Quick ways to nail down Mexican history
An efficient way to get a grip on Mexican history is to segment and compare.
The table below shows how to do this by first dividing Mexico's history into three segments and then comparing each segment to a similar time in the US.
Mexico (Estado Unidos Mexicanos) | United States (United States of America) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period name | Period Years | Period name | Period Years | |
| Ancient Mesoamerica | 30000bce-1519 | Native America | 30000-1497 | |
| New Spain | 1519-1821 | Colonial America | 1497-1783 | |
| Mexico | 1821-2020 | USA | 1783-2020 | |
Your next step is to segment further and continue the comparisons to a familiar period in US history, as illustrated below.
| Mexico (Estado Unidos Mexicanos) | United States (United States of America) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period name | Period Years | Period name | Period Years | |
| Ancient Mesoamerica | 30000bc-1519 | Native America | 30000-1497 | |
| Pre Classic | 2000bc-100ad | |||
| Classic | 100ad-900ad | |||
| Post Classic | 900ad-1521ad | |||
| New Spain | 1519-1821 | Colonial America | 1497-1783 | |
| Conquest | 1519-1535 | English colonies | 1497-1783 | |
| Viceroys | 1535-1821 | New France | 1700-1803 | |
| Florida (Sp) | 1500-1809 | |||
| New Netherlands | 1614-1674 | |||
| Mexico | 1821-2020 | USA | 1783-2020 | |
| War of Independence | 1810-1821 | The War of Independence | 1776-1783 | |
| First Leaders | 1821-1835 | First Presidents | 1783-1861 | |
| Santa Ana, MX-US war | 1835-1855 | Civil war | 1861-1864 | |
| Juarez, War of Reform, Maximilian | 1855-1876 | Post war | 1864-1870 | |
| Porfiriato | 1876-1910 | Industrial revolution | 1870-1914 | |
| The Revolution and civil war | 1910-1917 | WW I | 1914-1918 | |
| Age of the Generals | 1917-1940 | Peace and depression | 1918-1941 | |
| PRI | 1929-2000 | WW II | 1941-1945 | |
| Fox-AMLO | 2000-date | Truman-Trump | 1945-2020 | |
Then it's time to begin digging deeper and the best way to do that is by reading the best books written about Mexican history which you can find reviewed in the next article.