History Of Nuevo Len

The Estado Libre y Soberano de Nuevo Len (Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo Len) was first colonized in the 16th century by immigrants from the Iberian Peninsula. The majority of these were conversos, ethnic Jews converted to Roman Catholicism. The province eventually became a state of Mexico. Today it is one of the most industrialized regions of Latin America.

Important dates in the history of Nuevo Len

ate !! Event
gcolor=#CCCCFF| 1577 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Alberto del Canto founds the village of Santa Luca.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| May 31, 1579 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Philip II of Spain orders the establishment of a new kingdom in the Americas.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| 1581 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva founds the Nuevo Reino de Len (New Kingdom of Len).
gcolor=#CCCCFF| December 15, 1777 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Pope Pius VI creates the episcopate of Nuevo Len in the bull Relata semper
gcolor=#CCCCFF| October 29, 1810 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| News of the Grito de Dolores arrives in Monterrey
gcolor=#CCCCFF| May 7, 1824 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Nuevo Len is designated a Mexican state.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| March 5, 1825 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| First constitution of the state of Nuevo Len approved.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| January 17, 1840 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Repblica del Rio Grande: Nuevo Len declares itself independent of Mxico.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| November 6, 1840 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| The Mexican army defeats the separatists.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| September 20, 1846 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| The United States Army begins the siege of Monterrey.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| February 1848 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| The United States Army leaves the territory.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| February 19, 1856 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Repblica de la Sierra Madre: Nuevo Len annexes Coahuila and again announces secession from Mexico.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| April 3, 1864 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Monterrey is declared capital of Mxico. Separatists defeated.
gcolor=#CCCCFF| June 1991 bgcolor=#EFEFEF| Nuevo Len opens its frontier with Texas.

Origins

The earliest known human inhabitants of the region now known Nuevo Len were a small number of Native American nomads. They left no written records, so the recorded history of the region begins with the arrical 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. 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 Len (Nuevo Reino de Len). 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. By the end of the colonial era, the reineros (as they were known) had obtained a certain stability and had established a second city, Linares south of Monterrey.

Insurgent era

The impulse toward insurgency against Spain was rapidly suffocated in the region, because of a general displeasure with the news that Jos Mara Morelos, the leader 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 Len, although he had absolutely no prior connection to the region. Just one year before Juan Jos de la Garza had represented the Nuevo Reino de Len in the Cortes Generales at Cdiz, 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, and that Saint Thomas himself had preached the gospel in Mexico under the name of Quetzalcatl) represented Nuevo Reino de Len at the national constitutional congress that, in its decree number 45, article 1, pronounced that "Nuevo Len 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.

Separatist attempts

By the middle of the 19th century the inhabitants of Nuevo Len began to take reprisals against the indigenous natives, the U.S., and the Mexican authorities. In 1850 towns throughout Nuevo Len were ready with an armed militia 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 Len 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 Apaches, Comanches 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, Jos Silvestre Aramberri, Mariano Escobedo, Lzaro Garza Ayala and Jernimo Trevio 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 Len. 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 Repblica de la Sierra Madre, one of Nuevo Len's two famous attempts at separatism (the other being the Repblica del Ro 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 Jurez, who decreed the deannexation of Coahuila.

Later history

At the end of the 19th century, several industries grew up in Nuevo Len 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 Len had two internationally famous educational institutions: the Autonomous University of Nuevo Len and the Technological Institute of Higher Studies in Monterrey (Instituto Tecnolgico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey). In the 1970s some terrorist groups espousing communist ideology and identified with the social problems of southeastern Mexico plagued Nuevo Len with assassinations of important businessmen, among them Eugenio Garza Sada. As of 2004, Nuevo Len leads Mexico in most indexes of health and quality of life. Municipalities such as San Pedro Garza Garca have the highest standard of living in Latin America, and Nuevo Len as a whole has and index of human development superior to some European countries; compared against countries, it would occupy position #32 in the world.

References

This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the Spanish-language wikipedia.

External links

 

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