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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.

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