Oaxacan history
Oaxaca is a state in the United States of Mexico. Much of its history was dominated by the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations, followed by Spanish colonization and, later, by its independence as part of present-day Mexico.
Pre-Hispanic Period
Man's presence in Oaxaca dates back some 11,500 years. Human beings have left evidence of their presence in Oaxaca in places such as the Guilá Naquitz cave, near Mitla, where ears of corn were found, dating back nearly 6,000 years. In Yagul, specifically on the Caballito Blanco plateau, cave paintings have been found related to nomadic groups linked to the first settlers of the valley of Oaxaca. Numerous villages with the ability to generate advanced pieces of pottery already existed in 1200 BC. C. especially in the region of the Zope lagoon.
Oaxaca is outside Mesoamerica, an American region whose civilizations share certain characteristics in common, mainly two great civilizations developed, which although they share many characteristics, always competed for the domination of Oaxaca, the first one, the Zapotec Empire, flourished in the Monte Albán area from 900 B.C. C. until its defeat in the year 1300 at the hands of the Mixtec Empire, which in turn would remain on the site until its defeat by the Spanish conquerors.
Stages of development
Archaeologist Marcus Winter points out the following stages of development of the Oaxacan civilization:
- Agricultural stage (9500 to 1500 BC)
- Stage of villas or villages (1500 to 500 BC)
- Urban stage (500 BC to 750 AD)
- Stage of cities-state (750 to 1521 AD)
Zapotecs
Little is known about the origin of the Zapotecs. Unlike most Mesoamerican Indians, they did not have any tradition or legend about their migration, instead believing that they were born directly from rocks, trees, and jaguars. One of the possible theories about the origin of the Zapotecs is the one reported by Father Francisco De Burgoa, and Father José Antonio Gay, author of "Historia de Oaxaca" where they assure that the Zapotecs settled primitively in Teotitlan del Valle, news that they received from ancient traditions and paintings that support the respect, of which perhaps there was a mobilization of a part of the population to what would be the current valley of Etla. Those primitive inhabitants in Teotitlan del Valle may have been Olmec groups in search of new territories.*
The first manifestations of the Zapotecs is the ceremonial center of San José Mogote, a village located in the Etla Valley, one of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. The village of Mogote (whose original name is unknown) was the most important of those that were established in the region, and had its greatest apogee towards the end of the Early Preclassic Period. Mogote was a Zapotec farming village, which controlled the central region of Oaxaca and maintained relations with the Olmec area. Its decline is clearly associated with the construction of Monte Albán, a city that was contemporary with Teotihuacán and the great Mayan cities in the southeast. Monte Albán was founded around 500 B.C. C. to 100 B.C. C., and quickly acquired enormous political and economic importance in the region. During the Classic Period is when it reaches its greatest growth. Monte Albán receives Teotihuacan and Mayan influences. Approximately during the years 200 AD. C. to 600 AD. C. Monte Albán reaches its peak, being the most important city -capital of the Zapotec empire- in the region, with about 40,000 inhabitants in the 20 km² near the ceremonial center.
From the year 800 B.C. C. and gradually, Monte Albán loses importance until the year 1325 d. C. when the Mixtecs, coming from the north, invaded the valley of Oaxaca and occupied it together with the city of Mitla.
The Zapotecs captured Tehuantepec. By the mid-XV century, the Zapotecs and Mixtecs fought to prevent the Mexica from gaining control of the trade routes to Chiapas, Veracruz and Guatemala. Under their great king, Cosijoeza, the Zapotecs endured a long siege on the rocky mountain of Giengola, keeping an eye on Tehuantepec, and successfully maintaining political autonomy through an alliance with the Mexica until the arrival of the Spanish.
Mixtec
Contemporaries of the Zapotecs who inhabited the Valley of Oaxaca, the Mixtecs developed in the western part of the state, also living in the Puebla and Guerrero regions near Oaxaca. The orography of the Mixtec terrain prevented the formation of a unified kingdom, so the Mixtec organization developed in the form of independent señoríos. Even so, the Mixtec nation -although not completely unified- possessed a well-defined socio-cultural identity. They often joined to wage war with the Mexica and Zapotec.
The word mixteco comes from the word Mixtecapan, which in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs means the people of Cloud. The Mixtecs, however, are called Nuu Savi in their native language, which in Spanish means town of rain. The Mixtec language is called as Sa'an Ndavi, although in recent years a movement has grown to change the name to Tu'un Savi, this, by Sa'a Ndavi literally means poor language, while Tu& #39;a Savi is rain word.
There are very few data on the origin of the Mixtecs, the oldest remains found in the Mixteca are dated around 6000 BC. C. experts have divided the Mixtec development into three eras, close to the cultural horizon of the rest of Mesoamerica (Preclassic, Classic and Postclassic). The first period is called "Cruz Phase" (corresponding to the Preclassic), the first Mixtec city was founded: Montenegro, from which only ceramics and a spatula carved from a jaguar bone have been obtained. During the "Ramos Phase" (corresponding to the Classic) the city of Yucuñudahui developed.
The Mixtec warrior hero 8 Venado in the mid-century XI begins a successful campaign of unification of the city-states, thus creating the Mixtec Empire.
The Mixtec culture reaches its maximum splendor in the “Flores Phase”, when Monte Albán is invaded and Mitla becomes the most important city of the Mixtec empire. Around 1458, the Mexica began expansionist campaigns under the reigns of Tízoc, Ahuízotl and Moctezuma and with it the decline of the Mixtecs, who occupied up to Tuxtepec and Mixtequilla. In 1521, once the Mexica region had been conquered, Hernán Cortés commissioned Pedro de Alvarado to carry After the conquests of the southern territories, the Mixteca was invaded by Francisco de Orozco, ending the flourishing Mixtec Empire and beginning the period known as the colony. Its history has come down to us thanks to the codices, since the Mixtecs, unlike the Zapotecs, did keep a written record of their history.
New Spain
The Conquest
As in the rest of Mexico, Spanish troops conquered the Oaxaca region taking advantage of local enmities, forging alliances with Mixtecs and Zapotecs against the Mexicas. The military conquest of the state began in the north, it was carried out in relative peace, with the peoples of the Sierras (mainly Zapotecs and Mixes) offering the greatest resistance. The indigenous populations were decimated by smallpox. Huaxyacac fell in December 1521. In the northern sierra, the Mixe people could never be conquered militarily, given the mountainous conditions of the terrain, not even the Aztecs or Zapotecs could, years before, conquer their territories, so the Spanish began another process of conquest: Evangelization.
It is important to point out that the conquest of the Sierra by the Spanish had very special characteristics, which made it one of the most brutal and prolonged episodes of the century XVI, due in part to the ferocity of their resistance, which allowed them to evade Spanish control until the mid-1550s, they received ruthless and brutal treatment from the Spanish, who were convinced that due to the isolation of the territory, they could use the means they wanted, without any reprisal. Mixe and Zapotec towns were attacked without any provocation, causing the death of hundreds of indigenous people. Many others, mostly free macehuales, were branded with hot irons. The caciques and principales who did not obey the orders were hanged, burned or thrown to the dogs. Something that characterized the conquest of the Sierra was the use of dogs as a means of defense and to torture and kill the rebellious Indians. According to Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, the indigenous people were more afraid of dogs than of armed men. It is said that Gaspar Pacheco came to use greyhounds to kill and devour the mixes and that his dogs constantly watched the town of Villa Alta.
Equal or superior in importance to the military conquest, the evangelization of the indigenous peoples fell into the hands of the Dominican Friars, who ordered the construction, with slave labor of indigenous origin, numerous temples, churches, and convents, mainly in the newly founded City of Antequera, Yanhuitían and Cuilapan. The Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán in Oaxaca became the religious nucleus of the state.
To introduce the Christian religion to newly conquered peoples, Dominican friars molded indigenous beliefs into Christian ones, learned their languages, and translated religious writings. To speed up the evangelization process, the friars burned codices and destroyed temples, in an attempt to make the natives forget their ancient customs.
The Colony
Preserving the hierarchical structure of the indigenous peoples, the Spanish managed to maintain control of the newly conquered population. The new government implemented throughout the country the hacienda system, a system very similar to medieval feudalism. In central and northern Mexico, gold and silver were mainly exploited, but in Oaxaca, lacking important mines, exploitation focused on an equally important resource: cochineal. The cochineal is an insect, a parasite of the cactus from which a red dye is extracted. The production of scarlet was only surpassed by that of silver, boosting the economic development of the region, they were so important that the Pope's clothes were dyed with this dye.
In the Mixteca and the valley, cattle raising was another highly implemented economic activity. The hacienda system made the distribution of wealth concentrate almost exclusively on the peninsulares, the poor were getting poorer and the rich richer.
The death of many indigenous people due to epidemics forced the Spanish to bring black slaves from Africa, some populations of African origin still live on the Oaxacan coast. By the beginning of the XIX century, the indigenous population was plunged into misery, which, added to the discontent of the Creoles (who possessed less rights than the peninsular Spaniards), the recent independence of the 13 colonies and the Napoleonic invasion of Spain motivated the uprising in arms of the people, ending almost 300 years of indigenous exploitation and submission.
Independent Mexico (19th century)
The War of Independence
Discovered the conspiracy plans to start a war of independence in December 1810, the insurgents are forced to advance the start of the war. The first revolutionary spark was detonated in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato at dawn on September 16, summoned by the priest Miguel Hidalgo. The armed struggle spread rapidly throughout the country and José María Morelos y Pavón was in charge of following the independence movement to the southern regions.
First Empire and North American Intervention
After Agustín de Iturbide agreed on the Independence of Mexico, the First Mexican Empire was created as stipulated in the Plan of Iguala and the Treaties of Córdoba. The regency is instituted, with Iturbide as its president, and the first constituent Congress is convened. Faced with Spain's refusal to accept Mexican independence, and with it its refusal to send a monarch to govern Mexico as stipulated in the Treaties, Iturbide is acclaimed Emperor by the people and the army, and elected as such by Congress, being ratified the election three days later, where he is given the character of emperor for life and hereditary. Given the slowness of the congress in creating a constitution, without which it is impossible for the emperor to enter into proper functions, and after an attempted coup by some members of congress, Iturbide dissolved the body and instituted a smaller one, composed of some members of the previous congress. Several leaders who had declared allegiance to the emperor and the empire, including Guerrero, opposed the creation of this new body. In Oaxaca, General Antonio de León, a former ally of Iturbide, opposed the emperor and together with Nicolás Bravo took the city. From Oaxaca. In 1824 José María Murguía was appointed governor of the Free and sovereign State of Oaxaca, established within the United Mexican States. A new nation had been born.
In 1824 the first political constitution of Mexico was drafted, which established, among other things, that the Republic had 19 states and five territories. In Oaxaca, the state constitution was published on January 10, 1825, dividing the territory into eight departments: Oaxaca, Villa Alta, Teotilán de Camino, Teposcolula, Huajuapan, Tehuantepec, Jamiltepec and Miahuatlán.
During the government of the first president of the republic in charge of Guadalupe Victoria, the country remained somewhat calm, but little by little, the differences between liberals and conservatives were accentuated. In Oaxaca many governments tried to establish order. When Antonio López de Santa Anna rose to power he was supported by Antonio de León, in 1842 he was appointed governor of the state.
In 1846 the US invasion broke out and although the armed conflict did not directly reach the state of Oaxaca, during that period the invading country focused its sights on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Minister James Buchanan demanded the free transit of citizens, troops, and merchandise through the Isthmus through an Interoceanic highway. The project was never finished.
Oaxaca sent the Battalion de la Patria under the command of General Antonio de León, going into action on September 18, 1847 at the Battle of Molino del Rey in Mexico City, where he died.
The Reform War
Benito Juárez was born in San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca, on March 21, 1806. He worked as a farm laborer and as a sheep herder until he was 12 years old, when he went to the city of Oaxaca with the intention of studying and have a better standard of living. When he arrived in the city, Juárez could not read or write, and spoke only Zapotec.
In Oaxaca, he had a sister who served as a cook, who welcomed him and started him as a domestic worker. A Franciscan tertiary, named Antonio Salanueva, was impressed with Benito's intelligence and his ease of learning, and helped him to enter the city seminary. In which he began his studies, although he leaned more towards Law than Theology.
The US war of intervention ends and the country loses almost half of its territory. In October 1847 Juárez was elected governor and carried out development works for the entity. When the Ayutla Revolution triumphed, he was again appointed governor. At the time of nationalizing ecclesiastical assets, in Oaxaca, the Catholic Church had 814 urban farms and 367 haciendas. Upset by the loss of territory and the dictatorial and centralist government of Santa Anna, the Liberals promulgated the Plan of Ayutla. Supported by guerrillas from various places, the movement triumphed and promulgated the Constitution of 1857
The situation became delicate, so much so that this first Constitutional Congress, which had elected Comonfort President of the Republic and Benito Juárez President of the Supreme Court of Justice, granted the Executive extraordinary powers to govern. The tenor of the facts prevented even the constitutional articles related to individual guarantees from being respected as long as the instability continued, which increased rather than diminished in one of the bloodiest wars in the country.
The war broke out and during the three years that the fighting lasted, Oaxaca played a fundamental role in the conflict. In support of the liberal government, Governor José María Díaz Ordaz published a decree temporarily separating Oaxaca from the republic. The fighting intensified and the war reached the city of Oaxaca, which fell silent in 1859, the liberal government moved to Ixtlán. The liberal counterattack was carried out under the command of Governor Díaz Ordaz and Porfirio Díaz. The battle of Santo Domingo del Valle opened the doors for the liberal troops to recover the city of Oaxaca in 1860.
French Intervention and Second Empire
The XIX century in Mexico was characterized by the almost uninterrupted succession of warlike conflicts. At the end of the war of reform and with a federal republic, the country could not continue paying the external debt, so the government of President Juárez stopped paying it. Spain, France and England found the ideal pretext to intervene in Mexican affairs. By January 1862, the armies of the three European powers landed in Mexican territory. The Spanish and English understanding the economic situation of the republic withdraw their troops, only Napoleon III's army remains on Mexican soil, advancing towards the country's capital. When trying to enter the city of Puebla, the republican army under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza and supported by the Oaxacan Porfirio Díaz, defeated the French on May 5, 1862 in the Battle of Puebla.
In 1864 the French army invaded Oaxaca through the Mixteca. Marshal Aquiles Bazaine, in command of six thousand French soldiers, faced the Mexican forces at the command of Díaz, despite putting up resistance, the national troops fell and Oaxaca was occupied by the French. Díaz was captured and taken prisoner to Puebla. On May 28, 1864, Maximilian of Habsburg entered Mexico, who had been persuaded by Mexican conservatives to establish the Second Mexican Empire.
The City of Oaxaca remained in the hands of the French for two years, in the Isthmus the Juchitecos loyal to the republic continued offering resistance, Marshal Bazaine headed towards Juchitán with the intention of invading Chiapas, commanding two thousand soldiers French and Austrians who faced a force of 500 Juchitec soldiers, who, aided by peasants from neighboring towns, armed with machetes, attacked the French army, defeating it on September 5, 1866. Díaz manages to escape from his confinement in Puebla and returns to Oaxaca where they defeat three thousand men on October 3, 1866 in the Battle of Miahuatlán, confiscating war material.
A month later, General Díaz together with 300 men from the Mixteca and the Coast under his charge established his headquarters in Tamazulapan, which was joined by the Mixtec general Ignacio Vásquez along with 300 other soldiers. Organized and regrouping forces, they defeated the French again in the Battle of La Carbonera. Diaz set out on his way to the state capital, which was still in the hands of the French. General Díaz marched towards Oaxaca, leading a column of foreign prisoners as a vanguard, which confused the invading army stationed in the city, noticing his mistake lately, the city of Oaxaca was handed over to General Díaz. On April 2, 1867, Díaz defeated General Noriega in Puebla, recovering the city and tipping the balance to the Republicans, this time definitively.
The Conservative government collapses and Maximiliano is captured, tried and shot along with Generals Miramón and Mejía, ending five years of French occupation.
After the republic was restored, the itinerant government of Benito Juárez once again took over the reins of the country. Juárez had ruled the nation during all this time. During the government after the Intervention there were several uprisings, including that of General Porfirio Díaz, who, promulgating the Plan de la Noria, rebelled against the president in 1871. The rebellion was put down by General Ignacio Alatorre. It took less than four months to put down the rebellion. On July 18, 1872, President Juárez died of angina pectoris and Díaz reluctantly accepted an amnesty proposed by the Federal Government.
In 1876 when Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada tried to be re-elected for a second term, Díaz rose up against him through the Tuxtepec Revolution, achieving in that same year the military triumph and months later, through an arranged vote, the presidency of the republic, beginning the period in the history of Mexico known as the Porfiriato
20th century
Porfiriato and Mexican Revolution
Oaxacan by birth, Porfirio Díaz carried out numerous infrastructure works: he created public oil lighting in the state capital, hundreds of kilometers of telegraph lines were wired, railroads were built (from Coatzacoalcos to Salina Cruz and from Puebla to Oaxaca), the Normal School was built and boosted trade by building the Oaxaca Market.
Profiling himself as an anti-reelectionist candidate, he finished his first term as president in 1880. He arranged the elections so that Manuel González was elected president, he was a friend of the general. Porfirio Díaz held the state governorship, taking office for two years. In 1884 Díaz occupies the presidential chair again.
With the peace and order typical of a dictatorship, the country prospered. However, there were social problems and discontents in Mexico and Oaxaca that germinated in the Revolution.
Like haciendas during the colony and medieval fiefs, during the Porfiriato latifundios and raya stores were implemented; Valle Nacional, was a clear example of the situation in Mexico. Located near Tuxtepec, it was owned by Mexican and foreign aristocrats, to which they took workers from all over the country, some brought under deceit, others prisoners and others simply kidnapped. Slave labor increased the power of the rich and bled the poor. John Kenneth Turner, an American journalist, wrote in his book México Bárbaro about the situation in Valle Nacional and in Mexico.
Opponents and critics of the system, the Oaxacan Flores Magón founded the newspaper Regeneración, one of the few print media where the Porfirian dictatorship was directly attacked, which cost them to be found out and prosecuted. The magonista cause gained followers throughout Oaxaca, by the end of 1908 the vast majority were in prison, some in San Juan de Ulúa
Reacting to the declarations of President Díaz, in which he said that Mexico was already ready for democracy, Francisco I. Madero called on Mexicans to organize political parties. In 1909 Madero, who had begun a tour throughout the country to spread his ideals, visited the city of Oaxaca. In Oaxaca, José Vasconcelos seconded him. Going back on his word, Porfirio Díaz presented himself as a candidate for the presidency in 1910 and through fraud he was declared the winner at the age of 80. Madero convenes that same year, the Plan of San Luis, starting the revolutionary struggle. In Oaxaca, the first revolutionary foci appeared on January 21, 1911 in Ojitlán, Tuxtepec, led by Sebastián Ortiz of a Magonista tendency, they took over the municipal building and confiscated the weapons they could, they were called the "Benito Juárez Libertador Army". The expectation grew and the groups from Puebla and Guerrero joined the Oaxacans on the coast and the Mixteca. Manuel Oseguera and Baldomero Ladrón de Guevara, members of the Mexican Liberal Party rose up in La Cañada, they were joined by other revolutionaries. The Oaxacan insurgents occupied the main towns by mid-1911 and wanted an anti-reelection governor appointed.
Having obtained only failures in the military field and in terms of negotiations, Díaz resigned from the presidency and left the country in May 1911.
In July 1911 Benito Juárez Maza won the elections for state governor over Félix Díaz, beginning his government in September of that same year, his government lasted only seven months, in which he built schools and regulated the working day of masons and other employees.
During his government, in Oaxaca, sympathizers of Emiliano Zapata appeared, demanding the return of the land to the peasants. Juárez Maza confronted supporters of the regime in the Isthmus region, the rebels were led by the local leader "Che" Gómez who confronted the federal army in Juchitán
Betrayed Madero, and harassed by rebel and Porfirio forces, resigned as President of the Republic, in Oaxaca the news was celebrated with jubilation. Madero, was assassinated, together with his vice president José María Pino Suárez on February 22, 1913, Victoriano Huerta became president, in Oaxaca the governor Miguel Bolaños Cacho accepted the government of the usurper Huerta.
In Oaxaca, rebel groups emerged on the isthmus, they also appeared in Tuxtepec, Pinotepa Nacional and La Mixteca, by 1914 the latter dominated all of Silacayoapan.
A rebel group from the Sierra Juárez forced the resignation of Governor Bolaños Cacho, who had earned the discontent of the people by raising taxes and closing elementary schools. Huerta in the capital, was forced to resign by the constitutionalist army led by Venustiano Carranza.
Relations between the constitutionalist Carranza and the Oaxacans were difficult, mainly because the Oaxacans were considered "enemies of the revolution", added to this, in Oaxaca Carranza's brother, Jesús Carranza, was killed in the Sierra Mixe. The main "constitutionalist" chiefs blamed the state government, considering that it was protecting the guilty.
In 1925 a plague of locusts ravaged the regions of the Mixteca and the Central Valleys. The landowners hid the grain reserves to sell them at a higher price. In Oaxaca epidemics of typhus and smallpox broke out.
In the rest of the country, the revolution did not follow a stable order, the allies fought each other. Lacking a federal government, Governor José Inés Dávila, relying on the liberal constitution of 1857, “separated” Oaxaca from the rest of Mexico. This is how the government known as “of sovereignty” arrived in Oaxaca, organizing its own army, currency and postage stamps, alien to the rest of the country, new districts were also created.
Carrancista forces stationed in Chiapas were commissioned to take over the state, occupying the state capital in March 1916. Fighting continued in the Sierra Juárez and Sierra Sur. On February 5, 1917, the new Political Constitution of the United Mexican States was decreed, but it was not until 1920, when the sovereignists fell completely, that the Constitution was recognized.
The “Sovereignty” government ended with the signing of the Coateca Atlas treaty, by the Sovereignty General Guillermo Meixueiro and his Carrancista counterpart Pablo González
News
(DOS_PESOS)(anverso_y_reverso).jpg)
On May 22, 2006, a teachers' strike began that became known as the Oaxaca Teachers' Conflict and led to a series of protests and claims by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca where the government repressed to teachers and students who demonstrated.
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