• Around Mexico City
  • Mexico
  • Tlaxcala
  • Puebla
  • Morelos
  • Hidalgo
• Colonial States
  • Queretaro
  • Guanajuato
  • Aguascalientes
  • San Luis Potosí
  • Jalisco
  • Zacatecas
  • Michoacán
• The Pacific
  • Sinaloa
  • Chihuahua
  • Coahuila
  • Nuevo León
  • State of Durango
  • State of Nayarit
  • Tamaulipas
• The North
  • Sonora
  • Chihuahua
  • Colima
  • Colima
  • Mexico
• Baja Peninsular
  • Baja California Sur
  • Baja California Norte
• The South
  • Oaxaca
  • Chiapas
  • Tobasco
  • Veracruz
• The Yucatan Peninsular
  • Yucatán
  • Quintana Roo
  • Campeche

• Famous Mexican Cities
• Maya Civilization
• Useful Resources
• News Aarchives

Mexico Travel :: States around Mexico City

State of Hidalgo

After the decline of Teotihuacan, a chief named Mixcoatl ('Cloud Serpent') led his tribe into the state of Hidalgo from the northwest. They were called the Toltecs, and Mix-coatl's son, the bearded and pale-skinned Topiltzin, founded their capital in Tula in southern Hidalgo around AD 950. The city was soon torn by a conflict between those who worshipped the peaceful Feathered Serpent, including Topiltzin, and those who followed the blood-thirsty god Tezcatlipoca ('Smoking Mirror'). Topiltzin was expelled from Tula around 987, and his subsequent wanderings south and east became the stuff of myth. According to one tale, he set sail in a raft from the Gulf coast vowing one day to return. (Motecuhzoma II remembered this story with fear when he heard of bearded white men landing on his shores.) With the warrior faction in power the Toltecs extended their influence throughout central Mexico from Zacatecas to Oaxaca. The Aztecs later looked back on the Toltec era as a time of unparalleled prosperity.

In the mid-12th century, Tula collapsed due to internal strife, and the survivors streamed forth to conquer and settle lands as far away as Yucatan. Cortes entered Hidalgo in 1520, but he wasn't able to conquer the tribes there completely until 1530. The region was divided into encomiendas, and Spanish settlement surged when-from 1552 onwards-rich silver mines were discovered in Pachuca and Real del Monte. Pa-chuca's wealth made it an important prize for various armies; battles were fought here during the Insurgency, the US invasion, the Wars of Reform, the French invasion and the Revolution. Although Hidalgo is today surrounded by powerful neighbors, the trend towards increasing population and industrialization has largely by-passed the state.

Featured Mexico Travel Destinations

Mexico judges get guards

The government has assigned bodyguards to at least seven federal judges and magistrates after death threats were made against them in recent weeks, an official

Six dead as Wilma pounds Mexico

Six dead as Wilma pounds Mexico At least six people have died as Hurricane Wilma continues to pound the coast of Mexico. The storm has flooded

Parque Mirador Independencia: Guadalajara

Parque Mirador Independencia: Guadalajara We are in process of collecting information about this sight....

Barrow teachers experience Mexico on exchange trip

Barrow teachers experience Mexico on exchange trip Foreign exchange programs aren’t just for students anymore. Teachers are using them to broaden their knowledge of foreign school

Fresh calls for probe in Mexico after gunmen storm newspaper

Fresh calls for probe in Mexico after gunmen storm newspaper An attack on a newspaper in the violence-plagued border city of Nuevo Laredo brought renewed

Metropolitan Cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana): Guadalajara

Metropolitan Cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana): Guadalajara We are in process of collecting information about this sight....

Small bomb goes off at Spanish-owned bank in Mexico

Small bomb goes off at Spanish-owned bank in Mexico A small bomb went off inside a Spanish-owned bank in a residential area near Mexico City

Mexico Update No Survivors In Mexican Police Copter Crash

Mexico Update No Survivors In Mexican Police Copter Crash "They All Died In The Line Of Duty" The Mexican government helicopter previously reported missing by Aero-News has

Mexico's Salinas Is Back, Leaving Many to Wonder

Mexico's Salinas Is Back, Leaving Many to Wonder Ex-presidents of Mexico are used to disappearing. Custom has it that they serve their single, six-year term

Mexico's most wanted man may be in Guatemala-police

Mexico's most wanted man may be in Guatemala-police Mexico's most wanted man, drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, may have entered neighboring Guatemala where police are searching