The correct answer is power and wealth remained in the hands of a small group, while many people remained poor.
Long before the arrival of the Spanish, the Aztecs, Toltecs, and the Maya occupied the region that currently corresponds to the territory of Mexico. The Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés razed the Aztec Civilization between 1519 and 1521. From that moment on, Mexico became part of the Vice Kingdom of New Spain. Its independence was proclaimed in 1810 and by 1824 it was already a republic.