HISTORY. The city dates from about A.O. 1325, when the Aztecs, looking for a favorable site, saw' perched on a cactus an eagle devouring a snake. The omen was interpreted to mean that this was to be the site of their city; hence its original name, Tenochtitlan, 'cactus on a stone,' changed later to Mexico in honor of the war god Mexitli. With the progress of Aztec culture the city ex panded and improved, and about 1450 tradition reports that the mud and rush houses were re played by solid stone edifices built partly on piles amid the little islands of Lake Texcoen. The Aztec city was an imposing spectacle at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519, when it is reported to have contained at least 50.000 buildings and several hundred thousand inhabit ants. it was about twelve miles in circumfer ence, everywhere intersected by canals and con nected with the mainland by six long and solidly constructed causeways. it was thus essentially a lacnstrine city, but the subsidence of Lake Texeoco has left the modern city high and dry. with the lake two and a half miles away. The Aztec city was almost wholly destroyed by who, in 1521, employed the friendly na tives to rebuild the city on the same site. Under
Spanish domination the city in 1600 contained about 15,000 inhabitants, number gradu ally increased to 120,000 two centuries later.
The city was captured by the United States force, after the battle of Chapultepee, on Sep tember 13. 1547, and by the French forces under Marshal Fore). in 1503. \Vitt' a history extend ing from the uncertain past of Aztec tradition through three centuries of Spanish dominion and six decades of spasmodic revolution, the centre, subsequently. of a political system unique on the American continent and of an intellectual and industrial development unparalleled in Latin Amerien, Mexico is to-day at once one of the most interesting and most promising cities of the Western continent.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Cavo. Tres siglos de Mexico Bibliography. Cavo. Tres siglos de Mexico (Mexico. 1830-38) ; Bandelier, .Mexico (Boston, 18851; Charnay, Ancient Citics in the World (London, 1887) ; The Capitols of Rpanish zlnierica (New York, 1888) ; Howells, Mexico: Its Progress and Commercial Possibili tics (London, 1892) ; Mexico, trans. by Thompson and Cleveland (Mexico, 1893) Be hi iv, Mexico (Berlin, 1899) ; Percival, Mexico City (Chicago, 1901).