At least three great civilizations, the Mayas, the Olmecs, and later the Toltecs preceded the wealthy Aztec Empire, conquered in 1519–1521 by the Spanish under Hernando Cortez Spain ruled Mexico as part of the viceroyalty of New Spain for the next 300 years.
The 16th of September in 1810, marks the beginning of Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain. Hence, this day is similar in many ways to the American "4th of July," which commemorates American Independence from Britain. Their struggle for independence was finally won in 1821.

At that time, the Mexican Empire encompassed all of Central America and the Southwestern United States, including California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and parts of what now is the State of Kansas.

From 1821 to 1877, there were two emperors, several dictators, and enough presidents and provisional executives to make a new government on the average of every nine months. In November 1835, the northern part of the Mexican state of Coahuila-Tejas declared itself in revolt against Mexico's new centralist government headed by President Antonio de Santa Anna. By February 1836, Texans declared their territory to be independent and that its border be extended to the Rio Grande.

At the conclusion of the U.S. - Mexican War (1846-1848), the two countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The treaty called for Mexico to give up almost half of its territory, which included modern-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. In return, the U.S. paid $15 million in compensation for war-related damage to Mexican land and assumed some $3,250,000 more in claims of American citizens on the Mexican government. There is even today great controversy and debate regarding the questionable and perhaps unethical political means that the United States used to acquire this vast territory from Mexico. A few Spanish land grants still survive today. The Hispanic land grant heirs still argue that the United States should be forced to honor land rights they were promised in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War.

When Mexico signed the treaty there were four facts that had to be considered. First, the fact that California was scarcely under Mexican control at all and might have been taken at any moment by Great Britain, France, or Russia. Second, that New Mexico was still the almost undisturbed home of Indian tribes. Third, that the land from the Nueces to the Rio Grande was almost a desert. Fourth, American troops were in possession of the Mexican capital. Overall the terms offered Mexico were very generous. In fact President Polk was urged by many to annex the whole country of Mexico to the United States, but he refused to consider such a proposal.

At the time of the treaty, approximately 80,000 Mexicans lived in the ceded territory, which was comprised of only about 4 percent of Mexico's population. Only a few people chose to remain Mexican citizens compared to the many that became United States citizens.

What was the cause of the U.S./Mexico War? It seems to come from Mexico not wanting the United States to annex Texas. There were instances where Mexico had insulted the American flag, plundered its commerce, imprisoned their citizens, lied to their representatives, and spurned all envoys. As early as 1837, President Jackson said that Mexico's offenses "would justify in the eyes of all nations immediate war." The United States felt they had a right to annex Texas after that republic had maintained its independence for nine years. Yet Mexico made annexation a cause of war. The United States was willing to discuss the boundaries of Texas with Mexico but their accredited envoy was rejected by two successive Mexican presidents. They were rejected because they were afraid to oppose the war spirit of their country. The United States even refrained from taking Texas into the Union until Great Britain had interfered so far as to persuade Mexico to recognize the independence of Texas.

In 1855, the Indian patriot Benito Juårez began a series of reforms, including the disestablishment of the Catholic Church, which owned vast property. The subsequent civil war was interrupted by the French invasion of Mexico (1861) and the crowning of Maximilian of Austria as emperor (1864). He was overthrown and executed by forces under Juårez, who again became president in 1867.

The years after the fall of the dictator Porfirio Diaz (1877–1880 and 1884–1911) were marked by bloody political-military strife and trouble with the U.S., culminating in the punitive U.S. expedition into northern Mexico (1916–1917) in unsuccessful pursuit of the revolutionary Pancho Villa. Since a brief civil war in 1920, Mexico has enjoyed a period of gradual agricultural, political, and social reforms. The Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR; National Revolutionary Party), dominated by revolutionary and reformist politicians from northern Mexico, was established in 1929; it continued to control Mexico throughout the 20th century and was renamed the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI; Institutional Revolutionary Party) in 1946. Relations with the U.S. were disturbed in 1938 when all foreign oil wells were expropriated, but a compensation agreement was reached in 1941.

Following World War II, the government emphasized economic growth. During the mid-1970s, under the leadership of President José Portillo, Mexico became a major petroleum producer. By the end of Portillo's term, however, Mexico had accumulated a huge external debt because of the government's unrestrained borrowing on the strength of its petroleum revenues. The collapse of oil prices in 1986 cut Mexico's export earnings. In Jan. 1994, Mexico joined Canada and the United States in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which will phase out all tariffs over a 15-year period, and in Jan. 1996, it became a founding member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In 1995, the U.S. agreed to prevent the collapse of Mexico's private banks. In return, the U.S. won virtual veto power over much of Mexico's economic policy. In 1997, in what observers called the freest elections in Mexico's history, the PRI lost control of the lower legislative house and the mayoralty of Mexico City in a stunning upset. To increase democracy, President Ernesto Zedillo said in 1999 that he would break precedent and not personally choose the next PRI presidential nominee. Several months later, Mexico held its first presidential primary, which was won by former interior secretary Francisco Labastida, Zedillo's closest ally among the candidates.

In elections held on July 2, 2000, the PRI lost the presidency, ending 71 years of one-party rule. Vicente Fox Quesada, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), took 43% of the vote to Labastida's 36%. Fox vowed tax reform, an overhaul of the legal system, and a reduction in power of the central government. By 2002, however, Fox had made little headway on his ambitious reform agenda. Disfavor with Fox was evident in 2003 parliamentary elections, when the PRI rebounded, winning 224 of the 500 seats in the lower house. After the elections, Fox admitted publicly that many Mexicans were disappointed with his government thus far.

Since 1855 until 1997 there have been over a dozen different kinds of uprisings in Mexico. Even today the military is needed more and more to fight the Drug cartel in Mexico. Basically it can be said that since 1821, the independence of Mexico, the government of Mexico has not been a stable and strong protective government for the Mexican citizens. In an article written by Joe Cummings titled "DRUGS. REBELLION, AND MEXICO'S MILITARIZATION", (mexconnect.com/mex), he quotes Carlos Montemayor, a Mexican novelist and insurgency expert, points out it's, "only the final phase of a long process of social violence caused by hunger, impoverishment, desperation, and repression." He and other observers see Mexican insurgent movements such as these as typical responses to authoritarianism, responses which will only diminish in proportion to the expanding democratization of the country."

In the NY Times, August 9, 2004, Tina Rosenberg's article, "The Corruption of Mexico", she states, "To call Mexico, where civil society is barely breathing after years on the P.R.I. payroll, a successful example of corruption-fighting is an overstatement at this point."

Kelly Simmons, managing editor and senior writer, wrote an article in the Washington Post, July 30, 1996, which states "the Mexican chapter of Transparency International surveyed households in all 31 states and the Federal District of Mexico City, asking people how often they paid bribes for government services. Corruption was found to be spectacularly concentrated in Mexico City. People in the capital stopped by a transit cop reported paying a bribe 69 percent of the time".

James O. Finckenauer, Ph.D., International Center National Institute of Justice, 2001, "Mexico and the United States: Neighbors Confront Drug Trafficking", states "The costs that the illegal drug trade imposes on the United States have been estimated at a staggering $70 billion each year (S. 89, 2001). Mexican drug traffickers are the primary transporters of the major narcotics imported into the U.S." The enormous wealth that Mexican drug organizations have accrued through their operations have provided them with means to corrupt. The organized crime survey revealed that Mexican traffickers have a significant ability to influence others with money. There are numerous incidents of corruption reported among public and law enforcement officials in Mexico. A former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that, according to his commission on federal law enforcement, anti-drug initiatives have not yet had a significant impact."

In June 1996 an active-duty army general assumed the Mexico City police chief's post and replaced nearly a hundred high command police assignments with army officers. Meanwhile military officers have superseded civilian law enforcement heads in 21 out of Mexico's 31 states. In many cases it can be said that local law enforcement has no choice but to cooperate with local narcotraficantes--it's either "get rich or get dead." Drug czars spend an estimated US$500 million a year in bribery of Mexican officials, while the total annual federal budget for the Mexican attorney general's office (to fight all crimes, not just drug manufacture/trafficking) totaled just US$200 million in 1996." (Joe Cummings DRUGS. REBELLION, AND MEXICO'S MILITARIZATION)

Ricardo Cordero Ontiveros, a former commander with the Mexican Attorney General's National Institute to Combat Drugs (INCD) In a Dallas Morning News interview (July, 1996), Mr. Cordero is quoted as saying "The Mexican government is putting on a show for the Americans. It's a deception, a farce. Everyday, we say we've done this, we've done that in the drug fight. It's pure fiction".

When Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico on Dec. 1, 2000, he carried with him a huge burden: the public's expectation that he would liberate from corruption a country that had become symbolic of the scourge. However, even Tina Rosenberg, NY Times, August 9, 2004, reports "I have yet to meet a Mexican who says that President Fox is doing much of anything to fight corruption, except those who work for him. The year after Fox took office, more people actually thought corruption was rising rather than going down."

Anyone who may have questions about concerning this information on Mexico, we invite you to use an on-line search engine and look up "Mexico corruption." The search engine we used listed over 500,000 articles on the topic of corruption in Mexico. Based on the available information on the history of Mexico, it is reasonable to conclude that the government of Mexico is not and has not been a stable government. Nor has it been a government that promotes a general welfare for its people. This is not due to a lack of natural resources to provide opportunity for the citizens of Mexico. Mexico is a very blessed country with an abundance of natural resources. They are ranked as the world's fifth-largest oil producer (including crude, lease condensate, natural gas liquids, and refineries), behind Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States, and Iran. They are also rich in minerals, agriculture, fishing, and the tourist industries. Mexico does have the resources and the potential to be a very productive, respected, and strong independent country, if it was not for the corruption in their government.

One of the primary reasons that The United States is faced with illegal immigration from Mexico is because of the deep rooted corruption in the government of Mexico. Citizens Group believes that before Mexico can become a productive nation their government must be cleared of all its corruption. Before its citizens can live in peace, and before the United States can solve its border security problems, the Mexico's corruption has to be reversed.