Venice-like waterways, immense market, flowers and gardens, gold and silver ornaments, feather work, cotton, precious stones, strange food and medicinal plants excited the wonder and admiration of Cortés and his soldiers. Equally wondrous to the Indians were the horses and firearms of the Spaniards.

SPANISH COLONIAL RULE (1521-1810)

By 1535 the conquest was complete and the Spanish Crown established a Viceroyalty of New Spain with the seat of government in the City of Mexico, built on the ruins of the Aztec capital. With centralized authority and unity of Church and State, the line of royal command touched every phase of colonial life. Exploration and colonization proceeded with zeal as some of the ablest men in the realm of Charles V set about their work of Christianizing the Indians and exploiting the wealth of the land. During the course of three centuries the viceroys built up a feudal system of society, developed mines and agriculture, established a thriving trade with Spain, extended the frontier northward and westward from Louisiana to California, built thousands of churches, founded schools, and encouraged the arts. Many of the colonial cities and mining towns are important today, for as political centers they became the provincial capitals around which States were organized when independence was won.

American-born Spaniards as well as Indians came to have many grievances under the viceregal government. Only Spaniards born in Spain could hold office, industries competing with those in Spain were discouraged, goods sent to and from New Spain could be carried only by Spanish ships, taxes were burdensome, laborers in the mines and on the large haciendas and construction works were in virtual bondage. By the early part of the 19th century the protests against these abuses had grown to open revolt. The Grito de Dolores, a stirring appeal of Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, priest of the village of Dolores in Guanajuato, touched off the armed revolution on September 16, 1810, a date since celebrated as national Independence Day.

NATIONAL FORMATION (1810-1910)

The struggle was to last 11 years. Hidalgo and Morelos, another priest who joined the movement, were executed by the royalists, but guerrilla attacks continued until 1821, when Agustín de Iturbide, appointed by the Viceroy to quell the uprising, joined forces with the revolutionists and proclaimed the independence of Mexico. This, however, was no real victory for the revolutionary leaders, since Iturbide in the role of emperor continued the traditional rule of vested interestslanded aristocracy, upper clergy, and monarchial Spaniards. Iturbide's

empire lasted less than a year and by 1824 the Congress had adopted a constitution defining the government as a representative, popular, federal republic. The flag of the Republic was also adopted with three vertical stripes of equal width: green for unity, white for religion, red for independence. England and the United States recognized the new country, and its first president, having abolished titles of nobility and freed the slaves, initiated measures designed to develop a democratic society.

Political independence was a milestone in Mexico's history, but efforts to create a new social and economic order met with many discouraging reversals. The long colonial rule had in no way prepared the people to govern themselves. Conservatives struggled to maintain a centralized authority while liberals advanced such ideas as separation of Church and State, abolition of fueros (legal privileges of the clergy and military) and of special taxes to support ecclesiastical institutions, conversion of large landholdings into small individual properties, reorganization of courts, State's rights, freedom of the press, universal suffrage, and many other far-reaching reforms. Confusion, banditry, economic depression, revolution, and general instability were the conditions under which governments rose and fell throughout the next half century. During the presidency of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, whose disastrous influence extended over 3 decades, Texas declared its independence from Mexico and later was annexed to the United States. This loss was followed by a bitter war with the United States, ending with the further concession of all the country's northwest territory from the Río Grande to Oregon.

In 1857 a new Reform Constitution was adopted and Benito Juárez, a Zapotec Indian respected for his integrity and democratic principles, acted decisively to reduce the temporal power of the Church and to guarantee individual liberties. The United States supported the Juárez Government, but England, France, and Spain sent an allied expedition to Mexico to protect their interests. England and Spain withdrew. however, when they learned of France's intention of placing the Archduke of Austria on the Mexican throne. The Mexicans resisted this effort of Napoleon III to reestablish a French colonial empire in the New World and their victory at Puebla on May 5, 1862, is one of the glories in Mexican annals. The French nevertheless occupied the capital, and the ill-fated empire of Maximilian and Carlota lasted until May 1867.

Juárez, having withdrawn to Querétaro and other cities to the north, was able to establish headquarters in El Paso del Norte, now Cuidad Juárez, and continue the resistance by sporadic guerrilla attacks. When, upon demand of the United States, French troops were withdrawn, Maximilian was left without resources. He was executed by a firing squad in Querétaro and Juárez returned to the capital to reconstruct the

Reform Government. The idea of a monarchy had at last been abandoned and Mexicans now worked with renewed hope and a nascent sense of national consciousness toward their political goal-United Mexican States governed by Mexicans under the Reform Laws and the Constitution of 1857. But the country was impoverished and the people were used to violence and disorder, so after the untimely death of Juárez in 1872 another 40 years were to pass before the task of freeing the Mexican masses was taken up again.

General Porfirio Díaz, a hero of the war against the French, was proclaimed provisional president in 1876—a turn of affairs that profoundly affected both internal development and foreign relations. Except for one interval (1880-1884), Díaz occupied the presidency continuously from that date to 1911. Under a banner of Peace, Order, and Progress, Díaz concentrated on economic growth and political reconciliation. He encouraged and protected foreign investments, reestablished credit, stabilized currency, paid foreign debts, opened banks, resumed mine production, surveyed agricultural resources, organized new industries, built railroads, drained the valley of Mexico, erected magnificent buildings, beautified the capital, provided free schools, and, in general, created an era of prosperity for the privileged classes. By means of a mounted rural police force, life and property were rendered as safe as in any other civilized country of that day.

SOCIAL REVOLUTION (1910 TO PRESENT)

The era of enforced peace, however, had not improved the lot of the Indians and working classes. Forty million acres of agricultural land were owned by 29 individuals and corporations, and while fabulous profits were accumulated by proprietors or sent out of the country, the landless peasants worked at wages so low that their debts bound them to their employers. Indian villages had been uprooted by the sale of communal lands, thousands of the natives had been killed or jailed, many workers were injured through lack of safety provisions in the mines and other hazardous enterprises, roads were few and poor, schools were wholly inadequate, child labor was common, living conditions were miserable. Thus a hundred years after independence the time ripened for revolution. The Díaz dictatorship was overthrown and in 1911 Francisco I. Madero was elected President on a platform of political reform.

Madero, an idealistic and sincere patriot, was assassinated before he could stabilize his government. Age-old resentments flared, fighting broke out in several parts of the country at once, the guerrilla chiefs Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata incited the people with the battle cry of "Land and Liberty," and a succession of presidents served short terms as the revolutionary leaders attempted unsuccessfully to con

solidate their gains. The Revolution of 1910, at first a blind groping toward human rights and material betterment, differed from previous revolts in that the current of ideas moved away from the past and took shape as a social movement which continues to motivate the national life. A new constitution, based on the unfulfilled reform Constitution of 1857, was promulgated on February 5, 1917, and this document, amended at intervals since, has endured as the basis of the Mexican Government. The Constitution of 1917 incorporates many of the ideals of the French and American revolutions and provides for advanced social reforms. It is not so much a code susceptible of immediate fulfillment as an expression of long-range purpose. Succeeding presidents-Obregón, Calles, Cárdenas, Alemán, Cortines, to mention some of the outstanding figureshave carried out the constitutional provisions more and more fully.

Government

The President, as chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces, exercises broad constitutional powers. He is elected by direct popular vote, serves for 6 years, and may not seek a second term. A cabinet composed of 13 departmental secretaries, 2 directors of Federal agencies, and the Attorney General, is appointed by the President and responsible to him. The Secretary of Gobernación (Interior), in addition to administering his department, serves as liaison between the Federal and State governments and is in effect the deputy President for domestic affairs. There is no office of vice president.

The Congress is composed of 60 Senators, 2 from each State and the Federal District, elected for 6 years, and a Chamber of Deputies whose 162 members are elected for 3 years on the basis of population, 1 for each 170,000. The Congress is in session from September 1 to December 31 and functions during the recess through a permanent committee of 29 members chosen by the two Houses. Judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court of 21 members who have permanent tenure and who appoint the judges of the lower Federal courts for limited terms. The legal system follows Hispano-Roman traditions. Mexican civil law is unique in the legal remedy known as amparo, by which any person whose constitutional rights have been infringed may claim immediate access to the courts and full reparation.

The State Governments are similar in structure to the National Government. The Constitution of 1917 determines their organization and grants to the Federal Government certain powers of intervention in the States. State governors and legislators are elected by direct popular vote; the governors of the two Territories and the chief of the Federal District are appointed by the President. Although represented in Congress, the Territories and Federal District are dependent on the Federal

Government for their administration. Following the Revolutionary slogan "Effective suffrage, no re-election," Federal officials and State governors are ineligible for second terms and municipal officials may not serve consecutive terms. A constitutional amendment granting women full suffrage became effective in 1953.

Local government is carried on by a municipal council of citizens elected by popular vote for 2-year terms. The chief authority in local affairs is the Municipal President, sometimes elected and sometimes appointed by the council from among its members. The municipalities are both rural and urban and range in size from Mexico City, with 21⁄2 million people, to places with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. Theoretically the municipal and State Governments have a large measure of autonomy, but in practice the Federal Government is the dominant political force.

Political parties in Mexico before the Revolution were transitory, forming generally about military leaders, but since the Revolution a one-party system has prevailed. The official party, Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR) was created in 1929 by President Plutarco Elías Calles with its membership made up largely of important army chiefs. President Lázaro Cárdenas added to its membership with trade union and agrarian delegates and reorganized it under the name of Partido Revolucionario Mexicano (PRM), using the slogan "Democracy for Workers." With further broadening to include individual members and lower middleclass participation, President Manuel Ávila Camacho reorganized the party once more under the name of Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) with the motto of "Democracy and Social Justice." In 1950 a long set of party principles was issued with an open invitation to membership to all citizens who aspire to realize the program of the Mexican Revolution, within the bounds of the Constitution, for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the nation.

Recent administrations have been stimulating civic consciousness, taking measures to ensure free and peaceful elections, and opening the way for the development of an opposition party. In the 1952 presidential elections more than 4 million people voted and, although PRI polled 85 percent of the total, there was a small vote cast for candidates of four other parties. Over 2,600,000 new women voters registered for the 1955 election of Deputies. The strength of PRI is explained by its ability to resolve internal differences through compromise and to show satisfactory gains toward social and economic betterment.

Geographical Factors

Scarcely a third of Mexico's surface can be classed as level, and half the land is deficient in moisture throughout the year. The water supply of