Benito Juarez

Vicente nació en Huentitán El Alto, Jalisco, México 17 de febrero 1940. Él creció en el rancho de su padre en Guadalajara, a los ocho años Vicente consiguió su inspiración de Pedro Infante cuando su madre lo llevó a ver una de sus películas favoritas. Pedro infante fue un famoso actor y cantante

Porfirio Diaz was the president of Mexico when the Revolution broke out. He was elected in 1877, and although he swore to step down in 1880, he continued to be reelected until 1910. He claimed that he was justified in this because he brought stability to Mexico. However, this was hardly the case. Diaz's regime aimed to industrialize Mexico, and foreign investors such as the United States and Britain

With Madero’s efforts he was able to become president but was assassinated by a team put together by Victoriano Huerta. “Two Mexico’s” was addressed when the Revolution was sparked and taken control by Venustiano Carranza part of the constitutionalist army and Emiliano Zapata which whom will be under credited for their efforts in the future. They took Huerta out of power in 1914.

José de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori, the 29th president of Mexico, opened Mexico to foreign investors and companies who exploited Mexico’s resources such as land, copper, gold, silver, water, and cheap labor for corporate gain. This caused economic instability in the way that Mexico placed power in the hands of large corporations and Mexican politicians.

In 1845 Texas was annexed as a state, however disputes between America and Mexico remained concerning where the border would be located. President Polk at the time had no choice but to send troops due south to defend Texas and the Thornton affair, won by the Mexicans, would force congress to declare war on Mexico.

The French had landed in Mexico along with Spanish and English troops five months earlier to collect unpaid debts. In 1855Benito Juarez (minister of justice) issued reforms called

The president during this time, James Polk, secretly told his Secretary of the Navy that one his main objectives was the acquisition of California. He insisted that General Taylor move troops to the Rio Grande. In April of 1846, Colonel Cross skull was smashed and it was assumed he had been killed by Mexican guerrillas. This was military incident Polk wanted to begin war, thus the Mexicans had fired the first shot. Congress was in favor of the war against Mexico, but not The Whig party and the American Anti-Slavery. This maybe because they felt that the war would spread slavery. Although some of Taylors army was bribe to the Mexican side by money, many Americans were still apart of the military for profit. Also, there were many brutal battles between the Americans and Mexicans since Mexicans often resisted. Zinn states that, “On the Rio Grande before Matamoros, as a Mexican army of five thousand under General Arista faced Taylor's army of three thousand, the shells began to fly, and artilleryman Samuel French saw his first death in battle.” Many persons died from both parties, and adopted diseases. Never the less, in 1847 Mexico surrendered, kept control of Texas, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed and America took half. The United States paid Mexico $15 million. Once again, the new acres of land benefited the President and the generals, but not those who placed their lives on the line to obtain the

The Mexican-American war fought between 1846 and 1848 remains a topic of much contention amongst modern historians. Differing accounts and conclusions of the war are often presented and one must remain pragmatic when analysing both primary and secondary sources regarding the war. There is a clear time line of events that led to the outbreak of the war, but there is one major event, and one minor action, which directly resulted in the declarations of war on both sides of the conflict between Mexico and the United States. Most scholars agree that the annexation of the Republic of Texas by

even more, and was determined to have California and New Mexico. These territories belonged to the Mexicans, but when Polk tried to buy the areas, the Mexican officials wouldn’t even meet him. When the U.S. annexed Texas, tension escalated on both sides, since Texas and Mexico already couldn’t agree on a border. In April of 1846, Mexican soldiers fired on American troops, which led to Congress declaring war on Mexico.

Cortez and his force arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8th, 1519. Tenochtitlan was the capital of what we know today as Mexico. Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world at that time. Tenochtitlan was run by the Aztecs. Cortes then met Montezuma, the Aztecs’s emperor. Montezuma and the Aztecs thought Hernan Cortes was a god. They thought he was Quetzalcoatl. Cortez was there at the right time because the god was supposed to arrive the same year Cortes was there. Since they thought he was a god they would do anything for his command. Later on Montezuma suspected Cortez not to be the god. He gave him gold and jewels to try and get him to leave. It had the opposite affect and increased the Spaniards greed. Cortez then captured Montezuma as hostage to prevent the Aztecs attacking.

Mexico suffered ten years of war, suffering, and turmoil. Mexican leaders during 1910-1920 were unable to hold the country together and a revolution consumed the nation. The Mexican people grew tired of political greed, lack of support, and unequal treatment. Several leaders such as President Diaz would prove to be a man of one interest, himself. Others would quickly rise against him and attempt to claim the presidency. General Huerta and Francisco

The Reform War was a civil war between the Mexican people, the conservatives vs. the liberals.  With the unhappy reaction of the liberals chaos broke out and Comonfort resigned and Benito Juarez became president. “Comonfort died in an ambush in 1863”(Biography in context) With Juarez President the Reform War ended. The liberals considered this a political victory over the conservatives, having one of their own in office. “Juarez would free Mexico from the most flagrant remnants of neocolonialism.”(Scholes) After the Liberals defeated the conservatives, President Juarez had more to worry about. Some European countries were very upset with Mexico and their unpaid debt with them. They sent troops to Mexico but, they all withdrew themselves when they saw that French dictator Napoleon was planning to overthrow Juarez’s government. The overthrow of the Juarez government started the French Intervention in Mexico in 1862. With the help of the United states Juarez managed to gain back control, he became a hero in the eyes of most liberal Mexican’s for not backing down and running out the French.

Juarez relationship with Santa Anna was strained from the beginning. Serving under Santa Anna during the war with the states, Juarez contempt grew. After the war broke out, Juarez was recalled to his home state to serve as provisional governor. The eventual defeat led to the exile of Santa Anna who had sought refuge in Oaxaca where Juarez governed. Juarez refused his proposal and established his leadership by attitude and example. His leadership may not have been revolutionary; however it did lead to strong support in his ideals and accomplishments.

     Mexico City was the center of many more conflicts in Mexican history. In 1847, the city was captured by U.S. forces under Winfield Scott to end the Mexican-American War. The price for Mexico was the loss of the land that is now most of the southern U.S. In 1863, the city was captured again, but this time by French forces, upset that Mexico refused to pay its debt to France on time. The French controlled the city for a year until Mexican forces retook it in 1864.

When the United States admitted Texas in 1845, Mexico’s new leader would not even meet with the Americans because the nation’s government was in such turmoil that they were too weak