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Mexico

Heir of New Spain — an empire, then a federal republic, halved by war in 1848.

Continues to the present within the boundaries of 1853.

See it on the interactive map →

Borders over time

The atlas holds 5 border frames for Mexico — the shape you scrub through changes in 1824 · 1836 · 1848 · 1853 · 1920.

Moments from the Chronicle

• 1833 Missions secularized; valley malaria Mexico secularizes the 21 missions — the land goes to rancheros, not survivors; malaria kills tens of thousands in the Central Valley.
• 1846 Oregon — and war with Mexico The Oregon Treaty reaches the Pacific at 49°; the Mexican-American War begins.
• 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexico cedes the Southwest; gold is found at Sutter's Mill; France abolishes slavery in the Antilles.
• 1912 The lower 48 complete New Mexico and Arizona statehood finish the contiguous map.
• 1994 NAFTA Canada, the US and Mexico bind their economies, 1 January.

Further reading

• The Course of Mexican History Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman, and Susan M. Deeds · 2017 (11th ed.)

  The standard one-volume survey of Mexican history from pre-conquest through the present, ideal for the full 1821-2026 sweep of this entry.

• The Mexican Revolution (2 vols.) Alan Knight · 1986

  The definitive scholarly account of the 1910-20 Revolution referenced in the 1853-1919 frame, by the leading historian of the subject.

• A New Time for Mexico Carlos Fuentes · 1996

  A leading novelist-intellectual's essayistic reflection on modern Mexico's politics and identity, useful for the 20th-century portion of the entry.

• The Mexican War, 1846-1848 K. Jack Bauer · 1974

  A thorough military and diplomatic history of the war that produced the 1848 cession central to this polity's territorial story.

• The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660-1720 R. Douglas Cope · 1994

  Background on the New Spain society Mexico inherited; flag: this covers the colonial precursor rather than the post-1821 republic, so it is context rather than a core title.

• Pedro Páramo Juan Rulfo · 1955 · fiction

  A ghost town of the revolution — the short novel that reshaped Latin American fiction.

• The Underdogs Mariano Azuela · 1915 · fiction

  The Mexican Revolution from inside a rebel band.

Sources

• Mexico — Wikipedia