Introduction

Readers new to the subject of Mexican history may benefit from the narrative of the major political, economic, military, and institutional events that these sources can be used to tell. Indigenous history has played a more central role in the development of Mexican national identity since the Independence Wars than in any other part of North America. The Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultural zone included the areas of greatest indigenous population concentration on the North American continent, stretching from central Mexico through the Yucatan Peninsula into Guatemala, western Honduras, and El Salvador. From ancient to modern times, Mexican states have exerted powerful control over the shape of urban life, frontiers, labor, and religion in the territories they control. State governments centralized in Mexico City have always had to contend with challenges on their frontiers, and sometimes the outcome has been a loss of influence over territory or the shrinking of borders.