Our new brief text highlights Mexico's stunning geographical, ethnic, and social diversity. In the sixteenth century, diseases brought by the Spanish conquerors wiped out almost 90 per cent of the indigenous population. Since then, Mexico - first as a colony of Spain and, after 1821, as an independent nation - has exported thousands of tons of silver, affecting currencies and prices as far away as China and India. In the century following independence, Mexico was invaded six times by three different European nations (Britain, France, and Spain) as well as the United States, the latter conflict resulting in the loss of half of Mexico's territory. More recently, Mexico has played an ever more important part in the world economy. Focused primarily on the period since independence in 1821, this brief text effectively summarizes Mexico's rich history, delineating some of the major processes at the national level and hinting at regional and local counter-currents.

Jürgen Buchenau is Professor of History and Director of Latin American Studies at UNC Charlotte. He received his Ph.D. in History in 1993 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests are the international history of Mexico, immigration, and the Mexican Revolution. He is the author of In the Shadow of the Giant: The Making of Mexico’s Central America Policy (Tuscaloosa, 1996), Tools of Progress: A German Merchant Family in Mexico City (Albuquerque, 2004), Mexico OtherWise: Modern Mexico in the Eyes of Foreign Observers (Albuquerque, 2005), and Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution (Lanham, MD, 2007). Buchenau has received fellowships from the national Endowment of the Humanities and the German Academic Exchange Service as well as grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the Tinker Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Southern Regional Education Board.