Mexico, a federal republic of North America, and by far the most powerful representative of the Spanish American states.
I. General. — Mexico is situated between latitude 15° and 32° north, and longitude 97° and 117° west. The area is estimated by Behm and Wagner (JJevulkerung der Erde, Gotha, 1872) at 776,280 square niles; by oth- er authorities somewhat differently. The population amounted in 18G8, according to the calculations of the Mexican statistician, Cubas y Garcia, to 9,173,052. The country was, in 1518, conquered by Cortes for Spain, and from that time to 1821 constituted the vice-king- dom of New Spain. Up to 1843, when Texas separated from Mexico and declared itself independent, the area of Mexico was more than double what it is at present, embracing an area of about 1,500,000 square miles, but soon after the loss of Texas, the entire country north of the Kio Grande had, in consequence of the war of 1846 to 1848, to be ceded to the United States. In 1821 Mexico declared independence from Spain, and consti- tuted itself a republic. The attempt of the Creole, Iturbide, to convert the country into an empire (1822), ended after about one year with his expulsion; and from that time Mexico, though continually torn by civil wars, remained a republic, with the single exception of the in- terval from 1864 to 1867 when Maximilian I was emper- or of Mexico. The Jlexican population embraces about 1,140,000 whites (40,000 Europeans, 300,000 Creoles, 800,000 Chapetones, or persons of mixed descent, who claim to be white), 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 Mestizoes of mixed descent, and about 16,000 negroes ; all the others are Indians. Nearly all of these last are Christianized ijideles), only about 100,000 are still unbaptized {Indios hravos), and inhabit in small tribes the northern regions of the republic. All races have equal rights before the law; slavery was abolished on Sept. 16, 1829, under president Guerrero. The general language of the coun- try is Spanish; of the Indian dialects, about twenty have maintained themselves to the present day ; those most extensively spoken are the Aztec, or Mexican, and the Otonutian.
II. History of the Roman Catholic Church.— The con- quest of the countrj' was soon followed by its Christian- ization. The first missionaries (after 1522) belonged to the Franciscan order, and one of the first Franciscan
monks, Peter of Ghent, reported that the missionaries of his order had, during the first six years of their labors, converted 200,000 Indians; and according to a report of the first bishop of Mexico, Zumaraga, in 1531, the num- ber of the converts had risen to 1,000,000. Even the missionaries, however, complain that the conversion in many cases was little more than nominal, and many hid their idols under the cross in order to be able to worship them with impunity. The Franciscans were, in 1526, followed by the Dominicans, who gave to the country most of its bishops, by the Mercedarians (Order of Mer- cy), and (after 1553) by the Augustinians. When the Jesuits arrived in the country in 1572, the Christiani- zation of the districts settled by the colonists was nearly complete ; but the Jesuits established a number of pros- perous missions in the territories of Northern Mexico, which at that time did not belong to the Spanish do- minions. Abou;; the year 1600 Mexico abounded in magnificent churches, convents, and charitable institu- tions. The cruel treatment of the Indians by many Spaniards often called forth the remonstrances of monks and bishops, who prevailed upon king Charles V of Spain to interfere in behalf of the Indians, and upon pope Paul III to declare authoritatively that the Indians were ra- tional beings, and must be treated as such. At the same time the bishops took good care of their own interests, and the Church of Mexico was one of the wealthiest on the globe. In 1767 the Jesuits were expelled from the country, and about the same time the influence of the liberaland rationalistic tendencies which prevailed in South-western Europe invaded Mexico, and gradually undermined both the Spanish rule and the influence of the Catholic Church. Among the leaders of the war of independence were many liberals. After the establish- ment of the federative republic, the Church generally sided with the Centralists, or Escosesos (so called after the Scotch rite of Freemasonry), and thereby provoked the bitter hostility of tlie Federalists, or Yorkinos (so called after the York rite of the Freemasons), who con- fiscated very large amounts of Church propertj-^ when- ever they were in power. In consequence of the refusal of the Spanish government to relinquish its historical rights in Mexican Church affairs, nearly all the episco- pal sees became gradually vacant, until a convention with Rome for the reorganization of the Mexican Church was concluded and proclaimed, in 1831, as a law of the state. In 1851, under the presidency of Arista, a papal nuncio, Clementi, was appointed for Mexico, but the Chamber of Deputies did not recognise him, and even a portion of the clergy received him with distrust. In an allocution of Dec. 15, 1856, the pope complained that in the previous year (1855) the ecclesiastical jurisdiction had been abolished, the property of the diocese of Pue- bla confiscated, and the bishop of that city exiled; that in 1856 the Church had been stripped of all her possessions, the bishop of Guadalajara exiled, the sale of the Church property ordered, and the monks prevailed upon to leave their convents; that Uberty of worship, speech, and the press had been introduced, many priests fined, a number of convents destroyed, and others suppressed ; and that in general the government of president Santa Anna had shown a bitter hostility to the Church. President Com- monfort (elected in 1856) was regarded as a still worse enemy of the Chiu-ch than Santa Anna. A good under- standing between Church and State was for a short time re-established under president Zuloaga (1858); but after his speedy overthrow (1859) the conflict began anew. A papal allocution .of Sept. 30, 1861, deplored the new persecution of the Church in Mexico, when under the administration of president Juarez the possessions of the Church had been declared as national property, churches plundered, bishops expelled, clergymen, moidis, and nuns exposed to many annoyances, and so forth. W hen Maximilian I was proclaimed emperor, the entire Church party supported him. IMaxiinilian, before going to Mexico, implored at Rome the papal blessing, confer- red many favors upon the Church, and received a new