Mexican History: From the Spanish Conquest to the 20th-Century Revolution

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the major figures, events, and concepts of the 16th-century Spanish Conquest and the 20th-century Mexican Revolution based on the lecture documentary transcripts.

Porfiriato

The period of more than 30 years during which Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico with an iron fist, promoting modernization, foreign investment, and the motto 'orden, paz y progreso' while marginalizing indigenous and rural peasants.

Los Científicos

A circle of technocrats and elitist advisors surrounding Porfirio Díaz who directed national economic policies, drafted legislation, and negotiated contracts between the Mexican government and foreign investors.

Hacienda System

A semi-feudal system of large land estates owned by wealthy hacendados where laborers (peones) worked under oppressive conditions from dawn to dusk for minimal wages, such as 25 centavos.

Cananea Copper Strike

A major strike by Mexican copper miners roughly 50 miles south of the Arizona border demanding wages equal to American workers; it resulted in the intervention of about 250 Arizona Rangers and the deaths of 20 to 30 workers.

Francisco I. Madero

A wealthy landowner from Coahuila who challenged Porfirio Díaz by issuing the Plan of San Luis Potosí, calling for free elections and initiating the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

Henry Lane Wilson

The United States ambassador to Mexico who opposed Francisco I. Madero, prioritized American business interests, and played a decisive role in orchestrating the 1913 coup d'état that brought Victoriano Huerta to power.

Emiliano Zapata

Revolutionary leader from the southern state of Morelos who fought for agrarian reform and the restoration of ancestral lands to indigenous peasant communities.

Plan de Ayala

A manifesto proclaimed by Emiliano Zapata on November 6, 1911, taking up arms against Francisco I. Madero and demanding the return of stolen lands to Mexican peasants.

Decena Trágica (Ten Tragic Days)

A ten-day period of intense urban combat and mutiny in Mexico City in February 1913, orchestrated by Victoriano Huerta, that culminated in the arrest and assassination of President Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez.

Soldaderas

The women who traveled alongside revolutionary soldiers atop train cars and into combat, providing essential care, sustenance, and morale without which the revolutionary armies could not have operated.

Convention of Aguascalientes

An October 1914 convention of rival revolutionary factions—including representatives of Venustiano Carranza, Pancho Villa, and Emiliano Zapata—that attempted to reach an accord regarding Mexico's governance following the fall of Victoriano Huerta.

Zimmermann Telegram

A secret 1917 coded proposal from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann offering Mexico an alliance and the recovery of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany.

Mexican Constitution of 1917

A landmark national constitution ratified under Venustiano Carranza that granted unprecedented labor rights, such as limits on the workday and the right to strike, and established state ownership and redistribution of land under Article 27.

CROM (Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana)

The largest national labor union confederation in 1920s Mexico, led by Luis Napoleón Morones, which initially bolstered state power before succumbing to corrupt labor bossism.

Maximato

The period between 1928 and 1934 in which former president Plutarco Elías Calles, known as the 'Jefe Máximo,' controlled Mexican politics from behind the scenes through a series of puppet presidents.

Lázaro Cárdenas

The Mexican president (1934–1940) who broke the power of Calles, redistributed 50 million acres of land to peasants, nationalized the petroleum industry, and provided asylum to thousands of refugees fleeing European fascism.

Mexican Oil Expropriation (1938)

The nationalization of Mexico's petroleum industry by President Lázaro Cárdenas on behalf of striking petroleum workers, treated by the Mexican public as a monumental assertion of national sovereignty.

Nellie Campobello

A novelist and dancer from Durango who chronicled her childhood during the Revolution and her devotion to Pancho Villa in works such as 'Cartucho' and 'Las manos de mamá.'

Tlatelolco Massacre

The violent crackdown on October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas where Mexican armed forces opened fire on thousands of peaceful student and worker protesters, occurring ten days before the Mexico City Olympic Games.

Hernán Cortés

A Spanish conquistador from Medellín, Extremadura, who led the 1519 expedition to the mainland of the Americas and orchestrated the downfall of the Aztec Empire.

Bernardino de Sahagún

A Spanish Franciscan friar who documented the Aztec culture, language, and indigenous account of the Spanish conquest through rigorous interviews with surviving Aztec eyewitnesses.

Malinche (Malintzin / Marina)

An indigenous enslaved woman fluent in both Nahuatl and Mayan who served as Hernán Cortés's indispensable interpreter, advisor, and intermediary with the Aztecs.

Quetzalcoatl

An exiled Aztec deity prophesied to return from the east to reclaim his kingdom, whose mythological description and expected return in the year One Reed influenced Moctezuma's initial reception of Cortés.

Tlaxcalans

The inhabitants of an independent indigenous city-state who initially fought the Spaniards but subsequently formed a crucial military alliance with Cortés to defeat their Aztec oppressors.

Massacre of Cholula

A preemptive assault launched by Hernán Cortés and his Tlaxcalan allies inside the holy pilgrimage city of Cholula, resulting in the slaughter of over 3,000 nobles and inhabitants.

Tenochtitlan

The island capital of the Aztec Empire located in Lake Texcoco, built with grand temples, palaces, and a network of canals connected to the mainland via three massive causeways.

La Noche Triste

The midnight retreat in 1520 in which Aztec warriors attacked Spanish forces as they attempted to flee Tenochtitlan along a broken causeway, killing roughly three-quarters of Cortés's men.

Martín López

The Spanish shipbuilder who survived La Noche Triste and directed the construction of 13 prefabricated brigantines carried over the mountains to lay siege to Tenochtitlan.

Cuauhtémoc

The last Aztec king who led the final 80-day defense of Tenochtitlan during the Spanish siege until his capture and surrender at Tlatelolco in August 1521.