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Mexico covered about 2 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- What is the present status of Mexico?
- Democratic alternation finally arrived in 2000 with Vicente Fox's victory, ending PRI hegemony. The 21st century has been shaped by deep economic integration with the United States (NAFTA, later USMCA), large-scale migration, and a devastating drug war.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity and for the key figures and events as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, EBSCO Research Starters and academic sources. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Mexico en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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