Mexican Flag
Flag of Mexico
Many
civilizations originated in Mexico, including the Olmec, Maya, Toltec,
Mixtec, Zapotec and Aztec, the Aztecs settling on Mexico's high, central
plateau. The last Aztec king, Montezuma II, having been killed in 1520,
during the Spanish conquest of the region, the Viceroyalty of New Spain
was established in 1535. Having found colonial rule increasingly
oppressive, the Mexicans began their struggle for independence in 1810,
achieving their aim in 1821.
The Mexican flag that was used by Mexico's liberation army was inspired
by the revolutionary French Tricolore, although the colors of its
vertical stripes are those of the liberation army, the green symbolizing
hope, the white unity, purity and honesty, and the red the blood of
national heroes. The state emblem of Mexico - an eagle and a snake -
which dates from independence, was added in 1968 to distinguish the flag
from Italy's tricolor. The emblem recalls a legend telling how the god
Huitzilopochtli exhorted the Aztecs to seek a pace where an eagle had
landed on a prickly-pear cactus to eat a snake. After centuries of
wandering, the Aztecs found the sign that they had been searching for on
a swampy island in Lake Texcoco, building their new home, which they
named Tenochtitlan ('Place of the Prickly-Pear Cactus') on the site a.d.
1325, now occupied by the modern Mexico City,
