BRIEF HISTORY OF MEXICO

Native Mexican Americans first settled along what used to be the shores of shallow lake Texcoco, present day Mexico City, in 1500 BC. By the early 1300 AD, the Aztecs established roots on an Island in this lake which later became the capital of the Aztec Empire: the City of Tenochtitlan. In 1521 the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez captured and razed the city, building a Spanish city in its place. The new city served as capital of the then colony of New Spain which extended as far south as Panama. In 1821, Mexican revolutionaries under General Agustin de Iturbide, a Spanish creole, captured Mexico City and broke all ties with the Spanish crown. The city was occupied by the United States in 1847 during the Mexican War and by France for four years starting in 1862, when Maximilian archduke of Austria, was named Emperor of Mexico by Napoleon III. n the past few years, the Mexican government has carefully tried to steer a new and prosperous Mexico in the direction of becoming a first world economy. However, and despite the efforts in allying itself as partner in trade with Canada and the United States unexpected political and economical events in the early 1990's have conspired to delay achievement of this goal. These next few pages, summarize the evolution of the Mexican people since the early settlers to the present day restructuring of the Mexican Economy. We believe that the following information will provide you with the historical insight, to be better able to understand the importance of the events of the past 500 years. Events which are a direct reflection of where Mexico, as a young and promising economy, is today and more importantly where it is heading towards