The Mexican Revolution, a decade-long armed conflict, went down in Mexican history as one of the nation’s most transformative events after it ended the long-running dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz and established a constitutional republic.

Heroes of the revolution, such as Pancho Villa and Francisco Madero, are honored at the Monumento a la Revolución (Monument to the Revolution) and there’s a small museum on the Plaza de la República providing interesting context on the prolonged struggle.

In Palacio Nacional, Diego Rivera murals depict key moments that took place during the revolution, among other important events that unfolded over nearly 700 years of Mexican history. The revolution spawned a muralist movement that began in the 1920s and later produced some of the prolific works of art that the nation has ever seen, including the vividly dramatic paintings of Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros in Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Yet another turning point in modern history came in 2000 when the nation’s long-standing ruling party, known as the PRI, lost the presidential election after seven decades of uninterrupted power. The surprising victory by Vicente Fox, of the conservative PAN party, ushered in a new era of democracy and ultimately paved the way for Mexico’s current president, leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to win the presidency by a landslide in 2018. His term ends in 2024.