Until 1848 the Mexico Empire was Huge - What Happened?

 

Mexico obtained independence from the Spanish Empire with the Treaty of Córdoba in 1821 - after a decade of conflict between the royal army and insurgents for independence, with no foreign intervention.  The conflict ruined the silver-mining districts of Zacatecas and Guanajuato.  Mexico began as a sovereign nation with its future financial stability from its main export destroyed. 

Mexico briefly experimented with monarchy but became a republic in 1824.  This government was characterized by instability.  After independence, Mexico contended with internal struggles that sometimes verged on civil war.  As settlers poured in from the U.S., the Mexican government discouraged further settlement with its 1829 abolition of slavery.

Until 1848 Mexico was huge, including what is now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, parts of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, etc.  Mexico lost the war that America began in 1846 over Texas boundaries, and the U.S. seized then 55% of the land mass of Mexico.

For Mexico, the war had remained a painful historical event for the country. It lost large parts of its territory and highlighted the domestic political conflicts that were to continue for another 20 years.  The Reform War between liberals and conservatives in 1857 was followed by the Second French Intervention in 1861, which set up the Second Mexican Empire. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War

The Mexican Revolution started in 1910 when liberals and intellectuals began to challenge the regime of dictator Porfirio Díaz.  He had been in power since 1877, a term of 34 years called El Porfiriato.  Diaz violated the principles and ideals of the Mexican Constitution of 1857.

Two great figures, Francisco “Pancho” Villa from the north of Mexico and Emiliano Zapata from the south, led the revolution and remain key cultural and historical symbols in this fight for social reform.

The agrarista (supporter of land reform) ideals of Zapata and his followers, the Zapatistas, are summarized in their mottos: “Tierra y Libertad” (“Land and Freedom”) and “La tierra es para el que la trabaja” (“The land is for those who work it”).  

These slogans have not ceased to resonate in Mexican society, enshrining agrarian reform and unprecedented economic rights for the Mexican people. Once the armed struggle ended, it was necessary to rebuild a shattered nation...

 

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