(Free Press Release) There were ones of the most advanced civilizations of the Western Hemisphere on the territory of modern Mexico. The first civilization was the state of the Olmecs which was existing from 1500 to 600 BC. The Mayan culture reached its height around the VI century AD. Another civilization was the state of the warlike Toltec, which arose in the tenth century in the heart of modern Mexico. In the XI century the Toltecs were ousted by the tribe Chichimecas, which in turn were expeled by the nahuatlan tribes who had come from the north. The most powerful one among them was the tribe of the Aztecs or "Mexicoâ€.
The Aztec Empire emerged in the second quarter of the XIV century and by the XV century it was the most powerful state formation in central and southern Mexico. The first European who came to the territory of Mexico was a Spanish explorer Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba, who in 1517 discovered in the Yucatan ancient Mayan settlements. A year later Juan de Grihava, who led an expedition to the eastern coast of Mexico, brought a message about existence of the rich Aztec Empire. In 1519 a large armed detachment under the command of Hernando Cortez began fighting against the Aztecs. In 1535 the Aztec capital fell and Mexico became a Spanish colony.
In the early XIX century when Napoleon's troops invaded Spain, in Mexico the liberation war started that ended in July 1821 with formation of the independent Mexican Empire. In 1823 Mexico was proclaimed a republic. In 1836 Mexico lost the territories of California and Texas which declared themselves independent republics, and after the war with the United States (1846-1848) - the lands to the north of the Rio Grande.
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