New León

New León (Spanish: Nuevo León; Spanish pronunciation: /nweβo leˈon/), officially the Provincia Libre de Nuevo León (English: Free Province of New León), is a Mejican province located in the Old North macroregion. Nuevo León is one of Mejico's most important provinces, standing as a center of finance, trade, and tourism. It has a population of 6.8 million people, and its capital is located in Monterrey. The capital's metropolitan area houses over 90% of the province's population, for a total of 6.2 million people. Nuevo León borders Coahuila and Zacatecas to the west, Tamaulipas to the east, and San Luis Potosí to the southwest. It covers an area of 64,924 km2, and is divided into 51 municipalities, 23 of which are located within the Monterrey Metropolitan Area.

Chroniclers affirm that the region of Nuevo León was inhabited by a group of ethnic groups catalogued as Coahuiltecos and Apaches. The latter, known for their nomadic lifestyle, roamed the northern territories of Nuevo León. When the Spaniards arrived, some of the ethnic groups were called rayados, borrados, pelones, barretados, and pintados. These communities were identified by their distinctive body paintings, honoring their gods and animals of significance within their spiritual beliefs. The absence of written records from these Indigenous groups leaves much of their history unknown, and the documented narrative of the region commences with the arrival of the Spaniards.

The first Europeans to explore what is now Nuevo León were those of the expedition led by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, as they made an expedition through the Spanish Florida to the Pacific Ocean. After several failed attempts, a group of settlers, among them several families of converted Jews, known as Conversos, arrived on the Mejican coast aboard the Santa Catarina. Led by the Portuguese Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva they settled in Santa Lucía, part of what is now the city of Monterrey, in fulfillment of a commitment made by King Philip II of Spain: the establishment of the New Kingdom of León. Carvajal and his followers, which consisted of more than sixty soldiers and outlaws, were reputed to have made a fortune capturing and selling Indian slaves. The previous settlement founded by Carvajal remained sparsely inhabited and was eventually depopulated. The definitive foundation of Monterrey occurred on September 20, 1596, when Spanish captain Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Our Lady of Monterrey.

Bernabé de las Casas, after his victorious expedition with Juan de Oñate in New Mejico, arrived in the region with Spanish and Canary Islander families to find several settlements and mining camps in the Valle de las Salinas. In 1646, the chronicler Alonso de León is commissioned to establish the town of San Juan de Tlaxcala in modern Cadereyta; however, the Chichimecs raid it and indentify it four years later. Almost all the Catholic missions were staffed by Tlaxcalan families to train the neophyte Indians in civilian life, teaching them to plow, sow, make handicrafts, etc. The Tlaxcaltecas founded new towns such as San Miguel de Aguado, San Pedro de Boca de Leones, Santiago de las Sabinas, and Nueva Tlaxcala de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Horcasitas, in addition to discovering mineral deposits.

Mestizaje, the blending of Indigenous and Spanish cultures and races, was a challenging process in Nuevo León. The Indigenous communities resisted to embracing Christianity, and they refused to integrate into Spanish/Criollo society. This reluctance contributed to a persistent sense of cultural and racial division between the indigenous populations and the Spanish and Criollo Reineros, as the citizens of Nuevo León were known. Tensions often escalated into conflicts and skirmishes in a state of intermittent warfare, as the indigenous communities lacked a stable establishment and frequently contested Spanish authority. This atmosphere of division and conflict entrenched a mutual sense of segregation between the two groups. By the conclusion of the Spanish rule, the White population constituted approximately 80% of Nuevo León's demographic composition, reflecting the prevailing dominance of the Spanish and European descent within the region.

Following Mejican independence in 1788, Nuevo León navigated a tumultuous path of factional division, cultural evolution, and economic stability. The early years witnessed a series of sporadic clashes between indigenous communities and the newly established government, as indigenous groups contested the encroachment of their lands. The province experienced intermittent conflicts, such as the failed Conspiracy of La Ciénaga in 1799, sparked by grievances over land rights and governance. Despite grappling with occasional clashes between indigenous communities and the central government, economic prosperity largely prevailed, after being reintregated into the country following the failed short-lived Republic of Río Grande. The province's economic success was rooted in agricultural and mining endeavors, which provided tangible products for exportation to other parts of the country and abroad. The next decades saw a gradual consolidation of Criollo influence within Nuevo León, marked by efforts to integrate indigenous populations into Mejican society, but tensions persisted, fueled by socio-economic disparities and cultural differences.

Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, under the auspices of the Porfirist system of the Liberal Trentennium, local industries began to boom as a result of relative stability and increased trade with the rest of the Americas and Europe. During this period, Nuevo León was favored by the flow of trade and, as a stable entity, it saw the growth of new companies and industries, such as foundries, breweries, glassworks, and more. The local aristocracy was strengthened and influenced by the movement led by Francisco I. Madero. It was in the capital, Monterrey, when Madero was arrested for protecting Roque Estrada, accused of insulting President José Yves de Limantour. From Monterrey, Madero was transferred to San Luis Potosí, at the request of Madero's family.

The Mejican Civil War had little impact on the region, and it began to grow rapidly in all areas. By the end of the 20th century, Nuevo León had one of the most advanced educational systems in the Americas, and a standard of living comparable to that of several Western European countries, thanks in part to the large pool of industrial and technological knowledge that benefited the entire region. The city of Monterrey saw explosive growth, and remains an industrial and financial powerhouse in Mejico, being the most important city of the Old North. As the major immigrant-receiving provinces of Mejico were engulfed in social turmoil, Nuevo León's industrialized cities flourished and its burgeoning middle class increased. The province's economy soon became one of the most prosperous in the country, and received hundreds of thousands of Spanish, Italian, German, and French immigrants in the early decades of the 20th century.

In the era of Vasconcelism and Abascalism within Nuevo León, the province underwent a profound transformation marked by Vasconcelist ideals, such as Castizaje, National Catholicism, and corporatism. Under this regime, dissent faced ruthless suppression, as the ruling authorities employed severe measures to stifle any opposition or discord. The Regional Confederation of Mejican Workers was abolished in 1935 after an anti-corporatist riot in Monterrey, and was supplanted by the National Union of Mejican Workers, founded in the same city, in the same year. Socialist and Magonist intellectuals critical of the prevailing order were systematically silenced, their newspapers discontinued, and their movements quelled through forceful and coercive means. Corporatism in Nuevo León was thus institutionalized and has remained the prevailing economic system of Mejico. The extreme efficiency of Neoleonese bureaucrats, coupled with its strong industrial base, allowed Nuevo León to weather the economic crises of the 20th century better than its regional counterparts. By the end of the century, its economy was not only strong and diversified but highly competitive on an international scale.