History of Nuevo León
Encyclopedia
The Estado Libre y Soberano de Nuevo León (Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León
) was first colonized in the 16th century by immigrants from the Iberian Peninsula
. The majority of these were converso
s, ethnic Jews converted to Roman Catholicism. Later the state received more arrivals of other European
s, some Asians and those from North America settled down in the 19th century. Cross-migration of local Mexicans to or from Texas
creates strong cultural bonds with the neighboring U.S. The province eventually became a state of Mexico
. Today it is one of the most industrialized regions of Latin America and the capital, Monterrey has over 3 million residents.
nomad
s. They left no written records, so the recorded history of the region begins with the arrival of European colonists
towards the end of the 16th century. After several failed attempts, a group of immigrants, among them several families of converted Jews, arrived on the Mexican coast aboard the Santa Catarina. The Jewish imprint in this colony was mild due to acculturation of conversos to Christianity, but some Jewish customs are still seen today such as food preparation and holiday observances that remained passed through tradition. Led by the Portuguese
Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva they settled in what is now the city of Monterrey
in fulfilment of a commitment made by King Philip II of Spain
: the establishment of the New Kingdom of León (Nuevo Reino de León).
The first years of the colony were difficult for the inhabitants, who were beleaguered by the Mexican
and Spanish Inquisition
, by the indigenous tribes, and by several floods. From the outset, the greater portion of the population remained concentrated in what was to be formally designated in 1596 as the city of Monterrey. However, arrival of settlers from all over Spain were present in upcoming years. As the case of Bernabé de las Casas, a Spanish-Canarian explorer from Tenerife
, Canary Islands
, Spain, who after his victorious expedition with Juan de Oñate
and fighting against Acoma Indians in New Mexico
, came to the region with Spanish and Canarians families to found several settlements and mining camps in a then unsettled region of the New Kingdom of León, later known as Valle de las Salinas (Salinas Valley), in the subsequent years many villages were founded by his descedents, and the Salinas Valley was declared an 'alcaldía mayor'.
The establishment of Spanish settlements in Northern Nuevo León, was often slow down by attacks of native Americans, of Coahuiltecan
origin such as Alazapas, Cuanales, Gualeguas, among others. Spanish Captain Alonso de León
wrote a description of many assaults and atrocities against the Spaniards in the New Kingdom of León, he also stated that the indigenous population of the New Kingdom of León, was different in all aspects from that of other provinces of New Spain.
Mestizaje, a characteristic of many provinces in New Spain, was difficult on this province, the natives resisted to accept Christianism
imposed by Spaniards, and they did not want to be incorporated to the Spanish and Criollo
society. This racial segregation feeling was reciprocal among many Spanish and Spanish-born Reineros of the New Kingdom of León towards the indigenous people, who were frequently at war with them, the indigenous population had no permanent establishment.
Instead, several nomadic tribes whose main activity was war and hunting, those skirmish were a mejor problem among the Spanish population. By the end of the Spanish rule, the white population of the New Kingdom of León comprised approximately 80% of the population. By the end of the colonial era, the reineros (as they were known) had obtained a certain stability and had established the city of Linares, considered the second largest city, located southeast of Monterrey.
started by Miguel Hidalgo on September 16, 1810 were virtually unknown by inhabbitants of the New Kingdom of León until a letter sent by Felix María Calleja
to then New Leonese governor Manuel de Santa María on September, 29, the distance and bad condition of access paths, were a factor for the delayed post service from the capital of New Spain and the relatively remote northern provinces. The impulse toward insurgency against Spain was rapidly suffocated in the region, the New Kingdom of León, along with Provincias Internas de Oriente, was in its first years one of the regions with less support for the insurgent cause, as for the case of the New Kingdom of León, this was among several reasons explained because it was one of the last territories colonized by the Spanish Empire in New Spain, also because it was the province which reported the highest proportion of people of Spaniard and Criollo
ancestry reported in the revillagigedo 1790 census, followed by Texas
and Coahuila.
The ideology or ideals which Miguel Hidalgo fought were at his first attempt not well-received in the Provincias Internas de Oriente, because of stronger ties with Spain and loyalistm to Fernando VI, and counter-insurgency movements were present on the region, mainly in the first years of the war, with the movement of a former insurgent general Ignacio Elizondo
, who changed to the army of loyalists of Fernando VI, the reasons are controversially disputed, but its understood that he was a loyalist when he joined the insurgent side, and its convictions were stronger when he was influenced and persuaded by general Ramón Díaz de Bustamante to organize a plot to caught major insurgency precursors such as Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende
, and Mariano Abasolo
, whom Ignacio Elizondo, caught on Bajan
, Coahuila
, on 1811, while they were moving toward north Monclova
.
In the later years of the war, movements toward insurgency were less frequent and the independence sentiment was reassert but there was some disconcert about the situation because of a general displeasure with the news that José María Morelos
, one of the leaders of the movement, had convoked a constitutional congress in Chilpancingo
, in the south of Mexico, and had named himself representative of the Nuevo Reino de León, although he had absolutely no prior connection to the region. Just one year before Juan José de la Garza had represented the Nuevo Reino de León in the Cortes Generales
at Cádiz
, which had produced the liberal
Spanish Constitution of 1812.
After Mexican independence was achieved, Fray Servando Teresa de Mier
(a rather unorthodox priest who claimed that the Virgin of Guadalupe had been engraved not on the tilma of Juan Diego but on the mantle of Saint Thomas. Servando Teresa de Mier represented Nuevo Reino de León at the national constitutional congress that, in its decree number 45, article 1, pronounced that "Nuevo León will be from this time forward a state of the Mexican Federation".
Father Mier organized the establishment of a local legislature, which adopted the first constitution of the newly established state March 5, 1825. This state congress was dissolved in 1835 and the state was converted into a "Department". The national struggle between conservatives
and liberals
damaged the region's stability. In 1846, during the Mexican-American War, United States forces besieged Monterrey (see Battle of Monterrey
). Additionally, native tribes originating in the U.S. made a brutal assault on the region, stealing women, children, cattle, and provisions. The chaos was such that it became routine to draw up ones will
before making even a short journey.
and with combat provisions (bastimento) already prepared for a combat that could break out at any moment. The bastimento consisted of corn biscuits, dried meat, and chocolate, the cornerstones of the rural diet of Nuevo León then and now.
The response to the native invasions was ruthless. Influenced by the methods of the Americans to their north, the Nuevoleonese poisoned the waters from which the natives drank and put a bounty on natives' scalps. The combat with the Apache
s, Comanche
s, runaway Kickapoos and North American filibusterers
, while brutal and inhuman, gave a great deal of experience to the Nuevoleonese militias, who defeated the Mexican Army in several battles. The combat skills of local heroes Juan Zuazua, José Silvestre Aramberri, Mariano Escobedo
, Lázaro Garza Ayala and Jerónimo Treviño were all tempered by those skirmishes.
The leader of this self-defense movement was Santiago Vidaurri
, who proclaimed the Plan de Monterrey in 1855, restoring the sovereignty
of Nuevo León. Later a sympathizer with the Confederacy
in the American Civil War
, Vidaurri democratically annexed the Mexican state of Coahuila
by plebiscite and later declared the República de la Sierra Madre, one of Nuevo León's two famous attempts at separatism (the other being the Republic of the Rio Grande
in 1840). Upon the death of his chief military supporter, general Juan Zuazua, he was easily taken prisoner by other Nuevoleonese loyal to Benito Juárez
, who decreed the deannexation of Coahuila.
of the United States.
In the 1970s some terrorist
groups espousing communist
ideology and identified with the social problems of southeastern Mexico plagued Nuevo León with assassination
s of important businessmen, among them Eugenio Garza Sada
. Economic crises struck the state like everywhere in Mexico, but again came remarkable economic growth in the 1990s brought on by North American Free Trade Agreement
or NAFTA has improved living conditions.
, Nuevo León leads Mexico in most indexes of health and quality of life
. Municipalities such as San Pedro Garza García
have the highest standard of living
in Latin America, and Nuevo León as a whole has a human development index
superior to some European countries; compared against countries, it would occupy position #32 in the world.
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
) was first colonized in the 16th century by immigrants from the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
. The majority of these were converso
Converso
A converso and its feminine form conversa was a Jew or Muslim—or a descendant of Jews or Muslims—who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. Mass conversions once took place under significant government pressure...
s, ethnic Jews converted to Roman Catholicism. Later the state received more arrivals of other European
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
s, some Asians and those from North America settled down in the 19th century. Cross-migration of local Mexicans to or from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
creates strong cultural bonds with the neighboring U.S. The province eventually became a state of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Today it is one of the most industrialized regions of Latin America and the capital, Monterrey has over 3 million residents.
Important dates in the history of Nuevo León
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1577 | Alberto del Canto Alberto del Canto Alberto del Canto was a Portuguese soldier and explorer. He was born Alberto do Canto, on Terceira Island, Azores. During the colonization of America, Canto explored the northeastern part of Mexico, and founded several cities, such as Saltillo, of which he was the first mayor... founds the village of Santa Lucia, now Monterrey Monterrey Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the... ). |
| May 31, 1579 | Philip II of Spain Philip II of Spain Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count.... orders the establishment of a new kingdom in the Americas. |
| 1581 | Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva founds the Nuevo Reino de León (New Kingdom of León New Kingdom of León The New Kingdom of León , was an administrative territory of the Spanish Empire, politically ruled by the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was located in an area corresponding generally to the present-day northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León.-Origins:... ). |
| December 15, 1777 | Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI , born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, was Pope from 1775 to 1799.-Early years:Braschi was born in Cesena... creates the episcopate of Nuevo León in the bull Papal bull A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it.... Relata semper |
| October 29, 1810 | News of the Grito de Dolores Grito de Dolores The Grito de Dolores also known as El Grito de la Independencia , uttered from the small town of Dolores, near Guanajuato on April 19, 1810 is the event that marks the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence and is the most important national holiday observed in Mexico... arrives in Monterrey Monterrey Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the... |
| May 7, 1824 | Nuevo León is designated a Mexican state. |
| March 5, 1825 | First constitution Constitution A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is... of the state of Nuevo León approved. |
| January 17, 1840 | Republic of the Rio Grande Republic of the Rio Grande The Republic of the Rio Grande was an independent nation that insurgents against the Central Mexican Government sought to establish in northern Mexico. The rebellion lasted from January 17 to November 6, 1840 and the Republic of the Rio Grande was never officially recognized.- Background :After a... : Nuevo León declares itself independent of México along with Coahuila Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico... and Tamaulipas Tamaulipas Tamaulipas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the... . |
| November 6, 1840 | The Mexican army defeats the separatists. |
| September 20, 1846 | The United States Army United States Army The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services... begins the siege of Monterrey Battle of Monterrey In the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War, General Pedro de Ampudia and the Mexican Army of the North was defeated by U.S... . |
| February 1848 | The United States Army leaves the territory. |
| February 19, 1856 | Republic of the Sierra Madre: Nuevo León annexes Coahuila Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico... and again announces secession from Mexico. |
| April 3, 1864 | Monterrey is declared capital of México. Separatists defeated. |
| June 1991 | Nuevo León opens its frontier with Texas Texas Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in... , by building the now modern border-crossing point of Colombia (bridge also called "Solidaridad"). http://www.internationalspecialreports.com/theamericas/01/Mexico/trade_investment_mexico,http://www.nl.gob.mx/?P=presentacion_codefront; see bridge III in: http://www.cityoflaredo.com/bridgesys/bridge4cam.html. |
Origins
The earliest known human inhabitants of the region now known Nuevo León were a small number of Native AmericanIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
nomad
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
s. They left no written records, so the recorded history of the region begins with the arrival of European colonists
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
towards the end of the 16th century. After several failed attempts, a group of immigrants, among them several families of converted Jews, arrived on the Mexican coast aboard the Santa Catarina. The Jewish imprint in this colony was mild due to acculturation of conversos to Christianity, but some Jewish customs are still seen today such as food preparation and holiday observances that remained passed through tradition. Led by the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva they settled in what is now the city of Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
in fulfilment of a commitment made by King Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
: the establishment of the New Kingdom of León (Nuevo Reino de León).
The first years of the colony were difficult for the inhabitants, who were beleaguered by the Mexican
Mexican Inquisition
The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition into the New World. The Spanish Conquest of Mexico was not only a political event for the Spanish, but a religious event as well. In the early 16th century, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation and the Inquisition were in full...
and Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
, by the indigenous tribes, and by several floods. From the outset, the greater portion of the population remained concentrated in what was to be formally designated in 1596 as the city of Monterrey. However, arrival of settlers from all over Spain were present in upcoming years. As the case of Bernabé de las Casas, a Spanish-Canarian explorer from Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
, Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, Spain, who after his victorious expedition with Juan de Oñate
Juan de Oñate
Don Juan de Oñate y Salazar was a Spanish explorer, colonial governor of the New Spain province of New Mexico, and founder of various settlements in the present day Southwest of the United States.-Biography:...
and fighting against Acoma Indians in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, came to the region with Spanish and Canarians families to found several settlements and mining camps in a then unsettled region of the New Kingdom of León, later known as Valle de las Salinas (Salinas Valley), in the subsequent years many villages were founded by his descedents, and the Salinas Valley was declared an 'alcaldía mayor'.
The establishment of Spanish settlements in Northern Nuevo León, was often slow down by attacks of native Americans, of Coahuiltecan
Coahuiltecan
Coahuiltecan or Paikawa was a proposed language family in John Wesley Powell's 1891 classification of Native American languages that consisted of Coahuilteco and Cotoname. The proposal was expanded to include Comecrudo, Karankawa, and Tonkawa...
origin such as Alazapas, Cuanales, Gualeguas, among others. Spanish Captain Alonso de León
Alonso De León
Alonso de León wasexplorer and governor, who led several expeditions into the area that is now northeastern Mexico and southern Texas.-Early life:...
wrote a description of many assaults and atrocities against the Spaniards in the New Kingdom of León, he also stated that the indigenous population of the New Kingdom of León, was different in all aspects from that of other provinces of New Spain.
Mestizaje, a characteristic of many provinces in New Spain, was difficult on this province, the natives resisted to accept Christianism
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
imposed by Spaniards, and they did not want to be incorporated to the Spanish and Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
society. This racial segregation feeling was reciprocal among many Spanish and Spanish-born Reineros of the New Kingdom of León towards the indigenous people, who were frequently at war with them, the indigenous population had no permanent establishment.
Instead, several nomadic tribes whose main activity was war and hunting, those skirmish were a mejor problem among the Spanish population. By the end of the Spanish rule, the white population of the New Kingdom of León comprised approximately 80% of the population. By the end of the colonial era, the reineros (as they were known) had obtained a certain stability and had established the city of Linares, considered the second largest city, located southeast of Monterrey.
Insurgent era
News about the insurgent movementMexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The movement, which became known as the Mexican War of Independence, was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought...
started by Miguel Hidalgo on September 16, 1810 were virtually unknown by inhabbitants of the New Kingdom of León until a letter sent by Felix María Calleja
Félix María Calleja del Rey, 1st Count of Calderón
Félix María Calleja del Rey, 1st Count of Calderón was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of New Spain from March 4, 1813, to September 20, 1816, during Mexico's War of Independence.-Before the insurrection of 1810:Captain Calleja del Rey accompanied the Count of Revillagigedo to New Spain in...
to then New Leonese governor Manuel de Santa María on September, 29, the distance and bad condition of access paths, were a factor for the delayed post service from the capital of New Spain and the relatively remote northern provinces. The impulse toward insurgency against Spain was rapidly suffocated in the region, the New Kingdom of León, along with Provincias Internas de Oriente, was in its first years one of the regions with less support for the insurgent cause, as for the case of the New Kingdom of León, this was among several reasons explained because it was one of the last territories colonized by the Spanish Empire in New Spain, also because it was the province which reported the highest proportion of people of Spaniard and Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
ancestry reported in the revillagigedo 1790 census, followed by Texas
Spanish Texas
Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of New Spain from 1690 until 1821. Although Spain claimed ownership of the territory, which comprised part of modern-day Texas, including the land north of the Medina and Nueces Rivers, the Spanish did not attempt to colonize the area until after...
and Coahuila.
The ideology or ideals which Miguel Hidalgo fought were at his first attempt not well-received in the Provincias Internas de Oriente, because of stronger ties with Spain and loyalistm to Fernando VI, and counter-insurgency movements were present on the region, mainly in the first years of the war, with the movement of a former insurgent general Ignacio Elizondo
Ignacio Elizondo
Francisco Ignacio Elizondo Villarreal, , was a New Leonese royalist general, mostly known for his victorious plot to seek to capture important insurgency precursors of the Mexican War of Independence such as Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, and Juan Aldama in Baján, Coahuila in...
, who changed to the army of loyalists of Fernando VI, the reasons are controversially disputed, but its understood that he was a loyalist when he joined the insurgent side, and its convictions were stronger when he was influenced and persuaded by general Ramón Díaz de Bustamante to organize a plot to caught major insurgency precursors such as Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende
Ignacio Allende
Ignacio José de Allende y Unzaga , born Ignacio Allende y Unzaga, was a captain of the Spanish Army in Mexico who came to sympathize with the Mexican independence movement. He attended the secret meetings organized by Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, where the possibility of an independent New Spain was...
, and Mariano Abasolo
Mariano Abasolo
Mariano Abasolo was a Mexican revolutionist, born at Dolores, Guanajuato. He participated in the revolution started by Hidalgo in 1810 and rose to be a major-general. He fought at Puente de Calderón, was taken prisoner by the Spaniards, was tried at Chihuahua, and was sentenced to ten years'...
, whom Ignacio Elizondo, caught on Bajan
Bajan
Bajan is an English-based creole language spoken on the Caribbean island of Barbados. Bajan, like many other English-based Caribbean creole languages, consists of a West African substrate and an English superstrate...
, Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
, on 1811, while they were moving toward north Monclova
Monclova
On the other hand, temperatures during late spring and summer can have bouts of extreme heat, with evenings above 40°C for many consecutive days. In recent decades the hottest records have climbed as high as 43°C on July 13, 2005 and 45°C on May 4, 1984. However nighttime low temperatures are...
.
In the later years of the war, movements toward insurgency were less frequent and the independence sentiment was reassert but there was some disconcert about the situation because of a general displeasure with the news that José María Morelos
José María Morelos
José María Teclo Morelos y Pavón was a Mexican Roman Catholic priest and revolutionary rebel leader who led the Mexican War of Independence movement, assuming its leadership after the execution of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in 1811...
, one of the leaders of the movement, had convoked a constitutional congress in Chilpancingo
Chilpancingo
Chilpancingo de los Bravo is the capital and second-largest city of the state of Guerrero, Mexico. It is located at . In the 2005 census the population of the city was 166,796. Its surrounding municipality, of which it is municipal seat, had a population of 214,219 persons...
, in the south of Mexico, and had named himself representative of the Nuevo Reino de León, although he had absolutely no prior connection to the region. Just one year before Juan José de la Garza had represented the Nuevo Reino de León in the Cortes Generales
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate . The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution...
at Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, which had produced the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
Spanish Constitution of 1812.
Servando Teresa de Mier
Fray Servando Teresa de Mier was a Roman Catholic priest and a preacher and politician in New Spain....
(a rather unorthodox priest who claimed that the Virgin of Guadalupe had been engraved not on the tilma of Juan Diego but on the mantle of Saint Thomas. Servando Teresa de Mier represented Nuevo Reino de León at the national constitutional congress that, in its decree number 45, article 1, pronounced that "Nuevo León will be from this time forward a state of the Mexican Federation".
Father Mier organized the establishment of a local legislature, which adopted the first constitution of the newly established state March 5, 1825. This state congress was dissolved in 1835 and the state was converted into a "Department". The national struggle between conservatives
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
and liberals
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
damaged the region's stability. In 1846, during the Mexican-American War, United States forces besieged Monterrey (see Battle of Monterrey
Battle of Monterrey
In the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War, General Pedro de Ampudia and the Mexican Army of the North was defeated by U.S...
). Additionally, native tribes originating in the U.S. made a brutal assault on the region, stealing women, children, cattle, and provisions. The chaos was such that it became routine to draw up ones will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
before making even a short journey.
Separatist attempts
By the middle of the 19th century the inhabitants of Nuevo León began to take reprisals against the indigenous natives, the U.S., and the Mexican authorities. In 1850 towns throughout Nuevo León were ready with an armed militiaMilitia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
and with combat provisions (bastimento) already prepared for a combat that could break out at any moment. The bastimento consisted of corn biscuits, dried meat, and chocolate, the cornerstones of the rural diet of Nuevo León then and now.
The response to the native invasions was ruthless. Influenced by the methods of the Americans to their north, the Nuevoleonese poisoned the waters from which the natives drank and put a bounty on natives' scalps. The combat with the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
s, Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
s, runaway Kickapoos and North American filibusterers
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
, while brutal and inhuman, gave a great deal of experience to the Nuevoleonese militias, who defeated the Mexican Army in several battles. The combat skills of local heroes Juan Zuazua, José Silvestre Aramberri, Mariano Escobedo
Mariano Escobedo
Mariano Escobedo was a Mexican Army general and former Governor of Nuevo León.He was born on January 16, 1826 in Galeana, Nuevo León. He fought during the Mexican American War in the army with the rank of lieutenant...
, Lázaro Garza Ayala and Jerónimo Treviño were all tempered by those skirmishes.
The leader of this self-defense movement was Santiago Vidaurri
Santiago Vidaurri
José Santiago Vidarrui was a controversial and powerful governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León between 1855 and 1864. His tenure was marked by secessionist ambitions and an unparalleled commerce with the Confederate States of America...
, who proclaimed the Plan de Monterrey in 1855, restoring the sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
of Nuevo León. Later a sympathizer with the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Vidaurri democratically annexed the Mexican state of Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
by plebiscite and later declared the República de la Sierra Madre, one of Nuevo León's two famous attempts at separatism (the other being the Republic of the Rio Grande
Republic of the Rio Grande
The Republic of the Rio Grande was an independent nation that insurgents against the Central Mexican Government sought to establish in northern Mexico. The rebellion lasted from January 17 to November 6, 1840 and the Republic of the Rio Grande was never officially recognized.- Background :After a...
in 1840). Upon the death of his chief military supporter, general Juan Zuazua, he was easily taken prisoner by other Nuevoleonese loyal to Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...
, who decreed the deannexation of Coahuila.
Later history
At the end of the 19th century, several industries grew up in Nuevo León that, over the course of time, would come to dominate the Mexican economy. This was the period in which the first Nuevoleonese banks arose, as well as breweries, cementer manufacturers, steel mills. Toward the middle of the 20th century, Nuevo León had two internationally famous educational institutions: the Autonomous University of Nuevo León and the Technological Institute of Higher Studies in Monterrey (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey). The state received a heavy flow of German, Russian and Italian immigration, thus enriched the local Mexican culture and closened ties with TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
of the United States.
In the 1970s some terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
groups espousing communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
ideology and identified with the social problems of southeastern Mexico plagued Nuevo León with assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s of important businessmen, among them Eugenio Garza Sada
Eugenio Garza Sada
Eugenio Garza Sada was a Mexican businessman and philanthropist who founded the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in 1943.-Early life:Garza Sada was born to Isaac Garza and Consuelo Sada...
. Economic crises struck the state like everywhere in Mexico, but again came remarkable economic growth in the 1990s brought on by North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
or NAFTA has improved living conditions.
, Nuevo León leads Mexico in most indexes of health and quality of life
Quality of life
The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of...
. Municipalities such as San Pedro Garza García
San Pedro Garza García
San Pedro Garza García is a city-municipality of the Mexican state of Nuevo León and is part of Monterrey's Metropolitan Area, based on the suburban North American model...
have the highest standard of living
Standard of living
Standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...
in Latin America, and Nuevo León as a whole has a human development index
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...
superior to some European countries; compared against countries, it would occupy position #32 in the world.