The Mexican Armed Forces are the military forces of the United Mexican States. The Spanish crown established a standing military in colonial Mexico in the eighteenth century. After Mexican independence in 1821, the military played an important political role, with army generals serving as heads of state. Following the collapse of the Federal Army during the 1910–1920 Mexican Revolution, former revolutionary generals systematically downsized the size and power of the military. The Mexican military forces are composed of two independent entities: the Mexican Army and the Mexican Navy. The Mexican Army includes the Mexican Air Force, while the Mexican Navy includes the Naval Infantry Force and the Naval Aviation (FAN). The Army and Navy are controlled by two separate government departments, the National Defense Secretariat and the Naval Secretariat, and maintain two independent chains of command, with no joint command except the President of Mexico.
Monument to the Boy Heroes also known as Los Niños Héroes at the Heroic Military Academy/Mexican Military Academy for sacrificing themselves in battle during the Mexican-American war.
General Antonio López de Santa Anna
Federal Army General Victoriano Huerta
Constitutionalist Army General Alvaro Obregón
The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army.
Aztec warriors as shown in the 16th century Florentine Codex. Each warrior is brandishing a Maquahuitl.
This page from the Codex Mendoza shows the gradual improvements to equipment and tlahuiztli as a warrior progresses through the ranks from commoner to porter to warrior to captor, and later as a noble progressing in the warrior societies from the noble warrior to "Eagle warrior" to "Jaguar Warrior" to "Otomitl" to "Shorn One" and finally as "Tlacateccatl".
Guanajuato. At center: the Alhóndiga de Granaditas
Constitutional decree for the freedom of the Mexican America
