From the days of the Aztecs , Mexico City has been the center of power for much of Mesoamerica and the Mexican nation . This centralism simply changed hands when the Spanish arrived , The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( PRI ) , which came to power after the Mexican Revolution , again consolidated political power to the city , which benefited to the detriment of other parts of the country . The rapid expansion of Mexico City is related to the country 's economic development in the period after World War II , the widening of the manufacturing sector , the success of the oil industry , and the country 's proximity to U.S. markets . This growth allowed for the tolerance of PRI 's authoritarianism . It still experienced economic growth up to the 1960s , but problems brought on by the one-party system were beginning to show . In 1968 , Mexico City hosted the Summer Olympic Games . The event was meant to signal the prosperity of a developing nation , but serious problems had been masked by the PRI 's authoritarian regime . Shortly before the inauguration of the Games , government troops massacred an unknown number of protesting students in Tlatelolco . However , the last straw may have been the 1985 Mexico City earthquake . On Thursday , 19 September 1985 , at 7:19 am local time , Mexico City was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 . on the Richter magnitude scale . The event caused between three and four billion USD in damage as 412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the city . While the number is in dispute , the most-often cited number of deaths is about 10,000 people
government troops massacred
Tlatelolco massacre
History of Mexico City