Although there are tantalizing fragments of evidence suggesting human habitation of Mexico more than 20,000 years ago, there is no uncontested evidence that humans arrived in Mexico earlier than ~15,000 BP. One of those asserting a date of 28,000 years is archaeologist Michael D. Coe of Yale University.

Ancient Mexicans began to selectively breed corn plants around 8,000 B.C. Evidence shows an explosion of pottery works by 2300 B.C. and the beginning of intensive corn farming between 1800 and 1500 B.C.

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Between 1800 and 300 BC, complex cultures began to form. Many matured into advanced Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the: Olmec, Izapa, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huaxtec, Purepecha,Toltec and Mexica (Aztecs), which flourished for nearly 5,000 years before first contact with Europeans.

( An image of one of the pyramids in the upper level of Yaxchilán )

These indigenous civilizations are credited with many inventions in: building pyramid-temples, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, writing, highly-accurate calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculator (Nepohualtzitzin), a complex theology, and the wheel. Without any draft animals to do labor, however, the wheel had limited applications and was primarily used for art and toys. Metallurgy focused on copper, gold, and silver.

Archaic inscriptions on rocks and rock walls all over northern Mexico (especially in the state of Nuevo León) demonstrate an early propensity for counting in Mexico. These very early and ancient count-markings were associated with astronomical events and underscore the influence that astronomical activities had upon Mexican natives, even before they possessed urbanization.

In fact, many of the later Mexican based civilizations would all carefully build their cities and ceremonial centers according to specific astronomical events. Astronomy and the notion of human observation of celestial events would become central factors in the development of religious systems, writing systems, fine arts, and architecture. Pre-historic Mexican astronomers set in motion a tradition of obsessive observing, recording, and commemorating astronomical events that later become a hallmark of Mexican civilized achievements. Cities would be founded and built on astronomical principles, leaders would be appointed on celestial events, wars would be fought according to solar-calendars, and a complex theology using astronomical metaphors would organize the daily lives of millions of people.

At different points in time, three different Mexican cities were the largest cities in the world: Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan, and Cholula. These cities, among several others, blossomed as centers of commerce, ideas, ceremonies, and theology. In turn, they radiated influence outwards onto nearby neighboring cultures in central Mexico.

( Toltec warrior columns at Tollan (Tula), Hidalgo )

While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, Mexico can be said to have had five major civilizations: The Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Toltec, the Mexica (Aztecs) and the Maya. These civilizations (with the exception of the politically-fragmented Maya) extended their reach across Mexico, and beyond, like no others. They consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology. Other regional power players made economic and political alliances with these five civilizations over the span of nearly 4,000 years. Many made war with them. But almost all found themselves within these five spheres of influence.

The earliest known Mexican civilization is the Olmec. This civilization established the cultural blueprint which all succeeding indigenous civilizations would follow in Mexico and Central America. The roots of Olmec civilization began around 2300 B.C. (according to Arqueologia Mexicana, the Mexican archaeology journal) with the production of pottery in abundance, a major sign of urbanization. The first signs of Olmec civilization are in San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, near the coast in south-east Veracruz. Widely known today for their colossal sculpted heads, the Olmec influence extended across Mexico, into Central America, and along the Gulf of Mexico. They established new forms of government, pyramid-temples, writing, astronomy, art, mathematics, trade, and religion. Their achievements would pave the way for the later Maya civilization in the east, and the many civilizations to the west in central Mexico.

The decline of the Olmec resulted in a power vacuum in Mexico. Emerging from that vacuum was Teotihuacan, first settled in 300 B.C. By 150 A.D., it had grown to become the first true metropolis of what is now called North America. Teotihuacan established a new economic and political order never before seen in Mexico. Its influence stretched across Mexico into Central America, founding new dynasties in the Mayan cities of Tikal, Copan, and Kaminaljuyú. Teotihuacan's influence over the Maya civilization cannot be overstated: it transformed political power, artistic depictions, and the nature of economics. Within the city of Teotihuacan was a diverse and cosmopolitan population. Most of the regional ethnicities of Mexico were represented in the city, such as Zapotecs from the Oaxaca region. They lived in apartment communities where they worked their trades and contributed to the city's economic and cultural prowess. By 500 A.D., Teotihuacan had become the largest city in the world. Teotihuacan's economic pull impacted areas in northern Mexico as well. It was a city whose monumental architecture reflected a new era in Mexican civilization, declining in political power about 650 B.C., but lasting in cultural influence for the better part of a millennium, to around 950 A.D.

( View of Avenue of the Dead from Pyramid of the Moon )

Contemporary with Teotihuacan's greatness was the greatness of the Maya civilization. The period between 250 A.D. and 651 A.D. saw an intense flourishing of Maya civilized accomplishments. While the many Maya city-states never achieved political unity on the order of the central Mexican civilizations, they exerted a tremendous intellectual influence upon Mexico and Central America. The Maya built some of the most elaborate cities on the continent, and made innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and writing that became the pinnacle of Mexico's scientific achievements.

Their most famous cities that remain until our days are Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Palenque.

( Mayan architecture at Uxmal )

Just as Teotihuacan had emerged from a power vacuum, so too did the Toltec civilization, which took the reigns of cultural and political power in Mexico from about 700 A.D. Many of the Toltec peoples were comprised of northern desert peoples, often called Chichimeca in Mexico's Nahuatl language. They fused their proud desert heritage with the mighty civilized culture of Teotihuacan. This new heritage would give rise to a new empire in Mexico. The Toltec empire would reach as far south as Central America, and as far north as the Anasazi corn culture in the Southwestern United States. The Toltec established a prosperous turquoise trade route with the northern civilization of Pueblo Bonito, in modern-day New Mexico. Toltec traders would trade prized bird feathers with Pueblo Bonito, while circulating all the finest wares that Mexico had to offer with their immediate neighbors. In the Mayan area of Chichen Itza, the Toltec civilization spread and the Maya were once again powerfully influenced by central Mexicans. The Toltec political system was so influential, that any serious Maya dynasty would later claim to be of Toltec descent. In fact, it was this prized Toltec lineage that would set the stage for Mexico's last great indigenous civilization.

With the decline of the Toltec civilization came political fragmentation in the Valley of Mexico. Into this new game of political contenders to the Toltec throne stepped outsiders: the Mexica (or Aztecs as they were subsequently labeled by European anthropologists) . They were a proud desert people, one of seven groups who formerly called themselves Chichimecs, "descendants of dogs", but changed their name after years of migrating. Newcomers to the Valley of Mexico, they were seen as crude and unrefined in the ways of the prestigious Nahua civilizations, such as the fallen Toltec empire.

Latecomers to Mexico's central plateau, the Mexica never thought of themselves as heirs to the prestigious civilizations that had preceded them, much as Charlemagne did with respect to the fallen Roman Empire.

In 1428, the Mexica led a war of liberation against their rulers from the city of Azcapotzalco, which had subjugated most of the Valley of Mexico's peoples. The revolt was successful, and The Mexica, through cunning political maneuvers and ferocious fighting skills, managed to pull off a true "rags-to-riches" story: they became the rulers of central Mexico as the head of the Triple Alliance.

This Triple Alliance was composed of the city-states of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. At their peak, 300,000 Mexica (Aztecs) presided over a wealthy tribute-empire comprising approximately 10 million people (out of 24 million within the region). This empire stretched from ocean to ocean, and extended into Central America.

By 1519, the Mexica capital, Tenochtitlán, was the largest city in the world with a population of around 350,000 (although some estimates range as high as 500,000). By comparison, the population of London in 1519 was 80,000 people. Tenochtitlán is the site of modern-day Mexico City.

( Aztec warriors as shown in the Florentine Codex )

In the formation of the Triple Alliance empire, the Mexica established several ally states. Among them were Cholula (the site of an early massacre by Spaniards), Texcoco (the site of a major library, subsequently burned by the Spanish), Tlacopan, and Matatlan. Also, many of the kingdoms conquered by the Mexica provided soldiers for further campaigns such as: Culhuacan, Xochimilco, Tepeacac, Amecameca, Coaixtlahuacan, Cuetlachtlan, and Ahuilizipan. Mexica fighting forces would become multi-ethnic, comprising many soldiers from conquered areas, led by a core of Mexica warriors and officers. This same strategy would later be employed by the Spaniards.

The Mexica left a deep and durable stamp upon Mexican culture. Much of what is considered Mexican culture today derives from this Mexica civilization: place-names, words, food, art, dress, symbols, and even the name "Mexican".

For much of its history, the majority of Mexico's population lived an urban lifestyle: cities, towns, and villages. Only a fraction of the population was tribal and wandering. Most people were permanently-settled, agriculturally-based, and identified with an urban identity, as opposed to a tribal identity. Mexico has long been an urban land, which was graphically reflected in the writings of the Spaniards who encountered them.

In 1519, the native civilizations of Mexico were invaded by Spanish troops numbering about a mere 600 soldiers, who brought with them superior weaponry and other things not known in America at that time, like horses, basic objects like the wheel (without which the native civilizations had -against all odds- managed to build empires) and old world diseases which were not present in America whose effects in terms of native mortality were certainly important. The Spanish also took advantage of a widespread resentment of brutal Aztec rule, making allies of peoples who were dominated by the Aztecs. This tactic allowed them a conquest which otherwise would have been impossible with their small numbers. Two years later in 1521, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) was conquered. It is said that the dead from smallpox filled the streets and canals. Hundreds of thousands of Aztecs died of disease. Francisco Hernández de Córdoba explored the shores of southern Mexico in 1517, followed by Juan de Grijalva in 1518. The most important of the early Conquistadors was Hernán Cortés, who entered the country in 1519 from a native coastal town which he renamed "Puerto de la Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz" (present day Veracruz).

Contrary to popular opinion, Spain did not conquer all of Mexico when Cortés conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521. It would take another two centuries after the Siege of Tenochtitlan before the Conquest of Mexico would be complete, as sporadic and ineffective rebellions, attacks, and wars continued against the Spanish by other native people. Disease ran rampant throughout Mexico, dropping the population from about eight million to two million by 1600.

The Spanish defeat of the Mexica in 1521 marked the beginning of the 300 year-long colonial period of Mexico. After the fall of Tenochtitlan Mexico City, it would take decades of sporadic warfare to pacify the rest of Mesoamerica. Particularly fierce were the "Chichimeca wars" in the north of Mexico (1576–1606).

During the colonial period, which lasted from 1521 to 1810, Mexico was known as "Nueva España" or "New Spain", whose territories included today's Mexico, Central America as far south as Costa Rica, and the area comprising today's southwestern United States. Also the Philippines, coastal parts of Alaska, British Columbia, all Oregon and Louisiana was part of the New Spain.

After Napoleon I invaded Spain and put his brother on the Spanish throne, Mexican Conservatives and rich land-owners who supported Spain's Bourbon royal family objected to the comparatively more liberal Napoleonic policies. Thus an unlikely alliance was formed in Mexico: liberals, or Liberals, who favored a republican Mexico, and conservadores, or Conservatives, who favored Mexico ruled by a Bourbon monarch who would restore the old status quo. These two elements agreed only that Mexico must achieve independence and determine her own destiny.

Taking advantage of the fact that Spain was severely handicapped under the occupation of Napoleon's army, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest of Spanish descent and progressive ideas, declared Mexico's independence from Spain in the small town of Dolores on September 16, 1810. This act started the long war that eventually led to the official recognition of independence from Spain in 1821. As with many early leaders in the movement for Mexican independence, Hidalgo was captured by opposing forces and executed. After no European monarch accepted its throne, the newly independent Mexico was ruled by Agustín de Iturbide. After his coronation as Emperor of Mexico he became known as Agustin I, and ruled until his overthrow by republican forces led by Guadalupe Victoria and Antonio López de Santa Anna.

( Map of Mexico, 1847 )

( Act of Independence of the Mexican Empire (1821) donated by Pedro Thomas Ruiz de Velasco to the citizens of Mexico )

A dominant figure of the second quarter of that century was the dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna who was president seven different times, many of his terms were unsuccessful.

During this period, many of the mostly unsettled territories in the north were lost to the United States. Santa Anna was Mexico's leader during the conflict with Texas, which declared itself independent from Mexico in 1836 by defeating Santa Anna and the Mexican army. As president, Santa Anna tried to rule during the disastrous Mexican-American War (1846–1848). The U.S. government sent troops to Texas in order to secure the territory ignoring Mexican demands for U.S. withdrawal. Mexico saw this as a U.S. intervention in internal affairs by supporting a "rebel" province. In the war that ensued, the United States kept over half of Mexico's territory, including land comprising the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. Mexico lost nearly 2,000,000 km² after the war and received a sum of 15,000,000 dollars for the lands from the U.S.

( Antonio López de Santa Anna, Former President of Mexico )

In the 1860s, the country again suffered a military occupation, this time by France, seeking to establish the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria as Emperor of Mexico, with support from the Roman Catholic clergy and conservative elements of the upper class as well as some indigenous communities. The Second Mexican Empire was then overthrown by President Benito Juárez, with diplomatic and logistical support from the United States and the military expertise of General Porfirio Díaz. General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the largely unsupported French Army in Mexico at the city of Puebla on May 5, 1862, celebrated as Cinco de Mayo ever since. However, after his death, the city was lost in early 1863, following a renewed French attack which penetrated as far as Mexico City, forcing Juárez to organize a new itinerant government.

( Emperor Maximilian of Mexico )

( Benito Juárez, The only Indigenous President of Mexico )

After the victory, there was resentment by Conservatives against Juárez (who they thought concentrated too much power and desired to be re-elected) that an army general, Porfirio Díaz, rebelled against the government with the proclamation of the Plan de Tuxtepec in 1876.

Díaz became the new president. During a period of more than thirty years (1876–1911) while he was the strong man in Mexico, the country's infrastructure improved greatly thanks to investments from other countries. This period of relative prosperity and peace is known as the Porfiriato. However there was discontentment amongst the people during the Porfiriato due foreign investors paying workers very small wages, which produced a very steep social division: only a small group of investors (domestic and foreign) were getting rich, but the vast majority of the people remained in abject poverty. Democracy was completely suppressed, and dissent was dealt with in repressive, often brutal ways

The Mexican Revolution, sometimes called the Mexican Revolution of 1910, was a violent social and cultural movement, colored by socialist, nationalist, and anarchist tendencies. It began with the popular rejection of dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori in 1910 and continued even after the promulgation of a new constitution in 1917. The main problem at the beginning was the dictatorship of Diaz since 1884 and the plight of farm workers who had been stripped of their wealth and lands. In 1909, Francisco I. Madero proposed returning the land to the people. When Madero won the elections, he said that the process of returning the lands was going to take time; as a result he was the object of several conspiracies until his assassination in 1913.

Towards the end of World War I a secret proposal was devised by Germany, articulated in a diplomatic message that became known as the Zimmerman telegram. The proposal, which was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence, asked Mexico to join the German war effort in exchange for German support in reclaiming Mexico's former territories in the southwestern United States. Its discovery became one of the many contributing factors to eventual U.S. involvement in the war on the side of the Allies. Mexico did not accept the offer.

In 1926, there was a "Catholic Revolution" called "Cristiada". Many Catholic people fought against the Calles government. The government wanted to apply the Constitution against the Catholic Church. The government forbade the religious orders, the Catholic associations and seized many Catholic buildings. The Catholic movement split into two parts, the "National League for the Religious Freedom", pacifist, and "Cristeros" (Cristos Reyes, Christ King), viol:Te movement. The government persecuted many Catholic activists, also pacifist, many of which were executed. In 1929, the Catholic Church formed with the government the "Arreglos", an accord for the freedom of religion.

During the next four decades, Mexico experienced impressive economic growth (from a very low base), and historians call this period "El Milagro Mexicano", the Mexican Miracle. This was in spite of falling foreign confidence in investment during the worldwide great depression. The assumption of mineral rights and subsequent nationalization of the oil industry into PEMEX during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was a popular move.

On January 1, 1994, Mexico became a full member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, joining the United States of America and Canada in a large economic bloc. On March 23, 2005, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was signed by the elected leaders of those countries.

Opposition to NAFTA is a rallying cause in Mexican left politics, and the EZLN made the day it came into effect the day they began their armed insurrection.

Even though it was frequently accused of corruption, influence peddling and blatant election fraud, the PRI managed to retain a firm grip on political power in Mexico until the end of the 20th century. Almost all public offices were held by members of the PRI.

It was not until the 1980s that the PRI lost the first state governorship, an event that marked the beginning of the party's loss of hegemony. Through the electoral reforms started by president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and consolidated by president Ernesto Zedillo, by the mid 1990s PRI had lost its majority in Congress. In 2000, after seventy years, PRI lost a presidential election to Vicente Fox, candidate of the Alliance for Change. In the 2006 General Elections, the PRI candidate failed to carry a single state and obtained considerably fewer votes than the PAN and PRD candidates (who were almost tied). The PRI lost half of its representation in the House of Representatives, and 22 of the 60 seats it had held in the Senate

Although hardly new, the issue of illegal immigration has acquired an increased relevance after the implementation of the NAFTA agreement in 1994. NAFTA became promptly an economic agreement of controversial results which may have increased Mexican unemployment by debilitating domestic industries within Mexico. The traditional safety valve for poor economic conditions in Mexico has been the massive manual labor demand across the border in the United States. A sensitive point which has soured relations between President George Bush and President Vicente Fox, illegal immigration has reached crisis levels during the first decade of the 21st century.

The increasing drug trafficking, mainly involving the smuggling of cocaine across the Mexican border into the United States, is the other huge problem between the two countries. After the invasion of Panama in 1989 to oust General Manuel Noriega because of his links to the drug trade, the United States saw, if any, only a temporary decrease in narcotics influxes from Colombia, the main cocaine exporter. The drug smuggling routes shifted from the Caribbean to Mexico and the long Mexican - U. S. border, involving innovative methods which include underground tunnels. The drug trade has converted Mexican cities along the border into virtual war zones where the drug cartels operate with surprising impunity. The Fox administration has tried, with limited success, to curb the power of the drug criminal organizations.