POPULATION EVOLUTION IN MEXICO: MAIN CHARACTERISTICS - HISTORY - 2025

The evolution of the population in Mexico has been due to various factors, among which stand out the rise and fall of the aboriginal empires, the arrival of the Spanish and the integration of the Africans.

In the pre-Hispanic period, the beginning and end of various indigenous empires caused civilizations to succeed one another. For example, the Teotihuacan civilization preceded the Toltec, and the latter was displaced by the Aztec civilization.

With the discovery of America in 1492 and the arrival of the Spanish to Mexican territory, the aboriginal groups were decimated. The surviving indigenous communities mixed with the Europeans.

Subsequently, Africans were introduced as slaves and joined the already existing cultural and ethnological mix. The result was the Mexican mestizo people known today.

Currently the population of Mexico comprises almost 130 million inhabitants. The main ethnic groups are the mestizos, who are the majority, in addition to the Mexicans of European descent and the aborigines.

Added to this are the immigrant communities that have settled in Mexican territory, such as the Arabs, the Chinese, the Spanish, the Colombians and the Venezuelans.

Prehispanic period

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Mexican territory was occupied by different aboriginal groups.

It is believed that these came from Asia and that they came to America through the Bering Strait, a kind of bridge between the two continents that occurred during the ice age.

There are signs that these groups were organized in advanced civilizations, at least two millennia before the arrival of Europeans. Some of the oldest civilizations were the Olmec, the Teotihuacan, and the Toltec.

The Olmec civilization emerged between 1600 and 1400 BC. C., and disappeared in the year 400 a. This town was recognized for its giant head sculptures.

This was followed by the Teotihuacan civilization (between 250 and 900 AD). For their part, the Toltecs developed between the 10th and 12th centuries and are recognized for their constructions in Tula, Hidalgo.

These peoples were displaced by the Aztecs and the Mayans, empires of great political and economic power. In fact, these two were the most advanced aboriginal civilizations on record.

The alphabetic language, the solar calendar and certain astronomical concepts are legacies of these groups.

The Mixtecas, the Zapotecs and the Otomí were other minor aboriginal groups present in the Mexican territory.

Conquest and colony

When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in the early 16th century, most of the territory was occupied by the Aztec Empire.

In 1518 Hernán Cortés organized an expedition to conquer the Aztecs. This Spanish explorer allied himself with the Tlaxcala, an Aztec tribe that opposed the empire.

Thanks to this, the Spanish managed to conquer Mexican territory in just three years.

In colonial times the aborigines were employed as slave labor. Many Spaniards took Aboriginal women as sex slaves, resulting in young mestizos being born.

Later, the indigenous people were replaced by the African blacks because the latter were considered to have more stamina for work.

The introduction of this group increased the cultural and ethnic diversity of Mexico. In this way, other groups emerged in addition to the mestizos: the mulattoes, the zambos and the pardos.

The mulattoes were children of a Spaniard and a black. The zambos were the sons of a black man and an aborigine. And the pardos were the mixture of the three ethnic groups that interacted in Mexico.

With the passage of time, everything that was a mixture of two or more groups was designated mestizo, regardless of origin.

The Modern Age and immigration

As already mentioned, during the conquest and the colony the Spaniards and Africans arrived in Mexico. However, from the 19th century, the Mexican territory began to receive immigrants from other nations.

More than a million of the population of this country is of Arab origin, coming from Libya, Syria, Iraq and Palestine.

Inter-ethnic marriages with members of the Arab community are common. This means that one of the two parties is Arab while the other is Mexican.

On the other hand, Filipino, Korean, Chinese and Japanese immigrants are the most common groups from Asia. In total, these constitute less than 1% of the population.

The Filipinos established relations with Mexico since the 16th century, when they arrived in the territory as sailors, slaves or prisoners.

A particular case is that of the Chinese immigrants, whose population grew dramatically between the 1880s and 1920s.

Mexican population in the 21st century

Demographic censuses carried out in Mexico in the last decade show that this is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world. In addition, these censuses showed that the population grows at a rate of 1.1% per year.

Before 2015, the censuses did not include questions about the ethnic group to which the citizens belonged. To include an individual in a given group, physical and cultural characteristics were observed.

For example, a person was considered to belong to an indigenous group only if they spoke one of the 62 Mexican aboriginal languages. The 2010 census used this method and established that 14.9% of the Mexican population was Aboriginal.

However, in the 2015 census, respondents were asked if they identified with any specific group.

The data produced showed that 21.5% of the population considered themselves indigenous. About 15% have left their lives in the tribes and have entered modern Mexican civilization. The rest still belong to a tribal group.

Currently more than 50 aboriginal groups are recognized, among which the Mayas, the Chichimecas, the Zapotecs, the Otomi, the Nahuas, the Zuni and the Purépechas stand out.

The majority group is that of the mestizos, who constitute 65% of the population. 15% are made up of Mexicans of European descent. On the other hand, 1.2% of the population is Afro-descendant.

References

1. Demographics of Mexico. Retrieved on October 18, 2017, from wikipedia.org
2. Largest Ethnic Groups in Mexico. Retrieved on October 18, 2017, from worldatlas.com
3. Mesoamerican civilization. Retrieved on October 18, 2017, from britannica.com
4. Mexicans. Retrieved on October 18, 2017, from wikipedia.org
5. Mexico. Retrieved on October 18, 2017, from wikipedia.org
6. Mexico Ethnic Groups. Retrieved on October 18, 2017, from britannica.com
7. Paleo-Indian. Retrieved on October 18, 2017, from wikipedia.org