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1911_51 | By the 1530s, Mexico City was given jurisdiction over other town councils of New Spain and quickly established itself as the most populous and powerful city in the Americas. Like that of the Aztecs, the Spaniards' grasp extended well beyond the capital and the Valley of Mexico—only much farther. As the site of the viceroyalty of New Spain and archbishopric of Mexico, as well as economic elites, Mexico City was the center of power. Socially, the viceregal government and ecclesiastical authorities remained the pillars of Spanish colonialism. Its prestige as representing civilization allowed the colonial system to function during the long period from the 1640s to the 1760s when crown authorities in Mexico City were too weak politically to regulate much of the economic activities over such a vast territory. These institutions' close association with Mexico City also ensured this city's dominance in the political territory of New Spain, providing the links that kept the vast and expanding |
1911_52 | empire together. |
1911_53 | Religious power
As the seat of the Archbishopric of Mexico and the site of many diocesan institutions and those of mendicant orders and the Jesuits, and nunneries, Mexico City had a concentration of religious institutional power. The Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City was built over an extended period of time and designed to show the religious power of the Catholic Church. Built on the Plaza Mayor, or Zócalo, its architecture reflected several styles of Spanish Colonial architecture. |
1911_54 | Despite this concentration of Catholic power, the indigenous population's understanding of Catholic doctrine and practice was not thorough, even in the capital itself. Residual native practices survived and were reflected in the natives' practice of the new faith. Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún suspected that the emerging cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is said to have originated with the vision at Tepeyac Hill to the north of the city's borders in 1531, represented a post-Conquest adoption of the Aztec cult of Tonantzin. He was also concerned that the prior cult of Quetzalcoatl would find its way into the new religion by equating this god with the Apostle Thomas, as an earlier attempt to evangelize the Indians before the Spanish conquest. |
1911_55 | The Spanish also brought with them the Inquisition as a social and political tool. Public hangings and even burnings, not unusual in Europe at the time, were also used in New Spain, especially in Mexico City, as demonstrations of the joint power of the Church and the State over individual actions and social status. One group that suffered during this time were the so-called "crypto-Jews" of Portuguese descent. Many converted Portuguese Jews came to New Spain looking for commercial opportunities. In 1642, 150 of these individuals were arrested within three or four days, and the Inquisition began a series of trials on suspicion of still practicing Judaism. Many of these were merchants involved in New Spain's principal economic activities. On 11 April 1649, twelve were burned after being strangled and one person was burned alive. A similar fate was in store for those found guilty of homosexuality. Men were burned at the stake in 1568, 1660, 1673 and 1687 after being denounced. While not |
1911_56 | as likely to be executed, scholars had to be careful at this time, too. Academics such as Fray Diego Rodríguez who advocated the separation of science and theology found themselves the subject of investigations by the Holy Office. Booksellers who did not have their inventory approved by the Church faced fines and possible excommunication. |
1911_57 | Economic power
Economically, Mexico City prospered as a result of its primacy. It was the capital of the viceroyalty, seat of the archbishopric, residence of civil and religious officials of all ranks, as well as wealthy merchants who engaged in international trade, but also the center of much regional trade. The establishment of a consulado de mercaderes (merchant guild) in Mexico City indicates the concentration and organization of this economic elite. |
1911_58 | The consulado was founded in Mexico City in 1594, controlled by peninsular wholesale merchants who dealt in long-distance trade, who often married into local elite families with commercial ties. Their assets had to amount to at least 28,000 pesos. Although they were not supposed to deal in local retail trade, they often did some indirectly. They mainly lived in Mexico City and had positions on the city council cabildo. A number of them were connected to the crown mint in the capital. They diversified the assets locally, investing in urban real estate. In the eighteenth century, as New Spain's economy boomed, consulados were established in the port of Veracruz and in Guadalajara Mexico, indicating increased trade and the expansion of the merchant elite. The consulado in late colonial Mexico had approximately 200 members, who divided themselves into two factions based, the Basque and Montañés, even though some were from neither of those Iberian regions. American-born merchants came |
1911_59 | to be part of the consulado in the later colonial period, but a small number of peninsular merchants dominated. Goods were shipped from the Spanish port of Cádiz to Veracruz, but many of the goods were produced elsewhere in Europe. |
1911_60 | Since Mexico City was the hub of so much sustained economic activity, the capital also attracted large numbers of skilled artisans, who often organized themselves into guilds to protect their monopoly on production for a relatively small market. |
1911_61 | Unlike Brazil or Peru, New Spain and its capital had easy contact with both the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. In fact, the Philippines were colonized and evangelized from Mexico City rather than directly from Spain itself. From the late 1560s until 1813, the annual Manila galleon took Mexican silver from the port of Acapulco across the Pacific Ocean to Manila, in exchange for Chinese silks and porcelain from Canton. The viceroy in Mexico City sought to restrict cargoes and frequency on the grounds that the Asiatic trade diverted silver from the principal route which was to Europe. There were also attempts to restrict, then prohibit, trade between Peru and Mexico City in the late 16th and early 17th century, with the objective of keeping control of Peruvian silver. The overall goal was to keep Spain's colonies dependent on trade with the motherland, rather than with each other and even less with colonies of other European powers. Although the viceroy's attempts were not 100% effective, |
1911_62 | they were effective enough that Mexico City merchants lost control of the Pacific trade, which fell under the control of contrabandists operating from the smaller ports in Guatemala and Nicaragua. |
1911_63 | Population of Mexico City
Size
Population figures for the city are inexact for Spaniards, mixed-race castas, and indigenous. Some idea of the indigenous can be discerned from tribute records. In 1525, the city had perhaps 22,000 indigenous inhabitants, dropping precipitously starting around 1550. A figure for Tenochtitlan tributaries in 1562 is 12,971. The estimates of the European population in Mexico City is also imprecise, with figures coming from a variety of sources. In 1525 there were 150 households occupied by Spaniards, with the European population increasing steadily during the entire colonial period. The highest estimate for the colonial era is by Alexander von Humboldt, who estimated ca. 1802 that there were 67,500 whites in Mexico City. |
1911_64 | The size of Mexico City's population and its demographic contours have been enduring questions for crown officials as well as modern scholars. There were major epidemics that affected the population, starting with the smallpox epidemic of 1520 that was a factor in the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire, but there were other major epidemics throughout the colonial period. There were estimates taken in the late seventeenth century, with the largest and most detailed census mandated by Viceroy Revillagigedo in 1790. In 1689, there was an estimate of 57,000 residents. An estimate for 1753 based on a partial census mandated by the Audiencia put the population at 70,000. In the period between 1689 and 1753, there were at least nine epidemics. The Revillagigedo census of 1790 counts 112,926 residents, a significant increase. This might be due to migration to the city accelerating. An 1811 census done by the ‘'Juzgado de Policía'’ put the number even higher, at 168,811, which might well |
1911_65 | reflect displacement from the countryside from the insurgency of Miguel Hidalgo and his successors. The census of 1813 done by the city government (Ayuntamiento) shows a significant decrease to 123,907, perhaps showing the return of short-term migrants to their home communities following the waning of the insurgency, but also possibly "fevers" that affected the population. |
1911_66 | Racial composition
Although Mexico City was designated the capital of the viceroyalty, it still had a significant non-white population throughout the colonial period. In the early period after the conquest, the Spanish population played a pivotal role in the capital. |
1911_67 | In his analysis of the 1790 census of Mexico City and its surrounding area, Dennis Nodin Valdés compared the population of the capital with the census of the Intendancy of Mexico in 1794. The total number of Mexico City residents counted in 1793 was 104,760 (which excludes 8,166 officials) and in the intendancy as a whole 1,043,223, excluding 2,299 officials. In both the capital and the intendancy, the European population was the smallest percentage, with 2,335 in the capital (2.2%) and the intendancy 1,330 (.1%). The listing for Spaniard (español) was 50,371 (48.1%), with the intendancy showing 134,695 (12.9%). For mestizos (in which he has merged the castizos), in the capital there were 19,357 (18.5%) and in the intendancy 112,113 (10.7%). For the mulatto category, the capital listed 7,094 (6.8%) with the intendancy showing 52,629 (5.0%). There is apparently no separate category for blacks (Negros). The category Indian showed 25,603 (24.4%), with the intendancy with 742,186 |
1911_68 | (71.1). The capital thus had the largest concentration of Spaniards and castas, with the countryside being overwhelmingly Indian. The population of the capital "indicates that conditions favoring mestizaje were more favorable in the city than the outlying area" and that there were more high status occupations in the city. |
1911_69 | Further analysis of the two censuses found that the population of the capital was older and had more women. Women migrated to the capital in higher numbers than men from the surrounding countryside.
Racial Residential Patterns
In studying the 1811 census, there is no absolute segregation by race. The highest concentration of Spaniards was around the traza, the central sector of the city where the civil and religious institutions were based and where there was the highest concentration of wealthy merchants. But non-Spaniards also lived there. Indians were found in higher concentrations in the sectors on the fringes of the capital. Castas appear as residents in all sectors of the capital.
Nobility in Mexico City – "City of Palaces"
. |
1911_70 | The concept of nobility transferred to New Spain in a way not seen in other parts of the Americas. A noble title here did not mean one exercised great political power as one's power was limited even if the accumulation of wealth was not. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, most of those who had titles gained them after their families had accumulated wealth over several generations. Many of these nobles made their money outside of the capital at large haciendas or in mining but spent their fortunes in the capital. Those who made their money in the city were usually wholesalers from lower social backgrounds. The merchant-financiers became almost as prominent as the landowners because they were the decisive element of the city's economy. Many of the leading figures were of Spanish origin, although their principal economic interests and family connections were within New Spain. For example, the Andalusian, Pedro Romero de Terreros, who became Count of Regla in 1768, made his money in |
1911_71 | silver mining at Real del Monte, near Pachuca, from 1742. This blending of wealth of landowners and merchant-financiers led to a blending of traditional and modern practices. Matrimony and personal ties continued to be the principal means of solidifying business interests. Nephews, other relatives and friends formed broad networks of interest over a wide geographical area from the capital cities into the countryside and through the span of economic activities. The landowners, however, remained in a slightly higher social position because their livelihoods stemmed from their close working arrangement with the colonial state. |
1911_72 | Some landowners' holdings were almost kingdoms. Between the 1730s and the 19th century, the Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo had amassed properties that combined were about two-thirds the size of Portugal, or . These estates were centered in the modern-day state of Durango, and their specialty was sheep-raising. Meat from their stock supplied Mexico City and wool was sold to various textile workshops. The Aguayos left these estates in the hands of administrators, backed by armed guards to ward off Indian attack, to live off the revenues in Mexico City, where they possessed four palatial residences. Their title had been awarded in 1682, but the land purchases by the family dated from the 1580s. |
1911_73 | The concept of nobility in Mexico was not political but rather a very conservative Spanish social one, based on proving the worthiness of the family, not the individual. For an individual to receive a noble title, he would have to prove his family's bloodline as well as their loyalty to God and king for a number of generations prior. Such a quest was costly but once a title was secured the costs did not stop there.
Nobles in New Spain had to continually reinforce their devotion to both God and king. To show their piety, most nobles donated temporal goods to the Roman Catholic Church, by building churches, funding missionary activities and charities. Sometimes nobles would also hold religious office or give one or more children (usually daughters) to a religious vocation but this was relatively rare. Demonstrating loyalty to king meant paying taxes to maintain their titles, sometimes purchasing military rank as well. |
1911_74 | Their last duty was to maintain a certain show of luxury. It was not a case of "keeping up with the Jones'", but rather a requirement of the position. Families that could not keep up a certain level of luxury were scolded by royal officers as not honoring their title. Such conspicuous consumption manifested itself in dress, jewels, furniture and especially in the building of mansions and palaces. |
1911_75 | The pressure to build the most opulent residence possible reached its height in the last half of the 18th century. Nobles leveled old buildings, using their Aztec stones and Spanish bricks to build more fashionable Baroque and Neo classic style mansions. Many of the most costly were on what was called San Francisco street (now Madero street) and near the Alameda Central. Near the Alameda were the homes of the Marquis of Guardiola, of the Borda family and the house of the Marquis of Prado Alegre as well as the home of the Counts of the Valley of Orizaba who covered the entire façade with talavera tiles from Puebla. On San Francisco Street, the most famous house was that of the Marquis of Jaral. It was a former convent that the marquis converted into a replica of the royal palace of Palermo for his daughter and her Sicilian husband. Later it was the home of Felix Calleja and then Agustín de Iturbide, who accepted the crown of Mexico from its balcony. Today it is known as the Palace of |
1911_76 | Iturbide. |
1911_77 | Most of these palaces still remain in the city center. Their abundance led Charles Joseph Latrobe, a man of high standing in Australia, to name Mexico City the "city of palaces" in his book "The rambler in Mexico." This moniker is often erroneously attributed to the famous scientist and savant Alexander von Humboldt, who traveled extensively through New Spain and wrote The Political Essay of the Kingdom of New Spain, published in 1804. |
1911_78 | Such need for pomp made for an extreme social class difference. Alexander von Humboldt reported that foreigners were often horrified at the differences between how the nobles lived and the misery of the common people. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, there was a strong desire among nobles to transform colonial absolutism to something like an autonomous, constitutional state. More specifically, they looked for more power in the rural regions outside of Mexico City where their holdings were. There was an experience in such decentralization in September 1808, when tensions between the metropolis and the other regions of New Spain were high. Then regional elites used this situation to subvert the colonial government in the city, turning to popular mobilization against the elite of Mexico City when they failed to subvert the colonial militia.
The urban poor in Mexico City |
1911_79 | Mexico City also has a long tradition of urban poverty, while at the same time being home to the largest concentration of wealthy people in New Spain. There were institutions designed both to control the urban poor, but also aid them, created by private donors, the Church, and the crown. The establishment of the Nacional Monte de Piedad, the pawnshop still in operation in modern Mexico City, allowed urban dwellers who had any property at all to pawn access to interest-free, small-scale credit. It was set up in 1777, by the Count of Regla, who had made a fortune in silver mining, and the pawnshop continues to operate as a national institution in the twenty-first century, with its headquarters still right off the Zócalo in Mexico City with branches in many other places in Mexico. The Count of Regla's donation is an example of private philanthropy in the late colonial period. A much earlier example was the endowment that conqueror Hernán Cortés gave to establish the Hospital de Jesús, |
1911_80 | which is the only venue in Mexico City that has a bust of the conqueror. Another eighteenth-century example of private philanthropy that then became a crown institution was the ‘'Hospicio de Pobres'’, the Mexico City Poor House, founded in 1774 with funds of a single ecclesiastical donor, Choirmaster of the Cathedral, Fernando Ortiz Cortés, who became its first director. That institution lasted about a century, until 1871, going from a poor house or work house for adults to mainly being an orphanage for abandoned street children. The Mexico City Poor House was partially supported by another eighteenth-century institution, the Royal Lottery. There was also a foundling home established in 1767, the ‘'Casa de Cuna'’ (house of the cradle). |
1911_81 | During the viceroyalty of Revillagigedo, there were attempts to control the public behavior of the poor in Mexico City. Ordinances such as forbidding public defecation and urination had little effect, especially since there was no alternative for the poor to relieving one's self on the street. Also forbidden were the discarding of trash buckets, dead dogs and horse in the streets and gutters. A local police force was tasked with creating order and tidiness. The crown also attempted to regulate taverns, where the poor congregated, drank, gambled and in the estimate of elites, generally got up to no good. Revillagigedo focused special attention on cleaning up the Plaza Mayor and the viceregal palace, removing pulque stalls, garbage, wandering dogs, cows, and pigs, moved the market area elsewhere. He had the area paved with cobblestones, and the area was illuminated with newly place streetlamps. The Alameda park was cleaned and the entrance to it was guarded to prevent the poorly clad |
1911_82 | plebe from entering. Public space was thus regulated cultural space, separating elites from the poor. |
1911_83 | In the capital and other Spanish cities in New Spain (and later after independence in 1821), there was a population of léperos, a term elites gave to shiftless vagrants of various racial categories in the colonial hierarchical racial system, the sociedad de castas. They were considered a kind of criminal class, contributing to the disorder of Mexico City. Research has found that they included mestizos, Indians, and poor whites (españoles). Léperos were viewed as unrespectable people (el pueblo bajo) by polite society (la gente culta), who judged them as being morally and biologically inferior. Léperos supported themselves as they could through petty commerce or begging, but many resorted to crime. A study of crime in eighteenth-century Mexico City based on official arrest records of the two police forces of Mexico City indicates that léperos were "neither marginal types nor dregs of the lower classes. They consisted of both men and women; they were not particularly young; they were |
1911_84 | not mainly single and rootless; they were not merely Indian and casta; and they were not largely unskilled." All of the popular stereotypes of a young rootless, unskilled male are not borne out by the arrest records. "The dangerous class existed only in the collective mind of the colonial elite." Claudio Linati depicts a barefoot and shirtless "lépero or vagabond", in the 1820s, lounging against a wall, smoking a cigarette with his dog gazing up at him. The scene suggests both his vice and laziness. |
1911_85 | Arrest records are one of the few ways to get at empirical data about the urban poor. Not all arrests led to criminal cases and prosecuted, and not all prosecutions led to convictions. Formal prosecutions usually involved serious crimes against persons (homicide, aggravated assault), but also gambling. In the late colonial period, the police actively arrested the largest number of people (both men and women) for tavern violations, drunkenness, gambling, disorderly conduct, and violence, as well as the sexual crimes of "incontinence", i.e., what English law calls common-law marriage, living together without marriage, and promiscuity. They made arrests for other crimes only when a complaint was filed; these crimes included theft, vagrancy, family offenses, and debt. |
1911_86 | Indians were over-represented in arrest records, that is they were arrested at higher rates than their proportion of the population. They were most often arrested for drunkenness, theft, and violence. Non-Indians (‘'gente de razón'’, a category that included Spaniards, mestizos, mulatos, and other mixed-race castas) were arrested for financial crimes (gambling, debt), tavern violations, family offenses, vagrancy, and disorderly conduct. Indians and non-Indians were jailed separately. |
1911_87 | Women were arrested less frequently than men, but they were still about a quarter of total arrests. Women were arrested for violence, mainly violence against other women. An early nineteenth-century lithograph by Claudio Linati shows two Indian women fighting, each with a baby on her back. Women also attacked men whom the woman knew as an acquaintance or a common law partner; less frequently they attacked their legitimate husbands. One explanation for the pattern of female violence among the poor in Mexico City is that their position within the family was subordinate, that there was a pattern of male domestic violence "often growing out of a need to demonstrate virility or control over the wife", resulting in the wife violently acting out against others outside of the nuclear family. Women were also arrested for desertion at higher rates than men, mainly when the women were in their twenties. Arrest records indicate that many of these women had provincial origins and the women |
1911_88 | migrated to the capital leaving a spouse behind. Their arrests for desertion indicates their spouses wanted them reunited with the family. In trials the women often stated that nonsupport or domestic abuse was the reason they deserted. |
1911_89 | Men also deserted their wives, but were arrested in smaller numbers (perhaps not reflecting the real extent of their desertion); these men abandoning their families did so between the ages of 20 and 49. In their trials, many men cited their inability to support their families as the reason for desertion. The insecurity of employment of the lower classes meant that there was continuous stress on the urban poor families, particularly for unskilled or semi-skilled workers, although artisans also abandoned their families.
Independence to the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Independence and Iturbide |
1911_90 | When rebellion against Spanish rule broke out, interests outside of Mexico City would be represented by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, José María Morelos and others. While the nobility in Mexico City also did not like the absolute colonial system, their goal was limited representation and autonomy within the Spanish empire. They decided to make their stand in 1820, after the rural insurgency had been going on for several years, choosing Colonel Agustín de Iturbide to push their interests militarily. Iturbide had fought against Morelos between 1813 and 1816. However, between 1816 and 1820, Iturbide was becoming sympathetic to the idea of some degree of independence for Mexico. In 1821, Iturbide was the supreme commander of the royalist forces and had put down all but one of the major rebels, Vicente Guerrero. Iturbide decided to meet with Guerrero, after becoming convinced that independence was the only real course for Mexico. However, Iturbide's idea was a Mexican monarchy with |
1911_91 | ties to King Ferdinand VII of Spain. |
1911_92 | After switching sides, Iturbide chose to pressure the colonial government by repeating Hidalgo's strategy of closing in on the city from the surrounding area. Iturbide was able to succeed where Hidalgo had not because the Spanish-born commanders in the city supported Iturbide's idea of limited autonomy, and many the royalist forces were in the field battling insurgents like Guerrero. Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees (Independence, Union, Religion) entered Mexico City on 21 September 1821. On the following 27 September, Mexico was declared independent. |
1911_93 | The Mexico City nobles sought to preserve as much of the old as possible, and garnered the support of a substantial section of the royalist army to recreate central power. Their objective was to halt the devolution of power to the regions outside the city and the lower echelons of society. Shortly after his triumphant entrance into the city, Iturbide declared what is now known as the First Mexican Empire, with himself as emperor, from the palace that now bears his name. The coronation of Agustín as emperor and his wife Ana María as empress took place amid much pomp and circumstance on 21 July 1822 at the Cathedral of Mexico City. The Archbishop Fonte presided over the anointment of the Emperor who following Napoleon's example, crowned himself. |
1911_94 | Following his coronation, the new empire was politically and financially unstable. Iturbide was accused of taking too much power for himself, and his main rival was Antonio López de Santa Anna. In the spring of 1823, Iturbide offered his abdication, which was accepted by his political opponents and then left the country for Europe.
Mexico was then declared a republic. The republican constitution of 1824 established Mexico City as the nation's capital. Unrest followed for the next several decades, as different factions fought for control of Mexico. |
1911_95 | U.S.-Mexican War |
1911_96 | During the Mexican–American War, American forces marched toward Mexico City itself after capturing Veracruz. President Santa Anna first tried blocking their way at Cerro Gordo in the Veracruz highlands. The first battle to defend Mexico City itself was the Battle of Contreras. A fortified hacienda in the town of San Antonio covered the southeastern approach, while the town of San Ángel covered the southwestern. Between them lay a vast, seemingly impenetrable lava field, called El Pedrégal. General Gabriel Valencia decided to move his troops from San Ángel to the then town of Contreras. Despite being forewarned of U.S. intentions by a tactical mistake, the Mexicans found themselves outgunned by the invading army at Contreras. This allowed the Americans to cross the Pedrégal and move in on the Mexican troops at San Antonio from behind. The assault on the carefully laid defenses at San Antonio became known as the Battle of Churubusco. Knowing of the Americans' approach, Santa Anna |
1911_97 | ordered General Pedro María de Anaya to move his troops to a monastery in Churubusco. While Anaya's position was eventually overrun, he held off the Americans for some time. However, the Mexican army lost 10,000 defenders. The Battle of Molino del Rey was the last just before the Americans entered the old city itself. The war ended with the attack of Chapultepec Castle, headquarters of the military college, where young students defended the castle. In this place died in the battle the Niños Héroes, students of the college with ages from 13 to 19 years. General Gideon Pillow and his 2,500 men led the assault, starting from the Molino del Rey to the west of Chapultepec. General John Quitman entered in from the south to cut Chapultepec off from reinforcements, while General David Twiggs fought against positions further east. Inside the walls, General Nicolás Bravo realized that his 1,000 men were too few to hold the castle, but he attempted to do so. Mexican troops on the western slope |
1911_98 | of the castle held for a while, but Pillow's men captured the castle by 9:30 am the day of the attack. |
1911_99 | To end the war officially, American and Mexican representatives met at the Villa of Guadalupe Hidalgo, across from the shrine of the patron saint of Mexico, in what is now the far north of the city. They signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and then celebrated a mass together at the basilica. |
1911_100 | Reform War and Second Empire |
1911_101 | Peace did not last long. Santa Anna's losses to the Americans created great discontent among his political opponents who coalesced to call themselves the Reform movement or the Liberals. Those who supported Santa Anna's regime and the power of the Catholic Church were called the Conservatives. The Reform War lasted from 1857 to 1861. For a time, the two factions had parallel governments with the Liberals in Veracruz and the Conservatives in Mexico City. When the Liberals were victorious, Liberal president Benito Juárez moved his government to the capital city. Since the Catholic Church was as much a target of the Reform movement as the government was, a number of ecclesiastical buildings were torn down or turned to other uses. The liberals' urban program was to transform "an ecclesiastical capital into a secular one." However, Juárez was soon faced with a new threat when he suspended payments for foreign powers of money borrowed by the conservatives, which sparked the French |
1911_102 | intervention in Mexico. The intervention, supported by Mexican conservatives, installed Emperor Maximilian as the ruler of a newly created monarchy, the Second Mexican Empire. |
1911_103 | Emperor Maximilian undertook an accelerated program of urban renovation under the supervision of Mexican architect, Francisco Somera. Somera had served on the city council of the capital and dealt with the city's infrastructure, such as roads, sewers, canals, and pavement. His portfolio and expertise meant he was concerned with the ongoing problem of flooding in the capital, especially during heavy rains, which the major colonial-era project of drainage, the Desagüe, had not solved. He was also significantly involved with the expansion of the city from its historic urban core. |
1911_104 | For the most part, growth of Mexico City in the 19th century, was based on extending the rectangular layout of the original Spanish colonial city, even if its borders had an irregular, even zigzag, appearance. In 1865, Emperor Maximilian had a wide avenue, Paseo del Emperador or Paseo de la Emperatriz, planned by Francisco Somera, and built to connect the emperor's residence at Chapultepec Castle with the National Palace in the downtown core. All along this avenue there were plans to place statues of heroes of Mexican history, which were not realized until the regime of Porfirio Díaz, starting in 1877. However, the thoroughfare extends southwest to northeast, breaking the north–south, east–west orientation of roads before it. With the ouster of the imperial French in 1867 and return to Mexico City of republican president Benito Juárez, the avenue was initially renamed Calzada Degollado and then in 1872 changed to Paseo de la Reforma.
Porfiriato (1876–1910) |
1911_105 | President Porfirio Díaz ruled the nation for more than three decades between 1876 and 1910. During this time, he developed the city's infrastructure, such as roads, schools, transportation, and communication systems. He also encouraged foreign investment and laid the groundwork for industrial development. In Mexico City, these improvements were most apparent, since this is where government elites, foreign investors, and domestic entrepreneurs lived and worked, while the countryside and smaller cities and pueblos languished. |
1911_106 | With the ouster of the French occupiers and the political exile of their conservative Mexican supporters, liberalism put its stamp on Mexico City in the form of new monuments and the renaming of streets. Most prominently, the new, wide avenue became Paseo de la Reforma, with statues of liberal heroes and others important to Mexican history lining its route. The monument mania on the Paseo started in 1877 with the Monument to Christopher Columbus donated by Mexican railway magnate Antonio Escandón designed by French sculptor Charles Cordier, followed by the Monument to Cuauhtémoc, both in major traffic circles (glorietas). |
1911_107 | As with earlier regimes, Diaz re-purposed a number of older buildings. One was Belem Prison, a colonial-era building that was used to produce pseudoscience about criminals. The police had started to take photos of prisoners in Belem in the 1850s, to identify them in case of an escape. Diaz wanted to professionalize the police and the Mexico City Police adopted the Bertillon method to catalogue and identify repeat offenders. The Palacio de Lecumberri prison in Mexico City drew on the panopticon concepts of Jeremy Bentham and was completed in 1900. It became symbolic for Diaz's attempt to put criminals under visual surveillance. |
1911_108 | In 1910, Mexico celebrated the 1810 Hidalgo revolt that initiated the independence movement in Mexico. Díaz had been in power since 1876 and saw the occasion of the centenary as an opportunity for the creation of new buildings and monuments and to invite world dignitaries to show off Mexico's progress. For buildings, much advance planning and other work was needed to have them completed in time for September 1910. During that month in Mexico City, there were "inaugurations of a new modern mental hospital, a popular hygiene exhibition, an exhibition of Spanish art and industry, exhibitions of Japanese products and avant-garde Mexican art, a monument to Alexander von Humboldt at the National Library, a seismological station, a new theater in the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, primary schools, new buildings for ministries, and new large schools for teachers." On the actual anniversary of Hidalgo's grito, 16 September, Díaz inaugurated the monument to Independence, "the Angel". |
1911_109 | Mexican Revolution's impact |
1911_110 | By the early 20th century, Mexico City was becoming a modern city, with gas and electric lighting, streetcars, and other modern amenities. However, the regime concentrated resources and wealth in the hands of a few people. The majority of the nation languished in poverty. Social injustice led to nationwide revolts, and ultimately the Mexican Revolution (1910–1917). The city was not untouched by the revolution. Battles were fought on its streets, and thousands of displaced villagers became refugees in the city. During the revolution, the city was briefly taken over by the famous revolutionaries Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Emiliano Zapata. While most of the Mexican Revolution was not fought within the city, one major episode of this era was. La decena trágica ("The Ten Tragic Days") was a series of events leading to a coup d'état in Mexico City between 9 and 22 February 1913 against President Francisco I. Madero and his vice president, José María Pino Suárez. After deposing President |
1911_111 | Porfirio Díaz and taking power in 1911, Mexicans expected Madero to make widespread changes in government but were surprised and disappointed to find Madero following many of the same policies and employing the same personnel as the Díaz government. This eventually resulted in revolts against the Madero regime. Madero's fear of these revolts led him to commission Victoriano Huerta as chief general of the Federal Army. Huerta was effective in putting down rebellions, but had ambitions that Madero was blind to. Military success gave Huerta power, and he saw an opportunity to make himself dictator. La decena trágica began when military academy cadets quartered in Tacubaya revolted and began an attack against the National Palace. Madero and Pino Suárez returned to the Palace to address the crisis, calling in reserves from other military academies and the forces of Felipe Ángeles in Cuernavaca to assist in defense. Meanwhile, Huerta convinced Madero to allow him to take over defense of |
1911_112 | the National Palace. Huerta betrayed Madero and Pino Suárez forcing Madero and Pino Suárez to sign resignations. On the night of 22 February, Huerta ordered Madero and Pino Suárez to be transferred to the Lecumberri prison, supposedly to be held for transfer to exile. Before the car reached the prison, it was pulled over by armed men and Madero and Pino Suárez were shot and killed. |
1911_113 | 20th century to present
Loss of democracy and recovery
Mexico City lost its democratically elected mayor and legislature/city council in 1928, which left its urban middle class and workers without legislative redress. The mayor was appointed by the President of Mexico. Residents of the densely populated capital became dependent on the newly formed Party of National Revolution (PNR) to dress its concerns. During the Lázaro Cárdenas presidency (1934–40), the government reduced spending in the capital, leaving infrastructure, such as water, sewage, lighting, without resources. Cárdenas did not implement rent control or aid urban renters, and in 1938–39, renters attempted to gain advantage by organizing rent strikes. The middle class and the urban poor joined in the attempt. Not until the electoral reforms of the 1990s was the mayoral elections restored. In 1997 Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas won the position. |
1911_114 | Historic commemorations
In the historic center of Mexico City, the Plutarco Elías Calles administration (1924–28) began placing colonial-style tiles on street corners "on each street that has some history or legend that merits remembrance by means of their old names." This was part of the government's aim to shape public memory in the city, particularly of the Revolution. Many street names were changed to commemorate the deeds of revolutionary heroes, including Francisco Madero, José María Pino Suárez, whose democratically elected government was overthrown by military coup in 1913.
Growth of the city |
1911_115 | In 1900, the population of Mexico City was about 500,000. By the end of the 19th century, the perimeter of the city had noticeably grown again and by 1929, the boundaries lost any sense of regularity. The city had grown to reach Tacuba, Nextengo, Popotla, east of now Metro San Lázaro and Metro Tasqueña, Miguel Ángel de Quevedo to the south and Lomas de Chapultepec and Azcapotzalco to the west and north as the last of the lake dried up. The city continued to modernize at a rapid pace. Old palaces and colonial homes were demolished to make way for new roads and modern buildings. By 1924, Avenida de los Insurgentes, considered today one of the world's longest avenues, was being laid out. |
1911_116 | The city would begin to extend south starting in 1905, breaking the Avenida Chapultepec/Arcos de Belen southern boundary that had existed for centuries. Colonia Hidalgo (now Colonia Doctores) was being established with Colonia Obrera and Colonia Roma being laid out in a rectangular fashion, similar to the older part of the city. Obrera was named after the artisans that populated the place when it was established, and Roma was for the upper-classes, reaching the height of its splendor between 1917 and 1922. Another wealthy neighborhood that was established at this time was Colonia Juárez, naming their streets after the capitals of Europe. In the first decades of the 20th century, the city extended north to the Río de Consulado, east to Metro Jamaica, west to Chapultepec and south to roughly were the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation building at Xola is now. |
1911_117 | From the 1930s on, Mexico City would see an increase in the rate of growth of the city. Colonias Roma and Juárez prospered rapidly and this with the wide Paseo de Reforma to help with transportation, led to the establishments of colonias heading west such as Lomas de Chapultepec and Hipodromo, extending the city past the Chapultepec forest (now a park). The extension of Insurgentes Avenue southward to where the Chilpancingo Metro station is now, led to the establishment of even more colonias. Between 1928 and 1953, other western colonias such as Anzures, and Polanco for the wealthy, and colonias 20 de Noviembre, Bondojito, Gertrudis Sánchez and Petrolera for the working class arose with another additional 585 colonias. |
1911_118 | By 1940 Mexico City had become not only the political and economic capital of Mexico, but also the world's largest megalopolis. Between 1929 and 1953, growth spread east to establish colonias Federal, Moctezuma and Jardín Balbuena, to the north and urban area included all of Azcapotzalco and reached Ampliacion Gabriel Hernández including Ticoman, Zacatenco and Santa Isabel Tola. To the west, the most notable growth was from Lomas de Chapultepec west to the limits of the State of Mexico. Areas such as Tacubaya, Villa de Guadalupe, Coyoacán and San Ángel were still considered separate entities. A major infrastructure project for mass transit was the ring road, or Anillo Periférico, completed in 1964. It allow for quick transit on the periphery of the city, and with easy access to the airport. |
1911_119 | In the 20th century, the city began to grow upwards as well as outwards. The column with the Angel of Independence was erected in 1910 for the centenary of Mexican Independence, the ironwork Legislative Palace, Palacio de Bellas Artes and a building called La Nacional. The first skyscraper, 40-story Torre Latinoamericana was built in the 1950s. All of these were in the main core of the city, laid out in the sixteenth century. |
1911_120 | A major departure in location and scale was the construction of the Ciudad Universitaria from 1950 to 1953 in the south of the city. It had a noticeable effect on subsequent architecture in the city. The most notable buildings are the Rectoría designed by Salvador Ortega, Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, the Library, by Juan O'Gorman, Gustavo Saavedra and Juan Martínez de Velasco and the Science Building by Raúl Cacho, Eugenio Peschard and Félix Sánchez. Much of what makes the campus culturally significant is its huge murals that decorate the facades of many of the buildings. These murals were done by Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and others, with themes relating to Mexican history and identity.
The 1968 Olympic Games brought about the construction of large sporting facilities such as the Palacio de los Deportes (Sports Palace), the Velódromo Olímpico and the 24 buildings of the Olympic Village. |
1911_121 | The construction of the Mexico City Metro was not ready in time for the 1968 Olympics, but in 1969, Line 1, the "Pink Line" the underground rapid transit system of the city, was inaugurated by President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. The subway system was a huge infrastructure project, designed to be mass transit for those in Mexico City without cars. There had been proposals for a subway system dating back decades, but political forces in favor of car owners (middle class and elites) blocked the plans for underground mass transit. The subway system allows for movement of large numbers of people to increasingly far flung areas of the city. When the Ciudad Universitaria opened, which relocated UNAM to the south of the city, there was no metro line. |
1911_122 | Explosive growth in the population of the city started from the 1960s, with the population overflowing the boundaries of the Federal District into neighboring state of Mexico, especially to the north, northwest and northeast. Between 1960 and 1980 the city's population more than doubled to 8,831,079. Under relentless growth, Mexico City had lost its charm by the 1970s, when the government could barely keep up with services. Mexico City was choking in smog and pollution. Villagers from the countryside who continued to pour into the city to escape poverty only compounded the city's problems. With no housing available, they took over lands surrounding the city, creating huge shanty towns that extended for many miles. |
1911_123 | Mexico City is still the cultural, economic, and industrial center for the nation. With a metropolitan-area population approaching 20 million, roughly equivalent to the entire state of Texas, it is a magnet of growth. People in large numbers still migrate from rural areas to the city in search of work and the other economic. Many of these immigrants settle illegally in the urban fringe with the hope that the government will eventually provide public services. The provision of water and wastewater service for the growing population of Mexico City is the problem air pollution was in the 1970s and 1980s. Such growth rates and patterns mean substandard potable water supplies and waste water treatment, if they exist at all. Over 70% of Mexico City's potable water from the aquifer below it, which is being overexploited, causing the city to sink. |
1911_124 | The south of the Federal District contains a number of ecological reserves; one of the most important being the Ajusco reserve. Growth pushing of the edges of this reserve has been causing both economic and political struggles which include fraudulent real estate schemes, illegal development of ejidal property, along with popular resistance and opposition movements. A major problem is the illegal movement of the poor building shantytowns, then resisting eviction, often with violence, often until the government gives into demands to build popular-sector housing in the area. While such housing is needed, the whole process is ecologically destructive. |
1911_125 | Decline and revitalization of the city center |
1911_126 | From Aztec times, the Centro Histórico used to be where the wealthy and elite lived. However, in the early 20th century, these classes began to move to areas west and southwest of the Centro, to neighbourhoods such as Colonia Juárez, Colonia Cuauhtémoc, Colonia Roma and Colonia Condesa. The Centro remained the commercial, political and intellectual center through the mid 20th century, although it was around this time that UNAM moved most of its facilities to the new Ciudad Universitaria. The reason for the decline of the city center was partly man-made and partly natural. In the 1940s, the city government froze rents so that until 1998, when the government repealed the law, tenants were still paying what they were in the 1950s. With no financial incentive to keep up their properties, landlords let their buildings disintegrate. The 1985 earthquake took its toll on a number of these structures, which were never fixed or rebuilt, leading to slums with and garbage-strewn vacant lots. |
1911_127 | The result was the loss of about 100,000 residents of the "Colonia Centro", leaving the area almost deserted at night. |
1911_128 | By the 1980s, so much had fled the Centro that many of its former mansions were either abandoned or turned into tenements for the poor, and its sidewalks and streets taken over by pickpockets and milling vendors. For many people, especially international visitors, Mexico City's reputation for pollution, traffic and crime has made the city someplace "get into and out of as fast as you can," seeing it as little more than an airport through which to make their connecting flights to the more attractive resort areas. Until recently, many of the restaurants of the area, even the best, would close early to allow employees time to get home because the area was not particularly safe at night. |
1911_129 | Since then the government has made efforts to revitalize this part of the city. Starting in the early 2000s, it infused 500 million pesos (US$55 million) into the Historic Center Trust and entered into a partnership with a business group led by Carlos Slim, to buy dozens of centuries-old buildings and other real estate to rehabilitate. Work began with renovating 34 blocks west of the Zócalo, digging up the antiquated drainage system and improving water supply. An architect was put in charge of each of the thirteen main streets to restore the facades of more than 500 buildings. The latest infrastructure projects of this type have been centered on the southeast portions of the area, on República de El Salvador, Talavera, Correo Mayor, Mesones and Pino Suárez streets, mostly focusing on repaving streets and updating the very old drainage system of the area. In the process, the construction is unearthing artifacts from the pre-Hispanic period to the present day. |
1911_130 | All over the historic center, streets have been pedestrianized, buildings have been remodeled and restored, and new museums opened. In the 1990s, after many years of controversy, protests and even riots, most street vendors were evicted to other parts of the city. The impetus to bring things back to the city center included the construction of the new mayoral residence just off the Zócalo. The government has buried electric and telephone cables in the area, and replaced old asphalt with paving stones. It has also installed nearly 100 security cameras to help with crime issues. This paved the way for the opening of upscale eateries, bars and fashionable stores. Also, young people are moving into downtown lofts.
The city's political position |
1911_131 | From the days of the Aztecs, Mexico City has been the center of power for much of Mesoamerica and the Mexican nation. This centralism simply changed hands when the Spanish arrived, The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which came to power after the Mexican Revolution, again consolidated political power to the city, which benefited to the detriment of other parts of the country. The rapid expansion of Mexico City is related to the country's economic development in the period after World War II, the widening of the manufacturing sector, the success of the oil industry, and the country's proximity to U.S. markets. This growth allowed for the tolerance of PRI's authoritarianism. It still experienced economic growth up to the 1960s, but problems brought on by the one-party system were beginning to show. In 1968, Mexico City hosted the Summer Olympic Games. The event was meant to signal the prosperity of a developing nation, but serious problems had been masked by the PRI's |
1911_132 | authoritarian regime. Shortly before the inauguration of the Games, government troops massacred an unknown number of protesting students in Tlatelolco. However, the last straw may have been the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. On Thursday, 19 September 1985, at 7:19 am local time, Mexico City was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 8.1. on the Richter magnitude scale. The event caused between three and four billion USD in damage as 412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the city. While the number is in dispute, the most-often cited number of deaths is about 10,000 people. |
1911_133 | While this earthquake was not as deadly or destructive as many similar events in Asia and other parts of Latin America it proved to be a disaster politically for the PRI. The government was paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and corruption, forcing ordinary citizens to not only create and direct their own rescue efforts but efforts to reconstruct much of the housing that was lost as well. This significantly affected politics in the years after the event. This discontent eventually led to Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, becoming the first elected mayor of Mexico City in 1997. Cárdenas promised a more democratic government, and his party claimed some victories against crime, pollution, and other major problems. He resigned in 1999 to run (unsuccessfully) for the presidency. Rosario Robles Berlanga, the first woman to hold the mayoral post, promised she would continue to reverse the city's decline. |
1911_134 | Recent discoveries
In May 2020, at least sixty Columbian mammoths (including male, female, and young mammoths) and 15 people were discovered by the National Institute of Anthropology and History headed by archaeologist Sánchez Nava under the Mexico City Santa-Lucia airport site named Zumpango, in the former Lake Xaltocan. According to the INAH, mammoth skeletons revealed in what used to be the shallow part of the lake were better anatomically preserved than those found in the deeper parts of the former lake. Mammoths probably got stuck in the lake and died.
See also
Index of Mexico-related articles
Timeline of Mexico City
Gentrification of Mexico City
List of pre-columbian archaeological sites in Mexico City
List of colonial churches in Mexico City
References
Further reading
General |
1911_135 | Agostoni, Claudia. Monuments of Progress: Modernization and Public Health in Mexico City, 1876–1910. Calgary, Alberta & Boulder, CO; University of Calgary Press & University Press of Colorado 2003.
Alexander, Anna Rose. City on Fire: Technology, Social Change, and the Hazards of Progress in Mexico City, 1860–1910. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press 2016.
Anda Alanis, Enrique X. de. Ciudad de México: Arquitectura 1921–1970. Seville: Consejería de Obras Públicas y Transportes, and Mexico: Gobierno del Distrito Federal 2001.
Caistor, Nick. Mexico City: A cultural and literary companion. New York: Interlink Books 1999
Candiani, Vera, Dreaming of Dry Land: Environmental Transformation in Colonial Mexico City. Stanford: Stanford University Press 2014.
Castaneda, Luis M. Spectacular Mexico: Design, Propaganda, and the 1968 Olympics (University of Minnesota Press; 2014) 344 pages; on projects for the 1968 Olympics; Shows how design and architecture figure in national branding. |
1911_136 | Davis, Diane E. Urban Leviathan: Mexico City in the Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1994.
Emerson, Charles. 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War (2013) compares Mexico City to 20 major world cities; pp 206–222.
Glasco, Sharon Bailey. Constructing Mexico City: Conflicts over culture, Space and Authority. Palgrave 2010.
Gori, Paolo, et al., eds. Mexican Monuments: Strange Encounters. New York: Abbeville Press 1989.
Hayner, Norman S. New Patterns in Old Mexico: A Study of town and Metropolis. New Haven: Yale University Press 1966.
Johns, Michael. The City of Mexico in the Age of Díaz. Austin: University of Texas Press 1997.
Kandell, Jonathan. La Capital: The Biography of Mexico City, (New York: Random House, 1988 )
Larkin, Brian R. The Very Nature of God: Baroque Catholicism and Religious Reform in Bourbon Mexico City (University of New Mexico Press. 2010) 312pp |
1911_137 | Lear, John. Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in Mexico City. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 2001.
Lida, David. First Stop in the New World: Mexico City, the Capital of the 21st Century. New York: Riverhead Books 2008.
Mundy, Barbara E. The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City. Austin: University of Texas Press 2015.
Olsen, Patrice Elizabeth. "Revolution in the City Streets: Changing Nomenclature, Changing Form, and the Revision of Public Memory" in The Eagle and the Virgin: Nation and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920–1940. Mary Kay Vaughan and Stephen E. Lewis, eds. Durham: Duke University Press 2006, pp. 119–134.
Olsen, Patrice Elizabeth. Artifacts of Revolution: Architecture, Society, and Politics in Mexico City, 1920–1940. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield 2008.
Piccato, Pablo. City of Suspects, Crime in Mexico City 1900–1931. Durham: Duke University Press 2001. |
1911_138 | Pick, James B. and Edgar W. Butler, Mexico Megacity. Boulder CO: Westview Press 1997.
Tenenbaum, Barbara. "Streetwise History: The Paseo de la Reforma and the Porfirian State, 1876–1910." In Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance. Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico. Ed. William Beezley et al. Rowman & Littlefield 1994.
Tenorio-Trillo, Mauricio. I Speak of the City: Mexico City at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (University of Chicago Press, 2012)
Tovar de Teresa, Guillermo. The City of Palaces: Chronicle of a Lost Heritage. (Mexico: Vuelta 1990)
Tutino, John. Mexico City, 1808: Power, Sovereignty, and Silver in an Age of War and Revolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 2018
Voekel, Pamela. "Peeing on the Palace: Bodily Resistance to Bourbon Reforms in Mexico City," Journal of Historical Sociology 5, no. 2 (June 1992), 183–208.
Ward, Peter. Mexico City, the Production and Reproduction of an Urban Environment.Rev. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley 1998. |
1911_139 | Weber, Jonathan Michael. "Hustling The Old Mexico Aside: Creating A Modern Mexico City Through Medicine, Public Health, And Technology In "The Porfiriato, 1887–1913." (PhD Thesis Florida State University, 2013). Online; with detailed bibliography pp 185–202 |
1911_140 | Historiography
Craib, Raymond B. "Mexico City Modern: A Review Essay." Scapegoat Journal (2014) online
In Spanish
Nueva Grandeza Mexicana, Salvador Novo. Mexico: Ediciones Era, 1967.
Páginas sobre la Ciudad de Mexico: 1469–1987. Mexico: Consejo de la Crónica de la Ciudad de México, 1988.
Primary sources
Gallo, Rubén. The Mexico City Reader (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 2004)
Cervantes de Salazar, Francisco. Life in the Imperial and Loyal City of Mexico in New Spain, and the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico (1554), Translated by Minnie Lee Barrett Shepard et al. Austin: University of Texas Press 1954.
Grandeza Mexicana (1604). Bernardo de Balbuena
External links
A map of Mexico City from 1794
A map of Mexico City from 1720
Valley of Mexico |
1912_0 | The endangered species of China may include any wildlife species designated for protection by the national government of China or listed as endangered by international organizations such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). |
1912_1 | As one of the world's most biodiverse countries and its most populous, China is home to a significant number of wildlife species vulnerable to or in danger of local extinction due to the impact of human activity. Under the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife, the national and local governments are required to designate rare or threatened species for special protection under the law. The type of legal protection that a particular species in China enjoys may depend on the locality of administration. For example, the Beijing Municipal Government designates the red fox, wild boar, leopard cat and masked palm civet, which are found in the wilderness around the municipality, as local Class I protected species even though none are among the Class I or II protected species designated by the national government. |
1912_2 | China is a signatory country to the CITES and the national government's protected species list generally follows the designation of endangered species by CITES, but also includes certain species that are rare in the country but quite common in other parts of the world so as not to be considered globally threatened (such as moose and beaver) or are vulnerable to economic exploitation thus require legal protection (such as sable and otter). The Chinese endangered species classifications are updated relatively infrequently, and a number of species deemed to be endangered by international bodies have not yet been so recognized in China. Many listed species are endemic to the country, such as the groove-toothed flying squirrel and the Ili pika. |
1912_3 | Designation
The species listed in this article are designated by one or more of the following authorities as endangered or threatened:
The List of Wildlife under Special State Protection as designated by the Chinese State Council pursuant to Article 9 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in Appendix I of its catalogue includes "species threatened with extinction".
The Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Endangered and protected animal species
Mammals
Birds
Reptiles |
1912_4 | Amphibians
{|class="wikitable collapsible"
!Protected and endangered amphibian species of China
|-
|style="padding:0; border:none; text-align:center; line-height:1.05"| indicates species endemic to China
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; line-height:1.05"
|-
! scope="col;"|Order
! scope="col;"|Family
! scope="col;"style="width:150px;"|Scientific name
! scope="col;"|Common name
! Chinese name
! scope="col;"style="width:30px;"|Protectionclassin China
! scope="col;"|IUCN Red List
! scope="col;"|CITES App'x
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Cryptobranchidae||Andrias davidianus||Chinese giant salamander||大鯢 ||II||02||I
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Hynobiidae||Hynobius chinensis||Chinese salamander||中国小鲵||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Hynobiidae||Batrachuperus londongensis||Longdong stream salamander||龙洞山溪鲵||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Hynobiidae||Hynobius amjiensis||Amji's salamander||安吉小鲵||||02|| |
1912_5 | |-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Hynobiidae||Hynobius formosanus||Taiwan salamander||台湾山椒鱼||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Hynobiidae||Hynobius sonani||Sonan's salamander||楚南小鲵||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Paramesotriton guanxiensis||Guangxi warty newt||广西瘰螈||||03||
|-
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Ranodon sibiricus||Central Asian salamander||新疆北鲵||||03||
|-
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Tylototriton asperrimus||Black knobby newt||细痣疣螈||II||05||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Echinotriton chinhaiensis||Chinhai spiny newt||镇海疣螈||II||02||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Tylototriton kweichowensis||Red-tailed knobby newt||贵州疣螈||II||04||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Tylototriton taliangensis||Taliang knobby newt||大涼疣螈 ||II||05||
|-
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Tylototriton verrucosus||Himalayan newt||细瘰疣螈||II||06||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;" |
1912_6 | |Caudata||Salamandridae||Tylototriton hainanensis||Hainan knobby newt||海南疣螈||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Cynops orphicus||Dayang newt||汕头蝾螈||||03||
|-
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Echinotriton andersoni||Anderson's crocodile newt||琉球棘螈||||02||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Caudata||Salamandridae||Cynops wolterstorffi||Yunnan lake newt||滇池蝾螈||||07||
|-
|Anura||Ranidae||Hoplobatrachus tigerinus||Indus Valley bullfrog||虎紋蛙 ||II||06||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Amolops hainanensis||Hainan torrent frog||海南湍蛙||||02||
|-
|Anura||Ranidae||Amolops hongkongensis||Hong Kong cascade frog||香港瀑蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Glandirana minima||Fujian frog||小山蛙||||02||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Nanorana maculosa||Piebald spiny frog||花棘蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Rana chevronta||Chevron-spotted brown frog||峰斑林蛙||||02||
|- |
1912_7 | |Anura||Ranidae||Nanorana unculuanus||Yunnan Asian frog||棘肛蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Rana sauteri||Sauter's brown frog||梭德氏蛙 ||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Nanorana yunnanensis||Yunnan spiny frog||双团棘胸蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Quasipaa boulengeri||Boulenger's spiny frog||西藏齿突蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Quasipaa robertingeri||Hejiang spiny frog||合江棘蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Odorrana kuangwuensis||Kwangwu odorous frog||光雾臭蛙||||02||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Ranidae||Pelophylax tenggerensis||none||腾格里蛙||||03||
|-
|Anura||Bufonidae||Parapelophryne scalpta||Hainan flathead toad||鳞皮厚蹼蟾||||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Microhylidae||Micryletta steinegeri||Stejneger's narrow-mouthed toad||台湾娟娃||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Rhacophoridae||Liuixalus ocellatus||Ocellated bubble-nest frog||眼斑小树蛙||||03|| |
1912_8 | |-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Rhacophoridae||Liuixalus romeri||Romer's tree frog||卢文氏树蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Rhacophoridae||Rhacophorus arvalis||Farmland green tree frog||诸罗树蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Rhacophoridae||Rhacophorus aurantiventris||Orange-belly tree frog||橙腹树蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Rhacophoridae||Rhacophorus minimus||none||||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Rhacophoridae||Rhacophorus yaoshanensis||none||瑶山树蛙||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Leptobrachium boringii||Emei moustache toad||峨眉髭蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Leptobrachium leishanense||Leishan spiny toad||雷山髭蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Leptolalax alpinus||none||高山掌突蟾 ||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Oreolalax chuanbeiensis||Chuanbei toothed toad||川北齿蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;" |
1912_9 | |Anura||Megophryidae||Oreolalax liangbeiensis||Liangbei toothed toad||凉北齿蟾||||02||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Oreolalax omeimontis||Omei toothed toad||峨眉齿蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Oreolalax pingii||Ping's toothed toad||秉志齿蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Oreolalax puxiongensis||Puxiong toothed toad||普雄齿蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Scutiger chintingensis||Chinting alpine toad||金顶齿突蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Scutiger maculatus||Piebald alpine toad||花齿突蟾||||02||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Scutiger muliensis||Muli cat-eyed toad||木里猫眼蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Scutiger ningshanensis||Ningshan alpine toad||宁陕齿突蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;"
|Anura||Megophryidae||Scutiger pingwuensis||Pingwu alpine toad||平武齿突蟾||||03||
|-style="background: #bcffc5;" |
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