History of Mexico City

thumb|alt=Atop a nopal pedestal, a Mexican golden eagle devouring a rattle snake supported by oak and laurel leaves|The symbol of the founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the central image on the [[Flag of Mexico|Mexican flag since Mexican independence from Spain in 1821.]]

The history of Mexico City stretches back to its founding ca. 1325 C.E as the Mexica city-state of Tenochtitlan, which evolved into the senior partner of the Aztec Triple Alliance that dominated central Mexico immediately prior to the Spanish conquest of 1519–1521. At its height, Tenochtitlan had enormous temples and palaces, a huge ceremonial center, and residences of political, religious, military, and merchants. Its population was estimated at least 100,000 and perhaps as high as 200,000 in 1519 when the Spaniards first saw it. During the final stage of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish forces and their indigenous allies besieged and razed Tenochtitlan. Because it was strategically and politically important, invader Hernán Cortés founded the Spanish colonial capital of Mexico City on its ruins, becoming the center of Spanish colonial power. Following Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico City became the capital of the sovereign nation, remaining its largest and most important city to the present day.

thumb|500px|A panoramic view of the [[Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución), Mexico City, the city's symbolic center since the Aztecs. Looking east to the Palacio Nacional. The Metropolitan Cathedral is on the left, the old city hall to the right.]]

Beginning in 1521, the Aztec ceremonial and political center was rebuilt as the city's main square, the Plaza Mayor, usually called the Zócalo. Some of the oldest structures in Mexico City date from the early conquest era. Many colonial-era buildings remain standing and have been re-purposed as government buildings and museums. As the seats of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Archbishopric of New Spain, Mexico City was the center not only of political and religious institutions but also of Mexico's economic activity and the residence of Spanish colonial elites (1521–1821). Great merchant houses linked to Spain were located here, and the economic elites whose properties were often elsewhere in New Spain also lived in the capital. The concentration of mansions and palaces in what is now the Mexico City historic center led it to be nicknamed the "City of Palaces", a sobriquet often attributed, perhaps erroneously, to great savant Alexander von Humboldt.

It was also a major educational center: the University of Mexico was founded in 1553 as part of the complex of the Plaza Mayor but is now located in the south of the capital. Many religious institutions for the education of the sons of Spanish elites were also based in the capital. Mexico City had the colony's largest concentration of those of Spanish heritage (both Iberian-born peninsulares and American-born criollos), as well as the largest concentration of mixed race casta population in the colony. Many indigenous people also lived in the capital, outside the central core, concentrated in their own section and governed by an indigenous town council.

Post-independence, U.S. forces captured Mexico City during the Mexican–American War, and the city saw violence during the Reform War and the French Intervention as well as the Mexican Revolution. The city's history in the 20th and 21st centuries has been marked by explosive population growth and its accompanying problems. The government has had problems keeping up with basic services, but the building of the Mexico City Metro has alleviated some major transportation problems. Smog became a serious problem as the shanty towns evolved, formed by the poor of the country migrating to the city. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake caused significant damage to the center of the city. In the 2000s, businessman and philanthropist Carlos Slim created a foundation to revitalize the historic center as well as sites near the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe. In 2016, the Mexican government initiated the process of greater autonomy from the federal government, creating the Ciudad de México or CDMX.

The Aztec city-state of Tenochtitlan

Founding

thumb|alt=People surround a Mexican golden eagle devouring a rattle snake atop a nopal cactus|The founding of Tenochtitlan shown in [[Codex Mendoza, an early 16th-century manuscript on the history of the Aztecs and their empire.]]

thumb|The foundation of Pre-Columbian [[Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Codex Durán, 1579.]]

The Aztecs were one of the last of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples who migrated to this part of the Valley of Mexico after the fall of the Toltec Empire. Existing inhabitants resisted their presence, but the Aztecs established a city on a small island on the western side of Lake Texcoco. The Aztecs themselves had a story about how their city was founded after their principal god, Huitzilopochtli, led them to the island. According to the story, the god indicated their new home with a sign, an eagle perched on a nopal cactus with a snake in its beak.

This image appears in Codex Mendoza, one early post-conquest manuscript of many Aztec codices or pictorial texts, and since Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821, the image is in the center of the Mexican flag. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states or altepetl around Lake Texcoco and in the Valley of Mexico. When the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire reached much of Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

After the fall of the Toltec capital of Tollan, large migrations of people moved into the Valley of Mexico, bringing with them the concept of city-state known in Nahuatl as altepetl. This led to the founding of a number of semi-autonomous urban centers around Lake Texcoco each claiming legitimacy as descendants of the Toltecs. By the early 16th century, at least a dozen of these city-states had reached 10,000 in population with Tenochtitlan by far the largest at 150,000 and perhaps as high as 200,000.

The Mexica who founded Tenochtitlan were part of the last wave of migration of Nahuatl-speaking peoples into the valley. Their presence was resisted; however, taking advantage of the nearly constant conflict among the city-states along the lake shores, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan and their allies since 1430 of Texcoco and Tlacopan conquered the Valley of Mexico, exacting tribute from the same powers that resisted their migration in the first place.

The island that the city was founded on was divided into four calpullis or neighborhoods that were divided by the main north–south roads leading to Tepeyac and Iztapalapa respectively and the west–east road that lead to Tacuba and to a dike into the lake, respectively. The calpullis were named Cuepopan, Atzacualco, Moyotla and Zoquipan, which had subdivisions and a "tecpan" or district council for each one. The intersection of these roads was the center of the city and of the Aztec world. Here were the main temple, the palaces of the tlatoani or emperors, palaces of nobles such as the "House of the Demons" and the "House of the Flowers". Also located here were the two most renowned Aztec schools: the Telpuchcalli for secular studies and the Calmecac for priestly training.

Spanish conquest and reconstruction of city

Conquest of Tenochtitlan

thumb|The route that Cortes took to Tenochtitlan

thumb|The oldest European map of [[Tenochtitlan, 1524. [late version: hand-coloured]. Excerpt from the letter of Hernán Cortés “Plaeclara Ferdinandi Cortéssi de Nova maris Oceani Hyspania Narratio”. Newberry Library, Chicago; Nüremberg.]]

After landing near the modern-day city of Veracruz, Hernán Cortés heard about the great city and also learned of long-standing rivalries and grievances against it. Although Cortés came to Mexico with a very small contingent of Spaniards, he was able to persuade many of the other native peoples to help him destroy Tenochtitlan.

Cortés first saw Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519. The Spaniards marched along the causeway leading into the city from Iztapalapa. The towers, temples and canoes filled with crowds who gathered to look at the strange men and their horses. Moctezuma came out from the center of Tenochtitlan onto the causeway to greet them. The two processions met at the entrance to the city. Moctezuma was in a litter draped with fine cotton mantles and borne on the shoulders of a number of lords. He emerged from the litter and the two leaders exchanged gifts. The Aztecs led the Spaniards into the heart of the city where Moctezuma gave them with more gifts and then quartered them in lavish apartments. However, Aztec accounts of the first meeting indicate that Moctezuma was too deferent and generous to the newcomers. To add to Cortés' troubles, the Spanish governor of Cuba sent an arrest party for Cortés, as his orders were not to conquer but simply to trade. This forced Cortés to leave Tenochtitlan in the hands of Pedro de Alvarado as he went to Veracruz to confront this party.

thumb|Storming of the [[Templo Mayor|Teocalli by Cortez and his Troops (1848) by Emanuel Leutze.]]

While Cortés was gone, Alvarado imprisoned two important Aztec leaders and killed several others. Tensions exploded when Alvarado ordered a massacre during the spring festival of Huizilopochtli. When Cortés returned in June 1520 the situation was dire. Communications and entrances to the city were cut off. The Spanish outside the city had no food supplies and a severe shortage of drinking water. Cortés had Moctezuma try to pacify his people by speaking to them from the palace, but the emperor was greeted with a storm of stones and arrows, wounding him badly. because Cortés supposedly wept here after his defeat. At least 600 of the Spanish were killed (some estimates state over 1,000), many weighed down by the gold they were carrying; several thousand Tlaxcalans were probably lost, too.

thumb|Model depicting the first lake battle between the Spanish and the Aztecs

At Tlaxcala, Cortés pacified his indigenous allies and rebuilt his military force. The Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone. They elected a new king, Cuauhtemoc. He was in his mid-20s, the son of Moctezuma's uncle, Ahuitzotl, and was an experienced leader.

After regrouping in Tlaxcala, Cortés decided to lay siege to Tenochtitlan in May 1521. For three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of disease brought by the Europeans. Finally, Cuauhtemoc had to surrender in August 1521.

According to Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, Cortés's reason was cultural.

Although the fall of Tenochtitlan was a swift and definitive occurrence, this did not imply that the Spanish domination of the entire city, or the rest of Mexico, would be a rapid process. Indigenous cooperation in the destruction of Aztec power ensured that Cortés would have to take allied interests into consideration as well. The town council (cabildo) of the city had power that extended far beyond the city's established borders, due to the existence of areas on the mainland that in the prehispanic period were subordinate to Tenochtitlan. Such was approved by Charles V in 1522, authorizing the city to step into rural affairs to "protect and benefit" indigenous people as well as the Spanish. and eventually adopted the city's secondary name "Mexico", the "place of the Mexica" or Aztecs. For a period, the city was called by the dual name Mexico-Tenochtitlan, but at some point, the capital of the viceroyalty's name was shortened to Mexico. The name "Tenochtilan" endured in one of the capital's two indigenous-ruled sections, known as San Juan Tenochtitlan.

Colonial period 1521–1821

thumb|upright=1.2|The [[National Palace (Mexico)|National Palace, Mexico City, built by Hernán Cortés and acquired by the Spanish crown to be the palace of the viceroy.]]

Growth of city

After the conquest, the Spaniards generally left the existing Nahua city-states or altepetl largely intact, but Mexico City was an exception since it became the seat of Spanish political power. It was established as a ciudad de españoles (city of Spaniards) and initially kept the remnants of its prehispanic place name, being called "Mexico-Tenochtitlan".

No longer the seat of Aztec power, the Spaniards allowed two areas to be ruled through Nahua governors (gobernadores) and town councils (cabildos), separate from the Spanish city council. San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco became the mechanism for the crown to rule through indigenous intermediaries, particularly important in the Spanish capital since it also had a significant indigenous population.

San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco were not called by the Nahuatl term for polity, altepetl, but rather "partes" or "parcialidades" of Mexico City, with their new place names having a Christian saint's name preceding the prehispanic designation, in typical colonial fashion. The structure in these two indigenous-ruled sections of the capital were on the same pattern of indigenous towns elsewhere in central Mexico. In the sixteenth century, these indigenous political structures mobilized tribute and labor rendered to the Spanish capital.

Even though prehispanic Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco was built on an island in the middle of the major lake system, they had political power over holdings on the mainland, a standard pattern of scattered rather than compact settlement and rule. These mainland holdings or estancias rendered tribute and labor in the prehispanic period; in the colonial period this pattern continued during the early colonial period, but during the later period (ca. 1650–1821), the pattern broke down and estancias were separated.

thumb|upright=1.2|Mexico City in 1690. Atlas Van der Hagen.

The city grew with buildings all near the same height and with the same terraced roofs (azoteas), with only the tower and cross of the convent of San Francisco peaking up from above it all. This profile was due to royal decree. Even the new cathedral being built had limitations as to its height. Near the end of the 16th century however, there was a proliferation of churches with bell towers, leading to a zigzag profile of the city, which was then later modified by church cupolas.

For centuries afterward, this profile remained constant with only the continuous building of the main Cathedral making any change in the skyline. In the 19th century, the tallest structures were all churches. In addition to the Cathedral, there were the bell towers and cupolas of Santa Teresa la Antigua, the College of Saints Peter and Paul and the chapel of San Felipe Neri as landmarks. This is the oldest known representation of the Canal de la Viga and the chinampas.]]

Since Mexico City was built on an island in the center of a large but shallow lake system, flooding became a serious issue during the colonial period. Spaniards denuded hillsides of their trees from the early conquest era on, so that mud and silt made the lake system even shallower, exacerbating the periodic flooding. Spaniards had not maintained the Aztec drainage system, which included a major dike. Major floods in Mexico City were recorded in 1555, 1580, 1604, and 1607, indigenous labor was diverted when crown officials undertook a major project to divert water via a drainage system, known as the Desagüe. In 1607, 4,500 Indigenous people were drafted to build the 8-mile-long combination drainage ditch and tunnel and 1608, the work was continued with 3,000.

Flooding was controlled in the short term, and in subsequent years the Desagüe infrastructure was not maintained. In 1629, rains inundated the capital and flood waters remained in the capital for the next few years. Viceroy Don Rodrigo Pacheco, 3rd Marquis of Cerralvo, the Mexico City council (cabildo), secular and regular clergy, and elite Spanish residents of Mexico City combined efforts to provide immediate relief, and taxes and diversion of indigenous labor to construction of the Desagüe aimed at dealing with the long-term problem of flooding. A number of Spaniards moved to dry land to the nearby settlement of Coyoacán (now part of Mexico City), increasing the displacement of indigenous ownership of land there. In 1630, there was a serious proposal to move the capital to dry land rather than continue dealing with constant flooding. Elite Mexico City property owners and the city council opposed the plan, since they would incur huge real estate losses. There was another major push to deal with flooding, but the pattern of neglect of the desagüe infrastructure and subsequent inundation of the capital recurred, with flooding in 1645, 1674, 1691, 1707, 1714, 1724, 1747 and 1763. Floods continued into the early republic after independence.

From the early eighteenth century, the city was able to grow as the waters of the lake receded. In 1700, the city advanced towards the east and south and west, as the north was still bounded by water. To the west, it expanded to what is now Balderas Street. In the latter half of the 18th century the populated area reached eastward to the lakeshore, which then was just beyond the now Circuito Interior and the La Merced Market. To the south began to appear houses in an area now called Colonia Doctores. To the west, following what is now Avenida Chapultepec towards the Ciudadela, now the National Library, near Metro Balderas. To the north past Tlatelolco and to the south to Topacioa and the now Calzada de la Viga. As public health became more of a concern during the Porfiriato, the stench, uncleanliness, and perceived danger from the capital's water renewed efforts to implement the drainage project. Díaz created a commission to oversee work, but the project went further than merely controlling rainwater and stagnation and sought the expansion of water rights under its control for a growing population. This affected indigenous communities around the lake system. The commission sought foreign loans from the British firm of Pearson and Sons and foreign technology was utilized. The government authorized securing land for area through which the canal was to be built. Díaz considered the Desagüe a top priority, since Mexico's capital was considered a very dangerous place in terms of health. The lake waters ceased to threaten the capital as they disappeared in the modern era.

Political power

thumb|[[Chapultepec Castle, built between 1783 and 1864. Built during the Viceroyalty as a summer house-castle for the Viceroy, it was also the official residence of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico (1864-1867) and the country's presidents between 1884 and 1935.]]

By the 1530s, Mexico City was given jurisdiction over other town councils of New Spain and quickly established itself as the most populous and powerful city in the Americas. Like that of the Aztecs, the Spaniards' grasp extended well beyond the capital and the Valley of Mexico—only much farther. As the site of the viceroyalty of New Spain and archbishopric of Mexico, as well as economic elites, Mexico City was the center of power. Socially, the viceregal government and ecclesiastical authorities remained the pillars of Spanish colonialism. He was also concerned that the prior cult of Quetzalcoatl would find its way into the new religion by equating this god with the Apostle Thomas, as an earlier attempt to evangelize the indigenous people before the Spanish conquest.

File:FacadeSoledadDF3.JPG|La Soledad Church, originally Augustinian, secularized and rebuilt as a neoclassical church 18th c

File:LaSantisimaChurchDF.JPG|La Santísima Church, built in the 18th c.

File:Universidad del claustro de Sor Juana, vista de la Calle de San Jerónimo.jpg|The 17th c. Jeronymite convent where Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz lived, now the University of the Cloister of Sor Juana

File:FacadeLaEnseñanza1DF.JPG|La Enseñanza Church, 18th c. nunnery

Image:TemploCorpusCristiMexicoCity.JPG|The 18th-century Convent of Corpus Christi, built for elite indigenous women

</gallery>

Economic power

thumb|The [[Palacio de Mineria, Mexico City. The elevation of silver mining as a profession and the ennoblement of silver miners was a development of the eighteenth-century Bourbon Reforms]]

Economically, Mexico City prospered as a result of its primacy. It was the capital of the viceroyalty, seat of the archbishopric, residence of civil and religious officials of all ranks, as well as wealthy merchants who engaged in international trade, but also the center of much regional trade. The establishment of a consulado de mercaderes (merchant guild) in Mexico City indicates the concentration and organization of this economic elite.

The consulado was founded in Mexico City in 1594, controlled by peninsular wholesale merchants who dealt in long-distance trade, who often married into local elite families with commercial ties. Their assets had to amount to at least 28,000 pesos. Although they were not supposed to deal in local retail trade, they often did some indirectly. They mainly lived in Mexico City and had positions on the city council cabildo. A number of them were connected to the crown mint in the capital. They diversified the assets locally, investing in urban real estate.

In the eighteenth century, as New Spain's economy boomed, consulados were established in the port of Veracruz and in Guadalajara Mexico, indicating increased trade and the expansion of the merchant elite. The consulado in late colonial Mexico had approximately 200 members, who divided themselves into two factions based, the Basque and Montañés, even though some were from neither of those Iberian regions. American-born merchants came to be part of the consulado in the later colonial period, but a small number of peninsular merchants dominated. Goods were shipped from the Spanish port of Cádiz to Veracruz, but many of the goods were produced elsewhere in Europe.

Unlike Brazil or Peru, New Spain and its capital had easy contact with both the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. In fact, the Philippines were colonized and evangelized from Mexico City rather than directly from Spain itself. From the late 1560s until 1813, the annual Manila galleon took Mexican silver from the port of Acapulco across the Pacific Ocean to Manila, in exchange for Chinese silks and porcelain from Canton. The viceroy in Mexico City sought to restrict cargoes and frequency on the grounds that the Asiatic trade diverted silver from the principal route which was to Europe. The estimates of the European population in Mexico City is also imprecise, with figures coming from a variety of sources. In 1525 there were 150 households occupied by Spaniards, with the European population increasing steadily during the entire colonial period. The highest estimate for the colonial era is by Alexander von Humboldt, who estimated ca. 1802 that there were 67,500 whites in Mexico City.

The size of Mexico City's population and its demographic contours have been enduring questions for crown officials as well as modern scholars. There were major epidemics that affected the population, starting with the smallpox epidemic of 1520 that was a factor in the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire, but there were other major epidemics throughout the colonial period. There were estimates taken in the late seventeenth century, with the largest and most detailed census mandated by Viceroy Revillagigedo in 1790. In 1689, there was an estimate of 57,000 residents. An estimate for 1753 based on a partial census mandated by the Audiencia put the population at 70,000. In the period between 1689 and 1753, there were at least nine epidemics. The Revillagigedo census of 1790 counts 112,926 residents, a significant increase. This might be due to migration to the city accelerating. An 1811 census done by the ‘'Juzgado de Policía'’ put the number even higher, at 168,811, which might well reflect displacement from the countryside from the insurgency of Miguel Hidalgo and his successors. The census of 1813 done by the city government (Ayuntamiento) shows a significant decrease to 123,907, perhaps showing the return of short-term migrants to their home communities following the waning of the insurgency, but also possibly "fevers" that affected the population.

thumb|right|250px|A single-canvas painting showing the [[casta system in eighteenth-century Mexico. Spaniards were at the top of the system with mixed-race men and women consigned to the bottom ranks, with both engaging in manual labor.]]

Racial composition

Although Mexico City was designated the capital of the viceroyalty, it still had a significant non-white population throughout the colonial period. In the early period after the conquest, the Spanish population played a pivotal role in the capital.

In his analysis of the 1790 census of Mexico City and its surrounding area, Dennis Nodin Valdés compared the population of the capital with the census of the Intendancy of Mexico in 1794. The total number of Mexico City residents counted in 1793 was 104,760 (which excludes 8,166 officials) and in the intendancy as a whole 1,043,223, excluding 2,299 officials. In both the capital and the intendancy, the European population was the smallest percentage, with 2,335 in the capital (2.2%) and the intendancy 1,330 (.1%). The listing for Spaniard (español) was 50,371 (48.1%), with the intendancy showing 134,695 (12.9%). For mestizos (in which he has merged the castizos), in the capital there were 19,357 (18.5%) and in the intendancy 112,113 (10.7%). For the mulatto category, the capital listed 7,094 (6.8%) with the intendancy showing 52,629 (5.0%). There is apparently no separate category for blacks (Negros). The category Indian showed 25,603 (24.4%), with the intendancy with 742,186 (71.1). The capital thus had the largest concentration of Spaniards and castas, with the countryside being overwhelmingly indigenous. The population of the capital "indicates that conditions favoring mestizaje were more favorable in the city than the outlying area" and that there were more high status occupations in the city.

Further analysis of the two censuses found that the population of the capital was older and had more women. Women migrated to the capital in higher numbers than men from the surrounding countryside.

Racial residential patterns

In studying the 1811 census, there is no absolute segregation by race. The highest concentration of Spaniards was around the traza, the central sector of the city where the civil and religious institutions were based and where there was the highest concentration of wealthy merchants. But non-Spaniards also lived there. Indigenous people were found in higher concentrations in the sectors on the fringes of the capital. Castas appear as residents in all sectors of the capital.

Nobility in Mexico City – "City of Palaces"

thumb|right|300px|The [[Casa de los Azulejos, completed in 1737, home of the counts of Orizaba. It became the Jockey Club during the Porfiriato, and is now owned by Walgreens.]]

thumb|right|Façade of [[Palace of Iturbide, now owned by Banamex]]

thumb|Façade of the Palace of the Counts of Calimaya, built 1777–81, now the site of the [[Museum of the City of Mexico]]

thumb|300px|Façade of the [[Borda House, Mexico City|Borda House, residence of French mining magnate José de la Borda]]

thumb|[[Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City|Colegio de San Ildefonso built between 1583 and 1749.]]

The concept of nobility transferred to New Spain in a way not seen in other parts of the Americas. A noble title here did not mean one exercised great political power as one's power was limited even if the accumulation of wealth was not. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, most of those who had titles gained them after their families had accumulated wealth over several generations. Many of these nobles made their money outside of the capital at large haciendas or in mining but spent their fortunes in the capital. Those who made their money in the city were usually wholesalers from lower social backgrounds. The merchant-financiers became almost as prominent as the landowners because they were the decisive element of the city's economy. Many of the leading figures were of Spanish origin, although their principal economic interests and family connections were within New Spain. For example, the Andalusian, Pedro Romero de Terreros, who became Count of Regla in 1768, made his money in silver mining at Real del Monte, near Pachuca, from 1742. This blending of wealth of landowners and merchant-financiers led to a blending of traditional and modern practices. Matrimony and personal ties continued to be the principal means of solidifying business interests. Nephews, other relatives and friends formed broad networks of interest over a wide geographical area from the capital cities into the countryside and through the span of economic activities. The landowners, however, remained in a slightly higher social position because their livelihoods stemmed from their close working arrangement with the colonial state. These estates were centered in the modern-day state of Durango, and their specialty was sheep-raising. Meat from their stock supplied Mexico City and wool was sold to various textile workshops. The Aguayos left these estates in the hands of administrators, backed by armed guards to ward off indigenous attack, to live off the revenues in Mexico City, where they possessed four palatial residences. Their title had been awarded in 1682, but the land purchases by the family dated from the 1580s. That institution lasted about a century, until 1871, going from a poor house or work house for adults to mainly being an orphanage for abandoned street children. The Mexico City Poor House was partially supported by another eighteenth-century institution, the Royal Lottery. There was also a foundling home established in 1767, the ‘'Casa de Cuna'’ (house of the cradle).

thumb|left|250px|[[Castas De Mestizo y dd India; Coyote. Miguel Cabrera, 1763, oil on canvas, Waldo-Dentzel Art Center.]]

During the viceroyalty of Revillagigedo, there were attempts to control the public behavior of the poor in Mexico City. Ordinances such as forbidding public defecation and urination had little effect, especially since there was no alternative for the poor to relieving one's self on the street. Also forbidden were the discarding of trash buckets, dead dogs and horse in the streets and gutters. A local police force was tasked with creating order and tidiness. The crown also attempted to regulate taverns, where the poor congregated, drank, gambled and in the estimate of elites, generally got up to no good. Revillagigedo focused special attention on cleaning up the Plaza Mayor and the viceregal palace, removing pulque stalls, garbage, wandering dogs, cows, and pigs, moved the market area elsewhere. He had the area paved with cobblestones, and the area was illuminated with newly place streetlamps. The Alameda park was cleaned and the entrance to it was guarded to prevent the poorly clad plebe from entering. Public space was thus regulated cultural space, separating elites from the poor.

The founding of the Royal Cigar Factory was another eighteenth-century crown project, part of the establishment of the royal tobacco monopoly, which both brought significant revenue to the crown in the sale of cigars and cigarettes, but the factory in Mexico City and a few other major colonial centers, created thousands of good jobs for the urban poor including women.

As Mexico experienced a series of droughts and bad harvests in the eighteenth century, the crown set up granaries (alhóndigas) to store wheat and corn so that the price of basic staples did not soar for the urban poor. It was as much an act of charity as prudent state planning to prevent bread riots. Mexico City had experienced two major riots in the seventeenth century, one in 1624 that ousted the viceroy who attempted to eliminate excessive profits for grain and other goods by creole traders. The other was in 1692 where a mob burned the archbishop's and the viceroy's official residence. A first-hand account of the 1692 riot was recorded by seventeenth-century savant, Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora.

Other institutions designed to protect and aid the vulnerable were the General Indian Court, founded in 1591, to give access of indigenous communities and indigenous individuals to justice and supported by a half-real tax to pay for lawyers. For women who needed protection, the Church created the recogimientos de mujeres, a kind of shelter for healthy women who voluntarily wished to live a sheltered life in a religious atmosphere; some other institutions for women were to reform prostitutes and were not voluntary. Both types were in decline when the Mexico City Poor House was established.

In the capital and other Spanish cities in New Spain (and later after independence in 1821), there was a population of léperos, a term elites gave to shiftless vagrants of various racial categories in the colonial hierarchical racial system, the sociedad de castas. They were considered a kind of criminal class, contributing to the disorder of Mexico City. Research has found that they included mestizos, indigenous people, and poor whites (españoles). Léperos were viewed as unrespectable people (el pueblo bajo) by polite society (la gente culta), who judged them as being morally and biologically inferior. Léperos supported themselves as they could through petty commerce or begging, but many resorted to crime. A study of crime in eighteenth-century Mexico City based on official arrest records of the two police forces of Mexico City indicates that léperos were "neither marginal types nor dregs of the lower classes. They consisted of both men and women; they were not particularly young; they were not mainly single and rootless; they were not merely indigenous and casta; and they were not largely unskilled." All of the popular stereotypes of a young rootless, unskilled male are not borne out by the arrest records. "The dangerous class existed only in the collective mind of the colonial elite."

Arrest records are one of the few ways to get at empirical data about the urban poor. Not all arrests led to criminal cases and prosecuted, and not all prosecutions led to convictions. Formal prosecutions usually involved serious crimes against persons (homicide, aggravated assault), but also gambling. In the late colonial period, the police actively arrested the largest number of people (both men and women) for tavern violations, drunkenness, gambling, disorderly conduct, and violence, as well as the sexual crimes of "incontinence", i.e., what English law calls common-law marriage, living together without marriage, and promiscuity. They made arrests for other crimes only when a complaint was filed; these crimes included theft, vagrancy, family offenses, and debt.

Indigenous people were over-represented in arrest records, that is they were arrested at higher rates than their proportion of the population. They were most often arrested for drunkenness, theft, and violence.

Women were arrested less frequently than men, but they were still about a quarter of total arrests. Women were arrested for violence, mainly violence against other women. An early nineteenth-century lithograph by Claudio Linati shows two indigenous women fighting, each with a baby on her back. Women also attacked men whom the woman knew as an acquaintance or a common law partner; less frequently they attacked their legitimate husbands.]]

thumb|Proclamation of Iturbide as emperor, 18 May 1822

When rebellion against Spanish rule broke out, interests outside of Mexico City would be represented by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, José María Morelos and others. While the nobility in Mexico City also did not like the absolute colonial system, their goal was limited representation and autonomy within the Spanish empire. They decided to make their stand in 1820, after the rural insurgency had been going on for several years, choosing Colonel Agustín de Iturbide to push their interests militarily. Iturbide had fought against Morelos between 1813 and 1816.

After switching sides, Iturbide chose to pressure the colonial government by repeating Hidalgo's strategy of closing in on the city from the surrounding area. Iturbide was able to succeed where Hidalgo had not because the Spanish-born commanders in the city supported Iturbide's idea of limited autonomy, and many the royalist forces were in the field battling insurgents like Guerrero. Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees (Independence, Union, Religion) entered Mexico City on 21 September 1821. The first battle to defend Mexico City itself was the Battle of Contreras. A fortified hacienda in the town of San Antonio covered the southeastern approach, while the town of San Ángel covered the southwestern. Between them lay a vast, seemingly impenetrable lava field, called El Pedrégal. General Gabriel Valencia decided to move his troops from San Ángel to the then town of Contreras. Despite being forewarned of U.S. intentions by a tactical mistake, the Mexicans found themselves outgunned by the invading army at Contreras. This allowed the Americans to cross the Pedrégal and move in on the Mexican troops at San Antonio from behind. The assault on the carefully laid defenses at San Antonio became known as the Battle of Churubusco. Knowing of the Americans' approach, Santa Anna ordered General Pedro María de Anaya to move his troops to a monastery in Churubusco. While Anaya's position was eventually overrun, he held off the Americans for some time. However, the Mexican army lost 10,000 defenders. The Battle of Molino del Rey was the last just before the Americans entered the old city itself. The war ended with the attack of Chapultepec Castle, headquarters of the military college, where young students defended the castle. In this place died in the battle the Niños Héroes, students of the college with ages from 13 to 19 years. General Gideon Pillow and his 2,500 men led the assault, starting from the Molino del Rey to the west of Chapultepec. General John Quitman entered in from the south to cut Chapultepec off from reinforcements, while General David Twiggs fought against positions further east. Inside the walls, General Nicolás Bravo realized that his 1,000 men were too few to hold the castle, but he attempted to do so. Mexican troops on the western slope of the castle held for a while, but Pillow's men captured the castle by 9:30 am the day of the attack.

File:Battle of Churubusco Map.png|Battle map of Churubusco

File:Battle of Chapultepec map.png|Battle map of Chapultepec

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Reform War and Second Empire

thumb|political organization of the city in 1857

Peace did not last long. Santa Anna's losses to the Americans created great discontent among his political opponents who coalesced to call themselves the Reform movement or the Liberals. Those who supported Santa Anna's regime and the power of the Catholic Church were called the Conservatives. The Reform War lasted from 1857 to 1861. For a time, the two factions had parallel governments with the Liberals in Veracruz and the Conservatives in Mexico City. When the Liberals were victorious, Liberal president Benito Juárez moved his government to the capital city. Since the Catholic Church was as much a target of the Reform movement as the government was, a number of ecclesiastical buildings were torn down or turned to other uses. The liberals' urban program was to transform "an ecclesiastical capital into a secular one." However, Juárez was soon faced with a new threat when he suspended payments for foreign powers of money borrowed by the conservatives, which sparked the French intervention in Mexico. The intervention, supported by Mexican conservatives, installed Emperor Maximilian as the ruler of a newly created monarchy, the Second Mexican Empire.

Emperor Maximilian undertook an accelerated program of urban renovation under the supervision of Mexican architect, Francisco Somera. Somera had served on the city council of the capital and dealt with the city's infrastructure, such as roads, sewers, canals, and pavement. His portfolio and expertise meant he was concerned with the ongoing problem of flooding in the capital, especially during heavy rains, which the major colonial-era project of drainage, the Desagüe, had not solved. He was also significantly involved with the expansion of the city from its historic urban core.

For the most part, growth of Mexico City in the 19th century, was based on extending the rectangular layout of the original Spanish colonial city, even if its borders had an irregular, even zigzag, appearance. In 1865, Emperor Maximilian had a wide avenue, Paseo del Emperador or Paseo de la Emperatriz, planned by Francisco Somera, and built to connect the emperor's residence at Chapultepec Castle with the National Palace in the downtown core. All along this avenue there were plans to place statues of heroes of Mexican history, which were not realized until the regime of Porfirio Díaz, starting in 1877. However, the thoroughfare extends southwest to northeast, breaking the north–south, east–west orientation of roads before it. With the ouster of the imperial French in 1867 and return to Mexico City of republican president Benito Juárez, the avenue was initially renamed Calzada Degollado and then in 1872 changed to Paseo de la Reforma.

Porfiriato (1876–1910)

thumb|right|The Angel, monument to Independence on Paseo de la Reforma. Photo taken on a Sunday when the boulevard is closed to vehicular traffic and used by pedestrians and bicyclists.

President Porfirio Díaz ruled the nation for more than three decades between 1876 and 1910. During this time, he developed the city's infrastructure, such as roads, schools, transportation, and communication systems. He also encouraged foreign investment and laid the groundwork for industrial development. In Mexico City, these improvements were most apparent, since this is where government elites, foreign investors, and domestic entrepreneurs lived and worked, while the countryside and smaller cities and pueblos languished.

With the ouster of the French occupiers and the political exile of their conservative Mexican supporters, liberalism put its stamp on Mexico City in the form of new monuments and the renaming of streets. Most prominently, the new, wide avenue became Paseo de la Reforma, with statues of liberal heroes and others important to Mexican history lining its route. The monument mania on the Paseo started in 1877 with the Monument to Christopher Columbus donated by Mexican railway magnate Antonio Escandón designed by French sculptor Charles Cordier, followed by the Monument to Cuauhtémoc, both in major traffic circles (glorietas).

As with earlier regimes, Diaz re-purposed a number of older buildings. One was Belem Prison, a colonial-era building that was used to produce pseudoscience about criminals. The police had started to take photos of prisoners in Belem in the 1850s, to identify them in case of an escape. Diaz wanted to professionalize the police and the Mexico City Police adopted the Bertillon method to catalogue and identify repeat offenders. The Palacio de Lecumberri prison in Mexico City drew on the panopticon concepts of Jeremy Bentham and was completed in 1900. It became symbolic for Diaz's attempt to put criminals under visual surveillance.

In 1910, Mexico celebrated the 1810 Hidalgo revolt that initiated the independence movement in Mexico. Díaz had been in power since 1876 and saw the occasion of the centenary as an opportunity for the creation of new buildings and monuments and to invite world dignitaries to show off Mexico's progress. For buildings, much advance planning and other work was needed to have them completed in time for September 1910. During that month in Mexico City, there were "inaugurations of a new modern mental hospital, a popular hygiene exhibition, an exhibition of Spanish art and industry, exhibitions of Japanese products and avant-garde Mexican art, a monument to Alexander von Humboldt at the National Library, a seismological station, a new theater in the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, primary schools, new buildings for ministries, and new large schools for teachers." On the actual anniversary of Hidalgo's grito, 16 September, Díaz inaugurated the monument to Independence, "the Angel".

File:Ciudad de mexico 1890.jpg|Bird's-eye view of Mexico City in 1890

File:Belem Prison - Mexico (LOC).jpg|Belem Prison, a colonial building opened as a prison in 1886.

File:Lecumberri Prison blueprint.jpg|Blueprint of Lecumberri Prison, which was used to incarcertate ordinary criminals as well as political prisoners, 1900–1976. It now houses the Archivo General de la Nación

File:MonumentCuauhtemocPaseo2.jpg|Monument to Cuauhtémoc erected during the Porfiriato, one of many statues of historical figures erected in Mexico City in this era.

File:MUNAL.jpg|Museo Nacional de Arte, designed 1904 by Silvio Contri to be the Ministry of Communications building

Image:Mexico.DF.HemicicloJuarez.01.jpg|Benito Juárez Hemicycle, Alameda Central inaugurated 1910

File:Palacio Postal Version 2.jpg|Palacio de Correos de Mexico, built in 1907 by Italian architect Adamo Boari

File:Construcción del Palacio Legislativo.jpg|Construction of the Palacio Legislativo, during the Porfiriato, construction stalled during the Mexican Revolution, photo by Guillermo Kahlo, 12 June 1912

File:Bellas Artes 01.jpg|Palacio de Bellas Artes, construction started under Porfirio Díaz and stalled during the Mexican Revolution

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Mexican Revolution's impact

300px|right|thumb|Citizens surrounding the Ciudadela during the [[Ten Tragic Days in February 1913.]]

By the early 20th century, Mexico City was becoming a modern city, with gas and electric lighting, streetcars, and other modern amenities. However, the regime concentrated resources and wealth in the hands of a few people. The majority of the nation languished in poverty. Social injustice led to nationwide revolts, and ultimately the Mexican Revolution (1910–1917). The city was not untouched by the revolution. Battles were fought on its streets, and thousands of displaced villagers became refugees in the city. During the revolution, the city was briefly taken over by the famous revolutionaries Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Emiliano Zapata. While most of the Mexican Revolution was not fought within the city, one major episode of this era was. La decena trágica ("The Ten Tragic Days") was a series of events leading to a coup d'état in Mexico City between 9 and 22 February 1913 against President Francisco I. Madero and his vice president, José María Pino Suárez. After deposing President Porfirio Díaz and taking power in 1911, Mexicans expected Madero to make widespread changes in government but were surprised and disappointed to find Madero following many of the same policies and employing the same personnel as the Díaz government. This eventually resulted in revolts against the Madero regime. Madero's fear of these revolts led him to commission Victoriano Huerta as chief general of the Federal Army. Huerta was effective in putting down rebellions, but had ambitions that Madero was blind to. Military success gave Huerta power, and he saw an opportunity to make himself dictator. La decena trágica began when military academy cadets quartered in Tacubaya revolted and began an attack against the National Palace. Madero and Pino Suárez returned to the Palace to address the crisis, calling in reserves from other military academies and the forces of Felipe Ángeles in Cuernavaca to assist in defense. Meanwhile, Huerta convinced Madero to allow him to take over defense of the National Palace. Huerta betrayed Madero and Pino Suárez forcing Madero and Pino Suárez to sign resignations. On the night of 22 February, Huerta ordered Madero and Pino Suárez to be transferred to the Lecumberri prison, supposedly to be held for transfer to exile. Before the car reached the prison, it was pulled over by armed men and Madero and Pino Suárez were shot and killed.

20th century to present

Loss of democracy and recovery

200px|thumb|[[Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas]]

Mexico City lost its democratically elected mayor and legislature/city council in 1928, which left its urban middle class and workers without legislative redress. The mayor was appointed by the President of Mexico. Residents of the densely populated capital became dependent on the newly formed Party of National Revolution (PNR) to dress its concerns. During the Lázaro Cárdenas presidency (1934–40), the government reduced spending in the capital, leaving infrastructure, such as water, sewage, lighting, without resources. Cárdenas did not implement rent control or aid urban renters, and in 1938–39, renters attempted to gain advantage by organizing rent strikes. The middle class and the urban poor joined in the attempt. Not until the electoral reforms of the 1990s was the mayoral elections restored. In 1997 Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas won the position.

Historic commemorations

In the historic center of Mexico City, the Plutarco Elías Calles administration (1924–28) began placing colonial-style tiles on street corners "on each street that has some history or legend that merits remembrance by means of their old names." This was part of the government's aim to shape public memory in the city, particularly of the Revolution. Many street names were changed to commemorate the deeds of revolutionary heroes, including Francisco Madero, José María Pino Suárez, whose democratically elected government was overthrown by military coup in 1913.

Growth of the city

thumb|Mexico City from the [[Torre Latinoamericana, looking toward the Zócalo]]

In 1900, the population of Mexico City was about 500,000. Between 1929 and 1953, growth spread east to establish colonias Federal, Moctezuma and Jardín Balbuena, to the north and urban area included all of Azcapotzalco and reached Ampliacion Gabriel Hernández including Ticoman, Zacatenco and Santa Isabel Tola. To the west, the most notable growth was from Lomas de Chapultepec west to the limits of the State of Mexico. Areas such as Tacubaya, Villa de Guadalupe, Coyoacán and San Ángel were still considered separate entities.

thumb|Torre Latinoamericana

thumb|Opened in 1964, the ring road (Anillo Periférico) is choked with cars. Photo shows the border of Naucalpan in the State of Mexico and delegación Miguel Hidalgo in the Federal District.

In the 20th century, the city began to grow upwards as well as outwards. The column with the Angel of Independence was erected in 1910 for the centenary of Mexican Independence, the ironwork Legislative Palace, Palacio de Bellas Artes and a building called La Nacional. The first skyscraper, 40-story Torre Latinoamericana was built in the 1950s. All of these were in the main core of the city, laid out in the sixteenth century.

A major departure in location and scale was the construction of the Ciudad Universitaria from 1950 to 1953 in the south of the city. It had a noticeable effect on subsequent architecture in the city. The most notable buildings are the Rectoría designed by Salvador Ortega, Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, the Library, by Juan O'Gorman, Gustavo Saavedra and Juan Martínez de Velasco and the Science Building by Raúl Cacho, Eugenio Peschard and Félix Sánchez.

The south of the Federal District contains a number of ecological reserves; one of the most important being the Ajusco reserve. Growth pushing of the edges of this reserve has been causing both economic and political struggles which include fraudulent real estate schemes, illegal development of ejidal property, along with popular resistance and opposition movements. A major problem is the illegal movement of the poor building shantytowns, then resisting eviction, often with violence, often until the government gives into demands to build popular-sector housing in the area. While such housing is needed, the whole process is ecologically destructive.

Decline and revitalization of the city center

From Aztec times, the Centro Histórico used to be where the wealthy and elite lived. However, in the early 20th century, these classes began to move to areas west and southwest of the Centro, to neighbourhoods such as Colonia Juárez, Colonia Cuauhtémoc, Colonia Roma and Colonia Condesa. The Centro remained the commercial, political and intellectual center through the mid 20th century, although it was around this time that UNAM moved most of its facilities to the new Ciudad Universitaria.

By the 1980s, so much had fled the Centro that many of its former mansions were either abandoned or turned into tenements for the poor, and its sidewalks and streets taken over by pickpockets and milling vendors.

File:AdoratoriodeEhécatlMetroPinoDF.JPG|An Aztec sculpture of Ehecatl unearthed in 1967 during the construction of the Metro, which remains in the center of the Metro Pino Suárez station]

File:Metro Cuahutemoc.jpg|Sign for Line 1 Metro Cuauhtémoc. Lines use a single color. Stations have an icon associated with the station's name. "Cuauhtemoc" is named for the last Aztec emperor, whose name translates to "falling eagle" and the icon is of an eagle head.

File:1985 Mexico Earthquake - Pina Suarez Apartment Complex.jpg|Apartment Complex Pino Suárez, in the wake of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.

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thumb|Allende Street near Tacuba Street. This section of Allende is open only to pedestrians.

thumb|A doubledecker tourbus near the Zocalo

Since then the government has made efforts to revitalize this part of the city. Starting in the early 2000s, it infused 500 million pesos (US$55 million) into the Historic Center Trust

All over the historic center, streets have been pedestrianized, buildings have been remodeled and restored, and new museums opened. In the 1990s, after many years of controversy, protests and even riots, most street vendors were evicted to other parts of the city. on the Richter magnitude scale. The event caused between three and four billion USD in damage as 412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the city. While the number is in dispute, the most-often cited number of deaths is about 10,000 people.

While this earthquake was not as deadly or destructive as many similar events in Asia and other parts of Latin America The government was paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and corruption, forcing ordinary citizens to not only create and direct their own rescue efforts but efforts to reconstruct much of the housing that was lost as well. This significantly affected politics in the years after the event.

References

External links

A map of Mexico City from 1794
A map of Mexico City from 1720

History of Mexico City

The Aztec city-state of Tenochtitlan

Founding

Spanish conquest and reconstruction of city

Conquest of Tenochtitlan

Colonial period 1521–1821

Growth of city

Political power

Economic power

Racial composition

Racial residential patterns

Nobility in Mexico City – "City of Palaces"

Reform War and Second Empire

Porfiriato (1876–1910)

Mexican Revolution's impact

20th century to present

Loss of democracy and recovery

Historic commemorations

Growth of the city

Decline and revitalization of the city center

See also

References

Further reading

General

Historiography

In Spanish

Primary sources

External links