Mexico

The United Mexican States or Mexico (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos ; regarding the use of the variant spelling M骩co, see section The name below) is a country located in North America, bordered by the United States to the north, and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. It is the northernmost and westernmost country in Latin America and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.

Estados Unidos Mexicanos

Missing image Mexico_flag_large.png Flag of Mexico Missing image Mexico_CoA.png Coat of Arms of Mexico (Flag) (Coat of Arms)
Motto: Sufragio efectivo, No reelecci󮧧 (Spanish: Effective suffrage, no reelection)
Anthem: Mexicanos, al grito de guerra
Capital	Mexico City Template:Coor dm
Largest city	Mexico City
Official languages	Spanish
Government President	Federal Republic Vicente Fox
Independence  • Declared  • Recognized	From Spain September 16, 1810 September 27, 1821
Area  • Total  • Water (%)	1,964,375 km² (13th) 2.5%
Population  • 2005 est.  • 2000 census  • Density	106,202,903 (13th) 97,483,412 54.3/km² (117th)
GDP (PPP)  • Total  • Per capita	2005 estimate $1.064 trillion (13th) $10,090 (66th)
Currency	Peso (MXN)
Time zone  • Summer (DST)	(UTC-8 to -10) varies (UTC)
Internet TLD	.gob .edu .mx
Calling code	+52

Contents

1 History 2 Politics 3 Political divisions 3.1 Major cities 4 Geography 5 Economy 6 Demographics 7 Religion 8 Languages 9 Education 10 Culture 11 The name 12 Miscellaneous topics

History

Main article: History of Mexico

For more than 3,000 years, Mexico was the site of several Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Aztec, the Olmec, the Toltec, and the Maya.

Latecomers to Mexico's central plateau, the Mexica, or Aztecs, as they were sometimes called in memory of [[Aztlan], the starting point of their tribes wanderings, never thought of themselves as anything but heirs of the brilliant civilizations that had preceded them. For them all the highly-civilized arts, sculpture, architecture, engraving, feather-mosiac work, the invention of the calendar, were due to the former inhabitants of Tula, the Toltecs, who reached the height of their civilization in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century, and their defeat of the Mexica in 1521, marked the beginning of the 300 year-long colonial period of Mexico as New Spain.

On September 16, 1810, independence from Spain was declared, by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest in the small town of Dolores, causing a long war that eventually led to independence in 1821 and the creation of the First Mexican Empire.

After independence, Spanish possessions in Central America were all incorporated into Mexico from 1822 to 1823, when they declared independence, with the exception of Chiapas.

Soon after achieving its independence from Spain, the Mexican government, in an effort to populate its sparsely-settled hinterlands, awarded land grants in a remote area of the northernmost state of Coahuila y Tejas to hundreds of immigrant families from the United States, on the condition that the settlers convert to Catholicism and assume Mexican citizenship. It also forbade the importation of slaves, a condition that, like the others, was largely ignored.

The Empire soon fell to rebellious republican forces led by Antonio L󰥺 de Santa Anna. The first Republic was formed with Guadalupe Victoria as its first president, followed in office by Santa Anna. As president, in 1834 Santa Anna abrogated the federal constitution, causing insurgencies in the southern state of [[Yucat�] and the northernmost portion of the northern state of Coahuila y Tejas. Both areas sought independence from the Mexican government. While negotiations eventually brought Yucatᮠto again recognize Mexican sovereignty, Santa Anna's army turned to the northern rebellion. The inhabitants of Tejas, calling themselves Texians and led mainly by relatively recently-arrived English-speaking settlers, declared independence from Mexico at Washington-on-the-Brazos, giving birth to the Republic of Texas. Texas won its independence in 1836, further reducing the territory of the fledgling republic. In the 1840s, the country was invaded and defeated by the United States, which demanded and received roughly one-third of the country's remaining territory, from which were formed the modern states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and most of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado (see Mexican-American War).

In the 1860s, the country again suffered a military occupation, this time by France, seeking to establish the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximillian of Austria as Emperor of Mexico, with support from the Roman Catholic clergy and conservative Creoles. This Second Mexican Empire was fought off by then-president of the Republic, the Zapotec Benito Juárez, with diplomatic and logistical support from the United States and the military expertise of General Porfirio D�. General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French Army (arguably, the most powerful in the world at the time) at the city of Puebla on May 5, 1862 (celebrated as Cinco de Mayo ever since), though after his death, the city was lost in early 1863 following a renewed French attack which penetrated as far as Mexico City, forcing President JuᲥz to organize an itinerant government. Napoleon III of France, Emperor of France, imposed Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico from 1864 to 1867. In mid-1867, following repeated losses in battle to the Republican ("Liberal") Army, Maximilian was captured and executed, along with his last loyal generals, in Quer鴡ro. From then on, JuᲥz remained in office until his death in 1872.

After JuᲥz's death, Mexico experienced economic growth under the conservative and pro-European rule of Porfirio D�. Foreign investment allowed the development of the oil industry and the construction of the railroad system all across the country. This period of relative peace and prosperity is known as the "Porfiriato". His mandate, however, was mostly undemocratic and benefited the middle and upper classes, while the Amerindian indigenous population continued to live in precarious conditions. Growing social inequalities, restricted freedom of the press, and his insistence to be reelected for a fifth term led to massive protests. His fraudulent victory in the 1910 elections sparked the Mexican Revolution. Revolutionary forces defeated the federal army, but were left with internal struggles, leaving the country in conflict for two more decades. The creation of the National Revolutionary Party (which later became the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI), in 1929 ended the struggles, uniting all generals and combatants of the revolution.

During the next four decades Mexico experienced impressive economic growth, and historians call this period "El Milagro Mexicano", the Mexican Miracle. However the management of the economy collapsed several times afterwards. Accused many times of fraud, the PRI's candidates held almost all public offices until the end of the 20th century. It was not until the 1980s that the PRI lost the first state governorship, an event that marked the beginning of the party's loss of hegemony. Through the electoral reforms started by president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and consolidated by president Ernesto Zedillo, by the mid 1990s the PRI had lost its majority in Congress. In 2000, and after 70 years, the PRI lost a presidential elections to a candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), Vicente Fox.

On January 1 1994, Mexico became a full member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, joining the United States of America and Canada in a large and prosperous economic bloc. On March 23 2005 the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was signed by the elected leaders of those countries.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Mexico

The 1917 Constitution provides for a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Historically, the executive is the dominant branch, with power vested in the president, who promulgates and executes the laws of the Congress. Congress has played an increasingly important role since 1997 when opposition parties first formed a majority in the legislature. The president also legislates by executive decree in certain economic and financial fields, using powers delegated from Congress. The president is elected by universal adult suffrage for a six-year term and may not hold office a second time. There is no vice president; in the event of the removal or death of the president, a provisional president is elected by Congress.

On July 2, 2000, Vicente Fox Quesada of the opposition "Alliance for Change" coalition, headed by the National Action Party (PAN), was elected president, in what are considered to have been the freest and fairest elections in Mexico's history. Fox began his six-year term on December 1, 2000. His victory ended the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) 71-year hold on the presidency.

The three most important political parties in Mexico are the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

Political divisions

Main article: States of Mexico

See also: Mexican state name etymologies.

Mexico is divided into 31 states (estados) and a federal district. Each state has its own constitution and its citizens elect a governor as well as representatives to their respective state congresses.

1.Aguascalientes 2.Baja California 3.Baja California Sur 4.Campeche 5.Chiapas 6.Chihuahua 7.Coahuila 8.Colima 9.Durango 10.Guanajuato 11.Guerrero 12.Hidalgo 13.Jalisco 14.México 15.Michoacán 16.Morelos

17.Nayarit 18.Nuevo León 19.Oaxaca 20.Puebla 21.Querétaro 22.Quintana Roo 23.San Luis Potosí 24.Sinaloa 25.Sonora 26.Tabasco 27.Tamaulipas 28.Tlaxcala 29.Veracruz 30.Yucatán 31.Zacatecas Distrito Federal

The Federal District is a special political division in Mexico, where the national capital, Mexico City, is located. In enjoys more limited local rule than the nation's "free and sovereign states": only since 1997 have its citizens been able to elect a Head of Government, whose powers are still more curtailed than those of a state governor. Much of the capital city's metropolitan area overflows the limits of the Federal District.

Major cities

The following is a list of the biggest Metropolitan Areas of Mexico in order of population:

1. Mexico City (17.8 million)
2. Guadalajara, Jalisco (4.7 million)
3. Monterrey, Nuevo León (3.6 million)
4. Puebla, Puebla (2.6 million)
5. Juárez, Chihuahua (1.6 million)
6. Tijuana, Baja California (1.3 million)
7. León, Guanajuato (1.2 million)
8. Toluca, México (1.2 million)
9. Torreón, Coahuila (1.1 million)

Population figures according to INEGI (National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information) 2000

These are followed, in descending order, by [[San Luis Potos�San Luis Potos�, [[M鲩da, Yucat�], Santiago de Quer鴡ro, Quer鴡ro, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Cuernavaca, Morelos, and Chihuahua, Chihuahua.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Mexico

Situated in the southwestern part of mainland North America and roughly triangular in shape, Mexico stretches more than 3000 km from northwest to southeast. Its width is varied, from more than 2000 km in the north and less than 220 km at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the south.

Mexico is bordered by the United States to the north, and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. Mexico is about one-fourth the size of the United States. Baja California in the west is an 1,250-km peninsula and forms the Gulf of California. In the east are the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche, which is formed by Mexico's other peninsula, the [[Yucat�]. The center of Mexico is a great, high plateau, open to the north, with mountain chains on the east and west and with ocean-front lowlands lying outside of them.

The terrain and climate vary from rocky deserts in the north to tropical rain forest in the south. Mexico's major rivers include the R�Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande) and the R�Usumacinta on its northern and southern borders, respectively, together with the R�Grijalva, the R�Balsas, the R�P᮵co, and the R�Yaqui in the interior.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Mexico

According to the World Bank, Mexico has the highest per capita income in Latin America and is firmly established as a middle-income country. Since the economic debacle of 1994-1995 the country has made an impressive recovery, building a diversified economy and improving infrastructure. However, huge gaps remain between rich and poor.

Mexico has a free-market economy with a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. The number of state-owned enterprises in Mexico has fallen from more than 1,000 in 1982 to fewer than 200 in 1999. The administration of President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leó®¼…rnesto Zedillo (1994–2000) continued a policy of privatizing and expanding competition in sea ports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity, natural gas distribution, and airports which was initiated by his predecessors Miguel de la Madrid and Carlos Salinas.

A strong export sector helped to cushion the economy's decline in 1995 and led the recovery in 1996–1999. Private consumption became the leading driver of growth, accompanied by increased employment and higher wages. Mexico still needs to overcome many structural problems as it strives to modernize its economy and raise living standards. Income distribution is very unequal, with the top 20% of income earners accounting for 55% of income.

Following 6.9% growth in 2000, real GDP fell 0.3% in 2001, with the US slowdown the principal cause. Positive developments in 2001 included a drop in inflation to 6.5%, a sharp fall in interest rates, and a strong peso that appreciated 5% against the US dollar. Trade with the US and Canada has tripled since NAFTA was implemented in 1994.

Mexico has opened its markets to free trade as no other country in the world, having lifted its trade barriers with more than 40 countries in 12 Free Trade Agreements, including Japan and the European Union. However more than 85% of the trade is still done with the United States. Government authorities expect that by putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements with different countries Mexico will lessen its dependence on the US. The government is pursuing to sign an additional agreement with Mercosur.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Mexico

With an estimated 2005 population of about 106 million, Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world (and the second most populous country in Latin America after Portuguese-speaking Brazil).

Mexico is ethnically and culturally diverse. About 60% of the population is mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white), 30% is Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian, and 9% is white or of European descent. The remaining 1% includes black, Middle Eastern, and Asian groups.

Mexico is the country where the greatest number of U.S citizens live outside the United States. This may be due to the growing economic and business interdependence of the two countries under NAFTA, and also that Mexico is considered an excellent choice for retirees. A clear example of the latter phenomenon is provided by San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and many towns along the Baja California peninsula.

Religion

Mexico is predominantly Roman Catholic (89%), with 6% adhering to various Protestant faiths and the remaining 5% adhering to other religions, or no religion. Some of the country's Catholics (notably those of indigenous background), syncretize Catholicism with elements of Aztec or Mayan religions.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) enjoys a growing presence in the major border cities of northeastern Mexico. Judaism has been practiced in Mexico for centuries, and there are estimated to be 100,000 Jews in Mexico today. Islam is mainly practised by members of the Arab, Turkish, and other expatriate communities; Mexico's Muslims number only a few thousand or less.

Languages

Spanish is the official language of Mexico and is spoken by the majority of the population. About 7% of the population speaks an Amerindian language. The government officially recognizes 62 Amerindian languages. Of these Nahuatl, and Maya are each spoken by 1.5 million, while others, such as Lacandon, are spoken by less than 100. The Mexican government has promoted and established bilingual education programs in indigenous rural communities.

Although Spanish is the official language of Mexico, English is widely used in business. As a result, English language skills are much in demand and can lead to an increase in the salary offered by a company. It is also spoken along the U.S.-Mexican border, in big cities, and in beach resorts. Also, the majority of private schools in Mexico offer bilingual education, both in Spanish and English. English is the main language spoken in U.S. expatriate communities such as those along the coast of Baja California and the town of San Miguel de Allende. There are also Mormon colonies in Chihuahua where education is delivered in English.

With respect to other European languages brought by immigrants, the case of Chipilo, in the state of Puebla, is unique, and has been documented by several linguists like Carolyn McKay. The immigrants that founded the city of Chipilo in 1882 came from the Veneto region in northern Italy, and thus spoke a northern variant of the Venetian dialect. While other European immigrants assimilated into the Mexican culture, the people of Chipilo retained their language. Nowadays, most of the people who live in the city of Chipilo (and many of those who have migrated to other cities) still speak the unaltered Veneto dialect spoken by their great-grandparents making the Veneto dialect an unrecognized minority language in the city of Puebla. A similar case is that of the Plautdietsch language, spoken by the desendents of German and Dutch menonite immigrants in the states of Chihuahua and Durango.

Education

Mexico has made impressive improvements in education in the last two decades. In 2004, literacy rate was at 92%, and youth literacy rate (ages 15-24) was 96%. Primary and secondary education (9 years) is free and mandatory. Even though different bilingual education programs have existed since the 1960s for the indigenous communities, after a constitution reform in the late 1990s, this programs have had a new thrust, and free text books are produced in more than a dozen indigenous languages.

Mexico was the first country to establish, in the 1970s a system of "distance-learning" satellite secondary education, aimed for the little towns and rural communities. In 2005 this system included 30,000 connected schools, 3 million students and 300,000 teachers, who use televised lectures and education science programs, pre-recorded and transmited through "EduSat", via satellite. Schools that use this system are known as telesecundarias in Mexico. The Mexican "distant-learning" secondary education is also transmitted to some Central American countries and to Colombia, and it is used in some southern states of the United States as a method of bilingual education.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Mexico

• Mexican Music
• Mexican literature
• Cinema of Mexico
• Cuisine of Mexico
• List of Mexicans
• Holidays and celebrations in Mexico

The name

Template:IPA notice

Mexico is named after its capital city, whose name comes from the Aztec city Mexico-Tenochtitlan that preceded it. The Mexi part of the name is from Mexitli, the war god, whose name was derived from metztli (the moon) and xictli (navel) and thus meant "navel (probably implying 'child') of the moon". So, Mexico is the home of the people of Mexitli (the Mexicas), co meaning "place" and ca meaning "people".

When the Spaniards encountered this people and transcribed their language, they naturally did so according to the spelling rules of the Castilian language of the time. The Nahuatl language had a sound (like English "shop"), and this sound was written x in Spanish (e.g. Xim鮥z); consequently, the letter x was used to write down words like Mexitli.

Over the centuries, the pronunciation of Spanish changed. Words like Xim鮥z, exercicio, xab󮧧 and perplexo started to be pronounced with a (this phonetic symbol represents the sound in the word "loch"). The sound (as in "vision") represented by the letter j (usually g before e or i) also started to be pronounced this way. The coalescence of the two phonemes into a single new one encouraged scholars to use the same letter for the sound, regardless of its origin (Spanish scholars have always tried to keep the orthography of their language faithful to the spoken tongue). It was j/g that was chosen. So, modern Spanish has ejercicio, ej鲣ito, jab󮧧, perplejo, etc. Another example is the old spelling of Don Quixote which is now Don Quijote. The old pronunciation is maintained in French "Quichotte", and the English form maintains the spelling while reading it with its English value.

Proper nouns and their derivatives are optionally allowed to break this rule. Thus, although xab󮧧 is now incorrect and archaic, and, alongside many millions of people called "Jim鮥z", there also are plenty called "Gim鮥z" or "Xim鮥z" — a matter of personal choice and tradition.

In Mexico, it has become almost a matter of national pride to maintain the otherwise archaic x spelling in the name of the country. It is regarded as more authentic and less jarring to the reader's eye. Mexicans have tended to demand that other Spanish-speakers use this spelling, rather than following the general rule, and the demand has largely been respected. The Real Academia Españ¯¬¡ states that both spellings are correct, and most dictionaries and guides recommend M鸩co first, and present M骩co as a variant. Today, even outside of the country, M鸩co is preferred over M骩co by ratios ranging from 10-to-1 (in Spain) to about 280-to-1 (in Costa Rica). Also, in the placenames "Oaxaca" and "Xalapa", the x is pronounced as ; in "Xochimilco", however, it sounds as a .

A cultural side-effect of the fact that Mexicans use M鸩co and Spaniards sometimes use M骩co is the occasional boiling-over of negative sentiment towards the old colonial oppressor. The mere act of using the j spelling is interpreted by some as a form of colonial aggression. On the other hand, some Peninsular scholars (such as Ram�en鮤ez Pidal) prefer to apply the general spelling rule, arguing that the spelling with an x could encourage non-Mexicans to mispronounce M鸩co as (as is generally the case in the English-speaking world). M骩co on the other hand could easily be mispronounced as well, because the letter j stands for in other languages.

In the Nahuatl language, from which the name originally derived, the name for Mexico is Mexihco (IPA ).

Miscellaneous topics

• Education in Mexico
• Communications in Mexico
• Transportation in Mexico
• Military of Mexico
• Foreign affairs of Mexico
• Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico
• List of cities in Mexico
• List of Mexican Universities
• List of Presidents of Mexico
• Music of Mexico
• United States Mexico barrier

Countries in North America
Antigua and Barbuda | Bahamas | Barbados | Belize | Canada | Costa Rica | Cuba | Dominica | Dominican Republic | El Salvador | Grenada | Guatemala | Haiti | Honduras | Jamaica | Mexico | Nicaragua | Panama | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Trinidad and Tobago | United States
Dependencies: Anguilla | Aruba | Bermuda | British Virgin Islands | Cayman Islands | Greenland | Guadeloupe | Martinique | Montserrat | Navassa Island | Netherlands Antilles | Puerto Rico | Saint-Pierre and Miquelon | Turks and Caicos Islands | U.S. Virgin Islands