Three major groups make up the population of Mexico today, and their existence reflects the country's history, marked a decisive contact with the European world, after the arrival of the conquistadors - Spanish conquerors - from the sixteenth century. Spanish conquest was initiated shortly after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1492), for which existing civilizations in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans are called "pre-Columbian".
20-25% of Mexicans are Indians, descendants of pre-Columbian populations. About 10% are of Spanish origin or ancestry other than Native American origins. The remaining 65-70% is the mestizos, native ameridieni result of mixing with the Spanish and, in some cases, and African (most of the latter were brought as slaves in territories conquered by the Spaniards in America, in the XVI - XIX) .
Who were the first inhabitants of Mexico? Anthropologists say that had their origins in Asian populations had reached North America via the Bering Strait. This could have happened anytime in a period now located 10000-25000 years.
There were many great Native American empires, with more than 1,000 years before Hernán Cortés to get here. Early Olmec were then Maya (whose civilization has developed in two main stages and lasted until the conquest of their territory by the Spanish in the early seventeenth century). Zapotecii and mixtecii are other Pre-Columbian era that flourished in different periods of history, the territory of Mexico today, and when the Spanish conquest, the Aztecs led by Montezuma, had a flourishing empire and expanded.
From 1522 until 1821, Mexico, called New Spain was a Spanish colony. In the early nineteenth century, the Spaniards mixed Amerindian population began to form what we now call Mexicans.
During Spanish rule, the ruling group was formed by a minority: Spaniards born in Spain. Then came the Spaniards born in Mexico. After them were mestizos, who most often often did not have high social positions. The largest group was that of the Native Americans, who enjoyed few rights in Mexican society.
It's easy to understand why there was a movement fighting for the independence of Mexico and to gain the majority population of the country.
Source: descopera.ro
0 comentarii:
Post a Comment