Federal District - Mexico City

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on 5000 m (16,410 ft)-high Popcatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl - in the east, the Las Cruces mountains in the west, and in the south, guarded by the rounded summits of Cerro Ajusco and Cerro Cuautzín, the Tres Marías Pass near the high Tres Marías. The population consists chiefly of mestizos, Creoles and local Nahua Indians whose numbers have been swelled by Indian migrants from elsewhere. There is also a substantial foreign community.

Archaeological Sites

The two most interesting archaeological sites, Cuicuilco and Copilco, are close to "University City", campus of Mexico City's National University. They lie on the southern edge of the Pedregal lava field which covers most of the northern part of the Distrito Federal. The ruins date from the pre-Classic or in some cases the Archaic period. In contrast, after systematic destruction by the conquistadors, little has survived from the golden age of the Aztec empire, such few remains as there are being of no great importance. They are seen to best advantage in the excavations on the corner of Argentina and Guatemala streets, not far from the Zócala, and in the reconstructions on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco.

As the El Arbolillo, Ticomán, Zacatenco, Cuicuilco and Copilco archaeological sites testify, the first cultivators had already settled the Valley of Mexico (or Anáhuac Valley) in the pre-Classic (early formative and middle formative) era between 1500 and 800 bc Tlatilco (1300-800 bc), adjacent to what is now the Distrito Federal, was an important settlement within the Olmec sphere of influence.

At times during the Classic period (ad 300-900) the area came under the sway of Teotihuacán. After the collapse of Toltec Tollán (Tula) in the second half of the 13th c., various tribes began to migrate into the Anáhuac Valley. A number of small city-states emerged, the most important of which were those of the Otomí-speaking Tepanecs at Atzcapotzalco (Náhuatl: "place of the ant hill"), the Acolhua at Coatlichán, the Chichimecs (Náhuatl: "descended from dogs", i.e. barbaric tribes) at Tenayuca and later Texcoco, and the Toltecs at Culhuacán (Náhuatl: "place of the grandfather").

It was however the Náhuatl-speaking Aztecs (also known as the Tenocha or Mexica) who were destined to dominate this central valley, together with other sizeable areas of what is now Mexico, during the final 150 years leading up to the Spanish Conquest. They are believed to have abandoned their as yet unidentified island home at Aztlán (or Aztatlán; Náhuatl: "place of the heron', probably in a lagoon somewhere on the north-west coast of Mexico) in about ad 1111. Led by their god-king Huitzilopochtli (Náhuatl: "humming bird of the south"), they came via Chicomoztoc (Náhuatl: "seven caves"), origin, so legend has it, of all the migrant 12th c. Náhuatl-speaking peoples, into the Valley of Mexico. The warlike tribe, by this time calling themselves the Mexica, arrived at Chapultepec (Náhuatl: "grasshopper hill") in 1299. Reduced at first to servitude by the Tepanecs, they fled to Culhuacán. Driven out once more, in 1345 they founded Tenochtitlán (Náhuatl: "place of the cactus fruit") on an island in Lake Texcoco. Legend has it that Huitzilopochtli bade the tribe make their home where they came across an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake. The eagle symbolised the sun and thus Huitzilopochtli also, while the red cactus fruit represent the human heart, consumed by the sun (this same Aztec emblem survives today on the Mexican flag). Led by their High Priest Ténoch and claiming to be the successors of the great Toltecs whose cultural inheritance they usurped, in a short time the arrogant Mexica had transformed the inhospitable swampy island into an economically self-sufficient domain. This they did with the aid of chinampas (artificial islands used for cultivation; see Xochimilco near Mexico City). In 1358 a second city, Tlatelolco (Náhuatl: "earth mound"), was established on a neighbouring island. For a long time it was in rivalry with Tenochtitlán before being annexed by the greater power. Afterwards it assumed an important role as the commercial capital of the Aztec empire.

The accession in 1372 of the ruler Acamapichtli (Náhuatl: "handful of reeds'), a Toltec prince from Culhuacán, marked the emergence of an Aztec dynasty, numbering eleven rulers in all, which was to last until the Spaniards captured Tecochtitlán in 1521. In Tlatelolco in contrast, the Mexica installed a Tepanec prince as founder of the ruling house.

In the course of the next 150 years, aided by a succession of dynastic marriages, alliances and numerous wars, the Mexica emerged as the dominant power in the Anáhuac Valley, at the same time extending their hegemony to cover much of present-day Mexico as far south almost as Guatemala. Under their belligerent rulers, Moctezuma I (Náhuatl: "angry Lord", 1440-68), Axayácatl ("water face", 1468-81) and Ahuizotl ("ghostly water face", 1486-1502) especially, Aztec armies were able to subdue huge areas of what are now the states of México, Hidalgo, Morelos, Guerrero, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca and Chiapas, forcing the inhabitants to pay them tribute. Only the Purépecha (Tarascan) empire in Michoacán and the states of Tlaxcala and Meztitlán proved strong enough to resist conquest and retain their independence. In 1502 Moctezuma II took the throne, the last of the Aztec dynasty to wield absolute power and destined to face, in Hernán Cortés, an even more powerful adversary. The subject peoples, vanquished in war and intimidated by threats, faced burdensome taxes imposed on them by Tenochtitlán, mainly in the form of tradable commodities, slaves and military service. Aztec garrisons, permanently stationed at strategic points, special tax collectors, and itinerant merchants ensured contracts were kept and that Náhuatl, then the lingua franca of Meso-America, spread. But in 1517 the first Spaniard, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, landed on the coast of the Yucatán peninsula, and in 1519 Hernán Cortés alighted on Mexican soil. Their arrival spelled the end of the Aztec empire, its collapse being largely attributed by the rulers to rebellion on the part of the oppressed indigenous peoples.

Moctezuma's immediate successor in the by now threatened Tenochtitlán was his brother Cuitláhuac (Náhuatl: "protector of the empire"). Having ruled for only four months he died in an epidemic however, his nephew Cuauhtémoc ("falling eagle") then assuming the throne. Taken captive after the Mexica's final defeat at the hands of the Spanish, Cuauhtémoc was hanged in 1525.

The Federal District itself was created by a decree of President Guadalupe Victoria in 1824. Its history, both during the colonial period and subsequently, is one and the same with the history of the Mexican Republic and its capital.

Economy

More than 50 per cent of Mexico's entire industrial capacity is located in the Distrito Federal, a situation which even a deliberate policy of decentralisation such as has been instituted in recent years can do little to alter. The main sectors represented are iron and steel, construction, vehicles, textiles, paper, chemicals, glass and ceramics, machinery, electrical appliances and food. In addition to central government and the head offices of a great many administrative departments, major banks and insurance companies also have their headquarters in Mexico City. The capital is the nerve centre of all the principal rail and air routes, and the hub of numerous bus and coach services. Being the country's major internal marketplace as well as the source of most of its consumer goods, the District is also Mexico's leading centre of commerce. The numerous sights in the city and its environs, combined with a good infrastructure, mean tourism is now another important element in the economy.

Such a vast concentration of industry is inevitably accompanied by serious environmental problems, especially in Mexico City. The highland air of the Distrito Federal, once widely acclaimed as exceptionally clear and healthy, has today deteriorated into an almost unendurable smog which seldom dissipates.