The Hemisphere: A SHORT HISTORY OF MEXICO

HISTORY, as Mexicans see it, is a largely calamitous chronology of conflict with troublesome foreigners.

The first, Conquistador Hernán Cortés, landed near Veracruz A.D. 1519 with horses and 600 men, defeated the Aztecs under Montezuma because the Indians believed the Spaniards to be brothers of a neglected god. Spain ruled for nearly 300 years before Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a parish priest in the village of Dolores, led forth a ragged army of Indians under the banner of Mexico's own Virgin of Guadalupe, sparked an uprising that ended Spanish rule in 1821.

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