# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mexico

See also Mexico on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​MEXICO (Span. Méjico, or Mexico,) officially styled Estados Unidos Mexicanos and República Mexicana, a federal republic of North America extending from the United States of America southward to Guatemala and British Honduras, and lying between the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea on the east. Its northern boundary line was fixed by the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty of 1848 and the Gadsden treaty of 1853; it follows the Rio Grande del Norte from its mouth north-westward to lat. 31° 47′ N., thence on that parallel W. 100 m., thence S. to lat. 31° 20′ N., thence due W. to the 111th meridian, thence in a straight line (nearly W.N.W.) to a point on the Colorado river 20 m. below the mouth of the Gila river, thence northward to the mouth of the Gila, and thence, nearly due W., along the old line between Upper and Lower California to a point on the Pacific coast one marine league S. of the southernmost point of San Diego Bay; this line has a total length of 1810 m., of which the Rio Grande comprises 1136 and the land route 674 m. The boundary line with Guatemala, for a long time in dispute, was fixed by the treaties of 1882 and 1895. It is an arbitrary line and follows only two natural lines of demarcation—the Suchiate river from the Pacific coast to its source, and the Chixoy and Usumacinta rivers from near the 16th parallel N.W. to a point on the latter 25 kilometres, S. of Tenosique (Tabasco). Between these rivers the boundary line is determined by the peaks of Tacana, Buenavista and Ixbul, and from the Usumacinta eastward it follows two parallels of latitude, one on the point of departure from that river, and the other, the longer, on that of 17° 49′ to the British Honduras frontier. The boundary with British Honduras was determined by a treaty of 1893 and is formed in great part by the Hondo river down to the head of Chetumal Bay, and thence through that bay to the Boca Bacalar Chica—the channel separating Yucatán from Ambergris Cay. Geographically, Mexico extends from 14° 30′ 42″ (the mouth of the Suchiate) to 32° 42′ N. lat., and from 86° 46′ 08″ to 117° 07′ 31″ W. long. Approximately its greatest length from N.W. to S.E. is 1900 m., its greatest width 750 m., and its least width a little short of 140 m. In outline it is sometimes compared to a huge cornucopia with its small end curving S.E. and N. The interior curve formed by the Gulf of Mexico is comparatively regular and has a coast-line of about 1400 m. The Caribbean coast-line is about 327 m. long, exclusive of indentations. The outer curve facing the Pacific is less regular, is deeply broken by the Gulf of California, and has a coast-line of 4574 m., including that of the Gulf. The peninsula of Lower California (q.v.) lies parallel with the mainland coast and extends southward to about 22° 52′ N. lat., a distance of nearly 760 m. The area of Mexico is commonly given by English authorities as 767,005 sq. m., by German statisticians as 1,987,201 sq. kiloms. (767,290 sq. m.), and by H. H. Bancroft, who quotes official figures, as 1,962,899 sq. kiloms. (757,907 sq. m.).
Physiography.—The surface features consist of an immense elevated plateau with a chain of mountains on its eastern and western margins, which extends from the United States frontier southward to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; a fringe of lowlands (tierras calientes) between the plateau and coast on either side; a detached, roughly mountainous section in the south-east, which belongs to the Central American Plateau, and a low sandy plain covering the greater part of the Isthmus of Yucatán. The peninsula of Lower California is traversed from north to south by a chain of barren mountains which covers the greater part of its surface. The slopes are precipitous on the east coast, but on the west they break down in hills and terraces to the Pacific. This range may be considered a southward continuation of the Californian Sierra Nevada. The great plateau of Mexico is very largely of volcanic origin. Its superstructure consists of igneous rocks of all descriptions with which the original valleys between its marginal ranges have been filled by volcanic action. The remains of transverse and other ranges are to be seen in the isolated ridges and peaks which rise above the level of the table-land, in some cases forming well-defined basins; otherwise the surface is singularly uniform in character and level. The two noteworthy depressions in its surface, the Valley of Mexico and Bolsón de Mapimi, once contained large bodies of water, of which only small lakes and marshy lagoons now remain. The highest part of this great plateau is to be found in the states of Mexico and Puebla, where the general elevation is about 8000 ft. Southward the slope is broken into small basins and terraces by transverse ranges, and is comparatively abrupt. Northward the slope is gentle, and is broken by several transverse ridges. At Ciudad Juarez (adjoining El Paso, Texas), on the northern frontier, the elevation is 3600 ft., which shows a slope of only 4 1/2 ft. to the mile, Less is definitely known of the elevated regions of Chiapas, on the border of Guatemala, which are separated from the great Mexican Plateau by the low Isthmus of Tehuantepec (718 ft. at the highest point of the transisthmian railway), but their general elevation is much lower, and they are broken by wooded sierras and eroded by water-courses.
The mountain ranges which form part of the great Mexican Plateau consist of two marginal chains known as the Sierra Madre Occidental, on the west, the Sierra Madre Oriental, on the east, and a broken, weakly-defined chain of transverse ranges and ridges between the 18th and 20th parallels known as the Cordillera de Anahuac. All these chains are known locally under diverse names. The Sierra Madre Occidental consists of several parallel ranges in the north, where a broad belt of country is covered with a labyrinth of ridges and valleys. The most eastern of these are known as the Sierra Tarahumare and Sierra del Durango, and the most western as the Sierra del Nazareno, Sierra Yaqui and Sierra Fuerte. These converge in southern Sinaloa and Durango to form the Sierra de Nayarit. Near the 20th parallel the great chain again divides, the eastern part crossing the southern end of the plateau, and the western, or Sierra Madre del Sur, following the shore line closely to Tehuantepec. The Sierra Madre Occidental has but few noteworthy elevations, its culminating points being the Nevado de Colima (14,363 ft.) and Volcan de Colima (12,750 ft.) in the state of Jalisco. In the Sierra de Nayarit the Cerro Pimal rises to an elevation of 11,319 ft., and in the extreme south the Cerro del Leone to 10,302 ft. These sierras lying near the coast have an imposing appearance from the lowlands, but when seen from the plateau their general elevation is so dwarfed as to render them comparatively inconspicuous. The Sierra Madre Oriental consists of a broken chain of ranges extending along the eastern margin of the plateau from the great bend in the Rio Grande south-eastward to about the 19th parallel. In the north these ranges are low and offer no great impediment to railroad building. South of Tampico, however, they are concentrated in a single lofty range. This range extends south-eastward along the western frontier of Vera Cruz (state) and includes the snow-capped cone of Orizaba or Citlaltepetl (18,209 ft.), and the Cofre de Perote, or Nanchampapetl (13,419 ft.). The eastern slopes are abrupt and difficult, and are a serious impediment to communication with the coast. Rising from the open plateau half way between this range and the city of Mexico is the isolated cone of Malinche, or Malintzin (14,636 ft.). Crossing the highest part of the Mexican Plateau is a broken series of ranges, which form the water-parting between its northern and southern slopes. To a part of these ranges has been given the name of Cordillera de Anahuac, but there is no true cordillera across this part of Mexico. In a general sense these ranges may be considered part of the eastern branch of the Sierra Madre Occidental, which turns eastward on the 20th parallel and crosses the plateau in a south by east direction. Southward the plateau is traversed by many low ranges and breaks down in terraces, forming one of the most fertile and attractive parts of the republic. Close to the capital are the Sierra de Ajusco, whose highest point is 13,078 ft. above sea-level, the Nevado de Toluca (15,168 ft.), in a range which separates the valleys of Mexico and Toluca, the Montes de las Cruces, and that volcanic, spur-like range, running northward at right angles to the axis of the other ranges, whose culminating points, some 20 m. south-east of the city, are the gigantic, snow-clad volcanoes of Popocatepetl (Smoking Mountain) and Ixtaccihuatl (White Woman). Both of them are extinct and Popocatepetl no longer smokes. Their elevations, according to the Comisión Geográfica Exploradora, are 17,888 and 17,343 ft. respectively, that of Ixtaccihuatl being the highest of its three crests. This part of Mexico is highly volcanic in character, the transverse ridge just described having a large number of extinct volcanoes and at least three (Colima, Jorullo and Ceboruco) that are either active or semi-active. Colima was in a state of eruption as late as 1909, ​ Jorullo (4262 ft.) is said to date from 1759, when its cone was formed, and Ceboruco (7100 ft.) in the territory of Tepic, shows occasional signs of activity. Near the coast in the state of Vera Cruz is San Martin, or Tuxtla (9708 ft.), which has been quiescent since its violent eruption of the 2nd of March 1793. Orizaba is sometimes included among the semi-active volcanoes, but this is a mistake. It has been quiescent since 1566, and is now completely extinct. Earthquakes are common throughout the greater part of the republic, especially on the western coast. They are most violent from San Blas southward to the Guatemala frontier, and some of the Spanish towns on or near this coast have suffered severely. Chilpancingo, in Guerrero, was badly shattered in 1902, and in 1907, and in 1909 was reduced to a mass of ruins. The earthquake shocks of the 30th and, 31st of July 1909 were unusually severe throughout southern Mexico, reducing Acapulco and Chilpancingo to ruins and shaking the city of Mexico severely. In Acapulco a tidal wave followed the shock. Slight shocks, or temblores, are of almost daily occurrence. According to Humboldt’s theory there is a deep rent in the earth’s crust about the 19th parallel through which at different periods the underground fires have broken at various points between the Gulf of Mexico and the Revillagigedo Islands. “Only on the supposition that these volcanoes, which are on the surface connected by a skeleton of volcanic rocks, are also united under the surface by a chain of volcanic elements in continual activity, may We account for the earthquakes which in the direction mentioned cause the American continent, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, to oscillate at the same time” (Egloffstein, p. 57).
The lowland or tierra caliente region, which lies between the sierras and coast on both sides of Mexico, consists of a sandy zone of varying width along the shore-line, which is practically a tidewater plain broken by inland channels and lagoons, and a higher belt of land rising to an elevation of about 3000 ft. and formed in great part by the débris of the neighbouring mountain slopes. On the Pacific side there are places where the mountain spurs extend down to the coast, but in general this lowland region ranges from 30 to 40 m. in width, except in southern Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Campeche and Yucatán, where it extends farther into the interior. The talus zone of this region, especially at elevations of 1000 to 3000 ft., is noted for its great fertility and the luxuriance of its vegetation.
There are no large islands on the coast of Mexico, and most of the smaller ones are unimportant. Many of those that fringe the Gulf coast are sand-keys, or parts of a new coast formation. They are commonly barren and uninhabitable. The Isla del Cármen, which partly shuts in the Laguna de Términos (Campeche), is one of the largest of this class, and has the town and port of Cármen at its western extremity. On the northern coast of Yucatán is the small, inhabited island of Holbox or Holboy, and on the eastern coast the islands of Mujeres, Cancum and Cozumel, of which the first and last have a considerable population and good ports. On the Pacific coast there are a number of islands off the rocky shores of Lower California and in the Gulf of California—most of them barren and uninhabitable like the adjacent coast. The largest of these, some of them inhabited, are: Guadalupe—about 75 m. west of the coast on the 29th parallel, which is fertile and stocked with cattle; Cerros, off Viscaino Bay, and Santa Margarita, which partly shelters Magdalena Bay, on the Pacific side; and Angel de la Guarda, Tiburon, San Marcos, Cármen, Monserrate, Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz, San José, Espiritu Santo and Cerralvo in the Gulf. Lying off San Blas in the broad entrance to the Gulf are the Tres Marias, and directly west of Colima, to which it belongs, is the scattered volcanic group of Revillagigedo.
The peculiar surface formation of Mexico—a high plateau shut in by mountain barriers, and a narrow lowland region between it and the coast—does not permit the development of large river basins. Add to this the light rainfall on the plateau and a lack of forests, and We have conditions which make large rivers impossible. The hydrography of Mexico, therefore, is of the simplest description—a number of small streams flowing from the plateau or mountain slopes eastward to the Gulf of Mexico and westward to the Pacific. Most of these are little more than mountain torrents, but one has a course exceeding 500 m., and few have navigable channels. The principal watershed is formed by the sierras of the state of Mexico, from which streams flow north-east to the Gulf of Mexico, north-west to the Pacific and south-west to the same coast below its great eastward curve. The Rio Grande del Norte, or Rio Bravo, on the northern frontier, is practically an American river, as it rises in American territory and receives very little water from the Mexican side. Its larger Mexican tributaries are the Rio de los Conchos, Salado and Pesqueria. Of the Suchiate and Hondo, which form part of Mexico’s southern boundary, the first is a short, impetuous mountain torrent flowing into the Pacific, and the other a sluggish lowland stream rising in north-eastern Guatemala and flowing north-east through a heavily forested region to Chetumal Bay. The peninsula of Yucatán has no rivers, and that of Lower California only a few insignificant streams in the north. This is due to the porosity of the soil in the former, and the very limited rainfall in the latter. The largest rivers of Mexico are: the Rio Grande de Santiago, called the Lerma above Lake Chapala, rising in the state of Mexico and flowing westward across Guanajuato, Jalisco and ​ Tepic to the Pacific coast, with a total length of 540 m., celebrated for its deep canyons and waterfalls; the Rio de las Balsas, or Mescala, which rises in Tlaxcala and flows south and west to the Pacific with a course of 426 m.; the Yaqui, which rises in western Chihuahua and, after breaking through the northern ranges of the Sierra Madre Occidental, flows south-westerly across Sonora to the Gulf of California, with a length of 390 m.; the Grijalva, also called the Chiapas on its upper course, which has its sources in the state of Chiapas and flows north-west and north across Tabasco to the Gulf of Mexico, with a total length of 350 m.; the Fuerte, which rises in southern Chihuahua and, after breaking through the sierras, flows south-west across Sinaloa to the Gulf of California, with a course of 340 m.; the Usumacinta, which is formed by the confluence of the Chixoy and Pasión on the east frontier of Chiapas, and flows north-west across Tabasco to the Grijalva, with a course of 330 m.; and the Pánuco, which has its source in the north-west of the state of Mexico and flows north-eastward to the Gulf of Mexico. The rivers of the Pacific coast have no navigable channels worth mentioning, but many on the Gulf coast are navigable for considerable distances. The more important of these are in Tabasco—the Grijalva, navigable for about 93 m., and the Usumacinta, for about 270 m. The country about the Laguna de Términos is low and flat, and is traversed in all directions by deep, sluggish streams. Many of the rivers crossing the lowlands bordering the Gulf have short navigable channels, the most important of which is the Pánuco and its tributaries. The Rio Grande is navigable for small vessels up to Matamoros (31 m.), and for smaller craft 65 m. farther. Nearly all the Gulf coast rivers, however, are obstructed by bars owing to the quantity of silt brought down from the sierras and the prevailing winds and currents on the coast.
The lakes of Mexico are small and few in number. They may be divided into two classes; those of the plateau region which occupy lacustrine depressions and receive the drainage of the surrounding country; and the tide-water lagoons of the coast formed by the building up of new sand beaches across the indentations in the coast-line. Of the former, the best known are the lakes of the Valley of Mexico—Texcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco, Zumpango, Xaltocán and San Cristobal—which are probably the remains of a lake once occupying the whole valley. They receive considerable surface drainage, but are slowly diminishing in area. Some of them, like Xochimilco, will eventually disappear. The largest, Texcoco, has an area of about 111/2 sq. m. (30 sq. kiloms.), but it covered a much larger area at the time of the Spanish conquest. Its surroundings are bleak and sterile and its waters brackish and polluted with the drainage of the neighbouring city for nearly four centuries. The other lakes are wholly different in character and surroundings, especially Chalco and Xochimilco. Texcoco is now connected with the new drainage works of the capital and is no longer a menace to its population through inundations and pestilential fevers. Another group of lakes is to be found in the Laguna district of south-western Coahuila, where the Tlahualila, Mairan, Parras and others occupy a large lacustrine depression and receive the waters of the Nazas and Aguanaval rivers from the south-west (Durango). The size of this isolated drainage basin is very large, the Nazas River alone having a length of about 370 m. The great Mapimi desert of western Coahuila is another lacustrine depression, but only marshy lagoons remain. In eastern Coahuila, near Monclova, are the Agua Verde and Santa Maria lakes, and in eastern Chihuahua there is a similar group. The largest and most attractive of the plateau lakes is Chapala, in the state of Jalisco, about 80 m. long by 10–35 m. wide, which receives the waters of the Lerma and discharges into the Pacific through the Santiago. On the lower terraces of Michoacan are Patzcuaro and Cuitzeo lakes, and elsewhere among the sierras are numerous other small bodies of water. Among the tide-water lagoons, of which there are many along the Gué coast, the best known are the Laguna de Términos in Campeche, Tamiahua in Vera Cruz, Madre (130 m. long), Pesquerias (21 m. long) and Chairel (near Tampico) in Tamaulipas. All these lagoons are navigable, and those of northern Vera Cruz and Tamaulipas, when connected and improved, will afford a safe inland route for some hundreds of miles along the coast. The north coast of Yucatán is remarkable for the extensive banks built up by the Gulf current from 5 to 7 m. from the shore-line. Inside the present sandy coast is a peculiar tide-water channel called the Rio Lagartos, which follows almost the whole northern shore, with occasional openings or bocas, connecting with the open sea. It is apparently of the same character as the lagoons of Tamaulipas, There are a number of these lagoons on the Pacific coast—such as Superior and Inferior near Salina Cruz, Papacayo, near Acapulco, Cayutlan, near Manzanillo, and Tecapan in Tepic—but they are usually shallow, sometimes swampy, and have no value for commerce.
There is a marked difference between the Gulf and Pacific coastlines of Mexico in regard to their minor indentations and harbours. The south-west part of the Gulf of Mexico is called the Gulf of Campeche (Campeachy), but no distinction is necessary. This coast has no bays of importance, its rivers are obstructed by sandbars, and it has only one natural harbour—that of Cármen and the Laguna de Términos, which has sufficient depth for the larger classes of vessels and is sheltered by the islands of Cármen and Puerto Real. Of the principal ports on this coast, Matamoros, Tampico, Tuxpan, Coatzacoalcos and Frontera are on rivers, which are obstructed by bars. Tampico and Coatzacoalcos, however, have been improved by breakwaters or jetties, and the deepening of the Channels across the bars, into safe and commodious harbours. Vera Cruz is an open anchorage inside a series of reefs which afford no protection to vessels from the “northers.” A breakwater has remedied this defect and Vera Cruz is no longer considered a dangerous port. Campeche has a small artificial harbour, which is so silted up that vessels drawing 9 ft. must anchor 1 m. outside and larger vessels still farther away. Progreso, Yucatán, has only an open roadstead, and large vessels cannot approach its landing-place nearer than 6 m. On the east coast of Yucatán there are two deep, well-sheltered bays, Ascensión and Espiritu Santo, which afford good anchorages, and at the north end of the island of Cozumel the bay of Santa Maria offers an excellent harbour. The Pacific coast has several deep and well sheltered bays; but they are separated from the interior by the rough and difficult ranges of the Sierra Madre Occidental. There are two large indentations of the coast—the Gulfs of Tehuantepec and California. The former is opposite the Gulf of Campeche, and possesses no distinguishing characteristic. The Gulf of California, on the other hand, penetrates the continent for a distance of 739 m., from south-east to north-west, with a maximum breadth of 190 m. Its area is usually restricted to the waters north of the latitude of Cape San Lucas, but it should be extended to the outer waters enclosed by a line from Cape San Lucas to Cape Corrientes. Its upper waters are not much navigated because of the aridity of its coasts, but there are two or three important ports towards the south. The Gulf has a considerable number of islands, most of them near the peninsular coast, and several deep, well-protected bays—those of La Paz and Santa Inés in Lower California, Guaymas in Sonora, Agiobampo, Topolobampo and Altata Salinas in Sinaloa. On the Pacific coast of Lower California are the Ensenada de Todos Santos and the bays of San Quentin, Viscaino and Magdalena. The principal bays on the mainland coast are Olas Atlas, which is the harbour of Mazatlan, San Blas, Banderas, Manzanillo, Acapulco, Salina Cruz and Tonalá. Several of these are being improved.
[Geology.—By far the greater part of Mexico is covered by deposits of Cretaceous and later date, the pre-Cretaceous rocks occurring only in comparatively small and isolated patches. At the southern extremity of the great table-land, however, in the state of Puebla, there is a considerable mass of crystalline rocks which is believed to be of Archaean age. Similar rocks occur also in Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero and elsewhere; but owing to the absence of any early fossiliferous deposits, the age of these rocks is very uncertain. Silurian and Devonian fossils have been reported at one or two localities, but for the present the observations are open to doubt. The earliest fossiliferous beds which have been proved to exist in Mexico belong to the Carboniferous system. They are found on the borders of Guatemala and consist of limestones and dolomites with Productus.
The Mesozoic beds are of greater importance. The Triassic and Jurassic systems are met with only in scattered patches. The former consists of sandstones and clays, and the fossils found in them are chiefly plants, including Gangamopteris and Macrotaeniopteris, two characteristic genera of the Indian Gondwana system. The Jurassic beds are marls, sandstones and limestones, which contain marine fossils. The Cretaceous rocks take a far larger share in the formation of the country. They form the greater part of the Sierra Madre Oriental and also cover most of the central plateau. They contain many fossils, including Hippurites and Ammonites. The sedimentary deposits of the Tertiary era do not occupy a very wide area. They occur, however, along the coasts, where they are marine, and also on the central plateau, where they are of lacustrine origin. But by far the most important of the Tertiary rocks are the volcanic lavas, agglomerates and ashes, which cover so much of the country. It is in the western half of Mexico that they are most fully developed, but towards the southern extremity of the plateau they spread nearly to the eastern coast. The eruptions are said to have begun with the ejection of syenites, diorites and diabases, which probably took place at the close of the Cretaceous or the beginning of the Eocene period. In the Miocene period andesites of various kinds were erupted, while at the close of the Pliocene began the great eruptions of basalt which reached their maximum in Quaternary times and continue to the present day. (P. La.)]
Climate.—Mexico stretches across 17 parallels of latitude, with the Tropic of Cancer crossing her territory about midway. This implies tropical and sub-tropical conditions. The relief of the land and varying degrees of rainfall and vegetation, however, serve to modify these conditions in many important particulars. The elevation and extent of the great central plateau, which penetrates ​ deeply into the tropical half of the country, carry with them temperate and sub-tropical conditions over much the greater part of the republic. Above the plateau rise the marginal sierras, while a few isolated peaks in the region of perpetual snow give to Mexico a considerable area of cold temperate and a trace of arctic conditions. Descending to the lowlands on either side of the plateau, the temperature rises steadily until the upper limit of the tropical region, called tierras calientes, is reached, where the climate is hot, humid and unhealthy, as elsewhere in the forested coastal plains of tropical America.
The tierras calientes (hot lands) of Mexico include the two coastal zones, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the states of Tabasco, Campeche, and part of Chiapas, the peninsula of Yucatán and a part of eastern Oaxaca. The mean temperature ranges from 77° to 82° F., seldom falling below 60°, but often rising to 105°, and in the sultry districts of Vera Cruz, Guaymas and Acapulco to and even above 110°. The rainfall is heavy in the south, except Yucatán, but diminishes gradually toward the north, until on the Pacific and Gulf of California coasts it almost disappears. These lowland districts are densely forested in the south, except Yucatán, and large areas are covered with streams, swamps and lagoons, the abode of noxious insects, pestilential fevers and dysentery. On both coasts yellow fever epidemics appear at frequent intervals. The great fertility of these regions and the marvellous wealth of their forests are irresistible attractions to industrial and commercial enterprise, but their unhealthiness restricts development and is a bar to any satisfactory increase in population. The heavy rainfall on the Gulf coast, however, which reaches a maximum of 90 to 100 in. in the Huatusco district of Vera Cruz, causes the flooding of large areas of lowlands, and will make improvement very difficult. The peninsula of Yucatán, whose general level does not rise above 130 to 200 ft. above the sea, consists almost wholly of an open, dry, calcareous plain. The temperature ranges from 66° to 89°, but the heat is tempered by the cool sea-breezes which sweep unobstructed across its plains. The rainfall is abundant in the rainy season, but in the long dry season it is extremely rare. In the wet season the rain is quickly absorbed by the dry, porous soil; consequently there are no rivers and no lakes except near the forested region of the south-east. These exceptional conditions give to Yucatán a moderately hot, dry, and comparatively healthful climate. Another hot, dry climate is that of the tierras calientes of Sonora. The coast is low and extremely arid, and would be uninhabitable were it not for the proximity of the Sierra Madre, where a light rainfall is experienced, and for the numerous rivers that cross the arid belt between the mountains and the sea. The maximum temperatures in this region are 98° at Hermosillo and 119° at Guaymas.,
To a large extent the climate of Mexico is determined by vertical zones. According to H. H. Bancroft (Resources of Mexico, pp. 3–4), the tierras calientes, which include a coastal zone 30 to 40 m. wide and the low-lying states already mentioned, rise from sea-level to an elevation of 3280 ft. The tierra templada, or sub-tropical zone, rises to an elevation of 5577 ft., and comprises “the greater portions of Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosi, nearly half of Tamaulipas, a small part of Vera Cruz, nearly the whole of Chiapas, nearly all of Oaxaca, a large portion of Guerrero, Jalisco, Sinaloa and Sonora,” together with small parts of the inland states of Puebla, Mexico, Morelos and Michoacan. The mean annual temperature is about 75°. Above this is the tierra fria, which ranges from 5577 to 8200 ft., and includes all the higher portions of the Mexican plateau, and which corresponds to the temperate regions of Central United States where frosts are very rarely experienced. Even here the high sun temperatures give a sub-tropical character to the country. In the sierras, above the tierras frias, which are not “cold lands” at all, are the colder climates of the temperate zone, suitable for cereals, grazing and forest industries, and, farther up, the isolated peaks which rise into the regions of snow and ice.
Speaking generally, the four seasons are clearly marked north of lat. 28° N. only. South of that parallel they merge in the estación de las aguas, or rainy season, from May to October, and the estación seca, or dry season, which prevails for the rest of the year. The rains generally begin on the east coast and gradually move northwards. The windward slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental receive the greater part of the rainfall, and the winds, deprived of their moisture, pass over the northern plateau without further precipitation. On the Pacific coast the belt of calms, known as the northern horse latitudes, crosses the northern parts of Lower California and Sonora, which accounts for their extreme aridity. The southern terraces of the plateau have no high mountain barriers between them and the moist winds of the Caribbean, and they too receive an abundant rainfall in the wet season, especially during the prevalence of heavy “northers” on the Gulf coast. The precipitation varies widely, that of the western side of the northern plateau (Chihuahua and Durango) being about 39 in., that of the Valley of Mexico about 25 in., and that of the whole republic 59 in. Long droughts are common in many parts of the country, and on the barren surfaces of the plateau the rains drain away rapidly, leaving but slight beneficial results.
Flora and Fauna.—The types of animal and vegetable life found in Mexico belong, in a general sense, to those of the northern temperate region, and those of the tropical regions of Central and South America. The great central plateau and its bordering lowlands form an intermediate territory in which these dissimilar types are found side by side, the tropical species extending northward along the coast to the United States, while the northern species have found their way to the southern limits of the plateau. The jaguar and puma have found their way into the United States, while the wolf, coyote, bear and beaver have gone far southward on the plateau, and the buffalo was once found in large numbers on its more favoured northern plains. This intermingling of types does not apply to south-eastern Mexico, where animal life is represented by many of the genera and species found in the forested lowlands of the great, Amazon basin.,
Aside from its origin, the fauna of Mexico includes at least five species of monkey, the jaguar, puma, ocelot (Felis pardalis), wolf, coyote, lynx, badger, otter (Lutra felina), beaver, muskrat, bear, raccoon (Procyon), coati (Nasua), tapir, two species of peccary (Dicotyles torquatus and D. labiatus), skunk (Mephitis, Spilogale and Conepatus), marten, several species of opossum (including a pigmy species of the Tres Marias islands), sloth, two species of ant-bear (Myrmecophaga tetradactylus and Cyclothurus didactylus), armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), a small arboreal porcupine (Synetheres mexicanus), the kinkajou (Cercoleptes caudivolvulus), three species of deer—the white-tailed Cariacus toltecus, the little black-faced brocket, Coassus rufinus, which is also found in Brazil, and the Sonora deer (Odocoileus couesi)—the Mexican bighorn (Ovis mexicanus) of Chihuahua, at least two species of hare (Lepus calotis and L. palustris), rabbits, black, gray, red and ground squirrels, gophers, and many small rodents. Alligators and crocodiles are numerous in the lagoons and rivers of the coast and the iguana is to be found everywhere throughout the tropical lowlands, the large black Ctenosura acanthinurus being partly arboreal in habit when full grown; Mexico is a paradise of lizards, which are noted for their diversity in form as well as for their remarkable colouration. Frogs and toads are represented by scores of species, some of which, e.g. the tree-frogs (Hylidae), are extremely interesting. The ophidians are also very numerous, ranging from the comparatively harmless boa-constrictor to the deadly “palanca” or “fer de lance” (Lachesis lanceolatus) and rattlesnake (Crotalus), of which there are several species. In southern Mexico in 1902 and 1904 Hans Gadow collected specimens of 44 different kinds of snakes, which he estimated to be only about 45% of the species in the states visited. The arboreal life of the tropical forests has developed the tree-climbing habit among snakes as well as among frogs and toads, and also the habit of mimicry, their colour being in harmony with the foliage or bark of the trees which form their “hunting-grounds.” Bats are numerous, both in species and individuals. The sanguinary vampire (Desmodus rufus) has an extensive range through the tierras calientes and tierras templadas of the southern states. The coasts of Mexico, together with their accessible lagoons and rivers, afford innumerable breeding-places for turtles, which include the large green and tortoise-shell species. In some places the capture of the latter is the source of a considerable export trade in tortoise-shell. The coast of Lower California is a favourite resort for the fur-bearing seal, and pearl oysters find a congenial habitat in the south waters of the Gulf. There are some good fishing-grounds on the coasts, but fishing as an organized industry does not exist. The inland waters, with the exception of Lake Chapala, have comparatively few species, but the government has introduced carp, brook-trout and salmon-trout.
The avifauna of Mexico includes most of the species of the tropical and temperate regions of America—such as parrots (chiefly the yellow-headed Chrysalis), parakeets (Conurus canicula), macaws (Ara macao and A. militaris), toucans, trogons, herons, egrets, ibis, spoonbills, boat-bills (Cancroma), ducks, pelicans, cormorants, bitterns, stilts, sandpipers, curlews, grackles, kingfishers, motmots, “Chachalacas” (Ortalida poliocephala), woodpeckers, jays, cuckoos, “garrapateros” (Crotophaga sulcirostris), the ingenious weaver-bird (Icterus), and another species (Cassicus), whose curiously woven, sack-like nests are suspended from the slender limbs of trees, and sometimes even from telegraph-wires, scarlet-crested fly-catchers (Muscivora mexicana), tanagers, mocking-birds (called “zenzontl”), turkeys, partridge, quail (Colinus, Lophortyx, Callipepla and Cyrtonyx), doves, pigeons, eagles, caracara hawks (Polyborus), fish-hawks, falcons, crows, and turkey-buzzards (both the red-faced “aura” of North America and the black-faced “zopilote" of the tropics), which are the scavengers of the country. The most numerous, perhaps, are the humming-birds, of which there are many genera and species, each one distinct in form and colour. They are called “huitzilin” (spikelet by the Aztecs, and “colibrí,” “chupaflor” and “chupa-miel” (flower- or honey-sucker), and “pájaromosca” (fly-bird) by the Spanish-speaking Mexicans. These descriptive names are highly poetic, as also that of the Portuguese, “beija-flor” (flower-kisser); but the humming-bird is insectivorous, and thrusts his long bill into flowers in search of insects instead of honey. Mexico is credited with a great variety of song-birds, but these are to be found chiefly in the partly-forested country of the tierras templadas and tierras frias. Her chief distinction, however, is in birds of varied and gorgeous feathering. The wonderful plumage of the “quetzal” (Trogon resplendens) was, it is said, reserved ​ by the Aztec rulers for their own exclusive use. Of the indigenous birds, the turkey has been fully domesticated, and the musk-duck and “chachalaca” are easily reared. Sea-fowl are most numerous on the coasts of Lower California, where certain islands in the arid belt are frequented at night by countless numbers of them. It should be added that many of the migrating birds of North America pass the winter in Mexico.
The insect fauna of Mexico covers a very wide range of genera and species which, like the other forms of animal life, is largely made up of migratory types. No complete study has ever been made of this fauna, but much has been, and is being done by the U.S. Biological Survey and Plant Industry Bureau. To the traveller, the most conspicuous among the Mexican insects, perhaps, are the butterflies, beetles, ants and the myriads of mosquitoes, midges, fleas and chinches. Among the mosquitoes, which are extraordinarily numerous in some of the hot lowland districts, are the species credited with the spread of malarial and yellow fevers. The midges are even more numerous than the mosquitoes. In pleasing contrast to such pests are the butterflies of all sizes and colours, beetles of an inconceivable variety of size, shape and colouration, and ants of widely dissimilar appearance and habits. An interesting species of the last is the leaf-cutting ant (Eciton) which lives in large underground colonies and feeds upon a fungus produced by leaf-cuttings stored in subterranean passages to promote fermentation. These ants will strip a tree in a few hours and are very destructive to fruit plantations. Some of the native trees have developed ingenious methods of defence, one of which is that of attracting small colonies of another species to drive away the marauders. Most destructive, also, are the termites or white ants, whose ravages are to be seen in the crumbling woodwork and furniture of all habitations in the hot zones. Some species build their nests in trees—great globular masses sometimes three feet in diameter, supported on the larger branches, and connected with the ground by covered passages on the outside of the tree. These insects are blind and avoid the light. Bees find a highly congenial habitat in Mexico, and some honey is exported. Spiders are also represented by a large number of genera and species, the most dreaded being the venomous “tarantula” and the savage “mygale.”
Few countries, if any, can present so great a diversity in plant life as Mexico. This is due not only to its geographical position and its vertical climatic zones, which give it a range from tropical to arctic types, but also to its peculiar combination of humid and arid conditions in which we find an extensive barren table-land interposed between two tropical forested coastal zones. These widely divergent conditions give to Mexico a flora that includes the genera and species characteristic of nearly all the zones of plant life on the western continents—the tropical jungle of the humid coastal plains with its rare cabinet-woods, dye-woods, lianas and palms; the semi-tropical and temperate mountain slopes where oak forests are to be found and wheat supplants cotton and sugar-cane; and above these the region of pine forests and pasture lands. Then, there are the mangrove-fringed coasts and the dripping wooded slopes where rare orchids thrive, and above these, on the inland side of the sierra, a treeless, sun-scorched table-land where only the cactus, yucca, and other coarse vegetation of the desert can thrive without irrigation.
For convenience of description, the flora of Mexico may be divided into four great divisions: that of the comparatively barren plateau and the arid coast regions, the humid tierras calientes, the intermediate tierras templadas and tierras frias, and the higher regions of the sierras. The line of demarcation cannot be very sharply drawn, as the zones everywhere overlap each other and local climatic conditions greatly modify plant types. In general, the aspect of the great central plateau north of the Anahuac sierras is that of a dusty, treeless plain. There is but little natural vegetation to be seen—ragged yucca trees, many species of agave and cactus, scrubby mesquite bushes, sage bushes and occasional clumps of coarse grasses. The rainy season completely changes the appearance of these plains, new grass appears, and wheat and Indian corn are cultivated. The rains do not last long, however, and sometimes fail altogether. The most common plants of the Mexican plateau are the agaves, yuccas and cacti, each of which is represented by a number of species. The first is chiefly known in the south by the “magueys,” from which the national drinks “pulque” and “mescal” are extracted. There is some confusion in the specific names of these agaves; the “pulque”-producing plant is usually described as the Agave americana, though A. atrovirens and several others are also credited with the product. The mescal-producing magueys have a thinner leaf and are not cultivated, with the exception of the species producing the “tequila” mescal. The chief value of the agaves, however, is in their fibres, of which a great variety is produced. The principal plateau agaves producing fibre are the A. lechuguilla and A. lophantha and A. univittata of the Jaumave Valley, Tamaulipas, which furnish what may be termed the genuine ixtle fibre. The “tapemete” fibre of western Mexico is credited by Mr E. W. Nelson to the A. vivipara, which is found chiefly in the warmer and lower elevations of the Pacific slope. There are many other fibre-producing agaves, including some of those from which pulque is derived. The cactus is unquestionably the characteristic plant of Mexico. About one thousand species have been described, a very large percentage of which are to be found on the Mexican plateau.
Explorations by botanists of the United States Department of Agriculture have been made in many localities, in Jalisco, Zacatecas, Michoacan and Tamaulipas, but many years must elapse before the whole ground can be covered. In central and southern Mexico the mountain slopes are forested up to 12,500 to 13,500 ft., juniper bushes continuing up to 14,000 ft. The forests consist of several species of evergreen and deciduous oaks, “oyamel” (Abies religiosa), the arbutus or strawberry tree, the long-leaved Pinus liophylla and the short-leaved “ocote” or Pinus montezumae and the alder, with an undergrowth of elder (Sambucus mexicana), broom and shrubby heath. In the Southern Sierra Madre, the “oyamel” and “ocote” pine are the, giants of the forest, sometimes rising to a height of 100 ft. Oaks are to be found over a wide area and at lower elevations of the sub-tropical zone as well. They are represented by a number of species, and are called “roble” and “encina” by the natives.
In the intermediate zones between the higher sierras and the tierras calientes the flora is very largely composed of species characteristic of the bordering hot and cold regions. Oaks are everywhere common and the “ocote” pine on the Gulf coast is found as far down as 6300 ft. In southern Mexico the pine is found at even lower elevations where the tropical growth. has been destroyed by cultivation and fire. The lower slopes of the sierras, especially those of southern Mexico, are well forested and include an immense number of species. The most common families on the eastern slopes, where the precipitation is heavy, are the magnolias, crotons, mimosas, acacias, myrtles, oaks, plane-trees and bamboos. Palms are common, the chestnut abounds in many places, the cacti are almost as numerous as on the open plateau. On the southern slopes of the Ajusco and other sierras considerable forests of the “ahuehuete” or cypress (Taxodium distichum) are to be found. The “higuerilla”' or castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis) is widely distributed throughout the plateau and the open plains of the lower zones. In some localities the characteristic types of the two climatic extremes, the palm and the pine, are to be found growing side by side.
No brief description can adequately portray the marvellous variety and magnificence of the flora of the tierras calientes. Its forests are not composed of one or a few dominating species, as in the cold temperate zone, but of countless genera and species closely interwoven together—a confused mass of giant trees, lianas and epiphytes struggling to reach the sunlight. This struggle for existence has completely changed the habits of some plants, turning the palm and the cactus into climbers, and even some normal species into epiphytes. Among the more important and conspicuous trees of these tropical forests are mahogany, rosewood, Spanish cedar (Cedrela), cassias, ceibas (Bombax), rubber (Castilloa), palms of many species including the oil-producing Attalea of Manzanillo and Acrocomia of Acapulco, guayacan (Guaiacum), logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum), brazilwood (H. boreale) which should not be confounded with the Brazilian Caesalpinia, palo blanco (Lysiloma candida), the cascalote and divi-divi trees (Caesalpinia Cacalaco and C. coriaria), the “zapote chico” (Achras sapota) from which chicle is extracted, “zapote prieto” (Diospyros ebenaster), wild fig, myrtles, bamboos and many of the types already mentioned in Connexion with the sub-tropical zone. Of the 114 species of trees and cabinet-woods, 17 of oil-bearing plants, and over 60 of medicinal plants and dyewoods indigenous to Mexico, by far the larger part are represented in the tierras calientes. Among the well-known forest products of this zone are arnotto, jalap, ipecacuanha, sarsaparilla, rubber, orchids and a great variety of gums.
Of the economic plants and products of Mexico, the list is surprisingly long and interesting. The cereals, fruits and vegetables of Europe have been introduced and some of them have done well. Wheat is widely cultivated and a considerable part of the population depend upon it for their bread. Indian corn, which is believed to have had its origin in Mexico, also provides food for a large part of the population. “Tunas” or cactus fruit, red peppers, “zapotes” (the fruit of various trees), “arrayan” (Myrtus arayan), “ciruelas” or Mexican plums (Spondias), guavas, “huamuchil” (Pithecolobium dulce), tamarinds, aguacates (Persea gratissima), bananas, plantains, pineapples, grapes, oranges, lemons, limes, granadillas, chirimoyas, mammees (Mammea americana), coco-nuts, cacao, mangoes, olives, gourds and melons, are among the fruits of the country, and rice, wheat, Indian corn, beans, yams, sweet potatoes, onions and “tomatoes” (Physalis) are among its better-known food products. The food of the common people is chiefly made up of Indian corn, beans, red peppers and “tomatoes,” There are about 50 known species of beans (Phaseolus) in Mexico and Central America, and probably a dozen species of red peppers (Capsicum) which are used both in seasoning and in making chili sauce. The “tomato” or “tomatillo” mentioned, is the fruit of the Physalis ixocarpa, sometimes called the “strawberry tomato” and the “Mexican ground-cherry,” which is used with red peppers to make chili sauce. The common potato (Solanum tuberosum), of which wild varieties are found, is not commonly used as a vegetable, but as a flavouring for soups and other dishes. Among other economic plants are the fibre-producing agaves, the best known of which is the A. rigida ​ var. elongata which produces the “henequen” fibre, or sisal hemp, of Yucatan, silk or tree-cotton (Ceiba casearia), sugar-cane, cotton (Gossypium), indigo and “canaigre” (Rumex hymenosepalus) whose root contains a large percentage of tannin.
Mexico has suffered much from the reckless destruction of her forests, not only for industrial purposes but through the careless burning of grassy areas. The denuded mountain slopes and plateaus of southern Mexico are due to the prehistoric inhabitants who cleared away the tropical forest for their Indian corn fields, and then left them to the erosive action of the tropical rains and subsequent occupation by coarse grasses. Fire was generally used in clearing these lands, with the result that their arboreal vegetation was ultimately killed and their fertility destroyed. In the valleys of some of these denuded slopes oak and pine are succeeding the tropical species where fires have given them a chance to get a good foothold.
Population.—According to the census of 1900 the population of Mexico numbered 13,607,259, of which less than one-fifth (19%) were classed as whites, 38% as Indians, and 43% as mixed bloods. There were 57,507 foreign residents, including a few Chinese and Filipinos. Since then the Japanese have acquired an industrial footing in Mexico. Under the constitution of 1824 all race distinctions are abolished, and these diverse ethnic elements are nominally free and equal. For many years, however, the Indians remained in subjection and took no part in the political activities of their native country. Since about 1866, spurred on by the consciousness that one of their own race, Benito Juárez, had risen to the highest positions in the, gift of the country, they have taken greater interest in public affairs and are already making their influence felt. In southern Mexico the Zapotecas furnish schoolmasters for the village schools. Peonage, however, is still prevalent on many of the larger estates, and serious cruelties are sometimes reported. The government itself must be held partly responsible, as for the transportation of the mountain-bred Yaquis to the low, tropical plains of Yucatan (see Herman Whitaker's The Planter, 1909), but the influence of three and a half centuries of slavery and peonage cannot be shaken off in a generation.
According to Humboldt, the census of 1810 gave a total population of 6,122,354, of which the whites had 18%, the mestizos 22% and the Indians 60%. The census of 1895 increased the whites to 22%, which was apparently an error, the mixed bloods to 47%, and reduced the Indians to 31%. It is probable that the returns have never been accurate in regard to the mixed bloods and Indians, but it is the general conclusion that the Indians have been decreasing in number, while the mixed bloods have been increasing. Neglect of their children, unsanitary habits and surroundings, tribal intermarriage and peonage are the principal causes of the decreasing Indian population. Recent observers, however, deny the assertion that the Indians are now decreasing in number except where local conditions are exceptionally unfavourable. The death rate among their children is estimated at an average of not less than 50%, which in families of five and six children, on an average, permits only a very small natural increase. The larger part of the population is to be found in the southern half of the republic, owing to the arid conditions prevailing in the north. The unhealthfulness of the coastal plains prevents their being thickly populated, although Vera Cruz and some other states return a large population. The most favourable regions are those of the tierras templadas, especially on the southern slopes of the great central plateau which were thickly populated in prehistoric times.
The dissimilar races that compose the population of Mexico have not been sufficiently fused to give a representative type, which, it may be assumed, will ultimately be that of the mestizos. Mexico was conquered by a small body of Spanish adventurers, whose success in despoiling the natives attracted thither a large number of their own people. The discovery of rich deposits of gold and silver, together with the coveted commercial products of the country, created an urgent demand for labourers and led to the enslavement of the natives. To protect these adventurers and to secure for itself the largest possible share in these new sources of wealth, the Spanish crown forbade the admission of foreigners into these colonies, and then harassed them with commercial and industrial restrictions, burdened them with taxes, strangled them with monopolies and even refused to permit the free emigration thither of Spaniards. Out of such adverse conditions has developed the present population of Mexico. It was not till after the middle of the 19th century that a long and desperate resistance to foreign intervention under the leadership of Benito Juarez infused new life into the masses and initiated the creation of a new nationality. Then came the long, firm rule of Porfirio Diaz, who first broke up the organizations of bandits that infested the country, and then sought to raise Mexico from the state of discredit and disorganization into which it had fallen. Suspicion and jealousy of the foreigner is disappearing, and habits of industry are displacing the indolence and lawlessness that were once universally prevalent.
The white race is of Spanish descent and has the characteristics common to other Spanish-American creoles. Their political record previous to the presidency of Porfirio Diaz was one of incessant revolutionary strife, in which the idle, unsettled half-breeds took no unwilling part. The Indian element in the population is made up of several distinct races—the Aztec or Mexican, Misteca-Zapoteca, Maya or Yucateco, Otomi or Othomi, and in smaller number the Totonac, Tarasco, Apache, Matlanzingo, Chontal, Mixe, Zoque, Guaicuro, Opata-Pima, Tapijulapa, Seri and Huavi. As the tendency among separated tribes of the same race is to develop dialects and as habitat and customs tend still further to differentiate them, it may be that some of these smaller families are branches of the others. In 1864 Don Manuel Orozco y Berra found no fewer than 51 distinct languages and 69 dialects among the Indian inhabitants of Mexico, to which he added 62 extinct idioms—making a total of 182 idioms, each representing a distinct tribe. Thirty-five of these languages, with 69 dialects, he succeeded in classifying under 11 linguistic families. A later investigator, Don Francisco Belmar (Lenguas indigenas de Mexico, Mexico, 1905), has been able to reduce these numerous idioms to a very few groups. None of them were written except through the use of ideographs, in 'the making of which the Aztecs used colours with much skill, while the Mayas used an abbreviated form, or symbols.
The Aztecs, who called themselves Mejica or Mexicans after they had established themselves on the high table-land of Mexico, belong to a very large family or group of tribes speaking a common idiom called Nahua or Nahoa. These Nahua-speaking tribes were called the Nahuatlaca, and compose a little more than one-fourth of the present Indian population. They inhabit the western Sierra Madre region from Sinaloa southward to Chiapas, the higher plateau states, which region was the centre of their empire when Cortés conquered them, and parts of Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Morelos, Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosi. They were energetic and warlike and evidently had not reached the zenith of their power when Cortés came. They had been preceded on the same plateau by the Chichimecs, possibly of the same race, who were conquered by the Aztecs sometime in the 15th century after a supposed occupation of the territory about 400 years. The characteristic civilization of prehistoric Mexico, however, antedates both of these periods.
An Aboriginal race called the Toltecs is said to have occupied Vera Cruz and Tabasco and to have extended its empire westward on the plateau to and perhaps beyond the present capital. They were the builders of the pyramids of Cholula and Teotihuacan, near the city of Mexico, and of Papantla, Huatusco and Tuzapan, in Vera Cruz. One of their towns was Tollan (now Tula) 50 m. north of the national capital, and it is not improbable that the people of Cholula, Texcoco and Tlaxcala at the time of the Spanish invasion were occupying the sites of older Toltec towns. There has been much discussion in regard to the origin of the Toltecs, some assuming that they were a distinct race, and others that they belonged to the Nahuatlaca. Another and perhaps a better supposition is that they belonged to the Maya group, and represented a much earlier civilization than that of the builders of Palenque, Quirigua and Copan. Confirmatory ​ evidence of this is to be found, not only in the character of their constructions, but in the circumstance that a tribe closely akin to the Mayas (the Huastecos) still occupies a retired mountain valley of Vera Cruz, entirely separated from their kinsmen of the south, and that a dialect of the Maya language is still spoken in northern Vera Cruz. There is evidence to show that the Aztecs adopted the civilization of the Toltecs, including their religion (Quetzalcoatl being a god of the Toltecs and Mayas), calendar and architecture. Perhaps the most remarkable of the Mexican races are the Mayas, or Maya-Quiché group, which inhabit the Yucatán peninsula, Campeche and parts of Tabasco, Chiapas, and the neighbouring states of Central America (q.v.). The remarkable ruins of Palenque, Uxmal, Chichenitza, Lorillard, Ixinché, Tikal, Copan and Quirigua, with their carved stonework and astonishing architectural conceptions, show that they had attained a high degree of civilization. They were agriculturists, lived in large, well-built towns, cultivated the mountain sides by means of terraces, and had developed what must have been an efficient form of government.
The Mistecas, or Mixtecas, and Zapotecas, who occupy the southern slopes of the central plateau, especially Puebla, Morelos, Oaxaca and Guerrero, form another distinct race, whose traditional history goes back to the period when the structures now known as Mitla, Monte Alban, Xochicalco and Zaachila were built. Their prehistoric civilization appears to have been not inferior to that of the Mayas. They were an energetic people, were never subdued by the Aztecs, and are now recovering from their long subjection to Spanish enslavement more rapidly than any other indigenous race. The Otomis comprise a large number of tribes occupying the plateau north of the Anáhuac sierras. They are a hardy people, and are the least civilized of the four principal native races.
The Totonacs inhabit northern Vera Cruz and speak a language related to that of the Mayas; the Tarascos form a small group living in Michoacán; the Matlanzingos, or Matlaltzincas, live near the Tarascos, the savage Apaches, a nomadic group of tribes ranging from Durango northward into the United States; the Opata-Pima group, inhabiting the western plateau region from Sonora and Chihuahua south to Guadalajara, is sometimes classed as a branch of the Nahuatlaca; the Seris, a very small family of savages, occupy Tiburon Island and the adjacent mainland of Sonora; and the Guaicuros, or Yumas, are to be found in the northern part of the peninsula of Lower California In southern Mexico, the Chontales, Tapijulapas, Mixes and Zoques inhabit small districts among and near the Zapotecas, the first being considered by Belmar a branch of that family. The Huavis inhabit four small villages among the lagoons on the southern shore of Tehuantepec and have been classed by Belmar as belonging to the Maya stock. The census of 1895 gave these Indian races an aggregate population of nearly 4,000,000, of which nearly 3,450,000 belonged to the first four groups. Three of these four had made important progress toward civilization. Some of the others had likewise made notable progress, among which were the Tarascos, Totonacs and Zoques.
The builders of Casas Grandes (q.v.), in Chihuahua, evidently belonged to the Pueblo tribes of Arizona and New Mexico. As for the builders of Quemada, in Zacatecas, nothing positive is known. The ruins apparently are of an earlier period than those of Mitla and Xochicalco, and have no inscriptions and architectural decorations, but the use of dressed stone in the walls, rather than adobe, warrants the conclusion that they belonged to the civilization of southern Mexico.
From the records made at the time of the Spanish conquest, and from the antiquities found in the abandoned cities of prehistoric Mexico, it is certain that the Indians lived in substantial houses, sometimes using dressed stone, inscriptions and ornamental carvings on the more pretentious edifices; they cultivated the soil, rudely perhaps, and produced enough to make it possible to live in large towns; they made woven fabrics for dress and hangings, using colours in their manufacture; they were skilful in making and ornamenting pottery, in making gold and silver ornaments, and in featherwork; they used the fibres that Nature lavishly provided in weaving baskets, hangings, mats, screens and various household utensils. Copper was known to them, and it is possible that they knew how to make cutting instruments from it, but they generally used stone axes, hammers and picks, and their most dangerous weapon was a war-club into which chips of volcanic glass were set. Many of these primitive arts are still to be found in the more secluded districts, and perhaps the best work in pottery moulding in Mexico to-day is that of uneducated Indian artists.
Of the half-breed element which has become so important a part of the Mexican population, no safe estimate can be made. Education, industrial occupation, commercial training and political responsibility are apparently working a transformation in a class that was once known chiefly for indolence and criminal instincts, and many of the leaders of modern Mexico have sprung from this race. Settled government, settled habits, remunerative employment and opportunities for the improvement of their condition are developing in them the virtues of the two parent races. Brigandage was formerly so common that travel without an armed escort was extremely dangerous; under President Diaz, however, not only has such lawlessness been repressed but the brigands themselves have been given regular employment as rural guards under the government. This class is also furnishing the small traders of the towns, overseers on the plantations and public works, petty officials, and to some extent the teachers and professional men of the provincial towns.
Political Divisions.—The republic of Mexico is politically divided into 27 states, one federal district, and three territories. The states are generally subdivided into distritos (districts) or partidos, and these into municipios (municipalities) which correspond to the townships of the American system. The state of Nuevo Léon, however, is divided into municipios only, while some other states use entirely different titles for the divisions, the larger being described as departamentos, cantons and municipios, and the smaller as partidos, directorias and vecindarios rurales. The Federal District consists of thirteen municipalities. The territory of Lower California is divided into two large districts, northern and southern, and the latter into partidos and municipios—the larger divisions practically forming two distinct territories.
The states and territories, with their areas, capitals and populations, are as follows:—
The area and population of Yucatán include those of the territory of Quintana Roo, which formed part of that state at the time of the census.
Baja, or Lower California; is divided into two districts for administrative convenience. The Distrito del Norte is credited with a population of 7583 and has its capital at Ensenada (pop. 1026); the Distrito del Sur has a population of 40,041 and has its capital at La Paz.
Tepic was detached from the north-west part of Jalisco and organized as a territory in 1889.
Quintana Roo was detached from the state of Yucatán in 1902 and received a territorial government.
The principal cities of Mexico, other than the capitals above mentioned, are as follows, the populations being those of 1900 except when otherwise stated: Acapulco (pop. 4932), a famous port on the Pacific coast in Guerrero, which was wrecked by the earthquake of 1909; Carmen, or Laguna de Términos (about 6000), a thriving commercial town and port on the Gulf coast in Campeche; Celaya (25,565), a railway centre and manufacturing town of Guanajuato; Ciudad Guzman, or Zapotlán (about 17,500), an interesting old town of Jalisco; Cholula (about 9000), an ancient native town of Puebla, widely known for its great pyramid; Comitán (9316), the commercial centre of Chiapas; Cordoba (7974 in 1895), a picturesque Spanish town in the sierras of Vera Cruz; Cuautla (6269), the centre of a rich sugar-producing district of Morelos; Guaymas (8648), a flourishing port of Sonora on the Gulf of California; Léon (62,623), the largest city in Guanajuato and distinguished for its commercial activity, manufactures and wealth; Linares (20,690), the second city of Nuevo Léon in size and importance; Matamoros (8347), a prominent commercial centre and river port of Tamaulipas; Mazatlán (17,852), the foremost Mexican port on the Pacific coast; Orizaba (32,894), a city of Vera Cruz famous for its delightful climate and picturesque surroundings; Parral (14,748), a well-known mining centre of southern Chihuahua; San Cristobal (about 16,000), once capital of Chiapas and rich in historical associations; Tampico (16,313), a Gulf port and railway terminus of Tamaulipas; Tehuantepec (10,386), the largest town on the Tehuantepec railway in Oaxaca; Vera Cruz (29,164), the oldest and best known Gulf port of Mexico.
Communications.—Railways began in Mexico with a line of four kilometres between the capital and Guadalupe, which was finished in 1854 and afterwards became a part of the Ferrocarril Mexicano. The latter dates from 1857, when a concession was granted for the construction of a railway from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz. The French invasion of 1862 found only 10 m. in operation outside of Vera Cruz and military needs led to its immediate extension to Paso del Macho, at the foot of the sierras, about 35 m. At the same time the English company holding the concession extended the Guadalupe line to Puebla. Nothing more was accomplished until after the downfall of Maximilian, and with a liberal subsidy from the Mexican government the Ferrocarril Mexicano was pushed to its completion in 1873. It is celebrated because of the difficulties overcome on the precipitous eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre, the beauties of the mountain scenery through which it passes, and the rapid transition from the hot, humid coastal plain to the cool, arid plateau, 7924 ft. above the sea at Boca del Monte. The railway extends 263 m. between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, to which 58 m. were added in branches from Apizaco to Puebla, and from Ometusco to Pachuca. The line was capitalized at $46,000,000 and has paid a good profit on the investment. The period of active railway construction, however, did not begin until 1878, during the first term of President Porfirio Diaz. In 1874 a concession was granted for a line from the port of Progreso to Mérida (22 1/2 m.), and in 1878 four concessions were added under which 806 m. were constructed. The principal of these four concessions was the Ferrocarril Interoceánico running from Vera Cruz to Mexico City and across the republic toward Acapulco. In 1880 concessions were granted to the F.C. Occidental, F.C. Central Mexicano, F.C. Nacional Mexicano and three others of less importance, aggregating nearly 3500 m. The first three of these have become important factors in the development of Mexico. The first runs southward from the capital to Oaxaca through the rich sub-tropical states of Puebla and Oaxaca, and the other two run northward from the same point to the American frontier. These two lines, popularly called the Mexican Central and Mexican National, have their northern termini at Ciudad Juárez and Laredo on the Rio Grande and connect with American trunk lines at El Paso and Laredo. These two great lines were merged in 1908, with an aggregate capital of $460,000,000 Mexican money, of which the Mexican government holds $230,004,580, or a controlling interest. Important branches of these lines extend to Tampico on the Gulf coast, to Manzanillo on the Pacific coast, and westward and southward into Michoacan and Guerrero, with a coast terminus at or near Acapulco. The next important line is the F.C. Internacional Mexicano, running from Ciudad Porfirio Diaz, on the Rio Grande, south-westward across the plateau to Durango, and is to be extended to Mazatlán, on the Pacific coast. This line was built with American capital and without a subsidy. Another line built with American capital and in connexion with American railway interests extends southward from Nogales, on the northern frontier, to Hermosillo, Guaymas and Mazatlán; it is to be extended to Guadalajara and possibly to other points in southern Mexico. Monterrey is connected with Tampico by a Belgian line known as the F.C. de Monterrey al Golfo Mexicano, and the capital is to have direct connexion with the Pacific, other than the F.C. Interoceánico, by a line through Cuernavaca and Iguala to the coast. Indirectly the capital has a Pacific coast connexion by way of Cordoba and the F.C. Vera Cruz al Pacifico to a junction with the Tehuantepec line. One of the most important railways in Mexico is the F.C. Nacional Interoceánico de Tehuantepec, also called the Tehuantepec National, and the Mexican Isthmus railway, which is 192 m. long and was formally opened in 1907. This line crosses the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from Coatzacoalcos (officially Puerto Mexico) on the Gulf coast to Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast, and has been under construction many years. The railway was first completed in 1894, but light and defective construction, together with lack of shipping facilities at its terminal points, rendered it useless. To correct these defects the line was completely rebuilt and terminal ports constructed. In 1909 the ports were ready to receive large ocean steamships, and regular traffic was begun, including cargoes of Hawaiian sugar for New York. The highest point on the line (Chivela Pass) is 735 ft. above sea-level. The railway has been built by the Mexican government as a transcontinental route for international commerce. Its final construction together with that of its two ports were executed by S. Pearson & Sons, Ltd., of London, who also undertook the working of the line when open. It was estimated in 1907 that the total cost of the railway and ports when completed would be about £13,000,000. The line is connected at the station of Santa Lucrecia (109 m. from Salina Cruz) with the Vera Cruz and Pacific railway which gives an all-rail connexion with Vera Cruz and Mexico City, the distance between the latter and Salina Cruz being 520 m. According to the President’s Message of April 1909, there were 14,857 m. of railway in operation, of which 11,851 m. belonged to or were controlled by the government. It is the evident policy of the Mexican government to prevent the absorption of its railways by private monopolies, and this is effected by state ownership of a controlling share in most of the trunk lines.
Mexico is well provided with tramway lines in its larger cities. A British consular report for 1904 stated that Mexico City and Torreon only were using electric traction, but that Guadalajara, Monterrey, Aguascalientes, Lagos, Colima, Vera Cruz and San Luis Potosí would soon be using it. No official reports are available. The telegraph lines had an aggregate length of 35,980 m. at the end of 1907, of which 33,000 m. belonged to the national government. The President reports an addition of 1626 m. in 1908. Wireless telegraphy was represented in 1908 by a connexion between Mazatlán and Lower California, which was in successful operation. Telephone lines were in use in all the large cities and in connexion with the large industrial enterprises and estates, beside which the government had 500 m. of its own in 1908.
Commerce.—In 1905 the mercantile marine of Mexico comprised only 32 steamers, of 13,199 tons, and 29 sailing vessels, of 8451 tons. The ocean-carrying trade was almost wholly in the hands of foreigners, the government wisely refraining from an attempt to develop an occupation for which its citizens had no natural aptitude. The coast wise trade is principally under the Mexican flag, but the steamers are owned abroad. An official publication entitled “Mexico: Yesterday and To-day, 1876–1904,” states that while the number of steamers engaged in the foreign trade increased from 841 to 969 in the 17 years from 1886 to 1903, the number of Mexican steamers decreased from 55 to 4. For the year 1906–1907 the entries of vessels from foreign ports numbered 1697, of 3,282,125 tons, and the clearances were 1669, of 3,257,932 tons. Subventions are paid for regular steamship service at the principal ports, the total expenditure in 1907–1908 being £42,876. These ports are well served by a large number of foreign steamship companies, which give direct communication with the principal ports of the United States, Europe, and the west coast of South America, and the initiation of a Japanese line in 1908 also brings Mexico into direct communication with the far East. The larger ports for foreign trade are Vera Cruz, Tampico, Progreso, Carmen and Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf coast, and Guaymas, La Paz, Mazatlán, Manzanillo, San Blas, Acapulco and Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast. Some of these—Vera Cruz, Tampico, Coatzacoalcos, Salina Cruz, Manzanillo and Mazatlán—have been greatly improved with costly port works. Among the smaller ports, some of which are open to foreign trade, are Matamoros, Tuxpan, Alvarado, Tlacotalpan, Frontera, Campeche and the island of Mujeres (coast of Yucatán) on the Gulf side, and Ensenada, Altata, Santa Rosalia and Soconusco on the Pacific.
The foreign trade has shown a steady increase during the period of industrial development, to which better means of transport have been an invaluable aid. In 1906–1907 the imports were valued at $111,234,968 U.S. gold, and the exports at $123,512,969, of which very nearly one half consisted of precious metals. According to an official report issued early in 1909 there had been a heavy decrease in both imports and exports, the former being returned at $36,195,469 and the latter at $54,300,896 for the six months ending the 31st of December 1908. Too rapid development and overtrading were given as reasons for this decline. Import and export duties are levied, the former in many cases for the protection of national industries. The imports largely consist of railway material, industrial machinery, ​ cotton, woollen and linen textiles and yarns for national factories, hardware, furniture, building material, mining supplies, drugs and chemicals, wines and spirits, wheat, Indian corn, paper and military supplies and equipment. The exports include gold, silver, copper, coffee, henequén or sisal, ixtle and other fibres, cabinet woods, chicle, rubber and other forest products, hides and skins, chickpeas, tobacco and sugar.
Agriculture.—The agricultural resources of Mexico are large and unusually varied, as they comprise some of the cereals and other food products of the temperate zone, and most of the leading products of the tropics. Agriculture, however, received slight attention, owing to the early development of the mining industries. An indirect result of the industrial development of Mexico, which began during the last quarter of the 19th century, has been an increased interest in agriculture, and especially in undertakings requiring large investments of capital, such as coffee, sugar and rubber plantations. A large part of the country is too arid for agriculture, and even with irrigation the water supply is sufficient for only a small part of the dry area. This region has, for the most part, a temperate climate, and produces wheat, barley, Indian corn and forage crops. Long droughts often destroy the wheat and Indian corn and compel their importation in large quantities to supply the people with food. This uncertainty in the wheat crop extends to the southern limits of the higher plateau, and is a serious obstacle to the increased production of this cereal. Indian corn, also, is a comparatively uncertain product on the plateau, and for the same reason. As it is a staple food with the poorer classes, the deficiency is made up through importation. These drawbacks tend to restrict agriculture on the plateau to comparatively limited areas, and the country people are, in general, extremely poor and badly nourished. A comparatively new product in this region is that of canaigre, which is grown for the tannin found in its root. It is a native of the arid regions and is now cultivated with success. The district about Parras, in southern Coahuila, produces grapes, which are principally used in the manufacture of wine and brandy. An important product of the plateau and of the open districts of the tierras calientes, growing in the most arid places, is the “nopal” or prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus indica). Its fruit, called “tuna” by the natives, is refreshing and wholesome and is a staple food in spite of its spiny covering. In the tierras calientes of Mexico, however, better conditions prevail. A fertile soil, abundant rainfall and high temperatures have covered these mountain slopes and lowland plains with a wealth of vegetation. The problem for the agriculturist here is not irrigation, but drainage and keeping down spontaneous growths. In these regions, sugar, tobacco, indigo, cacao, rice, sweet potatoes, alfalfa, beans and cassava are produced, and Indian corn yields two and three crops a year. Fruits also are plentiful, both wild and cultivated. Among them are the banana, plantain, tuna, chili pepper, olive, coco-nut, orange, lemon, lime, mango, pomegranate, “piña” or pineapple (wild and cultivated), fig, ahuacatl (Persea gratissima), chirimoya (Anona chirimolia), papaya, gourd, melon, guava, ciruela (plum), and the several “zapote” fruits, including “chico zapote” from the Achras sapota, which produces the “chicla” or chicle-gum of commerce, “zapote blanco” from the Casimiroa edulis, “zapote-barracho” (or “amarillo”) from the Lucuma salicifolia, “zapote-prieto” (or “negro”) from the Diospyros obtusifolia, and “zapote-mamey.” The production of rubber is becoming an important industry, large plantations having been set with both Hevea and Castilloa rubber trees. Lying between these two regions is the subtropical belt where coffee of an excellent quality is produced, and where cotton is cultivated. Coffee has become an important article of export, but cotton does not yield enough for the domestic factories. Better cultivation would probably increase the output and make it an article of export. A peculiar and highly profitable branch of Mexican agriculture is the cultivation of the Agave for two widely different purposes—one for its fibre, which is exported, and the other for its sap, which is manufactured into intoxicating liquors called “pulque” and “mescal.” In Yucatán immense plantations of the Agave rigida var. elongata are cultivated, from which large quantities of “henequén” or “sisal,” as the fibre is called, are exported. It is produced on light shallow soils overlying calcareous rock. It is also cultivated in Campeche and Chiapas. The pulque industry is located on the plateau surrounding the city of Mexico, the most productive district being the high, sandy, arid plain of Apam, in the state of Hidalgo, where the “maguey” (Agave americana) finds favourable conditions for its growth—a dry calcareous surface with moisture sufficiently near to be reached by its roots. Its cultivation is the chief industry of the states of Mexico, Hidalgo, Puebla and Tlaxcala. Of the 208 plantations in the state of Hidalgo in 1897, 129 were devoted to maguey. The plant is propagated from suckers and requires very little attention after transplanting to the field where it is to remain, but it takes six to eight years to mature and then yields an average of ten gallons of sap during a period of four or five months, after which it dies. “Pulque” is the fermented drink made from this sap: “mescal” is the distilled spirit made from the leaves and roots of the plant. There are other agaves used both in the production of drinks and fibres, but they are not cultivated. The “ixtle” fibres shipped from Tampico and Chiapas are all obtained from the agaves and yuccas found growing wild.
The natural and forest products of Mexico include the agave and yucca (ixtle) fibres already mentioned; the “ceibón” fibre derived from the silk-cotton tree (Bombax pentandria); rubber and vanilla in addition to the cultivated products; palm oil; castor beans; ginger; chicle, the gum extracted from the “chico-zapote” tree (Achras sapota); logwood and other dye-woods; mahogany, rosewood, ebony, cedar and other valuable woods; “cascalote" or divi-divi; jalap root (Ipomaea); sarsaparilla (Smilax); nuts and fruits.
Stock-raising dates from the earliest Spanish settlements in Mexico and received no slight encouragement from the mother country. For this reason much importance has always been attached to the industry, and stock-raising of some sort is to be found in every state of the republic, though not always to a great extent. The Spaniards found no indigenous domestic animals in the country, and introduced their own horses, cattle, sheep and swine. From these are descended the herds and flocks of to-day, with no admixture of new blood until toward the end of the 19th century. The horses and cattle are of a degenerate type, small, ungainly and inured to neglect and hard usage. The horse is chiefly used for saddle purposes and is not reared in large numbers. The mule is more generally used in every part of the country, being hardier, more intelligent and better adapted for service as a draft and pack animal. The transport of merchandise and produce was wholly by means of pack animals before the advent of railways, and is still the common means of transport away from the railway lines. For this purpose the sure-footed mule is invaluable. In some districts, however, oxen and ox-carts are employed, especially in the southern states, and always in the open, level country. The varying climatic conditions of Mexico have produced breeds of cattle that have not only departed from the original Spanish type, but likewise present strikingly different characteristics among themselves. Those of the northern plateau are small, hardy and long-lived, being bred on extensive ranges in a cooler atmosphere, and accustomed to long journeys in search of water and pasture. In the south they are larger and better nourished, owing to the permanent character of the pasturage, but are less vigorous because of the heat and insect plagues. In Yucatan the open plains, rich pasture, and comparative freedom from moist heat, insects and vampire bats, have been particularly favourable to cattle-raising, and the animals are generally rated among the best in Mexico. Notwithstanding the frequency of long, destructive droughts, cattle-raising is a preferred industry among the landowners of the northern states, and especially near the American frontier. Almost total losses are frequently experienced, but the profits of a favourable year are so great that losses seldom deter ranchers from trying again. In the sierra regions of western Chihuahua and Durango, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi, and the plateau states farther south, the rainfall is more abundant and the conditions more favourable. The largest herds are to be found in Chihuahua and Durango. Above 5000 ft. the wild pasturage is short, tender and reproduces itself annually. It is exceptionally nutritious, but it disappears altogether in the dry season because of its short roots. The lowland pasture, from 2000 to 5000 ft., is composed of more vigorous grasses, with an undergrowth of an exceptionally succulent character. The stock-raiser on the border pastures his herds on the uplands during the rainy season, and on the lower pastures during the remainder of the year. Next in importance is the breeding of sheep, which is largely confined to the cooler sierra districts. They are commonly of the Spanish merino breed, and suffer in many localities on account of insufficient pasturage. Some attention is given to the breeding of goats because of the local demand for their skins, but the industry is apparently stationary. The raising of swine, however, is increasing. In the last decade of the 19th century the capital invested in these live-stock industries was estimated (by Bancroft) to exceed $700,000,000, but an official return of the 30th of June 1902 gave an aggregate valuation of only $120,523,158 (Mexican), or about £12,052,316. According to this report, which is not strictly trustworthy, there were in the republic 5,142,457 cattle, 859,217 horses, 334,435 mules, 287,991 asses, 3,424,430 sheep, 4,206,011 goats and 616,139 swine. Two years later home consumption returns noted the slaughter of 958,058 cattle (129,938 in the Federal District), 561,982 sheep, 992,263 goats and 887,130 hogs—the last item being larger than the census return of 1902. The greater part is consumed in the country, but there is a considerable export of cattle to the United States, Cuba and Central America, and of hides and skins to the United States and Europe. A few mules are sent to Central America, but the home demand usually exceeds the supply.
Other Industries.—There are no fisheries of importance except the pearl fisheries on the eastern coast of Lower California, and the tortoise fisheries on the coasts of Campeche, Yucatán, and some of the states facing the Pacific. The pearl fisheries have been worked since the arrival of the Spaniards, and were once very productive notwithstanding the primitive methods employed. Since the closing years of the last century pearl fishing in the Gulf of California has been carried on with modern appliances and better results by an English company under a concession from the government. Mother-of-pearl or abalone and other shells are also found, and, with sponges, are exported. Fishing for the tortoiseshell turtle gives employment ​ to a large number of natives in the season, and considerable quantities of the shell are exported. Other industries of a desultory character include the collection of archil, or Spanish moss, on the western side of the Californian peninsula, hunting herons for their plumes and alligators for their skins, honey extraction (commonly wild honey), and the gathering of cochineal and ni-in insects. The cochineal insect was once an important commercial product, but the industry has fallen into decay. The “ni-in” (also known as “axe”) is a small scale insect belonging to the genus Coccus, found in Yucatan, Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, Michoacan and other southern states, where it inhabits the spondia trees and produces a greasy substance called “ni-inea,” which is much used by the natives as a varnish, especially for domestic utensils, as it resists fire as well as water.
Mining.—The best-known and most productive of the industries of Mexico is that of mining. It was the chief object of Spanish exploration, and the principal occupation of European residents and capital during three centuries of Spanish rule. Agricultural and pastoral industries gradually gained footholds here and there, and in time became important, but mining continued far in advance until near the end of the 19th century. Mines of some description are to be found in 26 of the 31 states and territories, and of these the great majority yield silver. According to the official records, there were registered in September 1906, 23,191 mining properties, of which very nearly five-sixths were described as producing silver, either by itself or in combination with other metals. The properties were classed as 1572 gold, 5461 silver, 970 copper, 383 iron, 151 mercury, 94 lead, 86 sulphur, 52 antimony, 49 zinc, 40 tin, 21 opals, 9 manganese, 6 “sal gema,” 5 tourmalines, 1 bismuth and 1 turquoise—the remainder being various combinations of these minerals. The absence of coal from this list is due to the circumstance that coal mines were at that time considered as private property and were not registered under the general mining laws. A comparison with 1888–1889, when 8970 properties were registered, will show how rapidly the mining industries have been developed during that period. Besides the above, the mineral resources of Mexico include coal, petroleum, asphalt, platinum, graphite, soda and marble. In 1906 the productive mines numbered 1786, of which 491 were in Sonora, 282 in Chihuahua, 211 in Durango, 113 in Oaxaca and 105 in Nuevo León. Gold is found in Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Sinaloa, Sonora, Vera Cruz, Zacatecas, and to a limited extent in other states; silver in every state and territory except Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Tlaxcala and the Yucatan peninsula; copper in Lower California, Guanajuato, Guerrero, jalisco, Michoacan, Sonora, Tamaulipas and some other states; mercury chiefly in Guanajuato, Guerrero, San Luis Potosi, Vera Cruz and Zacatecas; tin in Guanajuato; coal, petroleum and asphalt in 20 states, but chiefly in Coahuila, Hidalgo, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Puebla, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz; iron in Durango, Hidalgo, Oaxaca and other states; and lead in Hidalgo, Querétaro and in many of the silver-producing districts. The most celebrated iron deposit is that of the Cerro del Mercado, in the outskirts of the city of Durango—a mountain 640 ft. in height, 1100 in breadth, and 4800 in length, reputed to be almost a solid mass of iron. Large masses of the metal are also said to exist in the sierras of Lower California. The principal coalfields that have been developed are in the vicinity of Sabinas, Coahuila. They have been opened up by American capitalists and the coal is used on the railways passing through that region. Mexican coal is of a low grade—similar to that found in Texas, but as an official geological report of 1908 estimates the supply in sight at 300,000,000 tons its industrial value to the country cannot be considered inferior to that of the precious metals. The same is true of the petroleum deposits in Tamaulipas, near Tampico, and in southern Vera Cruz. An investigation by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1909 finds that the crude Mexican oils are of low grade, but that while not equal to those found in the upper Mississippi basin for refining purposes, they furnish an excellent fuel for railway engines and other industrial purposes. Many of the Mexican railways are using these fuel oils, which are superseding imported coal. In 1909 a well was opened in the southern oilfields whose yield was equal to the best American product.
Manufactures.—Although Mexico is usually described as a non-manufacturing country, its industrial development under President Porfirio Diaz will warrant some modification of this characterization. Manufacturing for international trade has not been and may never be reached, but the industry certainly has reached the stage of meeting a great part of the home demand for manufactured goods, where the raw material can be produced in the country. There were of course some crude industries in existence before the arrival of the Spaniards, such as weaving and dyeing of fabrics made from various fibres, and making earthenware utensils, images, &c. The Spaniards introduced their own industries, including sugar-making, weaving, tanning, and leather- and metal-working, some of which still exist. The early methods of making cane sugar, clarified with clay and dried in conical moulds, are to be found all over Mexico, and the annual output of this brown or muscovado sugar (called “panela” by the natives) is still very large. The sugar crop of 1907–1908 was reported, as 123,285 metric tons, in addition to which the molasses output was estimated at 70,947·5 metric tons, and “panela” at 50,000 tons. Other estimates make the “panela” output much larger, the product being largely consumed in the rural districts and never appearing in the larger markets. The estimated number of sugar mills in 1904 was about 2000, of which only about 300 were important for size and equipment. Merino sheep were introduced in 1541 and woollen manufactures date from that time. Large factories are now to be found in all parts of Mexico, and good and serviceable grades of broadcloths, cassimeres, blankets and other fabrics are turned out. There is also a considerable quantity of carpeting, underwear and hosiery manufactured. An important branch of this industry is the manufacture of “zarapes” (called “ponchos” in other parts of Spanish America)—a blanket slit in the centre for the head to pass through, and worn in place of a coat by men of the lower classes. The most important textile industry is cotton manufacture, which has become a highly successful feature in the industrial life of the republic. There were 146 factories in 1905, of which 19 were idle, and these were distributed over a very large part of the country. About one-half the raw cotton consumed was produced in Mexico, and the balance imported in fibre or as yarn. The industry is protected by a high tariff, as is also the production of raw cotton, and further encouragement is offered through a remission of internal revenue taxes where Mexican fabrics are exported for foreign consumption. The cotton factories of 1905 were equipped with 22,021 looms having 678,058 spindles, and with 38 stamping machines, employed 30,162 operatives, and turned out 13,731,638 pieces of cloth. Statistical returns, however, are somewhat incomplete and conflicting, and cannot be used with confidence. Coarse fabrics chiefly are manufactured, but the product also comprises percales, fine calicoes, ginghams, shirtings, towelings, sheetings and other kinds of goods. Considerable attention is given to the manufacture of “rebozos,” the long shawls worn by women. Another very important manufacturing industry is that of tobacco, the consumption of its various products being large among all classes of the population. There were 467 tobacco factories reported in 1905 to be engaged in the manufacture of cigars, cheroots, cigarettes, snuff and cut tobaccos for the pipe. The number of factories reported for 1899 was 743, but as the consumption of leaf tobacco increased from 5,546,677 to 8,587,356 kilogrammes, it may be assumed that the decrease in factories is due to the absorption or disappearance of the small shops using old-fashioned methods. Other important manufactories are flour mills, of which there were over 500 in 1904; iron and steel works, of which there are 7 large establishments, including the immense plant at Monterey; 90 smelters for the reduction of precious metals; tanneries, potteries, and factories for the manufacture of hats, paper, linen, hammocks, harness and saddles, matches, explosives, aerated waters, soap, furniture, chocolate and sweetmeats. There are also a large number of distilleries, breweries, and establishments for the manufacture of “pulque,” “mescal,” and imitation or counterfeited liquors. In addition to these are the many small domestic industries, such as the making of straw hats, mats, baskets, pottery, ropes and rough textiles. The policy of the Mexican government is to encourage national manufactures, and protective duties are levied for that purpose. Other favours include exemption from taxation and exemption from import duties on machinery and raw materials. These inducements have attracted large sums of foreign capital and have brought into the country large numbers of skilled operatives, especially in the cotton, iron and steel, and Smelting industries.
Constitution.—Under the Constitution of the 5th of February 1857, subsequently modified in many important particulars, the government of Mexico is described as a federation of free and sovereign states invested with representative and democratic institutions. Practically it is a Federal Republic with centralized executive powers. Its political divisions consist of 27 states (originally 19) having independent local governments, 3 territories and 1 federal district in which the national capital stands. The central government consists of three co-ordinate branches—executive, legislative and judicial—each nominally independent of the other. The executive branch consists of a president and vice-president, assisted by a cabinet of 8 secretaries of state: (1) foreign affairs; (2) interior; (3) justice; (4) public instruction and fine arts; (5) fomento, colonization and industry; (6) communications and public works; (7) finance and public credit; (8) war and' marine. The president and vice-president are elected indirectly through an electoral college chosen by popular vote, and serve for a period of six years (the term was four years previous to 1904), the vice-president succeeding to the office in case of the death or permanent disability of the president. The office of vice-president was created on the 6th of May, 1904, and that official serves as president of the senate. A constitutional amendment of 1890 permits the re-election of the president without limit, the original clause prohibiting such a re-election. A candidate for the presidency must be a native-born Mexican ​ citizen in the full exercise of his political rights, 35 years of age, not an ecclesiastic, and a resident of the republic at the time of the election. Although the authority of the president is carefully defined and limited by the Constitution, the exercise of dictatorial powers has been so common that the executive may be considered practically supreme and irresponsible. Previous to the presidency of General Porfirio Diaz in 1877 political disorders and changes in government were frequent.
The legislative branch of government consists of a Congress of two chambers—a senate and a chamber of deputies. Two ordinary congressional sessions are held each year—April 1 to May 31 and September 16 to December 15—and a permanent committee of 29 members (14 senators and 15 deputies) sits during recess, with the power to confirm executive appointments, to give assent to a mobilization of the national guard, to convene extra legislative sessions, to administer oaths, and to report at the next session on matters requiring congressional action. The senate is composed of 56 members—or two from each state and from the federal district—who are elected by popular vote for a term of four years, one-half the number retiring every two years. A senator must be not under 30 years of age, a Mexican citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, a resident of the state he represents, and not an ecclesiastic. The chamber of deputies is composed of popular representatives, in the proportion of one deputy for each 40,000 inhabitants or fraction over 20,000, who are elected for a term of two years. A deputy must be not less than 25 years of age, other qualifications being the same as those for a senator. The salary for either senator or deputy is $3000 and that of the president $50,000. Federal officials and ecclesiastics are ineligible for election to either chamber.
Mexican citizenship includes all persons born of Mexican parents, all naturalized aliens, and all foreigners owning real estate in the republic or having children by Mexican mothers unless formal declaration is made of an intention to retain the citizenship of another country. In some cases exemptions are granted from specified taxes and military duties, otherwise naturalized citizens are treated the same as native-born. Aliens are granted the civil rights enjoyed by Mexicans, but the government reserves the right to expel those guilty of pernicious conduct. Suffrage is extended to all Mexican citizens who possess honest means of livelihood, the age limit being 18 for the married and 21 for the unmarried.
The judicial branch of the government consists of a supreme court of justice, three circuit courts, and 32 district courts. The supreme court is composed of 11 “ministros” or justices, four alternates, a “fiscal” or public prosecutor and the attorney-general—all elected by popular vote for a term of six years. It has jurisdiction in cases arising from the enforcement of the federal laws, except cases involving private interests, in admiralty cases, in cases where the republic is a party, in those between two or more states, or between a state and the citizens of another state, in those originating in treaties with foreign states, and in those affecting diplomatic and consular officials. There are likewise supreme and inferior courts in most of the states, governed by the civil and criminal codes in force in the federal district. The territories are governed by federal laws. The department of justice has oversight in matters relating to the enforcement of the federal laws and the administration of justice through minor courts. The police service is both municipal and federal in character. In some states a local police service is maintained, but in most states the federal government maintains a very efficient force of mounted “rurales.”
The states are organized very much like the federal government, each with its own governor, legislature, laws and judiciary. Elections are generally indirect, like those for the national executive, and official terms correspond closely to those of similar offices in the national organization. The state is nominally sovereign within its own boundaries, and the authority of its officers and courts in local questions is supreme except in cases where federal intervention or supervision is provided for by the federal constitution. The larger political divisions of the state (partidos, distritos, &c.) are governed by a jefe politico, or prefect, and the smaller by a municipal council called an ayuntamiento.
Defence.—The Mexican army consisted in 1908 of 2474 officers and 24,132 men, organized on modern lines, and commanded by a general staff at the capital. There were 30 battalions of infantry and 4 battalions cadres with an effective strength of 730 officers and 14,898 men; 14 regiments of cavalry and 4 regimental cadres with 493 officers and 6058 men; 2 regiments and 3 cadres of field artillery; one regiment and one cadre each of horse and mountain artillery, 4 sections of garrison artillery, and one mitrailleuse company, in all 147 officers and 1647 men; and the remainder divided among other services. Administration and headquarters staffs comprised 885 officers and 531 men. This force represented the peace footing of the army, which is recruited in part by voluntary enlistments and in part by a form of conscription that might be called impressment. Mauser rifles (1901 model) and carbines are used by the infantry and cavalry, and Schneider Canet quick-firing guns by the field and horse artillery. The nominal war strength of the army is rated at 2510 officers and 81,984 men. Factories for arms and ammunition have been established with modern machinery, and uniforms and other equipment are made in the country. The military school in the capital occupies a part of the historic castle of Chapultepec and has been thoroughly reorganized on modern lines. There is also an artillery school at Vera Cruz and subordinate schools in other parts of the republic. The national guard, to which reference is sometimes made, has no effective organization.
Mexico may be said to have no navy, the ten small vessels in commission in 1908 hardly meriting such a designation. There were 2 old despatch boats and 2 old unarmoured gunboats, a steel training cruiser, the “Zaragoza,” and 5 small modern gunboats. The personnel consisted of 198 officers and 965 men. Six new cruisers were projected, but the republic has no pressing need of a navy. Small naval schools are maintained at Campeche and Mazatlán.
Education.—Education in Mexico may be said to have entered upon a progressive phase. The institutions founded by the Spaniards were wholly under ecclesiastical control. The first college in Mexico was founded during the administration of Viceroy Mendoza (1535–1550), but it taught very little beyond Latin, rhetoric, grammar and theology. The university of Mexico, planned by Mendoza and founded on the 21st of September 1551, was formally opened on the 25th of January 1553, with faculties of law, philosophy and theology. Practically nothing was done for the natives beyond oral instruction in the catechism. The university of Mexico received much support from both church and state, but it never gained a position comparable to the universities of South America—Cordoba, Lima (San Marcos) and Bogotá. The overthrow of Spanish rule in Mexico was the beginning of a new period, and efforts were made to introduce educational reforms, but the colonists and ecclesiastics were still governed by their fears and prejudices, and little was accomplished. In 1833 the university of Mexico suspended work, and in 1865 passed out of existence altogether. In 1857 the adoption of a more liberal and democratic constitution paved the way for a new period in the educational history of the country. Its realization was delayed by the wars that devastated the country down to the overthrow of Maximilian, but the leaven was at work, and with the return of peace a marked increase in the number of primary and secondary schools was noted. Colleges of law, medicine and engineering were created in Mexico City in 1865 in place of the old university and were successful from the beginning. Professional schools were also established in several of the more important provincial capitals, and everywhere increasing interest in educational matters was apparent. The best proof of this was to be found in the development of the primary schools, of which there were 8226 in 1874, with an attendance of 360,000 pupils. Of these, 603 were supported by the national government, 5240 by municipalities, 2260 by private enterprise, 117 by the Catholic church, and the remainder by Protestant denominations. Handsome schools were built in the cities and larger towns, and schools were opened in all the villages and hamlets. In some parts the natives made most creditable progress in all branches of learning. This was especially true of the Mixtecos and Zapotecas of Oaxaca, from whom have come some of the leading men of the republic. The national school laws now in force had their origin in the recommendations made by a national congress of public education convened on the 1st of December 1889, and again on the 1st of December 1890. The first result was a law regulating free and compulsory education in the federal district and national territories, which came into effect on the 17th of January 1892. From 1822 to this time the government primary schools had been under the supervision of the Compañia Lancasteriana, but they were now placed under charge of the Department of Public Education. On the 19th of May 1896 a general public education law was promulgated, which provided further regulations for the public schools, and outlined a comprehensive system. Compulsory attendance had been adopted in 1888, but did not come into effect until after the enactment of the law of 1896. It provides for uniform, free and non-sectarian primary instruction, and compulsory attendance for children of 6 to 12 years of age. Preparatory courses for professional training in the government schools were also made free and secular. As the ​ states have control of the schools within their own boundaries there was at first a great lack of uniformity, but the national system is being generally adopted. In the official report for 1904 the number of public schools, exclusive of infant schools, was returned at 9194 (against 5843 in 1874), with an enrolment of 620,476. Of these 6488 were supported by the national and state governments and 2706 by the municipalities. The private, religious and association schools numbered 2281, with 135,838 pupils. For secondary instruction the national and state schools numbered 36 with 4642 pupils, and for professional instruction 65 with 9018 students, of whom 3790 were women. Normal schools for the training of teachers are also maintained at public expense and are giving good results. Besides these, the government maintains schools of law, medicine, agriculture and veterinary practice, engineering, mining, commerce and administration, music and fine arts. There is also a mechanics training school (artes y oficios) for men and a similar school for women, schools for the blind and for deaf-mutes, reform schools, and garrison schools for soldiers. Early estimates were that 90% of the population were illiterate. In 1895 this percentage was reduced to about 84%, and the work of the schools is slowly cutting it down. Mention must be made of the National Library in Mexico City with about 225,000 volumes, and 138 public libraries (in 1904) in other parts of the republic, 34 museums for scientific, educational and art purposes, and 11 meteorological observatories. Newspapers and periodicals, whose educational value varies widely, numbered 459 in 1904, of which 439 were in Spanish and 12 in English.
Religion.—The people of Mexico are almost wholly of the Roman Catholic faith, the census of 1900 returning 13,533,013 communicants of that church, 51,795 Protestants (in great part foreigners), 3811 of other faiths, and 18,640 of no faith. The constitution of 1857 grants toleration to all religions, and since 1868 several Protestant denominations have established missions in the towns, but their numbers are still comparatively small. The Roman Catholic religion was enforced at the time of the conquest, but a large percentage of the natives may still be considered semi-pagan, the gods of their ancestors being worshipped in secret, and the forms and tenets of the dominant faith, which they but faintly comprehend, being largely adulterated with superstitions and practices of pagan origin. The church hierarchy consists of 3 archbishops and 23 suffragan bishops. It dates from the creation of the bishopric of Mexico in 1530, with Fray Juan de Zumárraga as bishop, although two previous creations had been proclaimed at Rome, that of Yucatan in 1518 and Puebla in 1525. In 1545 the bishopric of Mexico was elevated to an archbishopric, which in 1863 was divided into three archdioceses—Mexico, Michoacán and Guadalajara. An Inquisition tribunal was established in the capital in 1571, and in 1574 its first auto-da-fé was celebrated with the burning of “twenty-one pestilent Lutherans.” The Inquisition was active in Mexico during two and a half centuries, and was finally suppressed on the 31st of May 1820. The great power exercised by the Roman Catholic church during the colonial period enabled it not only to mould the spiritual belief of the whole people, but also to control their education, tax their industries, and shape the political policies governing their daily life. In this way it acquired great wealth, becoming the owner of extensive estates in every part of the country and of highly productive properties in the towns. It was said in 1859 that the church owned one-third of the real and personal property of the republic. The reform laws of that year nationalized its property, abolished its numerous orders and institutions and deprived it of state support and of all participation in political affairs. Subsequent legislation removed clerical influence from public instruction, made marriage a civil ceremony and closed all conventual establishments. The church still exercises a boundless influence over the Mexican lower classes, and is still the most influential organization in the republic.
Finance.—The national revenues are derived from import and export duties, port dues and other taxes levied on foreign commerce; from excise and stamp taxes and other charges upon internal business transactions; from direct taxes levied in the federal district and national territories, covering a land tax in rural districts, a house tax in the city, commercial and professional licences, water rates, and sundry taxes on bread, pulque, vehicles, saloons, theatres, &c.; from probate dues and registry fees; from a surcharge on all taxes levied by the states, called the “federal contribution,” which is paid in federal revenue stamps; from post and telegraph receipts; and from some minor sources of income. The most fruitful revenue is the duty on imports, which is sometimes used for the protection of national industries, and which yields from 40 to 45% of the total receipts. The excise taxes in 1905 were levied on tobacco, alcohol and alcoholic beverages, and on cotton goods. Mining taxes, which are subject to periodic changes, consist of an initial or registry tax on the claim (pertenencia), an annual or rental tax on each claim, and a tax of 31/2% (1905) on the export of unrefined gold and silver, 21/2% on partially refined ores, and 1 1/2% on pure silver. The expenditures are chiefly for the services of the public debt, military expenses, public works and internal affairs (Department of the Interior). The public debt service alone required $26,201,873 (£2,620,187) in 1908.
For the fiscal year 1906–1907 the revenue produced a total of 114,286,122 pesos (dollars), or, approximately, £11,428,612, and the expenditure was 85,076,641 pesos, or £8,507,664. The estimates for 1908–1909 show a marked decline owing to the commercial depression, the revenue being computed at 103,385,000 pesos, and the expenditure at 103,203,830 pesos. Of the former 46,500,000 pesos are credited to import duties, 31,930,000 pesos to stamps, excise taxes, &c., 10,930,000 pesos to direct taxes, and the balance to various sources. Owing to the circumstance that the great majority of the Mexican people own no property, carry on no industry, and are not even to be considered regular productive labourers, the revenues are small in relation to the population and are comparatively inelastic.
The revenues and expenditures of the states and municipalities in 1904, the latest date available, aggregated as follows:—
| | Revenue. | Expenditure. |
| States | 24,519,926 pesos | 23,557,968 pesos |
| Municipalities | 14,605,022  ,, | 14,160,132  ,, |
The taxes cover a great variety of occupations and property, often to a minute and vexatious degree, and the expenditure includes the expenses of local administration, schools, police, streets and other objects of purely local interest.
The public indebtedness of Mexico includes a foreign debt payable in gold, an internal debt payable in silver, and a floating debt covering unpaid balances on appropriations, unpaid interest, and other credits and obligations. The paper money issues are by banks and not by the government, and the national treasury keeps no cash in its vaults and has no sinking funds to offset this indebtedness. The foreign debt dates from 1825, when £10,000,000 were borrowed in London through two loans. Interest defaults led to a conversion of the debt in 1851, the interest rate being reduced from 5% to 3%. Further defaults followed and in 1888 another adjustment was made by the issue of 6% gold-bearing bonds. From this time the Mexican government has met its obligations promptly, in consequence of which its credit is rated high and its bonds have even been quoted at a premium. In 1899 the government placed a loan of £22,700,000 in Europe at 5% for the conversion of its 6% bonds, securing it by the hypothecation of 62% of its import and export duties. Further loans have considerably increased the debt since then, but it is still within the normal resources of the country. According to Matias Romero (Mexico and the United States, 1898), a new type of indebtedness was inaugurated in 1850 in the shape of an internal debt payable in silver. Other loans and obligations contracted during periods of disorder were afterwards consolidated under this type, and later on unpaid railway subsidies were also included. The rate of interest is from 3% to 5%, and both principal and interest are payable in silver. The rapid development of railway construction has largely increased this part of the public debt, the revenues of the country being insufficient to meet the subsidy obligations, but as the railways are built for the development of valuable resources and the opening of needed trade communications, the increase has occasioned no loss of credit. At the end of 1908 the total public indebtedness of the republic was:—
| Foreign, or gold debt, including City of Mexico loan | | | £30,927,348 |
| Internal, or silver debt | $130,892,100 |
| Floating debt | 860,495 |
| | $131,752,595 | or | £13,175,259 |
| Total | | | £44,102,607 |
The fiscal or tax valuation of property throughout the republic in 1904 was computed to be—the fiscal value being two-thirds of the real value:—
| Urban | $312,950,983 |
| Rural | 488,182,009 |
| Federal District | 252,716,454 |
| Total | $1,053,849,446 |
Previous to 1905 all monetary transactions in Mexico were based in practice on a fluctuating silver standard and free coinage. By a law of the 9th of December 1904, promulgated by an executive decree of the 25th of March 1905, the gold standard was adopted, and the silver peso, ·9027 fine and containing 24·438 grammes of pure silver, was made the monetary unit with a valuation of ·75 grammes of gold. At the same time the free coinage of silver was suspended, the government reserving to itself the sole privilege of coining money. The coinage of Mexico, now concentrated at the mint in the capital (all others having been closed) is based (since November 28, 1867) on the decimal system—the peso being divided into 100 centavos—and consists of gold, silver, nickel and bronze coins, whose weight and fineness are determined by the monetary law of 1904. The coins minted under this law are:—
| Gold:  10 | pesos, ·900 fine, weighing | 8·3331/3 grammes. |
| 5 | pesos   ,,   ,,     ,, | 4·1161/2    ,, |
| | (the first called a “hidalgo” and the  second a “medio hidalgo”). | (the first called a “hidalgo” and the  second a “medio hidalgo”). |
| Silver: | 1 peso, ·9027 fine, containing 24·438 grammes of pure silver, |
| | 50 centavos, ·800 fine, |
| | 20   ,,,,  ,, |
| | 10   ,,,,  ,, |
| Nickel: | 5   ,, |
| Bronze: | 1 and 2 centavos, 95 parts copper, 4 tin, 1 zinc. |
Provisions are also made for continuing the coinage of “trade dollars” for export, which have a wide circulation in the Orient but are not current at home. Fractional silver coin is not legal tender above 20 pesos, and bronze and nickel coins not above 1 peso, but the government maintains conversion offices where such coins can be converted into silver pesos without loss. The amount of gold in circulation is small, the bank notes convertible into gold taking its place. Foreign coins are permitted to circulate in the republic.
There were 34 chartered banks in Mexico in 1908, of which 29 enjoyed the privilege of issuing bank notes; the total note circulation on the 31st of December 1906 was 97,787,878 pesos. These note issues are everywhere current at full nominal value, being secured under the provisions of the national banking law of 1896 by metallic reserves. The notes are not legal tender, and it is forbidden to count them as “cash on hand” in bank returns, but ample safeguards both as to issue and redemption inspire full confidence in their employment as a substitute for gold. Restrictions on speculative operations in real estate and on the use of hypothecated and discounted paper as security for other transactions, together with the publication of detailed monthly balance sheets, have kept these banks free from unsound methods, and their record thus far (1909) has been conspicuously good. Mortgage and loan banks have also been established in accordance with the law of 1896, and are subject to official supervision. Private banks are numerous, but foreign banks are not encouraged to open agencies. The use of cheques is very limited because of the stamp tax.
Weights and Measures.—Mexico adopted the metric system in 1862, and it is used in all official transactions, land measurements, railway calculations and public school work. The old Spanish weights and measures, modified in many particulars, continued in private use, however, and in 1895 it became necessary to declare the metric system the only legal system and to make its use compulsory after the 16th of September 1896.
Bibliography.—The historical student will find valuable material in Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Crónica de la conquista de Nueva España (Madrid, 1632, and other dates); Antonio Herrera História generál de los hechos de los Castellános en las islas y tierra firma del mar oceáno (4 vols., Madrid, 1601); F. C. Mac Nutt, Letters of Cortés to Charles V. (London, 1908); W. H. Prescott, Conquest of Mexico (3 vols., London, 1845); and the works of Gomara, Helps, Kingsborough, Las Casas, Sahagun and Justin Winsor.
Among the more popular works on Mexico are Baedeker’s The United States, with Excursions to Mexico, &c. (Leipzig, 1909); H. H. Bancroft, Resources and Development of Mexico (San Francisco, 1893); M. Chevalier, Le Mexique ancien et moderne (Paris, 1886); A. Garcia Cubas, Étude géographique, statistique, descriptive et historique des États-Unis Mexicains (Mexico, 1889; in English, 1893); C. B. Dahlgreen, Minas históricas de la República Mexicana (tr. from Eng., 1887); J. Domenech, Guia general descriptiva de la República Mexicana (vol. i., Mexico, 1899); F. W. Egloffstein, Contributions to the Geology and Physical Geography of Mexico (New York, 1864); C. Reginald Enock, Mexico, its Ancient and Modern Civilization &c. (London 1909); Hans Gadow, Travels in Southern Mexico (London, 1908); Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Mexico, Land und Leute (Vienna, 1890); W. T. Hornaday, Camp Fires on Desert and Lava (London, 1908); Alex. von Humboldt, Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent (Paris, 1807 sqq.); A. H. Keane, “Mexico” in Stanford’s Compendium of Geography and Travel (London, 1904); H. Kessler, Notizen über Mexico (Berlin, 1898); Carl Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (New York, 1902); C. F. Lummis, The Awakening of a Nation (New York, 1898); P. F. Martin, Mexico of the Twentieth Century (London, 1907); A. H. Noll, Short History of Mexico (Chicago, 1903); Santiago Ramirez, Noticia histórica de la riqueza mineira de Mexico (Mexico, 1884); Friedrich Ratzel, Aus Mexico: Rėiseskizzen aus den Jahren 1874–1876 (Breslau, 1878); Matias Romero, Geographical and Statistical Notes on Mexico (New York, 1898); idem, Mexico and the United States (New York, 1898); E. Seler, Mexico und Guatemala (Berlin, 1896); Justo Serra (editor), Mexico: Its Social Evolution, &c. (2 vols., Mexico, 1904); J. R. Southworth, Mines of Mexico (9 vols., Mexico, 1905); Frederick Starr, Indians of Southern Mexico (Chicago, 1899); Sara V. Stevenson, Maximilian in Mexico (New York, 1899); T. Philip Terry, Mexico (Boston, 1909; an excellent guide); David A. Wells, A Study of Mexico (New York, 1887); W. E. Weyl, Labor Conditions in Mexico (Washington, 1902), Bull. No 38, Bureau of Labor; Nevin O. Winter, Mexico and her People of To-day (Boston, 1907); Marie R. Wright, Picturesque Mexico (Philadelphia, 1898); and Rafael de Zayas Enriquez, Les États-unis mexicains (Mexico, 1899).
Important works of reference are: Anuario estadistico de la República Mexicana (Mexico); Mexican Year-book (London, 1908); Biological and botanical publications of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Washington); Statesman’s Year-book (London); Handbook of Mexico (Washington), published by the Bureau of American Republics; Monthly Bulletin of the Bureau of American Republics (Washington); British Foreign Office Diplomatic and Consular Reports (London); and the U.S. Consular Reports (Washington). (A. J. L.)
History
I.—Ancient Mexico.
The name Mexico is connected with the name of the group of American tribes calling themselves Mexica (sing. Mexicatl) or Azteca. The word is related to or derived from the name of the Mexican national war-god, Mexitl, better known as Huitzilopochtli. The Aztecs from the 12th century appear to have migrated from place to place over the mountain-walled plateau of Anahuac, the country “by the water,” so called from its salt lagoons, which is now known as the Valley of Mexico. About 1325 they founded on the lake of Tezcuco the permanent settlement of Mexico Tenochtitlan, which is still represented by the capital city, Mexico. The name Mexico was given by the Spanish conquerors to the group of countries over which the Aztec power more or less prevailed at the time of the European invasion. Clavigero (Storia antica del Messico, vol. i.) gives a map of the so-called “Mexican empire,” which may be roughly described as reaching from the present Zacatecas to beyond Guatemala; it is noticeable that both these names are of Mexican origin, derived respectively from words for “straw” and “wood.” Eventually Mexico and New Mexico came to designate the still vaster region of Spanish North America, which (till cut down by changes which have limited the modern republic of Mexico) reached as far as the Isthmus of Panama on the south and took in California and Texas on the north. Mexico in this wide sense is of high interest to the anthropologist from the several native American civilizations which appear within its limits, and which conveniently if loosely group themselves round two centres, the Mexican proper and the Central American.
When early in the 16th century the Spaniards found their way from the West India Islands to this part of the mainland of America, they discovered not rude and simple tribes like the islanders of the Antilles, but nations with armies, official administrators, courts of justice, high agriculture and mechanical arts, and, what struck the white men especially, stone buildings whose architecture and sculpture were often of dimensions and elaborateness to astonish the builders and sculptors of Europe. Here was a problem which excited the liveliest curiosity and gave rise to a whole literature. Hernandez and Acosta shared the opinion of their time that the great fossil bones found in Mexico were remains of giants, and that, as before the deluge there were giants on the earth, therefore Mexico was peopled from the Old World in antediluvian times. On the other hand the multitude of native American languages suggested that the migration to America took place after the building of the tower of Babel, and Siguenza arrived at the curiously definite result that the Mexicans were descended from Naphtuhim, son of Mizraim and grandson of Noah, who left Egypt for Mexico shortly after the confusion of tongues. Although such speculations have fallen out of date, they induced the collection of native traditions and invaluable records of races, languages and customs, which otherwise would have been lost for ever. Even in the 19th century Lord Kingsborough spent a fortune in printing a magnificent compilation of Mexican picture-writings and documents in his Antiquities of Mexico to prove the theory advocated by Garcia a century earlier, that the Mexicans were the lost tribes of Israel. Modern archaeologists approach the question from a different standpoint, but the origin of the American aborigines and of Mexican civilization remains extremely obscure (see America, where the primitive Mexican cultures are fully illustrated, and Central America.
Real information as to the nations of Mexico before Spanish ​ times is very imperfect, but not altogether wanting. The accurate and experienced Alexander von Humboldt considered the native Americans of both continents to be substantially similar in race-characters. Such a generalization will become sounder, if, as is now generally done by anthropologists, the Eskimo with their pyramidal skulls, dull complexion and flat noses are removed into a division by themselves. Apart from these polar nomads, the American indigenes group roughly into a single division of mankind, of course with local variations. If our attention is turned to the natives of Mexico especially, the unity of type will be found particularly close. The native population of the plateau of Mexico, mainly Aztecs, may still be seen by thousands without any trace of mixture of European blood. Their stature is estimated to be about 5 ft. 3 in., but they are of muscular and sturdy build. Measurements of their skulls show them mesocephalic (index about 78), or intermediate between the dolichocephalic and brachycephalic types of mankind. The face is oval, with low forehead, high cheek-bones, long eyes sloping outward towards the temples, fleshy lips, nose wide and in some cases flattish but in others aquiline, coarsely moulded features, with a stolid and gloomy expression. Thickness of skin, masking the muscles, has been thought the cause of a peculiar heaviness in the outlines of body and face; the complexion varies from yellow-brown to chocolate (about 40 to 43 in the anthropological scale); eyes black; straight coarse glossy black hair; beard and moustache scanty. Among variations from this type may be mentioned higher stature in some districts, and lighter complexion in Tehuantepec and elsewhere. If now the native Americans be compared with the races of the regions across the oceans to their east and west, it will be seen that their unlikeness is extreme to the races eastward of them, whether white Europeans or black Africans. On the other hand they are considerably like the Mongoloid peoples of north and east Asia (less so to the Polynesians); so that the general tendency among anthropologists has been to admit a common origin, however remote, between the tribes of Tartary and of America. This original Connexion, if it may be accepted, would seem to belong to a long-past period, to judge from the failure of all attempts to discover an affinity between the languages of America and Asia. At whatever date the Americans began to people America, they must have had time to import or develop the numerous families of languages actually found there, in none of which has community of origin been satisfactorily proved with any other, language-group at home or abroad. In Mexico itself the languages of the Nahua nations, of which the Aztec is the best-known dialect, show no Connexion of origin with the language of the Otomi tribes, nor either of these with the languages of the regions of the ruined cities of Central America, the Quiché of Guatemala and the Maya of Yucatan. The remarkable phenomenon of nations so similar in bodily make but so distinct in language can hardly be met except by supposing a long period to have elapsed since the country was first inhabited by the ancestors of peoples whose language has since passed into so different forms. The original peopling of America might then well date from the time when there was continuous land between it and Asia.
It would not follow, however, that between these remote ages and the time of Columbus no fresh immigrants can have reached America. We may put out of the question the Scandinavian sea-rovers who sailed to Greenland about the 10th century. But at all times communication has been open from east Asia, and even the South Sea Islands, to the west coast of America. The importance of this is evident when we consider that late in the 19th century Japanese junks still drifted over by the ocean current to California at the rate of about one a year, often with some of the crew still alive. Further north, the Aleutian islands offer a line of easy sea passage, while in north-east Asia, near Bering’s Strait, live Chukchi tribes who carry on intercourse with the American side. Moreover there are details of Mexican civilization which are most easily accounted for on the supposition that they were borrowed from Asia. They do not seem ancient enough to have to do with a remote Asiatic origin of the nations of America, but rather to be results of comparatively modern intercourse between Asia and America. Humboldt (Vues des Cordillères, Pl. xxiii.) compared the Mexican calendar with that in use in eastern Asia. The Mongols, Tibetans, Chinese and other neighbouring nations have a cycle or series of twelve animals, viz. rat, bull, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, goat, ape, cock, dog, pig, which may possibly be an imitation of the ordinary Babylonian-Greek zodiac familiar to ourselves. The Mongolian peoples not only count their lunar months by these signs, but they reckon the successive days by them, rat-day, bull-day, tiger-day, &c., and also, by combining the twelve signs in rotation with the elements, they obtain a means of marking each year in the sixty-year cycle, as the woodrat year, the fire-tiger year, &c. This method is highly artificial, and the reappearance of its principle in the Mexican and Central American calendar is suggestive of importation from Asia. Humboldt also discussed the Mexican doctrine of four ages of the world belonging to water, earth, air and fire, and ending respectively by deluge, earthquake, tempest and conflagration. The resemblance of this to some versions of the Hindu doctrine of the four ages or yuga is hardly to be accounted for except on the hypothesis that the Mexican theology contains ideas learnt from Asiatics. Among Asiatic points of resemblance to which attention has since. been called is the Mexican belief in the nine stages of heaven and hell, an idea which nothing in nature would suggest directly to a barbaric people, but which corresponds to the idea of successive heavens and hells among Brahmans and Buddhists, who apparently learnt it (in common with our own ancestors) from the Babylonian-Greek astronomical theory of successive stages or concentric planetary spheres belonging to the planets, &c. The Spanish chronicles also give accounts of a Mexican game called patolli, played at the time of the conquest with coloured stones moved on the squares of a cross-shaped figure, according to the throws of beans marked on one side; the descriptions of this rather complicated game correspond closely with the Hindu backgammon called pachisi (see Tylor in Jour. Anthrop. Inst., viii. 116).
The native history of Mexico and Central America is entitled to more respect than the mere recollections of savage tribes. The Mexican pictures so far approached writing proper as to set down legibly the names of persons and places and the dates of events, and at least helped the professional historians to remember the traditions repeated orally from generation to generation. Thus actual documents of native Aztec history, or copies of them, are still open to the study of scholars, while after the conquest interpretations of these were drawn up in writing by Spanish-educated Mexicans, and histories founded on them with the aid of traditional memory were written by Ixtilxochitl and Tezozomoc. In Central America the rows of complex hieroglyphs to be seen sculptured on the ruined temples probably served a similar purpose. The documents written by natives in later times thus more or less represent real records of the past, but the task of separating myth from history is of the utmost difficulty. Among the most curious documents of early America is the Popol-Vuh or national book of the Quiché kingdom of Guatemala, a compilation of traditions written down by native scribes, found and translated by Father Ximenez about 1700, and published by Scherzer (Vienna, 1857) and Brasseur de Bourbourg (Paris, 1861). This book begins with the time when there was only the heaven with its boundaries towards the four winds, but as yet there was no body, nothing that clung to anything else, nothing that balanced itself or rubbed together or made a sound; there was nought below but the calm sea alone in the silent darkness. Alone were the Creator, the Former, the Ruler, the Feathered Serpent, they who give being and whose name is Gucumatz. Then follows the creation, when the creators said “Earth,” and the earth was formed like a cloud or a fog, and the mountains appeared like lobsters from the water, cypress and pine covered the hills and valleys, and their forests were peopled with beasts and birds, but these could not speak the name of their creators, but could only chatter and croak. So man was made first of clay, but he was strengthless and senseless ​ and melted in the water; then they made a race of wooden mannikins, but these were useless creatures without heart or mind, and they were destroyed by a great flood and pitch poured down on them from heaven, those who were left of them being turned into the apes still to be seen in the woods. After this comes the creation of the four men and their wives who are the ancestors of the Quichés, and the tradition records the migrations of the nation to Tulan, otherwise called the Seven Caves, and thence across the sea, whose waters were divided for their passage. It is worth while to mention these few early incidents of the national legend of Guatemala, because their Biblical incidents show how native tradition incorporated matter learnt from the white men. Moreover, this Central American document, mythical as it is, has an historical importance from its bringing in names belonging also to the traditions of Mexico proper. Thus Gucumatz, “Feathered Serpent” corresponds in name to the Mexican deity Quetzalcoatl; Tulan and the Seven Caves are familiar words in the Aztec migration traditions, and there is even mention of a chief of Toltecat, a name plainly referring to the famed Toltecs. Thus the legends of the Popol-Vuh confirm what is learnt from comparing the culture of Central America and Mexico proper, that, though these districts were not connected by language, the intercourse between them had been sufficient to justify the anthropologist in including both districts in one region. Historical value of the ordinary kind may be found in the latter part of the Popol-Vuh, which gives names of chiefs down to the time when they began to bear Spanish names and the great city of Quiché became the deserted ruin of Santa Cruz. The Maya district of Yucatan has also some vestiges of native traditions in the manuscript translated by D. Pio Perez (in Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan) and in the remarkable 16th century Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan by Diego de Landa, published by Brasseur de Bourbourg (Paris, 1864). As in the Guatemala traditions, we hear of ancient migration from the Mexican legendary region of Tula; and here the leaders are four famous chiefs or ancestors who bear the Aztec name of the Tutul-Xiu, which means “Bird-Tree.” Unfortunately for the historical standing of these four ancestors, there are in the Aztec picture-writings representations of four trees, each with a bird perched on it, and placed facing the four quarters, which make it probable that the four Tutul-Xiu of tradition may be only mythic personifications of the four cardinal points (see Schultz-Sellack in Zeitschr. f. Ethn., 1879, p. 209). Nevertheless, part of the later Maya records may be genuine—for instance, when they relate the war about three centuries before the Spanish conquest, when the king of Chichen-Itza destroyed the great city of Mayapan. Though the Central American native kings have too little interest for traditions of them to be dwelt on here, they bring into view one important historical point—that the ruined cities of this region are not monuments of a forgotten past, but that at least some of them belong to history, having been inhabited up to the conquest, apparently by the very nations who built them.
Turning now to the native chronicles of the Mexican nations, these are records going back to the 12th or 13th century, with some vague but not worthless recollections of national events from times some centuries earlier. These traditions, in some measure borne out by linguistic evidence of names, point to the immigration of detachments of a widespread race speaking a common language, which is represented by the Aztec, still a spoken language in Mexico. This language was called nahuatl, and one who spoke it as his native tongue was called nahuatlacatl, so that modern anthropologists are following native precedent when they use the term Nahua for the whole series of peoples now under consideration. Earliest of the Nahua nations, the Toltecs are traditionally related to have left their northern home of Huehuetlapallan in the 6th century; and there is other evidence of the real existence of the nation. Their name Toltecatl signifies an inhabitant of Tollan (land of reeds), a place which has a definite geographical site in the present Tulan or Tula, north of the valley of Anahuac, Where a Toltec kingdom seems to have had its centre. To this nation was due the introduction of maize and cotton into Mexico, the skilful workmanship in gold and silver, the art of building on a scale of vastness still witnessed to by the mound of Cholula, said to be Toltec work, and the Mexican hieroglyphic writing and calendar. With the Toltecs is associated the tradition of Quetzalcoatl, a name which presents itself in Mexican religion as that of a great deity, god of the air, and in legend as that of a saintly ruler and civilizer. His brown and beardless worshippers describe him as of another race, a white man with noble features, long black hair and full beard, dressed in flowing robes. He came from Tulan or from Yucatan (for the stories differ widely), and dwelt twenty years among them, teaching men to follow his austere and virtuous life, to hate all violence and war, to sacrifice no men or beasts on the altars, but to give mild offerings of bread and flowers and perfumes, and to do penance by the votaries drawing blood with thorns from their own bodies. Legend tells stories of his teaching men picture-writing and the calendar, and also the artistic work of the silversmith, for which Cholula was long famed; but at last he departed, some say towards the unknown land of Tlapallan, but others to Coatzacoalcos on the Atlantic coast on the confines of Central America, where native tradition still keeps up the divine names of Gucumatz among the Quichés and Cukulcan among the Mayas, these names have the same meaning as Quetzalcoatl in Aztec, viz. “Feathered Serpent.” Native tradition held that when Quetzalcoatl reached the Atlantic he sent back his companions to tell the Cholulans that in a future age his brethren, white men and bearded like himself, should land there from the sea where the sun rises and come to rule the country. That there is a basis of reality in the Toltec traditions is shown by the word toltecatl having become among the later Aztecs a substantive signifying an artist or skilled craftsman. It is further related by the Mexican historians that the Toltec nation all but perished in the 11th century by years of drought, famine and pestilence, a few only of the survivors remaining in the land, while the rest migrated into Yucatan and Guatemala. After the Toltecs came the Chichimecs, whose name, derived from chici, dog, is applied to many rude tribes; they are said to have come from Amaquemecan under a king named Xolotl, names which being Aztec imply that the nation was Nahua; at any rate they appear afterwards as fusing with more cultured Nahua nations in the neighbourhood of Tezcuco. Lastly is recorded the Mexican immigration of the seven nations, Xochimilca, Chalca, Tepaneca, Acolhua, Tlahuica, Tlascalteca, Azteca. This classification of the Nahuatlac tribes has a meaning and value. It is true that Aztlan, the land whence the Aztecs traced their name and source, cannot be identified, but the later stages of the long Aztec migration seem historical, and the map of Mexico still shows the names of several settlements recorded in the curious migration map, published by Gemelli Careri (Giro del mondo, Venice, 1728) and commented on by Humboldt; among these local names are Tzompanco, “place of skulls,” now Zumpango in the north of the Mexican valley, and Chapultepec, “grasshopper hill,” now a suburb of the city of Mexico itself, where the Aztecs are recorded to have celebrated in 1195 the festival of tying up the “bundle of years” and beginning a new cycle.
The Aztecs moving from place to place in Anahuac found little welcome from the Nahua peoples already settled there. One of the first clear events of the Aztec arrival is their being made tributary by the Tepanecs, in whose service they showed their warlike prowess in the fight near Tepeyacac, where now stands the famous shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Thus they overcame the Acolhuas, who had made Tezcuco a centre of prosperity. By the 13th century the Aztecs by their ferocity had banded their neighbours together against them; some were driven to take refuge on the reedy lake shore at Acoculco, while others were taken as captives into Culhuacan. The king of this district was Coxcoxtli, whose name has gained an undeserved reputation even in Europe as “Coxcox, the Mexican Noah,” from a scene in the native picture-writing where his name appears together with the figure of a man floating in a dug-out tree, which has been mistaken even by Humboldt for a representation of the ​ Mexican deluge-myth. Coxcoxtli used the help of the Aztecs against the Xochimilco people; but his own nation, horrified at their bloodthirsty sacrifice of prisoners, drove them out to the islands and swamps of the great salt lagoon, where they are said to have taken to making their chinampas or floating gardens of mud heaped on rafts of reeds and brush, which in later times were so remarkable a feature of Mexico. As one of the Aztec chiefs at the time of the founding of their city was called Tenoch, it is likely that from him was derived the name Tenochtitlan or “Stone-cactus place.” Written as this name is in pictures or rebus, it probably suggested the invention of the well-known legend of a prophecy that the war-god’s temple should be built where a prickly pear was found growing on a rock, and perched on it an eagle holding a serpent; this legend is still commemorated on the coins of Mexico. Mexico-Tenochtitlan, founded about 1325, for many years afterwards probably remained a cluster of huts, and the higher civilization of the country was still to be found, especially among the Acolhuas in Tezcuco. The wars of this nation with the Tepanecs, which went on into the 15th century, were merely destructive, but larger effects arose from the expeditions under the Culhua king Acamapichtli, where the Aztec warriors were prominent, and which extended far outside the valley of Anahuac. Especially a foray southward to Quauhnahuac, now Cuernavaca, on the watershed between the Atlantic and Pacific, brought goldsmiths and other craftsmen to Tenochtitlan, which now began to rise in arts, the Aztecs laying aside their rude garments of aloe-fibre for more costly clothing, and going out as traders for foreign merchandise. In the 14th century the last great national struggle took place. The Acolhuas had at first the advantage, but Ixtlilxochitl did not follow up the beaten Aztecs but allowed them to make peace, whereupon, under professions of submission, they fell upon and sacked the city of Tezcuco. The next king of Tezcuco, Nezahualcoyotl, turned the course of war, when Azcapuzalco, the Tepanec stronghold, was taken and the inhabitants sold as slaves by the conquering Acolhuas and Aztecs; the place thus degraded became afterwards the great slave-market of Mexico. In this war we first meet with the Aztec name Moteuczoma, afterwards so famous in its Spanish form Montezuma. About 1430 took place the triple alliance of the Acolhua, Aztec and Tepanec kings, whose capitals were Tezcuco, Mexico and Tlacopan, the latter standing much below the other two. In fact the rest of native history may be fairly called the Aztec period, notwithstanding the magnificence and culture which make Tezcuco celebrated under Nezahualcoyotl and his son Nezahualpilli. When the first Moteuczoma was crowned king of the Aztecs, the Mexican sway extended far beyond the valley plateau of its origin, and the gods of conquered nations around had their shrines set up in Tenochtitlan in manifest inferiority to the temple of Huitzilopochtli, the war-god of the Aztec conquerors. The rich region of Quauhnahuac became tributary; the Miztec country was invaded southward to the Pacific, and the Xicalanca region to what is now Vera Cruz. It was not merely for conquest and tribute that the fierce Mexicans ravaged the neighbour-lands, but they had a stronger motive than either in the desire to obtain multitudes of prisoners whose hearts were to be torn out by the sacrificing priests to propitiate a pantheon of gods who well personified their bloodthirsty worshippers. (E. B. T.)
Ancient Civilization.
While the prairie tribes of America lived under the loose sway of chiefs and councils of old men, the settled nations of Mexico had attained to a highly organized government. This may be seen by the elaborate balance of power maintained in the federation of Mexico, Tezcuco and Tlacopan, where each king was absolute in his own country, but in war or other Government. public interests they acted jointly, with powers in something like the proportion in which they divided conquered lands and spoil, which was two-fifths each to Mexico and Tezcuco and one-fifth to Tlacopan. The successor of the Aztec king was customarily a chosen brother or nephew, the eldest having the first claim unless set aside as incompetent; this mode of succession, which has been looked on as an elaborate device for securing practical advantages, seems rather to have arisen out of the law of choice among the descendants of the female line, found in American tribes of much lower culture. Something like this appears in the succession of kings of Tezcuco and Tlacopan, which went to sons by the principal wife, who was usually of the Aztec royal family. The Mexican chronicles, however, show instances of the king’s son succeeding or of powerful chiefs being elected to the kingship. The term republic is sometimes used to describe the little state of Tlascala, but this was in fact a federation of four chiefs, with an assembly of nobles. In the Zapotec district the Wiyatao or high-priest of Zopaa was a divine ruler before whom all prostrated themselves with faces to the ground; he was even too sacred to allow his foot to touch the earth, and was only seen carried in a litter.
The accounts of the palaces of the native kings must be taken with some reserve, from the tendency to use descriptive terms not actually untrue, but which convey erroneous ideas taken from European architecture; thus what are called columns of porphyry and jasper supporting marble balconies might perhaps be better described as piers carrying slabs, whilePalaces, &c. the apartments and terraces must have been more remarkable for number and extent than architectural grandeur, being but low one-storied buildings. The principal palace of Mexico consisted of hundreds of rooms ranged round three open squares, of such extent that one of the companions of Cortes records having four times wandered about till he was tired, without seeing the whole. Not less remarkable was the palace of Tezcuco, surrounded with its groves and pleasure-gardens; and, though now hardly anything remains of the buildings above ground, the neighbouring hill of Tezcotzinco still has its stone steps and terraces; and the immense embankment carrying the aqueduct-channel of hewn stone which supplied water to basins cut in the solid, rock still remains to prove that the chroniclers’ descriptions, if highly coloured, were at any rate genuine. Till the 18th century the gigantic figures of Axayacatl and his son Montezuma were to be seen carved in the porphyry hill of Chapultepec, but these as well as the hanging gardens have been destroyed, and only the groves of ahuehuete (cypress) remain of the ancient beauties of the place. That in the palace gardens flowers from the tierra caliente were transplanted, and water-fowl bred near fresh and salt pools fit for each kind, that all kinds of birds and beasts were kept in well-appointed zoological gardens, where there were homes even for alligators and snakes—all this testifies to a cultivation of natural history which was really beyond the European level of the time. From the palaces and retinues of thousands of servants attached to the royal service may be inferred at once the despotic power of the Mexican rulers and the heavy taxation of the people; in fact some of the most remarkable of the picture-writings are tribute-rolls enumerating by hundreds and thousands the mantles, ocelot-skins, bags of gold-dust, bronze hatchets, loads of chocolate, &c., furnished periodically by the towns. Below the king was a numerous and powerful class of nobles, the highest of whom (tlatoani) were great vassals owing little more than homage and tribute to their feudal lord, while the natural result of the unruliness of the noble class was that the king to keep them in check increased their numbers, brought them to the capital as councillors, and balanced their influence by military and household officers, and by a rich and powerful merchant class. The nobles not only had privileges of rank and dignity, but substantial power over the plebeian or peasant class (macehualli). The greatest estates belonged to the king, or had been granted to military chiefs whose sons succeeded them, or were the endowments of temples, but the calpulli or village community still survived, and each freeman of the tribe held and tilled his portion of the common lands. Below the freemen were the slaves, who were war-captives, persons enslaved for punishment, or children sold by their parents. Prisoners of war were mostly doomed to sacrifice, but other classes of slaves were mildly treated, retaining civil rights, and their children were born free.
The superior courts of law formed part of the palace, and there were tribunals in the principal cities, over each of which presided a supreme judge or cihuacoatl, who was irremovable, and whose criminal decisions not even the king might reverse; he appointed the lower judges and heard appeals from them; it is doubtful whether he judged in civil cases, but both kinds of suitsJustice. were heard in the court below, by the tlacatecatl and his two associates, below whom were the ward-magistrates. Lands were set apart for the maintenance of the judges, and indeed nothing gives a higher idea of the elaborate civilization of Mexico than this judicial system, which culminated in a general court and council of state presided over by the king. The laws and records of suits were set down in picture-writings, of which some are still to be seen; sentence of death was recorded by drawing a line with an arrow across the portrait of the condemned, and the chronicles describe the barbaric solemnity with which the king passed sentence sitting on a golden and jewelled throne in the divine tribunal, with one hand on an ornamented skull and the golden arrow in the other. Among the resemblances to old-world law was the use of a judicial oath, the witness touching the ground with his finger and putting it to his lips, thus swearing by Mother Earth. The criminal laws were of extreme severity, even petty theft being punished by the thief being enslaved to the person he had robbed, while to steal a tobacco pouch or twenty ears of corn was death; he who pilfered in the market was then and there beaten to death, and he who insulted Xipe, the god of the gold- and silversmiths, by stealing his precious metal, was skinned alive and sacrificed to the offended deity. Though aloe-beer or “pulque” was allowed ​ for feasts and to invalids in moderation, and old people over seventy seem to be represented in one of the picture-writings as having liberty of drunkenness, young men found drunk were clubbed to death and young Women stoned. For such offences as witchcraft, fraud, removing landmarks, and adultery the criminal had his heart cut out on the altar, or his head crushed between two stones, while even lesser punishments were harsh, such as that of slanderers, whose hair was singed with a pine-torch to the scalp.
Based on conquest as the Aztec kingdom was, and with the most bloodthirsty religion the world ever saw, the nation was, above all, a fighting community. To be a tried soldier was the road to honour and office, and the king could not be enthroned till he had with his own hand taken captives to be butcheredWar. on the war-god’s altar at his coronation. The common soldiers were promoted for acts of daring, and the children of chiefs were regularly trained to war, and initiated by being sent into battle with veterans, with whose aid the youth took his first prisoner, but his future rise depended on how many captives he took unaided in fight with warlike enemies; by such feats he gained the dignity of wearing coloured blankets, tassels and lip-jewels, and reached such military titles as that of “guiding eagle.” The Mexican military costumes are to be seen in the picture-writings, where the military orders of princes, eagles and tigers are known by their braided hair, eagles’ beaks and spotted armour. The common soldiers went into battle brilliant in savage war-paint, but those of higher rank had helmets like birds and beasts of prey, armour of gold and silver, wooden greaves, and especially the ichcapilli, the quilted cotton tunic two fingers thick, so serviceable as a protection from arrows that the Spanish invaders were glad to adopt it. The archers shot well and with strong bows, though their arrows were generally tipped only with stone or bone; their shields or targets, mostly round, were of ordinary barbaric forms; the spears or javelins had heads of obsidian or bronze, and were sometimes hurled with a spear-thrower or atlatl, of which pictures and specimens still exist, showing it to be similar in principle to those used by the Australians and Eskimo. The most characteristic weapon of the Mexicans was the maquahuitl or “hand-wood,” a club set with two rows of large sharp obsidian flakes, a well-directed blow with which would cut down man or horse. These two last-mentioned weapons have the look of highly developed savage forms, while on the other hand the military organization was in some respects equal to that of an Asiatic nation, with its regular companies commanded each by its captain and provided with its standard. The armies were very large, an expedition often consisting of several divisions, each numbering eight thousand men; but the tactics of the commanders were quite rudimentary, consisting merely of attack by arrows and javelins at a distance, gradually closing into a hand-to-hand fight with clubs and spears, with an occasional feigned retreat to draw the enemy into an ambuscade. Fortification was well understood, as may still be seen in the remains of walled and escarped strongholds on hills and in steep ravines, while lagoon-cities like Mexico had the water approaches defended by fleets of boats and the causeways protected by towers and ditches; even after the town was entered, the pyramid-temples with their surrounding walls were forts capable of stubborn resistance. It was held unrighteous to invade another nation without a solemn embassy to warn their chiefs of the miseries to which they exposed themselves by refusing the submission demanded, and this again was followed by a declaration of war, but in Mexico this degenerated into a ceremonial farce, where tribute was claimed or an Aztec god was offered to be worshipped in order to pick a quarrel as a pretext for an invasion already planned to satisfy the soldiers with lands and plunder, and to meet the priests’ incessant demands for more human sacrifices.
Among the accounts of the Mexican religion are some passages referring to the belief in a supreme deity. The word teotl, god, has been thought in some cases to bear this signification, but its meaning is that of deity in general, and it is applied not only to the sun-god but to very inferior gods. It is related that Nezahualcoyotl, the poet-king of Tezcuco, built a nine-storied Religion. temple with a starry roof above, in honour of the invisible deity called Tloquenahuaque, “he who is all in himself,” or Ipalnemoani, “he by whom we live,” who had no image, and was propitiated, not by bloody sacrifices, but by incense and flowers. These divinities, however, seem to have had little or no place in the popular faith, which was occupied by polytheistic gods of the ordinary barbaric type. Tezcatlipoca was held to be the highest of these, and at the festival of all the gods his footsteps were expected to appear in the flour strewn to receive this sign of their coming. He was plainly an ancient deity of the race, for attributes of many kinds are crowded together in him. Between him and Quetzalcoatl, the ancient deity of Cholula, there had been old rivalry. As is related in the legends, Quetzalcoatl came into the land to teach men to till the soil, to work metals and to rule a well-ordered state; the two gods played their famous match at the ball-game, and Tezcatlipoca persuaded the weary Quetzalcoatl to drink the magic pulque that sent him roaming to the distant ocean, where he embarked in his boat and disappeared from among men. These deities are not easily analysed, but on the other hand Tonatiuh and Metztli, the sun and moon, stand out distinctly as nature gods, and the traveller still sees in the huge adobe pyramids of Teotihuacan, with their sides oriented to the four quarters, an evidence of the importance of their worship. The war-god Huitzilopochtli was the, real head of the Aztec pantheon; his idol remains in Mexico, a huge block of basalt on which is sculptured on the one side his hideous personage, adorned with the humming-bird feathers on the left hand which signify his name, while the not less frightful war-goddess Teoyaomiqui, or “divine war-death,” occupies the other side. Centeotl, the goddess of the all-nourishing maize, was patroness of the earth and mother of the gods, while Mictlanteuctli, lord of dead-land, ruled over the departed in the dim under-world. There were numbers of lesser deities, such as Tlazolteotl, goddess of pleasure, worshipped by courtesans, Tezcatzoncatl, god of strong drink, whose garment in grim irony clothed the drunkard’s corpse, and Xipe, patron of the goldsmiths. Below these were the nature-spirits of hills and groves, whose shrines were built by the roadside. The temples were called teocalli or “god’s house,” and rivalled in size as they resembled in form the temples of ancient Babylon. They were pyramids on a square or oblong base, rising in successive terraces to a small summit-platform. The great teocalli of Huitzilopochtli in the city of Mexico stood in an immense square, whence radiated the four principal thoroughfares, its courtyard being enclosed by a square, of which the stone wall, called the coatepantli- or serpent-wall from its sculptured serpents, measured nearly a quarter of a mile on each side. In the centre, the oblong pyramid of rubble cased with hewn stone and cemented 375 × 300 ft. at the base, and rising steeply in five terraces to the height of 86 ft., showed conspicuously to the city the long processions of priests and victims winding along the terraces and up to corner flights of steps. On the paved platform were three-storey tower temples in whose ground-floor stood the stone images and altars, and before that of the war-god the green stone of sacrifice, humped so as to bend upward the body of the victim that the priest might more easily slash open the breast with his obsidian knife, tear out the heart and hold it up before the god, while the captor and his friends were waiting below for the carcase to be tumbled down the steps for them to carry home to be cooked for the feast of victory. Before the shrines reeking with the stench of slaughter the eternal fires were kept burning, and on the platform stood the huge drum, covered with snakes’ skin, whose fearful sound was heard for miles. From the terrace could be seen seventy or more other temples within the enclosure, with their images and blazing fires, and the tzompantli or “skull-place,” where the skulls of victims by tens of thousands were skewered on cross-sticks or built into towers. There also might be seen the flat circular temalacatl or “spindle-stone,” where captives armed with wooden weapons were allowed the mockery of a gladiatorial fight against well-armed champions. The great pyramid of Cholula with its hemispherical temple of Quetzalcoatl at the top, now an almost shapeless hill surmounted by a church, was about thrice as long and twice as high as the teocalli of Mexico. A large fraction of the Mexican population were set apart as priests or attendants to the services of the gods. The rites performed were such as are found elsewhere—prayer, sacrifice, processions, dances, ​ chants, fasting and other austerities, but there are some peculiarities of detail. Prayers and other formulas have been copied down by Sahagun and other chroniclers, of endless prolixity, but not Without occasional touches of pathos. These prayers seem essentially genuine; indeed there was no European model from which they could have been imitated; but at the same time it must be remembered that they come down in Spanish writing, and not untouched by Spanish influence, as in one passage where there is a mention of sheep, an animal unknown to the Mexicans. As to sacrifice, maize and other vegetables were offered, and occasionally rabbits, quails, &c., but, in the absence of cattle, human sacrifice was the chief rite, and cannibalism prevailed at the feasts. Incense was constantly used, especially the copalli (copal) well known to us for varnish; little terra-cotta censers are among the commonest of Mexican antiquities. Long and severe religious fasts were customary at special seasons, and drawing blood from the arms, legs and body, by thrusting in aloe-thorns, and passing sharp sticks through the tongue, was an habitual act of devotion recalling the similar practices of devotees in India. The calendar of religious festivals for the Mexican year has been preserved. Each 20-day period had one or more such celebrations. In the month of the “diminishing of waters” the rain gods or Tlalocs were propitiated by a procession of priests with music of flutes and trumpets carrying on plumed litters infants with painted faces, in gay clothing with coloured paper wings, to be sacrificed on the mountains or in a whirlpool in the lake. It is said that the people wept as they passed by; but if so this may have been a customary formality, for the religion of these nations must have quenched all human sympathy. In the next month the god Xipe-totec, already mentioned, had his festival called the “flaying of men” from the human victims being flayed, after their hearts were torn out, for young men to dress in their skins and perform dances and sham fights. The succeeding festival of Camaxtli was marked by a severe fast of the priests, after which stone knives were prepared with which a hole was cut through the tongue of each, and numbers of sticks passed through. For the great festival of Tezcatlipoca, the handsomest and noblest of the captives of the year had been chosen as the incarnate representative of the god, and paraded the streets for public adoration dressed in an embroidered mantle with feathers and garlands on his head and a retinue like a king; for the last month they married him to four girls representing four goddesses; on the last day wives and pages escorted him to the little temple of Tlacochcalco, where he mounted the stairs, breaking an earthenware flute against each step; this was a symbolic farewell to the joys of the world, for as he reached the top he was seized by the priests, his heart torn out and held up to the sun, his head spitted on the tzompantli, and his body eaten as sacred food, the people drawing from his fate the moral lesson that riches and pleasure may turn into poverty and sorrow. The manner of the victim’s death in these festivals afforded scope for variety; they dressed them and made them dance in character, threw them into the fire for the fire-god, or crushed them between two balanced stones at the harvest-festival. The ordinary pleasures of festivals were mingled with all this, such as dances in beast-masks, sham fights and children’s games, but the type of a religious function was a sickening butchery followed by a cannibal feast.
The Mexican priesthood were much concerned with the art of picture-writing, which they used systematically as a means of recording religious festivals and legends, as well as keeping calendars of years and recording the historical events which occurred in them. Facsimiles of several of these interesting documents, with their translations, may be seen inPicture-writing. Kingsborough; splendid reproductions of the beautiful Mexican and Mixteco-Zapotecan codices have also been published at the expense of the duke of Loubat and by the “Junta Colombina” (Mexico, 1892). Gods are represented with their appropriate attributes—the fire-god hurling his spear, the moon-goddess with a shell, &c.; the scenes of human life are pictures of warriors fighting with club and spear, men paddling in canoes, women spinning and weaving, &c. An important step towards phonetic writing appears in the picture-names of places and persons. The simplest forms of these depict the objects signified by the name, as where Chapultepec or “grasshopper-hill” is represented by a grasshopper on a hill, or a stone with a cactus on it stands for Tenoch or “stone-cactus,” the founder of Tenochtitlan. The system had, however, risen a stage beyond this when objects were drawn to represent, not themselves, but the syllables forming their names, as where a trap, an eagle, a pricker, and a hand are put together not to represent these objects, but in order that the syllables of their names mo-quauhzo-ma should spell the word Moquauhzoma (see Aubin’s introduction to Brasseur, Hist. du Mexique, i. 68.). The analogy of this to the manner in which the Egyptian hieroglyphs passed into phonetic signs is remarkable, and writing might have been invented anew in Mexico had it not been for the Spanish conquest. The Aztec numerals, which were vigesimal or reckoned by scores, were depicted by dots or circles up to 20, which was represented by a flag, 400 (a score of scores) by a feather, and 8000 (a score of scores of scores) by a purse; but for convenience these symbols might be halved and quartered, so that 534 might be shown by one feather, one quarter of a feather, one flag, one-half of a flag, and four dots. The Mexican calendar depended on the combination of numbers with picture-signs, of which the four principal were the rabbit, reed, flint, house—tochtli, acatl, tecpatl, calli. The cycle of 52 years was reckoned by combining these signs in rotation with numbers up to 13, thus: 1 rabbit, 2 reed, 3 flint, 4 house, 5 rabbit, 6 reed, &c. By accident this calendar may be exactly illustrated with a modern pack of cards laid out in rotation of the four suits, as, ace of hearts, 2 of spades, 3 of diamonds, 4 of clubs, 5 of hearts, 6 of spades, &c. In the Mexican ritual calendar of the days of the year, the same method is carried further, the series of twenty day-signs being combined in rotation with numbers up to 13; as this cycle of days only reaches 260, a series of nine other signs are affixed in addition, to make up the 365-day year. It is plain that this rotation of signs served no useful purpose whatever, being less convenient than ordinary counting such as the Mexicans employed in their other calendar already mentioned, where the 20-day periods had each a name like our months, and their days had signs in regular order. Its historical interest depends on its resemblance to the calendar-system of central and eastern Asia, where among Mongols, Tibetans, Chinese, &c., series of signs are thus combined to reckon years, months and days; for instance, the Mongol cycle of 60 years is recorded by the zodiac or series of 12 signs—mouse, bull, tiger, &c., combined in rotation with the five male and female elements—fire, earth, iron, water, wood; as “male-fire-bull” year, &c. This comparison is worked out in Humboldt’s Vues des Cordillères, as evidence of Mexican civilization being borrowed from Asia. Naturally the Mexican calendar-system lent itself to magic in the same way as the similar zodiac-signs of the Old World, each person’s fate being affected by the qualities of the signs he was born under, and the astrologer-priests being called in to advise on every event of life. Of all Mexican festivals the most solemn was that of the xiuhmolpilli, or “year-binding,” when the 52-year cycle or bundle of years came to an end. It was believed that the destruction of the world, which after the Hindu manner the Mexicans held to have already taken place three or four times, would happen again at the end of a cycle. As the time drew near, the anxious population cleansed their houses and put out all fire, and on the last day after sunset the priests, dressed in the garb of gods, set out in procession for the hill of Huixachtla, there to watch for the approach of the Pleiades to the zenith, which gave the auspicious signal for the lighting of the new fire. The finest of the captives was thrown down and fire kindled on his breast by the wooden drill of the priest; then the victim’s heart was torn out, and his body flung on the pile kindled with the new flame. The people watching from their flat housetops all the country round saw with joy the flame on the sacred hill, and hailed it with a thank-offering of drops of blood drawn from their ears with sharp stone-flakes. Swift runners carried burning brands to re-kindle the fires of the land, the sacred fire on the teocalli of the war-god blazed up again, and the people began with feasting and rejoicing the new cycle.
Mexican education, at any rate that of the upper class, was a systematic discipline much under the control of religion, which here presents itself under a more favourable light. After the birth of a child, the tonalpouhqui or “sun-calculator” drew its horoscope from the signs it was born under, and fixed the time for its solemn lustration or baptism, performed by the Education. nurse with appropriate prayers to the gods, when a toy shield and bow were provided if it was a boy, or a toy spindle and distaff if it was a girl, and the child received its name. An interesting picture-writing, to be seen in Kingsborough, shows the details of the boy’s and girl’s education, from the early time when three small circles over the child show it to be three years old, and a drawing of half a tortilla or corn-cake shows its allowance for each meal; as they grow older the lads are seen beginning to carry burdens, paddle the canoe and fish, while the girls learn to spin and weave, grind maize, and cook—good conduct being enforced by punishments of increasing severity, up to pricking their bodies with aloe-thorns and holding their faces over burning chillies. The schools were extensive buildings attached to the temples, where from an early age boys and girls were taught by the priests to sweep the sanctuaries and keep up the sacred fires, to fast at proper seasons and draw blood for penance, and where they received moral teaching in long and verbose formulas. Those fit for a soldier’s life were trained to the use of weapons and sent early to learn the hardships of war; children of craftsmen were usually taught by their fathers to follow their trade; and for the children of nobles there was elaborate instruction in history, picture-writing, astrology, religious doctrines and laws. Marriages depended much, as theyMarriages. do still in the East, on comparison of the horoscopes of the pair to ascertain if their birth-signs were compatible. Old women were employed as go-betweens, and the marriage ceremony was conducted by a priest who after moral exhortations united the young couple by tying their garments together in a knot, after which they walked seven times round the fire, casting incense into it; after the performance of the marriage ceremony, the pair entered together on a four days’ fast and penance before the marriage was completed. The funeral rites of the Mexicans are best seen in theFunerals. ceremonies at the death of a king. The corpse laid out in state was provided by the priest with a jug of water for his journey. and with bunches of cut papers to pass him safely through each danger of the road—the place where the two mountains strike ​ together, the road guarded by the great snake and the great alligator, the eight deserts and the eight hills; they gave him garments to protect him from the cutting wind, and buried a little dog by his side to carry him across the nine waters. Then the royal body was invested in the mantles of his patron-gods, especially that of the war-god, for Mexican kings were warriors; on his face was placed a mask of turquoise mosaic, and a green chalchihuite-stone as a heart between his lips. In older times the dead king was buried on a throne with his property and dead attendants round him. But after cremation came in a mourning procession of servants and chiefs carrying the body to the funeral pyre to be burnt by the demon-dressed priests, after which the crowd of wives and slaves were exhorted to serve their lord faithfully in the next world, were sacrificed and their bodies burnt. Common people would not thus be provided with a ghostly retinue, but their simpler funeral ceremonies were as far as they went similar to those of their monarch.
The staple food of the Mexicans before the conquest has continued with comparatively little change among the native race, and has even been adopted by those of European blood. Maize or Indian corn was cultivated on patches of ground where, as in the Hindu jûm, the trees and bushes were burnt and the seed planted in the soil manured by the ashes. A Agriculture and food. sharp-pointed planting stick, a wooden shovel, and a bronze-bladed hoe called a coatl were the simple implements. The Mexicans understood digging channels for irrigation, especially for the cultivation of the cacahuatl, from which they taught the Europeans to prepare the beverage chocollatl; these native names passed into English as the words cacao, or coco and chocolate. Other vegetables adopted from Mexico are the tomato (tomatl) and the chilli, used as flavouring to native dishes. The maize was ground with a stone roller on the grinding stone or metlatl, still known over Spanish America as the metate, and the meal baked into thin oval cakes called by Aztecs tlaxcalli, and by Spaniards tortilla, which resemble the chapati of India and the oatcake of Scotland. The Mexicans were also skilful makers of earthen pots, in which were cooked the native beans called by the Spanish frijoles, and the various savoury stews still in vogue. The juice extracted by tapping the great aloe before flowering was fermented into an intoxicating drink about the strength of beer, octli, by the Spaniards called pulque. Tobacco, smoked in leaves or cane-pipes or taken as snuff, was in use, especially at feasts. In old times Mexican clothing Clothing and Ornaments. Metalwork. was of skins of woven aloe and palm fibre, but at the time of the conquest cotton was largely cultivated in the hot lands, spun with a spindle, and woven in a rudimentary loom without a shuttle into the mantles and breech-cloths of the men and the chemises and skirts of the women, garments often of fine texture and embroidered in colours. Ornaments of gold and silver, and jewels of polished quartz and green chalchihuite were worn—not only the ears and nose but the lips being pierced for ornaments. The artificers in gold and silver melted the metals by means of a reed-blowpipe and cast them solid or hollow, and were also skilled in hammered work and chasing, as some fine specimens remain to show, though the famous animals modelled with gold and silver, fur, feathers and scales have disappeared. Iron was not known, but copper and tin ores were mined, and the metals combined into bronze of much the same alloy as in the Old World, of which hatchet blades and other instruments were made, though their use had not superseded that of Obsidian and other sharp stone flakes for cutting, shaving, &c. Metals had passed into a currency for trading purposes, especially quills of gold-dust and T-shaped pieces of copper, while coco-beans furnished small change. The vast size of the market-squares with their surrounding porticos, and the importance of the caravans of merchants who traded with other nations, show that mercantile had risen into some proportion to military interests. Nor was the wealth and luxury of Mexico and surrounding regions without a corresponding development of art. The stone sculptures Art and Pastime. such as that remaining of Xochicalco, which is figured by Humboldt, as well as the ornamented woodwork, feather-mats, and vases, are not without artistic merit. The often-cited poems attributed to Nezahualcoyotl may not be quite genuine, but at any rate poetry had risen above the barbaric level, while the mention of ballads among the people, court odes, and the chants of temple choirs would indicate a vocal cultivation above that of the instrumental music of drums and horns, pipes and whistles, the latter often of pottery. Solemn and gay dances were frequent, and a sport called the bird-dance excited the admiration of foreigners for the skill and daring with which groups of performers dressed as birds let themselves down by ropes wound round the top of a high mast, so as to fly whirled in circles far above the ground. The ballgame of the Mexicans, called tlachtli, was, like tennis, the pastime of princes and nobles; special courts were built for it, and the ball of india-rubber (perhaps the first object in which Europeans became acquainted with this valuable material) might not be touched by the hands, but was driven against the walls by blows of the knee or elbow, shoulder or buttock. The favourite game of patolli has been already mentioned for its similarity to the pachisi of modern India.
The accounts given by Spanish writers of the Central Americans in their state after the Spanish conquest are very scanty in comparison with the voluminous descriptions of Aztec life. They bring out perfectly, however, the fact of close connexion between the two civilizations. Some Central-American peoples were actually Mexican in their language and culture, Central-American Culture. especially the Pipils and a large part of the population of Nicaragua. The investigations made by Dr Walter Lehmann in Central America (1907–1909), prove that these Mexican elements were extended through Guatemala, Salvador, a small part of Nicaragua (the territory of the Nicaraos) and on several places in the peninsula of Nicoya (Costa Rica) amongst the autochthonous Chorotega or Mangue. It is an error of the Spanish authorities to pretend that the Pipil civilization in Guatemala and Salvador is not older than the time of King Ahuitzotl (c. 1482–1486). The language spoken by the Pipils of Salvador (Balsam Coast) is a very old dialect of the Mexican language of the highland of Mexico. It has preserved in the conjugation and in the formation of the plural older forms than the classical Nahuatl itself. The separation of the Pipils from the chief tribes of the Nahuatl branch happened centuries before the conquest, and they developed a singular and characteristic civilization, which can be seen in the wonderful stone-reliefs and sculptures of Sta Lucia de Cozumalhuapa on the Pacific coast of Guatemala.
Dr Lehmann’s archaeological and linguistic researches, especially in Salvador and Nicaragua, also enabled him to prove another very important fact, viz. that these Pipils, who may be descendants from the peoples of the Mexican Plateau, migrated into territories previously occupied by an older race of Mayan origin. The archaeological and linguistic evidence proves also that a great part of Salvador and Honduras was once occupied by peoples of the Maya race—Pokomam, Chorti and perhaps other unknown tribes. They left typical Mayan ruins in Honduras (Tenampua) and in Salvador (Opico near Tehuacan, Quelepa near San Miguel), which seem, however, to be destitute of Mayan hieroglyphic inscriptions. The easternmost limit of prehistoric Mayan civilization, on the Pacific coast of Central America, is Fonseca Bay, with the island of Zacate Grande.
It is noteworthy that archaeological objects of the type characteristic of northern Honduras (Ulloa Valley) have been found on the Pacific coast of Salvador. A strange stone sculpture of the so-called Chac-Mol type, known before only from the country of the Tarascs, from Tlaxcala and Chichen Itza, was discovered in Salvador (Ahuachapan).
In the nearly unexplored central part of Nicaragua Dr Lehmann found fragments of painted polychrome clay pottery similar to objects known from the Ulloa Valley (Honduras) amongst other ceramic pieces which seem to have been left by the ancestors of the Sumo Indians, now extinct in that territory. It is possible that these remains of Mayan pottery came into central Nicaragua as articles of commerce.
It is significant that Mayan civilization cannot be traced in any other part of Nicaragua or Costa Rica.
The above-mentioned prehistoric Mayan peoples lived in contact with “barbarous” nations and with another little-known civilized race. The barbarians belonged to the great family of the Sumo-Misquito Indians, the civilized race was that of the Chorotega or Mangue (Dirian, Orotiñan, &c.). The Sumo-Misquito Indians occupied the Atlantic coast and the interior of Nicaragua and Honduras, where they still live in small tribes; a dialect of the hitherto unknown Sumo languages is the Matagalpan, now extinct in Nicaragua, and nearly identical with the Matagalpan is the language spoken by the Indians of Cacaopera in Salvador (Ultra-Lempa territory). There is no doubt that, at the time of the Pipil invasion, tribes of the Sumo-Misquito family were the immediate neighbours of the Pipils towards the east and north. This fact is proved by the names of some places in Salvador, e.g. Santiago Nonohualco, San Juan Nonohualco and San Pedro Nonohualco. The word Nonohualco signifies in the Mexican language a place where a language changes, where another idiom begins. To the east of the three places whose names are compounded with “Nonohualco,” must have dwelt, in the time of the Pipil Indians, the Nonoualca, called also by Mexican tribes Chontales or Popoloca. The western neighbours of the Sumo Indians were and are (though few still survive) the Lenca Indians, who formerly occupied large parts of Honduras. A linguistic relationship can be established between all the Indian languages spoken on the Atlantic coast and in the interior of Nicaragua and Honduras. Several tribes, such as the Paya (or Poya) and the Jicaques, form together with the Lenca, Sumo (Matagalpa, Tauakhca and Ulua) and Misquito one great family.
The position of the isolated Xinca (or Sinca) Indians, regarded from this point of view, becomes very interesting. There are scientific reasons to believe that the Xinca also belong to the same great family as the Lenca, Jicaques, Paya, Misquito-Sumo. It may be possible either that these tribes are the autochthonous inhabitants who dwelt in Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua before the immigration of the prehistoric Maya peoples; or else that they invaded this region after it had been deserted by a prehistoric oriental branch of the Maya family.
The Chorotega race had its centre in Nicaragua (Pacific coast) and at one time extended thence as far as Guanacaste (Costa Rica); at ​ another time it extended as far as Honduras (actual department of Choluteca) and into eastern Salvador as far as the state of Chiapas in Mexico, where the Chorotega penetrated amongst the Mixe. The Chorotega or Mangue language, so closely affiliated to the Chiapanec, is now extinct, but its former extension is to be recognized by many Indian local names. It seems that there was formerly a mutual interpenetration between Lenca, Sumo and Chorotega tribes. The territories of all these tribes can be, more or less exactly, calculated by the existence of Indian local names. The Misquito country is characterized by names terminating in laya, water, or auala, river; the Sumo and Ulua country by names in uas, water; the Matagalpan by names in li, water; the Lenca by names in tique, ligue, isgue and (ai) quin. Such Lenca names occur on the north-eastern boundary of the Ultra-Lempa country of Salvador. It is strange that there is not a single place-name in Salvador either of Mayan origin, or, as it seems, of Chorotegan origin. Probably the Mexican elements superseded the Maya so completely that there remained no trace of the Maya except archaeological objects; it is to be supposed that the Lenca and Sumo tribes superseded the Chorotega in Salvador. If we can be sure—and the linguistic evidence admits of no doubt—that the Chorotega had their centre in Nicaragua and thence extended north-westwards, it may be hoped that Chorotegan remains will be found in the vast territory occupied for many centuries by the Maya peoples in the Pacific part of Guatemala. These remains would, of course, be archaeological or place-names.
How closely related some of the Central-American nations were in institutions to the Mexicans appears, not only in their using the same peculiar weapons, but in the similarity of their religious rites; the connexion is evident in such points as the ceremony of marriage by tying together the garments of the couple, or in holding an offender’s face over burning chillies as a punishment; the native legends of Central America make mention of the royal ball-play, which was the same as the Mexican game of tlachtli already mentioned. At the same time many of the Central-American customs differed from the Mexican; thus in Yucatán we find the custom of the youths sleeping in a great bachelor’s house, an arrangement common in various parts of the world, but not in Mexico; the same remark applies to the Maya exogamous law of a man not taking a wife of his own family name (see Diego de Landa, Relacion de Yucatan, ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg, p. 140), which does not correspond with Mexican custom. We have the means of comparing the personal appearance of the Mexicans and Central Americans by their portraits on early sculptures, vases, &c.; and, though there does not appear any clear distinction of race-type, the extraordinary back-sloping foreheads of such figures as those of the bas-reliefs of Palenque prove that the custom of flattening the skull in infancy prevailed in Central America to an extent quite beyond any such habit in Mexico. The notion that the ruined cities now buried in the Central-American forests were of great antiquity and the work of extinct nations has no solid evidence; some of them may have been already abandoned before the conquest, but others were inhabited by the ancestors of the Indians who now build their mean huts and till their patches of maize round the relics of the grander life of their ancestors. In comparing these ruins in Yucatán, Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras, it is evident that, though they are the work of two or more nations highly distinct in language, yet these nations had a common system of pictorial or written characters. One specimen of a Central-American inscription may give a general idea of them all, whether it be from the sculptured façade of a temple sketched by Catherwood, or from the painted deerskin called the Dresden Codex (reproduced in Kingsborough), or from the chapter of Diego de Landa where he professes to explain and translate the characters themselves. These consist of combinations of faces, circles, lines, &c., arranged in compartments in so complex a manner that hardly two are found alike. How they conveyed their meaning, how far they pictorially represented ideas or spelt words in the different languages of the country, is a question not yet answered in a complete way; Landa’s description (p. 320) gives a table of a number of their elements as phonetically representing letters or syllables, but, though there may be a partial truth in his rules, they are insufficient or too erroneous to serve for any general decipherment. One point as to the Central-American characters is clear, that part of them are calendar-signs recording dates. From the accounts given by Landa and other writers it is plain that the Central-American calendar, reckoning the year in twenty-eight periods of thirteen days, was the same in its principle of combining signs as that of Mexico. The four leading Maya signs called kan, muluc, ix, cauac corresponded in their position to the four Aztec signs rabbit, reed, flint, house, but the meanings of the Maya signs are, unlike the Aztec, very obscure. A remarkable feature of the Central-American ruins is the frequency of truncated pyramids built of hewn stone, with flights of steps up to the temple built on the platform at top. The resemblance of these structures to the old descriptions and pictures of the Mexican teocallis is so striking that this name is habitually given to them. The teocallis built by the Nahua or Mexican nations have been mostly destroyed, but two remain at Huatusco and Tusapan (figured in Bancroft, iv. 443, 456), which bear a strong resemblance to those of Palenque. On the whole it' is not too much to say that, in spite of differences in style, the best means of judging what the temples and palaces of Mexico were like is to be gained from the actual ruins in Central America. On the other hand, there are features in Central-American architecture which scarcely appear in Mexican. Thus at Uxmal there stands on a terraced mound the long narrow building known as the governor’s house (Casa del Gobernador), 322 ft. long, 39 ft. wide, 26 ft. high, built of rubble stone and mortar faced with square blocks of stone, the interior of the chambers rising into a sloping roof formed by courses of stonework gradually overlapping in a “false arch.” The same construction is seen in the buildings forming the sides of a quadrangle and bearing the equally imaginary name of the nunnery (Casa de Monjas); the resemblance of the interior of one of its apartments to an Etruscan tomb has often been noticed (see Fergusson, History of Architecture, vol. i; Viollet-le-Duc, in Charnay).
The explorations made by Dr Lehmann in 1909 in the famous ruins of Teotihuacan, near Mexico city throw new light upon certain chronological problems. Like the excavations made by Dr Max Uhle in Peru, they tend to determine the relative antiquity of the different periods of the ancient civilization. They also show that these various culture-periods followed one another among the Mexicans in much the same sequence as among the Peruvians. At a considerable depth below the foundations of a temple-palace at Teotihuacan, Dr Lehmann discovered certain ceramic fragments of a type quite different from any hitherto classed as Mexican. These are painted on a fine stucco in beautiful colours (notably a kind of turquoise-green) and represent archaic forms of flowers and butterflies. The relation between the wall paintings of Teotihuacan and ornaments at Chichen Itza, as also the existence of sculptured stone yokes in Teotihuacan, in the country of the Totonacs, in Guatemala and in Salvador, furnish important material for the investigation of the obscure problems of the Toltecs and Olmecs, and of the extension of Maya peoples on the Atlantic coast of the Mexican Gulf from Campeche as far as Tabasco and Vera Cruz.
Attempts to trace the architecture of Central America directly from Old-World types have not been successful, while on the other hand its decoration shows proof of original invention, especially in the imitations of woodwork which passed into sculptured ornament when the material became stone instead of wood. Thus the architectural remains, though they fail to solve the problem of the culture of the nations round the Gulf of Mexico, throw much light on it when their evidence is added to that of religion and customs. At any rate two things seem probable—first, that the civilizations of Mexico and Central America were pervaded by a common influence in religion, art, and custom; second, that this common element shows traces of the importation of Asiatic ideas into America.
Bibliography.—The most illuminating and fundamental work on Mexican archaeology is the Gesammelte Abhandlungen, of Eduard Seler (vol. i. Berlin, 1902; vol. ii., 1904). For the earliest descriptions of the ancient cities of Mexico the writings of Cogolludo, Landa, Antonio del Rio, Sahagun, Torquemada and others are of the greatest value, The account by Antonio de Leon y Gama, Descripcion historica y cronologica de las dos piedras que . . . se hallaron en la plaza principal de Mexico el año de 1790 (Mexico, 1792; 2nd ed. by C. M. de Mustamentel), may be specially mentioned. Much of this material is to be found in Lord Kingsborough’s monumental work in 9 vols., seq., on the Antiquities of Mexico (London, 1831–1848). Alexander von Humboldt’s Vues des Cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes de l’Amerique was published in Paris in 1816. At the beginning of the 19th century the colonial government undertook a comprehensive exploration of the best known groups of ruins and three expeditions were made in 1805–1808 under the direction of Captain Guillaume Dupaix, accompanied by Luciano Castañeda as artist. The reports were not published, however, until Kingsborough included them in his work, though some of the drawings appeared in other works. In many respects these reports are the best of the early accounts. Another early explorer was the French artist Frédéric de Waldeck, who published Voyage pittoresque et archéologique dans la province d’Yucatan (Paris, 1838), and whose collection of drawings appeared in 1866, with the descriptive text by Brasseur de Bourbourg, under the title Monuments anciens du Mexique. Among other and later works, including some who have devoted themselves more especially to Maya inscriptions, are: Arnold and Frost, The American Egypt (London, 1909); H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States (5 vols., New York, 1874–1876, vol. iv. is devoted to “Antiquities”); A. F. Bandelier, Report on an Archaeological Tour in Mexico, 1881 (Archaeol. Inst. of America, papers, Am. Ser. II.); Leopoldo Batres, Cuadro arqueológico y etnográfico de la República Mexicana (Mexico, n.d.); W. W. Blake, Catalogue of the Historical and Archaeological Collections of the National Museum of Mexico (Mexico, 1884); Eug. Boban, Cuadro arqueológico y etnográfico de la República Mexicana (Paris, 1885); Daniel G. Brinton, The American Race (New York, 1891) and Ancient Phonetic Alphabets of Yucatan; Desiré Charnay, The Ancient Cities of the New World (Transl. New York, 1887); Charnay and Viollet-le-Duc, Cités et ruines américaines (Paris, 1863); Alfredo Chavero (ed.) Antiguedades mexicanas (Mexico, 1892); Dupaix, Antiquités mexicaines (Paris, 1834–1836); E. Förstemann (Numerous articles in Globus and other German publications, 1893–1897, on Maya inscriptions); E. T. Hamy, Decades americanae (Paris, 1888, 1898, 1902); Wm. H. Holmes, Archaeological Studies among the ​ Ancient Cities of Mexico (Parts I. and II. Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 1895–1897); W. Lehmann, Ergebnisse und Aufgaben der mexikanischen Forschung (Archiv. für Anthropologie, neue Folge, iii., 2; 1907), Eng. trans.: Methods and Results in Mexican Research, by Seymour de Ricci (Paris, 1909); Theobert Maler, Neue Entdeckung von Ruinen-Städten in Mittel-Amerika (Globus, lxx. 149–150, Braunschweig, 1896), and also contributions to American archaeological publications; A. P. Maudslay, Biologia Centrali-Americana-Archaeology (London, 1897); J. F. A. Nadaillac, Prehistoric America (New York, 1895); Zelia Nuttall, The Fundamental Principles of the Old and New World Civilizations (Arch. and Ethn. Papers, Peabody Museum, Cambridge, 1901); Antonio Penafiel, Monumentos del arte mexicano antiguo (1 vol. text, 2 vols. plates; Berlin, 1890); Carl Sapper, Das nördliche Mittel-Amerika (Braunschweig, 1897); Caecilie Saler, Auf alten Wegen in Mexico und Guatemala (Berlin, 1900); Eduard K. Seler, “Der Charakter der aztekischen und Maya-Handschriften” (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin, 1888), and other papers in various German publications; John L. Stephens (F. Catherwood, artist), Travels in Central America (2 vols., New York, 1841), and Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (2 vols., New York, 1843).  (E. B. T.; W. L.*)
II.—Colonial Period. 1520–1821.
The conquest of Mexico by the Spanish forces under Hernando Cortes (q.v.) in 1520, and the death of the last Aztec emperor, Guatemozin, introduced what is known as the colonial period of Mexican history, which lasted down to the enforced resignation of the last viceroy, O’Donoju, in 1821. During these three centuries, after a brief but most unsatisfactory experience of government by audiencias (1521–1535), sixty-four viceroys ruled over New Spain. Of these a few were ecclesiastics: two had two terms of office; only two or three were of native birth, and their previous official life had always been passed in other parts of the Spanish dominions.
New Spain was one of four great viceroyalties, the other three being New Granada, Buenos Aires and Peru. Its viceroy ruled over districts differing in status and with overlapping and conflicting authorities, some of these being appointed directly by the king of Spain, andNew Spain: Extent. responsible to him. New Spain in its widest meaning includes the audiencias or judicial districts of Manila, San Domingo and Guatemala, and the viceroy had some sort of authority over them: but in its narrower meaning it comprised the audiencia district of Mexico and the subordinate audiencia district of Guadalajara, which together extended from Chiapas and Guatemala to beyond the eastern boundary of the modern state of Texas and northwards, eventually, to Vancouver’s Island. In the course of the 18th century this came to consist of the following divisions: (1) the kingdom of Mexico, which included the peninsula of Yucatan but not the present state of Chiapas or a part of Tabasco, these belonging to Guatemala. Approximately its south border ran from a point slightly east of Tehuantepec to the bay of Honduras, and its north limit was that of the modern states of Michoacan and Guanajuato, then cutting across San Luis Potosi to a point just above Tampico. (2) The kingdom of New Galicia, including the present states of Zacatecas, Jalisco and part of San Luis Potosi. (3) The Nuevo Regno de Leon (the present state of that name). (4) The Provincias Internas, i.e. “interior” regarded from the capital, viz. Nuevo Santander (Tamaulipas, and Texas to the bay of Corpus Christi, founded 1749), the several provinces of Nuevo Biscaya or Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora with Sinaloa, Coahuila, Texas (from Corpus Christi Bay to the mouth of the Mermenton in the present state of Louisiana), and the two Californias.
The audiencia councils also advised the Viceroy in matters of administration; and, as with other officials, his career was subject at its close to a formal examination by a commission—a process known as “taking his residencia.” Local government till 1786 was largelyGovernment and Organization. in the hands of alcaldes majores and corregidores, the latter established in 1531 to look after the Indians, and both appointed by purchase. Towns, which were to some extent founded after the conquest as centres of civilization for the Indians, were governed by civic officials appointed in the first instance by the governor of the province, but subsequently as a rule purchasing their posts.
The church rapidly supplemented the work of the conquerors. The first Franciscan mission arrived in 1524; other orders followed. The announcement of the apparition of the Virgin to an Indian near Mexico City provided a place of pilgrimage and a patroness in Our Lady ofThe Church and the People. Guadalupe; and the friars ingeniously used the hieroglyphic writing for instruction in Christian doctrine, and taught the natives trades, for which they showed much aptitude. The university of Mexico was founded in 1553. The Jesuits established themselves in 1572, devoting themselves actively to the education both of whites and of natives, and were a powerful factor in the exploring and civilizing of the northern districts. The Inquisition was introduced in 1571. With the natives south of the latitude of Tampico there was little trouble after the Mixton War (in Guadalajara) in 1540–1562, save for occasional risings in Yucatan, Tehuantepec, and in 1711 in the Nayarit mountain region west of Zacatecas, and Tamaulipas was conquered in 1748; but the wild Indians of Sonora and New Mexico gave constant trouble to the missions and outlying settlers. There were occasionally riots due to scarcity of corn (notably in Mexico itself in 1692). As in other Spanish possessions, Indian labour was replaced or supplemented by that of negro slaves, but these were almost wholly confined to the coast regions of Vera Cruz and Acapulco, and early in the 19th century there were only some 10,000 in all.
As the Spanish conquerors brought few women, there was much mixture of races. Among the pure whites—who were practically all of Spanish extraction—there were two well-defined classes, the Gachupines or chapetones, Spaniards born in Europe, said to be so named inRaces and Castes. allusion to their spurs, from Aztec words meaning “prickers with the foot,” and the native-born or creoles: the former, though a small minority, had almost all the higher positions both in the public services and in commerce. Besides these there were five well-defined castas: mestizoes (Indian and white); mulattoes (negro and white); Zambos (negro and Indian), who were regarded as specially vicious and dangerous; native Indians and negroes. But there were about a dozen intermediate “named varieties,” of which the salto-atras (tending away from white) and tente en l’aire (tending towards white) may be mentioned; and many of the last named eventually passed into the Creole class, sometimes by the decree of a court. The fact that the trade route to Manila passed through Vera Cruz, Mexico City and Acapulco entailed the settlement also of a few Chinese and Malays, chiefly on the Pacific coast.
The natives were subject to tribute and kept in perpetual tutelage: divided at the conquest, with the land, as serfs of the conquerors, in repartimientos or encomiendas, they were gradually freed at an early date from their serfage, and allowed to sell their labour as theyPosition of the Natives. pleased; they were, however, to a great extent kept in villages or settlements, compelled to cultivate land which they held for their life only, and strictly controlled by the friars or the priests. Their numbers were several times seriously reduced by the matlazhuatl, apparently analogous to yellow fever, but not attacking the whites, and unknown before the conquest. The negroes were allowed to buy their freedom gradually at rates fixed by the judicial authorities, and slavery seems never to have taken much hold except in the coast region.
Of the events of this period only a bare outline can here be given. The term of office of the first viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, was marked by the Mixton War, by an attempt to suppress the encomienda system, and by a violent epidemic among the natives. Under his successor, Velasco, the measures taken for the relief of the Leading Events: 1535–1822. natives provoked the landowners to a conspiracy (repressed with great severity) to set up Cortes’ son as king of New Spain. In 1568 the island of Sacrificios, near Vera Cruz, was seized by John Hawkins (q.v.), who was surprised by the Spanish fleet accompanying the new viceroy, de Almansa, and escaped with Sir Francis Drake (q.v.), but without the remaining ships of his squadron. In 1572 and 1578, however, Drake took abundant ​ vengeance, and in 1587 Cavendish captured the Manila galleon—a success repeated in the next century.
For the next sixty years an urgent question was the prevention of floods in the capital. Situated on the lowest of four lakes, whose waters had only one small outlet from the valley, it was only 4 ft. above the level of the lowest, and was flooded on an average once in every twenty-five years. It had been protected, under the native The Drainage of the Capital. kings by a system of dikes, which were added to under the earlier viceroys, but serious inundations in 1553 and 1580 flooded the city, and the latter suggested the relief of the highest lake, that of Zumpango, by a tunnel carrying its chief affluent into a tributary of the Panuco, and so to the Atlantic. This, however, was not then undertaken, and when mooted again in 1603 was opposed as certain to involve a heavy sacrifice of Indian life. Another inundation, in 1604, suggested the transfer of the city to Tacubaya, but the landowners opposing and the city being again inundated in 1607, the Nochistongo tunnel was begun under the auspices of a Jesuit, Enrico Martinez, and roughly completed in eleven months. It passed under a depression in the mountains of the extreme north of the valley. Humboldt states that it was 6600 metres long, 31/2 wide and 4 high. But it did nothing for the southern lakes, so that a further system of dikes was recommended in preference, in 1614, by the Dutch engineer Adrian Boot; it was inadequate for its work and, not being lined with masonry, it was liable to be choked by falls. Repairs were suspended in 1623, and a further inundation, with great losses of life, occurred from 1629 to 1634. The removal of the city was again mooted and, though sanctioned by the king of Spain, successfully opposed by the landowners. Another flood occurred in 1645. After a disastrous attempt to enlarge the tunnel in 1675, it was eventually converted into an open cutting, but the work was not finished till 1789, and the bottom was then 29 ft. 6 in. above the level of the lowest lake. The drainage was only satisfactorily accomplished at the end of the 19th century (see below).
A negro revolt in the Vera Cruz region (1609) and an Indian rebellion in Sinaloa and Durango may be mentioned among the events of the earlier part of the 17th century. The regular and secular clergy had early come into conflict, particularly over the tithe and the control of the Indians; and in 1621, the marquis de Gelves, an energetic Church and State. reformer, who as viceroy favoured the appointment of the regulars to deal with the natives, came into conflict with Archbishop Serna of Mexico, who placed the city under interdict, excommunicated the viceroy and constrained him to hide from the mob. Some years later the bishop of Puebla, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, transferred many native congregations from the friars to secular priests, and subsequently, in 1647, came into conflict with the Jesuits, whom he excommunicated, but who eventually triumphed with the aid of the Dominicans and the archbishop. The power of the church may be judged from the petition of the Ayuntamiento of Mexico to Philip IV. (1644) to stop the foundation of religious houses, which held half the property in the country, to suspend ordinations because there were 6000 unemployed priests, and to suppress feast days because there were at least two per week.
To check the Dutch and British corsairs the Barlovento (“windward”) squadron had been set up in 1635; but the British capture of Jamaica (1655) aggravated the danger to the Spanish convoys. During the rest of the century the ports of Yucatan and Central America were frequently raided, and in 1682 Tampico Buccaneer Raids. suffered a like disaster; in May 1683 Vera Cruz itself was captured through stratagem by two buccaneers, Van Horn and Laurent, who plundered the town for ten days, committed shocking outrages, and escaped as the Spanish fleet arrived. In 1685–86 the Pacific coast was ravaged by Dampier and Swan, and in 1709 Woodes Rogers, with Dampier as pilot, captured the Manila treasure galleon, a feat repeated by Anson in 1743. But the European wars of the 18th century had little effect on Mexico, save that the privileges of trade given to Great Britain by the treaty of Utrecht facilitated smuggling. In the first half of the 18th century we may note the appearance, intermittently at first, of the first Mexican periodical—the Gaceta de Mexico—in 1722, a severe epidemic of yellow fever in 1736, and the establishment about 1750 of a standing army with a nucleus of Walloons and Swiss, negroes and Indians being excluded and the half-breeds admitted under restrictions. But the great event of the 18th century was the expulsion of the Jesuits from Mexico, as from the other Spanish dominions, in 1767, under orders from Charles III. They were arrested en masse on the night of the 26th of June; their goods were sequestrated, and they themselves deported to Havana, then to Cadiz, Genoa, and eventually Corsica. They had done much to civilize the natives and to educate the whites, and their expulsion, which was greatly resented by the Creoles, probably tended to increase the popular discontent and prepare for the overthrow of Spanish rule.
In 1769 Don José de Galvez was sent out as special commissioner to devise reforms, with powers independent of the then viceroy, but without much immediate result. It was, however, a consequence of his work that in 1786 the provinces and kingdoms were replaced by twelve intendencias (Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Durango, Sonora, Centralized Government. Puebla, Vera Cruz, Merida, Oaxaca, Valladolid, Guanajato, San Luis Potosi, Mexico), whose governors and minor officials were directly dependent on the viceroy, the former alcaldes, mayores and corregidores, who were very corrupt, being abolished. Possibly it is from this reform that we may date the antithesis of Federals and Centralists, which is so conspicuous in the history of republican Mexico. Among the later viceroys the Conde de Revillagigedo (1789–1794) deserves mention as a progressive ruler who developed commerce and improved administration, and took the first, but very imperfect, census, on which Humboldt based his estimate of the population in 1803 at 5,840,000.
The European wars of the French revolutionary period interfered with the traffic with Spain, and so relaxed the bonds of a commercial system which hampered the manufactures of Mexico and drained away its wealth. in 1783 the Conde de Aranda had suggested to the Spanish king the scheme of setting up three Spanish-American Beginnings of Severance. kingdoms bound to Spain by perpetual treaties of alliance and reciprocity and by frequent royal intermarriages, and with the king of Spain as overlord. The plan was devised as a means of rivalling Anglo-Saxon supremacy, but was rejected through fear of the mixed races predominating over the whites. A similar fear helped to keep down the tendencies inspired by French revolutionary literature, though plots occurred against the viceroy Branciforte in 1798 and 1799. But the real causes of the revolution were local. The chief was the Creole jealousy of the Spanish immigrants. There was oppressive taxation, restriction on commerce and manufacture in the interest of Spain, even vineyards having been prohibited; and the courts were very corrupt. But to these grievances was added in 1804 the sequestration, to provide for Spain’s needs, of the benevolent funds (obras pias) in Mexico, amounting to about $45,000,000, and nearly all invested on mortgage. The mortgages were called in: forced sales were necessary, the mortgagers were frequently ruined, and less than a fourth of the total was realized. Other confiscations and exactions followed; and when the rule of Fernando VII. was succeeded by that of Joseph Bonaparte, the municipality of Mexico invited Iturrigaray, the viceroy, to declare the country independent. He proposed the convocation of a national congress, but was overthrown by a conspiracy of Spaniards under one Yermo, who feared that they would lose their privileged position through severance from Spain. The two next viceroys were incompetent; further demands from the Spanish authorities in revolt against Joseph Bonaparte increased the disaffection, which was not allayed by the grant of representation in the Spanish Cortes to the colonies; and, on the demands being repeated by a third viceroy, Venegas, Creole conspiracies arose in Querétaro and Guanajato. Their discovery in 1810 was followed by the outbreak of the revolution. Hidalgo, a parish priest, and Allende, a captain of cavalry, with forces ​ consisting largely of Indians, captured a stronghold at Guanajato and even threatened the capital; but the revolutionists were defeated in 1811 at Calderon, and the leaders executed. Another priest, however, named Morelos, continued the movement, and, despite defeat in the terrible siege of Cuatla (now Morelos) on the 2nd of May 1812, raised the south, so that in the next year his forces overran most of the kingdom of Mexico and held its southern parts, and he was able to convoke a congress and issue a constitution. But he also was captured, and executed at Mexico City in 1815. Though revolutionary movements still continued, by 1817 only one leader, Vincente Guerrero, was left in the field. But in March 1820 the Spanish constitution, repudiated by King Fernando VII. soon after his restoration, was restored after a military rising in Spain. It was promulgated in Mexico, and the ecclesiastics and Spaniards, fearing that a Liberal Spanish government would force on them disendowment, toleration and other changes, induced Augustin de Iturbide, who had already been conspicuous in suppressing the risings, to take the field in order to effect what may be called a reactionary revolution.
III.—Independent Mexico.
Thenceforward, till the second election of Porfirio Diaz to the presidency in 1884, the history of Mexico is one of almost continuous warfare, in which Maximilian’s empire is a mere episode. The conflicts, which may at first sight seem to be merely between rival generals,General character-istics. are seen upon closer examination to be mainly (1) between the privileged classes, i.e. the church and (at times) the army, and the mass of the other civilized population; (2) between Centralists and Federalists, the former being identical with the army, the church and the supporters of despotism, while the latter represent the desire for republicanism and local self-government. Similar conflicts are exhibited, though less continuously, by most of the other Spanish-American states. On both sides in Mexico there was an element consisting of honest doctrinaires; but rival military leaders exploited the struggles in their own interest, sometimes taking each side successively; and the instability was intensified by the extreme poverty of the peasantry, which made the soldiery reluctant to return to civil life, by the absence of a regular middle class, and by the concentration of wealth in a few hands, so that a revolutionary chief was generally sure both of money and of men. But after 1884 under the rule of Diaz, the Federal system continued in name, but it concealed in fact, with great benefit to the nation, a highly centralized administration, very intelligent, and on the whole both popular and successful—a modern form of rational despotism.
Iturbide eventually combined with Guerrero, and proclaimed the “Plan of Iguala,” which laid down, as the bases of the new state, the maintenance of the Roman Catholic religion and the privileges of the clergy, the establishment of a limited monarchy, and equality of rightsGeneral Iturbide becomes Emperor, 1822–1823. for Spaniards and native-born Mexicans. Iturbide sought the co-operation of the viceroy Apodaca, who, however, refused; but he was presently superseded by General O’Donojú, who, being unable to get beyond Vera Cruz, recognized the independence of Mexico. O’Donojú shortly afterwards died; the Spanish government repudiated his act; and Spanish troops held the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, off Vera Cruz, till 1827. A provisional junta, nominated by Iturbide, issued a declaration of independence (Oct. 1821), and nominated a regency of five, with Iturbide as its president. The first Mexican Congress met on the 24th of February 1822. A section of it favoured a republic; another, monarchy under Iturbide; another, which was broken up by the refusal of Spain (continued until 1836) to recognize Mexican independence, monarchy under a Bourbon prince. A conflict now arose between the republican majority and Iturbide, which was settled by a military pronunciamiento in his favour, and the Congress elected him emperor. He was crowned on the 21st of July 1822. Fresh conflicts broke out between him and the Congress, and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, captain-general of Vera Cruz, proclaimed a republic, promising to support the Plan of Iguala. He was defeated at Jalapa and driven to Vera Cruz; but the army deserted Iturbide, who was compelled to abdicate (April 19, 1823). The Congress deported him to Italy, and granted him a pension. He returned almost immediately, on the pretext that Spain was intriguing against Mexican independence, and on landing (having been previously outlawed) was arrested and executed (July 1, 1824).
The Congress had meanwhile undone much of his work, and had divided into Federalists and Centralists, the latter largely Monarchists and Freemasons. The Federalists were strong enough to secure the adoption of a constitution (Oct. 4, 1824) modelled on that of the United States, with additional clauses, notably one declaring the Roman Catholic religion to be alone recognized. A source of abundant discord was opened by the provision that each state should contribute its quota to the Federal revenues. No proper statistical basis for estimating the quotas existed, and the device gave each state a plausible reason for attempting secession on occasion. Moreover, the capital and some territory round it was made into a “Federal district”—another grievance intensifying the antagonism of the state to the central power. The Freemasons had been largely instrumental in overthrowing Iturbide; they now divided into the Escoceses (lodges of the Scottish ritual), who were Monarchist and Centralist, and the Yorkinos, who took their ritual from New York, and their cue, it was alleged, from the American minister, Joel Poinsett. An attempt at revolt, headed by Nicolas Bravo, vice-president, the Grand Master of the Escoceses, was suppressed, but dissensions ensued in the Yorkino party between the followers of President Guerrero (a man largely of native blood, and the last of the revolutionary leaders) and of Gomez Pedraza, thePresident Guerrero, 1825–1831. war minister. A conflict broke out, the Guerrerists were victorious, and the pillage of foreign shops in Mexico City (1828), among them that of a French baker, gave a basis for the foreign claims which, ten years later, caused the “Pastry War” with France. Meanwhile, attacks on Spanish ships off Cuba by a Mexican squadron, commanded by an American, David Porter, had induced Spain to send an expedition to reconquer Mexico (1829) which was checked at Tampico by Santa Anna. During the invasion Vice-President Antonio Bustamante declared against President Guerrero; the bulk of the army supported him. Guerrero was deposed, and his partisans in the south were defeated at Chilpancingo (Jan. 2, 1831); and Guerrero, retiring to Acapulco, was enticed on board an Italian merchant-ship, and treacherously seized, tried and executed (Jan.–Feb. 1831). Next year, however, a revolt broke out against Bustamante, which was joined by Santa Anna, and eventually resulted in a pronunciamiento in favour of Gomez Pedraza. He, and his successor, Vice-President Gomez Farias (1833), assailed the exemption of the clergy and of military officers from the jurisdiction of the Santa Anna, Dictator, 1834. civil courts, and the latter attempted to laicize higher education and to relax monastic bonds. Santa Anna took advantage of the situation to assume the presidency. He eventually became dictator, dissolved Congress (May 31, 1834) and the state legislatures, and substituted creatures of his own for the governors of the states and mayors of towns, then retiring into private life. A new Congress, having resolved itself into a constituent assembly, followed up this Centralist policy (Dec. 30, 1836) by framing a new constitution, the Siete Leyes or Seven Laws, which converted the states into departments, ruled by governors appointed by the central authority, and considerably reduced popular representation. Antonio Bustamante became the first president under it. Bustamante, President, 1837. The French claims set up by the pillage of foreign shops in Mexico had, however, remained unsatisfied, and in 1838 a French fleet blockaded the coast, bombarded the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, off Vera Cruz, and occupied the town. The Mexican government gave way, threatened by Federalist risings and secessions of states, which culminated in 1841. Santa Anna appeared, nominally as a ​ mediator, and put forward the bases of Tacubaya (Sept. 28, 1841), abolishing all the Siete Leyes except the part relating to the judicial system, arranging for a newSanta Anna Restored, 1841. constituent assembly, and reserving for the president (himself) full power of re-organizing the administration. The Centralist government, after a vain attempt to defeat him by professing a more thorough Federalism, gave way to force, and Bustamante was allowed to leave the country. But the new Congress was too Federalist for Santa Anna, and he retired, leaving the reins to Nicolas Bravo, under whom a new Centralist constitution was established (1843). This expressly retained the privileges of the clergy and army, and was in some respects more anti-Liberal than that of 1836.
But new complications were now introduced by the question of Texas. Though a state of the Mexican Union, it had been settled from the United States in consequence of a land grant given by the Spanish Viceroy to Stephen Austin in 1820, and had been estranged from Mexico partly by the abolition of slavery under a decree of President The Texas Question. Guerrero, and partly by the prospect of the Centralist constitution of 1836. It then seceded. Santa Anna attempted to reduce it, showing great severity, but was eventually defeated and captured by Houston at the battle of San Jacinto, and compelled to sign a treaty recognizing Texan independence, which was disavowed on his return to Mexico. A state of war thus continued nominally between Mexico and its seceded member, whose independence was recognized by England, France and the United States. The slaveholders in the United States favoured annexation of Texas, and pressed the claims due from Mexico to American citizens, partly perhaps with the aim of forcing war. Most of these claims were settled by a mixed commission, with the king of Prussia as umpire, in 1840–1841, and a forced loan was raised to pay them in 1843, which stimulated the revolt of Paredes against Santa Anna, who had returned to power in 1844. It resulted in Santa Anna’s downfall, imprisonment at Perote and eventual exile (Dec. 1844 to Jan. 1845), and the election of General José Joaquin Herrera as president. But Herrera was displaced in the last days of 1845 by a pronunciamiento in favour of Paredes, who undertook to uphold the national rights against the United States, and who was elected president on the 3rd of January 1846. Texas had meanwhile applied for admission into the American Union. The annexation, rejected in 1844 by the United States Senate, was sanctioned on the 1st of March 1845, and carried out on the 22nd of December 1845. The Mexican minister withdrew from Washington, and both sides made active preparations for war.
The United States forces were ordered by President Polk to advance to the Rio Grande in January 1846. They established a depot at Point Ysabel (behind the opening of Brazos United Santiago), and erected a fort in Texan territory, commanding Matamoros, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. This provoked the Mexican forces into a War with the United States, 1846–48. defensive invasion of Texas, to cut the American communications with Point Ysabel. They were, however, defeated at Palo Alto (May 8) and Resaca de la Palma (May 9). There was an outburst of warlike feeling in the United States (with a counter-movement in the North), and an invasion of Mexico was planned by three routes—from Matamoros towards Monterey in New Leon, from San Antonio de Bexar to Chihuahua, and from Fort Leavenworth to New Mexico. Importance attaches chiefly to the movements of the first force under General Zachary Taylor. During the war preparations President Paredes, suspected of intriguing to overthrow the Republic and set up a Spanish prince, had to give place to his vice-president Bravo, who in his turn gave way before Santa Anna, who was hastily recalled from his exile at Havana to assume the presidency and the conduct of the war (Aug. 1846). He was allowed by the American squadron blockading Vera Cruz to pass in without hindrance. Probably it was thought his presence would divide the Mexicans.
The preparations of the United States took some months. It was not till the 5th of September 1846 that General Zachary Taylor could leave his depot at Camargo on the Rio Grande, and march on Monterey. It was taken by assault on the 23rd of September; Santa Anna was defeated at Buena Vista (near Saltillo) on the 23rd of February 1847, and forced back on San Luis Potosí. New Mexico was occupied without opposition; Chihuahua was occupied, but not held, owing to the difficulties in maintaining communications; and Upper California was seized in the autumn of 1846 by John C. Fremont, who had been exploring a route across the continent, and by the United States Pacific squadron, and made secure by the aid of the New Mexico expedition. But as Mexico still continued to fight, it was determined to reach the capital via Vera Cruz. That city was taken by General Scott after a siege and bombardment (March 7 to 29, 1847); and after winning the battle of Cerrogordo (April 18), and a long delay at Puebla, Scott marched on Mexico City, stormed its defences against greatly superior forces, and effected an entrance after severe fighting on the 13th of September 1847. This virtually ended the war; Santa Anna was deprived of his command, and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluded on the 2nd of February 1848, ceded to the United States Texas, New Mexico andTreaty of Peace. Upper California, in return for a payment of $15,000,090 by the United States to Mexico, and the assumption of liability by it for the claims of its subjects which it had hitherto been pressing against Mexico. This payment was doubtless intended to strengthen the United States title to the conquered territory. It is generally admitted that Mexico was provoked into aggression in order that additional territory might be available for the extension of slavery.
The American forces were withdrawn in May and June 1848 after the ratification of the treaty by Mexico. Under the presidency of Herrera (1848–1851) attempts were made to Herrera, restore order and the public credit. An arrangement was effected with English holders of Mexican stock; an attempt was made to carry out a consolidation of the internal Herrera, President, 1848–85. debt, which failed; the army was reduced and reorganized, and the northern frontier was defended by military colonies, formed partly of civilized Seminole Indians from the United States. But the financial situation was desperate; the federal revenue, mostly from customs—which were evaded by extensive smuggling—was not half the expenditure; and Indian revolts in Yucatan (1847–1850) and in the Sierra Gorda had added to the strain. Arista succeeded Herrera as president (Jan. 1851), but resigned (Jan. 1853).
After a sort of interregnum (Jan.–March 1853) Santa Anna was recalled (by a vote of the majority of the states under the Plan of Arroyozarco, on the 4th of February 1853, the result of a pronunciamiento), and made dictator in the interests of federation. His measures, partly inspired by an able Conservative leader, Lucas Alaman, proved Santa Anna in Power, 1853–1854. strongly Centralist: one is especially noteworthy, the establishment of the ministry of “fomento,” or encouragement to public works, education, and intellectual and economic development, which is a conspicuous aid to Mexican welfare to-day. He also negotiated (at the end of 1853) the sale of the Mesilla valley (now Arizona) to the United States, but the purchase money. was soon dissipated. On the 16th of December 1853 Santa Anna issued a decree making himself dictator, with the title of serene highness. On the 1st of March 1854, at Ayutla in Guerrero, a section of the army under Colonel Villareal proclaimed the Plan of Ayutla, demanding Santa Anna’s deposition and the establishment of a provisional government to secure a new constitution. Among the leaders in the movement were Generals Alvarez and Comonfort, and it is said that Porfirio Diaz, subsequently president, then a young soldier, made his way to Benito Juarez, then in prison, and arranged with him the preliminaries of the revolt. It spread, and Santa Anna left the country (Aug. 1854).
Two filibustering expeditions at this time—one by William Walker, afterwards notorious in Nicaragua, in Lower California ​ (Dec. 1853), the other by Count Raousset de Boulbon in Sonora (July 1854)—added to the general disorder.
The provisional president, General Carrera, proving too Centralist, was replaced by Alvarez (Sept. 24, 1855), two of whose ministers are conspicuous in later history—Ignacio Comonfort, minister of war, and Benito Juarez, minister of finance. Juarez (b. 1806) was of unmixed Indian blood. The son of a Zapotec peasant in a mountain Benito Juarez. village of Oaxaca, he was employed as a lad by a bookbinder in Oaxaca city, and aided by him to study for the priesthood. He soon turned to the law, though for a time he was teacher of physics in a small local college; eventually went into politics, and did excellent work in 1847 as governor of his native state. Juarez almost immediately secured the enactment of a law (Ley Juarez, Nov. 23, 1855) subjecting the clergy and the army to the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts. “Benefit of clergy” was the curse of Mexico. Officers and soldiers could be tried only by courts-martial, the clergy (including numbers of persons in minor orders, who were practically laymen) only by ecclesiastical courts. The proposed reform roused the Clericals to resistance. Alvarez gave place (Dec. 8, 1855) to his war minister Comonfort, who represented the less anti-Clerical Liberals. He appointed a commission to consider the question of draining the Valley of Mexico, which adopted the plan ultimately carried out in 1890–1900; suppressed a Clerical rising in Puebla (March 1856), which was punished by a considerable confiscation of church property; sanctioned a law releasing church land from mortmain, by providing for its sale, for the benefit, however, of the ecclesiastical owners (called after its author Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, brother of the subsequent president), and a new draft constitution, largely modelled on that of the United States (Feb. 5, 1857). The clergy protested violently, and the Plan of Tacubaya (Dec. 17, 1857), which made Comonfort dictator, provided for the construction of a new constitution under his auspices. He was presently displaced by a thorough reactionary, General Zuloaga, and expelled from Mexico early in 1858; and for three years Mexico was a prey to civil war between two rival governments—the Republicans at Vera Cruz under Juarez, who, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, succeeded Comonfort; and the reactionaries at the capital. The latter were at first presided over by Zuloaga, who, proving incompetent, was replaced at the end of 1858 by Pezuela, who early in 1859 gave place to Miguel Miramon, a young, able and unscrupulous soldier who was shortly afterwards accepted as “constitutional” president by his party. The Juarists were defeated outside the city of Mexico twice, in October 1858 and on the 11th of April 1859, On the second occasion the whole body of officers,Miramon. who had surrendered, were shot with Miramon’s authority, if not by his express orders, together with several surgeons (including one Englishman, Dr Duval) (the fifty-three “martyrs of Tacubaya”). This atrocity caused great indignation in Mexico and abroad: the reactionists were divided; their financial straits were extreme, as the Juarists held all the chief ports. Juarez was recognized by the United States, and allowed to draw supplies of arms and volunteers thence; and in July 1859 he published laws suppressing the religious orders, nationalizing ecclesiastical property (of the estimated value of $45,000,000), establishing civil marriage and registration, transferring the cemeteries to civil control, and, in short, disestablishing the church. But the apparent hopelessness of any ending to the conflict, together with the frequent outrages of both parties on foreigners, afforded strong reasons for foreign intervention. Early in 1859 President Buchanan had recommended the step to Congress, which did not respond. On the 12th of December 1859 the M‘Lean-Juarez treaty was concluded, which gave the United States a sort of disguised protectorate over Mexico, with certain rights of way for railroads over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and between the Rio Grande and Pacific. The American Senate, however, did not ratify the treaty, and a motion for its reconsideration late in 1860 came to nothing, owing to the approach of the War of Secession.
When Napoleon III. was in captivity at Ham he dreamed of a Central America civilized and opened up to modern enterprise by a transoceanic canal: and the clerical refugees in Paris, among them Labastida, archbishop of Mexico, easily influenced the Empress Eugenie, herself a Spaniard, to interest her husband in the cause of centralized monarchy and the church: it is said that even in 1859 they had thoughts of setting up the Archduke Maximilian as ruler of Mexico.
The question of a joint intervention of Great Britain, France, Spain and Prussia was mooted between those powers in 1860. Early in 1859 the outrages on British subjects had caused the British minister to break off diplomatic relations. Forced contributions had been levied by both sides on goods or bullion, being European property, the Overthrow of Miramon, 1860. reactionaries being the worst offenders; and there were numerous cases of murder and robbery of Europeans. At last, on the 17th of November 1860, Miramon, under the plea of necessity, seized $630,000 in specie which had been left under seal at the British Legation and was intended for the bondholders. On the 22nd of December 1860 his forces were routed by the Juarist general Ortega at Arroyozarco, and his government was overthrown.
Juarez entered Mexico City on the 11th of January 1861. He soon found that his government was held responsible to Europe for the excesses of its rival as well as its own. Miramon’s government had violated the British Legation; the Spanish minister, the papal legate and the representatives of Guatemala and Ecuador were expelled from the country for undue interference on behalf of the reactionaries; the payments of theEuropean Intervention, 1861. British loan were suspended by Juarez’s Congress in 1861; and various outrages had been committed on the persons and property of Europeans for which no redress could be obtained. The French chargé d’affaires, Dubois de Saligny, who had been sent out in November 1860, urged French intervention, and took up the Jecker claims. Jecker, a Swiss banker settled in Mexico, had lent Miramon’s government in 1859 $750,000 (subject, however, to various deductions): in return, Miramon gave him 6% bonds of the nominal value of $15,000,000 which were ingeniously disguised as a conversion scheme. Jecker had failed early in 1860, Miramon was overthrown a few months later. Jecker’s creditors were mostly French, but he still held most of the bonds, and there is reason to believe that he won over Dubois de Saligny by corrupt means to support his claims. Intercepted correspondence (since confirmed from the archives of the Tuileries) showed that the Duc de Morny promised Jecker his patronage in return for 30% of the profits (De la Gorce, Hist. du Second Empire, IV. c. 1). An imperial decree naturalized Jecker in France, and Napoleon III. took up his claim. A convention between Great Britain, France and Spain for joint interference in Mexico was signed in London on the 31st of October 1861. A separate arrangement of the British claims was negotiated by Juarez, but rejected by the Mexican Congress, November 1861; and the assistance of the United States with a small loan was declined, Mexican territory being demanded as security. On the 14th of December Vera Cruz was occupied by Spanish troops under General Prim; the French fleet and troops arrived soon after, with instructions to seize and hold the Gulf ports and collect the customs for the three Powers till a settlement was effected; Great Britain sent ships, and landed only 700 marines. In view of the unhealthiness of Vera Cruz, the convention of Soledad was concluded with the Mexican government, permitting the foreign troops to advance to Orizaba and incidentally recognizing Mexican independence. But as the French harboured leaders of the Mexican reactionaries, pressed the Jecker claims and showed a disposition to interfere in Mexican domestic politics, which lay beyond the terms of the joint convention, Great Britain and Spain withdrew their forces in March 1862.
More troops were sent from France. Their advance was checked by Zaragoza and Porfirio Diaz in the battle of Cinco de Mayo, on the 5th of May 1862; and in September of that year 30,000 more French troops arrived under General Forey. Wintering at Orizaba, they recommenced their advance ​ (Feb. 17, 1863), besieged and reduced Puebla, and entered MexicoFrench Expedition, 1862–63. City on the 7th of June. A provisional government of Mexicans, nominated directly or indirectly by Dubois de Saligny, adopted monarchy, offered the crown to Maximilian of Austria, brother of the Emperor Francis Joseph, and should he refuse, left its disposal to Napoleon III.
Maximilian, after some difficulty as to renouncing his right of succession to the throne of Austria, accepted the crown subject to the approval of the Mexican people, and reached Mexico city on the 12th of June 1864. Juarez meanwhile had set up his capital, first in San Luis Potosí, then in Chihuahua. The new empire was unstable from Maximilian Emperor, 1864. the first. Before Maximilian arrived the provisional government had refused to cancel the sales of confiscated Church lands, as the clericals demanded. When he came, a host of new difficulties arose. A new loan, nominally of about eight millions sterling, but yielding little more than four, owing to discount and commission, was raised in Europe, but no funds were really available for its service. Maximilian carried the elaborate etiquette of the court of Vienna to Mexico, but favouring toleration of Protestantism, and the supremacy of the Crown over the Church, he was too liberal for the clericals who had set him up. As a foreigner he was unpopular, and the regiments of Austrians and Belgians which were to serve as the nucleus of his own army were more so. His reforms, excellent on paper, could not be carried out, for the trained bureaucracy necessary did not exist. For a time he nominally held sway over about two-thirds of the country—roughly, from lat. 18° to 23°, thus excluding the extreme north and south. Oaxaca city, under Porfirio Diaz, capitulated to Bazaine—who had superseded the too pro-clerical Forey in October 1864—in February 1865, and by the autumn of that year the condition of the Juarists in the north seemed desperate. But the towns asked for permanent French garrisons, which were refused, as weakening their own power of self-defense. Instead, the country was traversed by flying columns, and the guerillas dealt with by a French service of “contre-guerilla,” who fought with much the same savagery as their foes. Directly the French troops had passed, Republican bands sprang up, and the non-combatant Mexicans, to save themselves, could only profess neutrality. Yet on the 3rd of October 1865, Maximilian, misled by a false report that Juarez had left the country, issued a decree declaring the Juarists guerillas, who, whenever captured, were to be tried by court-martial and shot. Mexican generals on both sides had done as much. But Maximilian’s decree prepared his own fate.
The American Civil War ended in the spring of 1865, and a strong popular feeling was at once manifested in favour of asserting the Monroe doctrine against Maximilian’s government. In the summer there were threatening movements of United States troops towards the Rio Grande; early in 1866Maximilian deserted by France. Napoleon III. announced his intention of withdrawing his forces; in response to a note of Seward, the United States secretary of state, of the 12th of February 1866, he was induced to promise their return by three instalments—in November 1866, March and November 1867. Maximilian now turned for support to the Mexican clericals; meditated abdication, but was dissuaded by his wife Charlotte, the daughter of Leopold I. of Belgium (and “the better man of the two,” as he had once jestingly said), who went to intercede for him with the emperor of the French. Finding him obdurate, she went on to appeal to the pope; while at Rome she went mad (end of September 1866).
Maximilian had meanwhile drawn nearer to the clericals and farther from the French, and, to protect French interests, Napoleon III. had decided to send out General Castelnau to supersede Bazaine, arrange for the withdrawal of the French forces in one body, and restore the Republic under Ortega, who had quarrelled with Juarez, and was therefore, of all republicans, least unacceptable to the clericals. But fearing the prospect, they induced Maximilian, who had retired to Orizaba for his health, to remain. He yielded on condition that a congress of all parties should be summoned to decide the fate of the empire. Hereupon he returned to the capital; the Juarist dominion extended rapidly; the French troops left (in one body) on the 5th of February 1867, and shortly after Maximilian took command of the army at Querétaro. Here, with Miramon, he was besieged by the Juarists under Escobedo, and the garrison, when about to make a last attempt to break out, was betrayed by Colonel Lopez to the besiegers (May 15, 1867).Execution of Maximilian, 1867. Maximilian, with the Mexican generals Miramon and Mejia, was tried by court-martial, and, refusing (or neglecting) to avail himself of various opportunities of escape, was convicted on charges which may be summarized as rebellion, murder and brigandage, on the 14th of June, and shot, with Miramon and Mejia, on the 19th of June 1867, despite many protests from European governments and prominent individuals, including Garibaldi and Victor Hugo. (An effort to save him made by the U.S. Government was frustrated by the dilatoriness of the U.S. Minister accredited to Juarez’s Government.) After considerable difficulty with the Republican Government, his body was brought to Europe.
Meanwhile Porfirio Diaz had captured Puebla (April 2) and besieged Mexico City, which fell on the 21st of June. The last anti-Juarist stronghold (Inayarit) submitted on the 20th of July 1867. A good deal of discontent existed among the republican rank and file, and Juarez’s election in October to the presidency was opposed by Diaz’s Juarez President. friends, but without success. But so soon as Juarez was elected, insurrections broke out, and brigandage prevailed throughout the following year. There were unsuccessful insurrections also in 1869 (clerical) and 1870 (republican), but an amnesty, passed on the 13th of October 1870, helped to restore peace; trouble again arose, however, at the 1871 election, at which the candidates were Juarez, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada and Diaz. Juarez’s continued re-election was regarded as unconstitutional, and no party obtaining a clear majority, the matter was thrown into Congress, which elected him. Diaz’s supporters refused to recognize him, and a revolution broke out, which went on sporadically till Juarez’s death on the 18th, of JulyDeath of Juarez, 1872. 1872. Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, as president of the Supreme Court, succeeded him, and amnestied the rebels, but made no further concessions. In the next year, however, laws were passed repeating in a stronger form the attacks of 1857 on the supremacy of the Church, and prohibiting monastic life. The first day of 1873 was marked by the opening of the Vera Cruz & Mexico railway. Protestant missions established themselves (with some opposition) in the country, and diplomatic relations wereAdministra-tion of Lerdo de Tejada. renewed with France and Spain (1874). But towards the close of Lerdo de Tejada’s term he was suspected of aiming at a dictatorship, and Diaz, whom he had proscribed, made preparations for a rising, then retiring to Texas. At the beginning of 1876 the revolution broke out in Oaxaca with the plan of Tuxtepec, which was adopted by Diaz, and proclaimed as the plan of Palo Blanco (March 21). Diaz’s attempt to raise the north, however, failed, and, trying to reach Vera Cruz by sea, he was recognized on the steamer, and recaptured while attempting a four-mile swim ashore. The purser, however, made it appear that he had again jumped overboard, concealed him for some days—generally inside one of the saloon sofas—and helped him to get ashore in disguise at Vera Cruz. He then escaped to Oaxaca and raised a force. Lerdo was declared re-elected, but was overthrown by Diaz after the battle of Tecoac (Nov. 16, 1876) and forced into exile (Jan. 1877), andPorfirio Diaz President, 1877. Diaz was declared, president on the 2nd of May 1877. A law forbidding the re-election of a president till four years had elapsed from his retirement from office was passed in the autumn of that year.
Diaz’s first presidency (1870–1880) was marked by some unsuccessful attempts at revolution notably by Escobedo from Texas in 1878, and by a more serious conspiracy in 1879. Diplomatic relations were resumed with Spain, Germany, Italy and some South American states (1877), and France (1880). There were some frontier difficulties with the United States, and with Guatemala, which revived a claim dropped since 1858 to a portion of the state of Chiapas; and there was considerable internal progress, aided by a too liberal policy of subsidies to railways and even to lines of steamships. The boundary questions were settled under President Gonzalez (1880–1884); relations with Great Britain were renewed in 1884. The claims of the railways, however, necessitated retrenchment on official salaries, and the president’s plan for conversion of the debt roused unexpected and successful opposition in an ordinarily subservient Congress. At the end of 1884 Porfirio Diaz was again elected president, and was continually re-elected, the constitution being modified expressly to allow him to continue in office.
The history of Mexico from 1884 to 1910 was almost void of political strife. President Diaz’s policy was to keep down disorder with a strong hand; to enforce the law; to foster railway development and economic progress, to develop native manufactures by protective tariffs; to introduce new industries, e.g. the production of silk and Mexico under Diaz. wine, of coca and quinine; to promote forestry; to improve elementary and higher education—for all which purposes the Ministerio del Fomento is a potent engine; to encourage colonization; and, above all, to place the national credit on a sound basis. The first step in this process was a settlement of the British debt by direct arrangement with the bond-holders. In 1890 the Spanish bondholders’ claims Financial reorganiza-tion. were satisfactorily arranged also. In 1891 the tariff was made more protectionist. In 1893 the depreciation of silver necessitated stringent retrenchment; but the budget balanced for the first time during many years, the floating debt was converted, and a loan raised for the completion of the Tehuantepec Railway. After 1896 substantial annual surpluses were spent in reducing taxation and in the extinction of debt. In 1895 the 6% external debt was converted into a 5% debt, the bonds of which remained at a premium for 1902; in 1896 the alcabalas or interstate customs and municipal octrois were abolished, and replaced in part by direct taxation and increased stamp duties.
The institution by Diaz of the guardias rurales, a mounted gendarmerie composed of the class who in former days drifted into revolution and brigandage, was a. potent means of maintaining order, and the extension of railways and telegraphs enabled the government to cope atPacification of the Country. once with any disturbance. The old local revolutions practically disappeared. In 1886–1887 there were some disturbances in Coahuila, New Leon, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas; subsequently hardly anything was heard of such disorders except on the Texan frontier, where in 1890 Francisco Ruiz Sandoval and in 1891 Catarino Garza made incursions into Mexico. Occasionally the Church gave trouble—the presence of foreign priests was complained of; attempts to evade the law prohibiting conventual life were detected and foiled (1891, 1894); and there were Indian risings, repressed sometimes with great severity, among the Mayas of Yucatán, whose last stronghold was taken in 1891, and the Yaquis of Sonora (1899–1900). Under federal and democratic forms, Diaz exercised a strictly centralized and personal rule. He was invited to approve the candidates proposed for state governorships; in all law cases affecting the Government or political matters the judges asked his opinion; he drafted bills, and discussed their text with individual members and committees of congress. Similarly, the state legislatures, as well as the judges and municipal officers, were actually or virtually selected by the state governors, who were practically agents of the president. Now and then the old passions broke out: in September 1898 an absurd attempt to assassinate President Diaz was made by a countryman named Arroyo, but discontent with Diaz’s rule was apparently confined to a small minority. In 1909 indeed there were some disquieting symptoms. Owing to Diaz’s age the vice-presidency had been revived in 1904, and Don Ramon Corral elected to it; but at the elections of 1909 a movement arose in favour of replacing him by General Bernardo Reyes, Governor of Nuevo Leon, but he was disposed of by an official commission to study the military systems of Europe. It was, therefore, regarded as certain that, should President Diaz die in office, Señor Corral would succeed him without serious difficulty.
In foreign affairs the rule of Diaz was uneventful. There were transient disputes with the United States (1886, 1888). In 1888–1890 and 1894–1895 a boundary dispute with Guatemala became serious. But Guatemala gave way at the threat of war (Jan. 1895) and a new treaty was made (April 1, 1895). Again in 1907 there was some Foreign Affairs. friction owing to the murder of a Guatemalan ex-president by a compatriot in Mexico: later in the year, however, the Mexican government was active in stopping a war between its Central American neighbours. In the difficulty between England and the United States over the Venezuelan boundary (Dec. 1895) Mexico expressed strong adherence to the Monroe doctrine in the abstract, and suggested that its maintenance should not be left wholly to the United States, but should be undertaken by all American Powers. The first Pan-American congress met in Mexico City in 1901, and the country was represented at the second, held in Rio Janeiro in 1906. Mexico also took part in establishing the permanent Central American Court of Arbitration, inaugurated on the 25th of May 1908 at Cartago, Costa Rica, under the Washington treaties of December 1907, and showed readiness to associate herself with the Government of her great northern neighbour in preserving peace among the Central American States. On the 17th of October 1909 President Taft and President Diaz exchanged visits at the frontier at El Paso, Texas.
In brief, under President Diaz’s rule the history of Mexico is mainly economic. In the six financial years 1893–1894 to 1899–1900 inclusive the yield of the import duties increased by upwards of 80%; the revenue from stamps over 60%, though the duties were reduced;Economic Progress. the postal revenue from 1895–1896 to 1899–1900 rose 60%; the telegraph revenue over 75%. Again, in 1898–1899 the total ordinary revenue of the state was £6,013,921; in 1906–1907 it had increased to £11,428,612, or by more than 90%, and though 1907–1908 was a year of depression its total revenue (£11,177,186) exceeded that of any year save its immediate predecessor. The great drainage scheme which completed the works of the 17th century by taking out the surplus waters of the southern lakes of the valley of Mexico was devised in 1856, begun under Maximilian, proceeded with intermittently till 1885, then taken up with improved plans, practically completed by 1896, and inaugurated in 1900; the harbour of Vera Cruz was finished in 1902; the Tehuantepec railway, likely to prove a formidable rival to any interoceanic canal, was opened on the 24th of January 1906. All three were the work of an English firm of contractors, the head of which was Sir Weetman Pearson. American, and later Canadian, capital and enterprise have also been very largely concerned in the development of the country; and its progress was not permanently interfered with by the great earthquakes of April 1907 and July 1909 at Acapulco, and the floods in August 1909 at Monterey. In 1891 elementary education was reorganized, and made compulsory, secular and gratuitous. Great attention has been paid to higher education, and—at least in the hospitals—to modern sanitation and hygiene.
Authorities.—For English readers the standard work is H. H. Bancroft, Collected Works (Histories of the Pacific States, Central America, &c., vols. x.–xiv. (Mexico, 1521–1887) with vols. xv., xvi. ​(Texas), and vol. xvii. (New Mexico, &c.). Mention may also be made of Gaston Routier’s Histoire de Mexique (1895). Standard Mexican authorities are: C. M. de Bustamante, Quadro historico de la revolution mexicana, 6 vols. (Mexico, 1832–1846); Lucas Alaman, Historia de Mexico (Mexico, 1849–1852); N. de Zamacois, Historia de Mexico desde sus tiempos mas remotos hasta nostras dias, 19 vols. (Barcelona, 1876–1882); J. E. Hernandez y Davalos, Coleccion de documentos para la historia de la Independencia (Mexico, 6 vols). A huge and informative illustrated work, edited by Justo Sierra (3 vols. large 4to), sumptuously produced and badly translated, is Mexico, its Social Evolution (Barcelona, 1900–1904); a useful and handy chronicle is Nicolas Leon’s Compendio de la historia general de Mexico hasta el año de 1900 (Mexico and Madrid, 1902). For the colonial period, Alexander v. Humboldt, Essai politique sur la royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (Paris, 1811, 2 vols., and atlas; also an English translation). For the war with the United States see R. S. Ripley, The War with Mexico (New York, 1849); E. D. Mansfield, The Mexican War (New York, 1849); and Winfield Scott’s Memoirs. For Maximilian, the Blue-books on Mexican affairs contained in Accounts and Papers (presented to parliament), vol. lxv. 1862, and vol. lxiv. 1863, are valuable; E. de Kératry, La Créance Jecker; l’empereur Maximilien, son élévation et sa chute (translated into English by Venables); La Contre-guerilla française au Mexique, are specially noteworthy; Prince Felix Salm-Salm’s Diary gives valuable information as to Maximilian’s decline and fall. Also Dela Gorce, Histoire du second empire, vols. iv. v.; J. F. Domenech, L’Empire mexicain (Mexico, 1866), and Le Mexique tel qu’il est (Paris, 1867); Daran, El General Miguel Miramon (in French) (Rome, 1886); Schmidt von Tavera, Gesch. d. Regierung d. Kaisers Maximilian I. (Vienna, 1903). Ulick Ralph Burke’s Life of Benito Juarez (London, 1894) is of considerable value and interest. For the period since 1887 information in English must be sought chiefly in magazine articles: Matias Romero, “The Garza Raid and its Lessons,” North American Review (Sept. 1892); Don Agustin Iturbide, “Mexico under Diaz,” ibid. (June 1894); Romero, “The Philosophy of Mexican Revolutions,” ibid. (Jan. 1896); and C. F. Lummis, “The Awakening of a Nation” (New York, 1898, previously in Harper’s Magazine), are valuable as giving information (especially the last named) and points of view. Van Dyke, “Politics in Mexico,” Harper’s Magazine (1885), vol. lxxi., gives particulars of the opposition to Gonzalez’s debt conversion scheme of 1884. President Diaz’s message of November 1896, giving an account of his stewardship from 1884 to that year, has been translated into French (Rapport du Général Porfirio Diaz . . . à ses compatriot es sur les actes de son administration, &c.), edited by Auguste Génin (Paris, 1897). The early constitutions of the Republic have been published (in Spanish) in three volumes; a study of that of 1857 by B. Moses (of the University of California) is in the Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, 11. i. 1891. Various books, chiefly American, have been written on Mexico of late years from a tourist’s standpoint. Mrs Alec Tweedie’s Mexico as I saw it (London, 1901) and Life of Porfirio Diaz (1906) contain valuable information personally obtained from good authorities in Mexico. See also Percy F. Martin, Mexico of the Twentieth Century, 2 vols. (London, 1907); and C. R. Enock, Mexico (1909). (J. S. Ma.)
* ↑ See J. G. Aguilera, Sinopsis de geologia mexicana; “Bosquejo geológico de México,” segunda parte, Bol. inst. geol., Mexico, Nos. 4–6 (1897), pp. 189-270, with map—a summary of this paper will be found in Science Progress, new series (1897), vol. i. pp. 609–615. See also the Livret-guide of the Tenth Cong. Géol. Internat. (1906).
* ↑ In this, as in all other Aztec names, the x (or j) represents the English sound sh; hence Mexitli and Mexico should be properly pronounced Meshitli, Meshico. But they do not appear to have ever been so pronounced by the Spaniards, who naturally gave to the x its ordinary Spanish sound of the German ch.
* ↑ One of the most important sources for the ancient Mexican traditions and myths is the so-called “Codex Chlmalpopoca,” a manuscript in the Mexican language discovered by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. It is the interpretation of different mythological and historical Mexican picture-writings, composed by an anonymous author some time after the conquest and copied by Fernando de Alva (Ixtlilxochitl, 1568–1648). It belonged to the priceless collection of Mexican documents brought together in the 18th century by Lorenzo Boturini (see his “Catálogo del Museo historic indiano,” appendix of his Idea de una nueva historia general de la America septentrional, Madrid, 1746, § viii., No. 13). It is named there Historia de los reynos de Colhuacan y de Mexico. Other copies of the same manuscript, made by Leon y Gama, José Pichardo, Aubin and Brasseur, exist in the Paris National Library in the Aubin-Goupil collection. Brasseur died before he could realize his plan to publish the whole MS. in Nahuatl with a translation. Some extracts are to be found in his Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique, and in Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras . . ., ed. Bustamente (Mexico, 1832). Larger fragments of the Ixtlilxochitl copy were published in the Anales del museo nacional de Mexico, tom. iii., appx. pp. 7–70; but in this edition the Mexican text is very corrupt, and the two Spanish translations are by no means exact. The Paris MSS. and the Ixtlilxochitl copy were carefully collated by Dr Walter Lehmann (see Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1906, pp. 752–760; Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris, nouv. sér. vol. iii. No. 2; Dr E. Seler, Verhandlungen des XVI. Internationalen Amerikanisten-Kongresses, Vienna, 1909, II., pp. 129–150). The precious Ixtlilxochitl copy was found by Lehmann in the library of the National Museum of Mexico, and arrangements were made for the publication of the whole MS. by him in conjunction with Professor E. Seler. Another very important MS. was discovered by Dr Lehmann, in Guatemala. It is the MS. of Father Francisco Ximenez, Historia de la Provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y de Guatemala, in three big volumes in folio, which contain the famous Spanish translation of the Quiché myths or the “Popol-Vuh.” The MS. was bought at the expense of the duke of Loubat, who decided to present it, after the death of Dr Lehmann, to the Royal Library at Berlin.
* ↑ Santa Anna tried to get back to politics in Mexico after Maximilian’s fall, without success. He was amnestied with other exiles in 1874, and died in obscurity in 1876.
* ↑ Diaz refused parole, and was confined at Puebla for some months, but made his escape, and was soon in the field again.
* ↑ Lopez said he acted as Maximilian’s agent, but his story rested on an alleged letter from Maximilian which was discredited as a forgery. The evidence of his treason was published in El Nacional of Mexico, Sept. 11, 1887.
* ↑ Don Augustin Iturbide, grandson of the emperor, godson and (perhaps) at one time the destined heir of Maximilian, was turned out of the army and imprisoned in 1890 for abusing President Diaz.
* ↑ For a full account of the works see J. B. Body in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, cxliii. 286, sqq.