State of Mexico
The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Sharing its name with both the country and its capital, Mexico City, the state is colloquially distinguished as Edomex. It is the most populous and second most densely populated state in Mexico.
Located in central Mexico, the state is divided into 125 municipalities. The state capital city is Toluca de Lerdo, while its largest city is Ecatepec de Morelos. The State of Mexico surrounds Mexico City on three sides. It borders the states of Querétaro and Hidalgo to the north, Morelos and Guerrero to the south, Michoacán to the west, and Tlaxcala and Puebla to the east.
The territory now comprising the State of Mexico once formed the core of the pre-Hispanic Aztec Empire. During the Spanish colonial period, the region was incorporated into New Spain. After gaining independence in the 19th century, Mexico City was chosen as the new nation's capital; its territory was separated from the state. Years later, parts of the state were broken off to form the states of Hidalgo, Guerrero, and Morelos. These territorial separations have left the state with the size and shape it has today, with the Toluca Valley to the west of Mexico City and a panhandle that extends around the north and east of this entity.
The demonym used to refer to people and things from the state is mexiquense, distinct from mexicano, which describes the people or things from the whole country.
Origin and etymology
Mēxihco was originally the Nahuatl name for the Valley of Mexico where the cities of the Mexica were located. As such, the district that became Mexico City was properly known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan in the years shortly before and after the Spanish conquest. After the Spanish Conquest, the term México came to be used for Tenochtitlan/Mexico City and all the pre-conquest lands it controlled, including several other aforementioned states originally incorporated in the boundaries of the state of Mexico.There are two possible origins for the name "Mexico." The first is that it derives from metztli and xictla to mean "from the navel of the moon". This comes from the old Aztec idea that the craters on the moon form a rabbit figure with one crater imitating a navel. The other possible origin is that it is derived from "Mextictli", an alternate name for the god Huitzilopochtli.
Anáhuac was the proper term for all territories dominated by the Aztec Empire, from Cem Anáhuac, "the entire earth" or "surrounded by waters" e.g. the waters of Lake Texcoco which were considered to be the center of the Aztec world, and as such was proposed as an early name for the entire nation of Mexico prior to independence, to distinguish it from the administrative division of New Spain that became the State of Mexico.
History
Prehistoric to Pre-Hispanic period
The earliest evidence of human habitation in the current territory of the state is a quartz scraper and obsidian blade found in the Tlapacoya area, which was an island in the former Lake Chalco. They are dated to the Pleistocene era which dates human habitation back to 20,000 years. The first people were hunter-gatherers. Stone age implements have been found all over the territory from mammoth bones to stone tools to human remains. Most have been found in the areas of Los Reyes Acozac, Tizayuca, Tepexpan, San Francisco Mazapa, El Risco and Tequixquiac. Between 20,000 and 5000 BCE, the people here eventually went from hunting and gathering to sedentary villages with farming and domesticated animals. The main crop was corn, and stone tools for the grinding of this grain became common. Later crops include beans, chili peppers, and squash grown near established villages. Evidence of ceramics appears around 2500 BCE with the earliest artifacts of these appearing in Tlapacoya, Atoto, Malinalco, Acatzingo and Tlatilco.In the pre-historic State of Mexico, the Tepexpan Man is an important finding for Mexican and foreign anthropologists; it is an important key to understanding what the Valley of Mexico area was like, 5,000 years ago, as well as helping establish the occupation chronology of the region. Currently, some scholars attribute an age of 11,000 years, others 8,000, and some have suggested 5,000 years old. This individual was originally identified as a male, but recent research confirms a female identity, although this is still a subject of discussion.
Sacrum bone found in Tequixquiac is considered a work of prehistoric art. These people were thought to be nomadic, hunting large animals such as mammoths and gathering fruits as evidenced by archaeological evidence found at the site. One of the most salient discoveries of primitive art in America was found in here, called the Tequixquiac Bone, which had no known purpose, but reflected the ideological sense of the artist who carved the piece of bone from a camelid around 22,000 years BCE. The first native settlers of Tequixquiac were the Aztecs and Otomi, who decided to settle here permanently for the abundance of rivers and springs. They were engaged mainly in agriculture and the breeding of domestic animals.
The earliest major civilization of the state is Teotihuacan, with the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon being built between 100 BCE and 100 CE. Between 800 and 900 CE, the Matlatzincas established their dominion with Teotenango as capital. This city is walled with plazas, terraces, temples, altars, living quarters, and a Mesoamerican ball game court. In the 15th century, the Aztecs conquered the Toluca and Chalco valleys to the west and east of the Valley of Mexico respectively. Part of the Toluca Valley was held by the Purépechas as well. Other dominions during the pre-Hispanic period include that of the Chichimecas in Tenayuca and of the Acolhuas in Huexotla, Texcotizingo and Los Melones. Other important groups were the Mazahuas in the Atlacomulco area. Their center was at Mazahuacán, next to Jocotitlán volcano. The Otomis were centered in Jilotepec.
Spanish Colonial period
The origin of the modern state is the reorganization of Aztec lands starting after the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire. These lands were initially called the audiencia of Mexico and included Mexico City and much of the modern states of Guerrero, Morelos, and Hidalgo. As the Spanish expanded their control west and south, the entirety was called "New Spain" with former Aztec lands being called "Mexico". The organization of New Spain would change throughout the colonial period, but the territory of the Aztecs would keep the name "Mexico".After the Conquest in 1521, Hernán Cortés' cousin Juan Altamirano was given dominion of the Toluca Valley. Other conquistadors such as Antonio Caicedo, Juan de Jaramillo, Cristobal Hernandez, and Juan de Samano received encomiendas in the state. Franciscan missionaries came soon after such as Martin de Valencia, Juan de Tecto, Juan de Ahora, and Pedro de Gante, who established missions and the first school called San Antonio de Padua.
In 1535, the areas around Mexico City were divided into several alcaldías mayores called Chalco y Ameca, Tlayacapan y Coatepec, Otumba, Ecatepec, Sultepec, Zacualpan, Temascaltepec, Malinalco, Metepec and Ixtlahuaca with Toluca and Texcoco recognized as cities. Other orders followed such as the Dominicans, the Augustinians and the Jesuits.
During the colonial period, most of the area's economy was based on agriculture, with some mining in the areas of Temascaltepec, Sultepec, Valle de Bravo, Tlatlaya, Amatepec, and Zacualpan and the production of pulque in Otumba and Texcoco. In addition, certain areas were known for crafts such as wool processing in Texcoco and Sultepec, soap in Toluca, saddles in Almoloya de Juárez, and rebozos in various areas. However, the vast majority of the area's population was extremely poor due to exploitation.
Independence
During the Mexican War of Independence, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla marched into what is now Mexico State from Michoacán in 1810, passing from the northwest to Toluca on his way to Mexico City. East of Toluca, he fought royalist forces at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces on 30 October 1810. While Hidalgo won the battle, he chose not to proceed to Mexico City and then turned towards Celaya. During the rest of the War, most battles were fought between local insurgent leaders such as Manuel de la Concha and Castillo Bustamante and royalist forces. Battles were fought in Sultepec, Amanalco, Temascaltepec, Lerma, Tenango, Tenancingo and Tecualoya.After the War, the State of Mexico was created by the 1824 Constitution, with the first state congress convening in March of that year in Mexico City. This state still encompassed the vast territory of the old Aztec Empire. The first head of the state was Melchor Múzquiz. The vast territory of the state was divided into eight districts: Acapulco, Cuernavaca, Huejutla, Mexico, Taxco, Toluca, Tula and Tulancingo. Mexico City was the capital of the state. However, soon after, the federal government chose Mexico City as the capital of the new nation. Under the guidelines of the 1824 Constitution, the capital was appropriated as federal land, with the federal government acting as the local authority. The choice was made official on 18 November 1824 and Congress delineated a surface area of two leagues square centered on the Zocalo. This area was then separated from the State of Mexico, forcing the state's government to move from the Palace of the Inquisition in the city to Texcoco. This area did not yet include the population centers of the towns of Coyoacán, Xochimilco, Mexicaltzingo and Tlalpan, all of which remained as part of the State of Mexico. As the "federal district" of Mexico City grew in size, these and other territories were taken from the State of Mexico. The capital of the state was moved permanently to Toluca in 1830.
The struggles between the liberals and the conservatives in the 19th century affected the state, especially in those areas that would later break away to form the states of Hidalgo, Morelos, and Guerrero. During the Mexican–American War, the Americans occupied Toluca and Mexico City, with the state government temporarily located in the unoccupied Sultepec.
By 1852, the state had lost a significant amount of territory to the creation of the state of Guerrero, which prompted the reorganization of the municipalities here. During the Reform War, General José María Cobos took and sacked a number of municipalities in the territory remaining. During this war, a number of major figures such as Melchor Ocampo, Santos Degollado and were executed by firing squad in the Toluca Valley regions.
In 1869, the areas to the northeast and south of Mexico City were converted to the states of Hidalgo and Morelos, respectively. The state promulgated a new constitution in 1869, which established the state as consisting of the districts of Chalco, Cuautitlan, Ixtlahuaca, Jilotepec, Lerma, Otumba, Sultepec, Temascaltepec, Tenango del Valle, Tenancingo and Texcoco, which is the territory the state has today.
The period before the Mexican Revolution was relatively prosperous for the state, especially under governor José Vicente Villada, who promoted public education, government reform, the establishment of a teachers' college for women, and the Instituto Cientifico y Literario. Mines in various parts of the state were at maximum production.