We explain everything about Mexico and its physical and cultural characteristics. Also, what is its economy, religion and the history of this country.
Mexico is the most visited tourist destination in Latin America and the ninth in the world.
Mexico
Mexico is a national state whose official name is the United Mexican States.It is located in North America and is bordered to the north by the United States and to the south by Guatemala and Belize. Its capital is Mexico City.It is the fifth largest country in America and the third most populous after the United States and Brazil.
Mexico is a former Spanish colony, like almost all the rest of the American continent.. For that reason, the Spanish language is spoken in this country. In addition, its architecture shows its colonial history, although it also presents numerous archaeological sites from the pre-Columbian era, as well as indigenous monuments and pyramids.
Currently Mexico has a presidential democratic political system. and is a member of several regional blocs such as NAFTA – USMCAN (North American Free Trade Agreement) together with Canada and the United States, the Pacific Alliance, CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) and the OAS (Organization of American States).
Why is it called “Mexico”? The name of the country comes from the Nahuatl language, Mexico, a word with which the ancient Mexica or Aztecs named their capital (Mexico-Tenochtitlán) and whose translation is a matter of debate. Some theories maintain that it means “place of Mexihtli”, one of the names of the Aztec tutelary god Huitzilopochtli.
Characteristics of Mexico
Some characteristics of Mexico are:
- Its population is 127 million inhabitants.
- It has an area of 1973 million square kilometers.
- Its capital is Mexico City, which has 8,900,000 inhabitants, but its metropolitan area reaches 22 million inhabitants.
- Its official language is Spanish.
- Its predominant relief is the high plateau, but there are also mountains, volcanoes and plains.
- Because it is located in areas on the edges of tectonic plates, it is a country with significant seismic and volcanic activity.
- 19% of its population is recognized as a member of the pre-Columbian indigenous peoples.
- The most important economic activities are agriculture, industry, oil production and tourism.
Area, population and capital of Mexico
Mexico City is one of the largest population centers on the continent.
Mexico has an area of 1,973,000,000 square kilometersmaking it the fifth largest country in America and the fourteenth in the world. It has a population of 127,000,000 inhabitantsand a population density of 64.3 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Mexico is divided into 32 federal entitiesThese are made up of 31 states plus Mexico City, which is considered a special federal entity. The most populated states, in addition to Mexico City, are Jalisco, Veracruz and Puebla.
The capital of Mexico is Mexico CityIts metropolitan area has a population of 22,000,000 inhabitants, which represents 17.3% of the country’s total. Since the conquest, Mexico City has been built on the ruins of the city of Tenochtitlán, capital of the Aztec Empire.
To prevent illegal immigration, the United States began building a wall along the border with Mexico in 1994. Today, this wall stretches approximately 1,100 kilometers and separates the United States from Mexican states such as Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California.
More in: Mexico City
Climate, relief and hydrography of Mexico
Due to its large latitudinal extension and varied relief, Mexico presents a variety of climate types. In the south a warm tropical climate prevails which is characterized by having high temperatures and abundant rainfall almost all year round. In the high regions of the center of the country, temperatures decrease due to altitudeand has cooler summers and colder winters. In the north, in regions close to the border with the United States, the climate is warm but very dry.
The Gulf of Mexico area and the Yucatan Peninsula are also characterized by the formation of major hurricanes in the summer. During the hot months, major tropical storms frequently form and, when they enter the continent, cause extensive damage to the infrastructure of coastal regions.
The predominant relief of Mexico is that of a high plateau, which extends over more than 70% of the territory. Furthermore, there is the mountainous reliefmainly in the Sierra Madre Oriental and Occidental, which cross the country from north to south. The most important plains are located in the southin the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico.
Because it is located in a plate boundary zone between the North American, Pacific and Cocos plates, Mexico is also characterized by the presence of volcanoes, and by significant seismic activity.so earthquakes are frequent in the country.
In terms of hydrography, the most important rivers in Mexico are the Bravo Riverwhich is the natural border with the United States and is 3,000 kilometers long, the Colorado River with 2330 and The Usumacinta River with 1000.
See also: Warm weather
Mexican culture
Mexico has an extremely rich folklore in popular musical traditions.
As is the case with numerous Latin American nations, Mexican culture is the result of a complex process of syncretism. Their influences combine the Spanish Catholic tradition, the pre-Columbian indigenous religions and beliefs and the African cultural contributions who arrived on the continent as part of the transatlantic slave trade system during the Spanish conquest.
It is estimated that more than 23 million people in Mexico identify themselves as part of the indigenous peoples who lived in the region before the Spanish conquest, representing 19% of the total population. The states with the highest percentage of indigenous population are Oaxaca (31.2%), Chiapas (28.2%) and Yucatán (23.7%).
Since the promulgation of the nation as a multiethnic State in the 1917 Constitution and the successive protection of many of the indigenous cultures, Mexico considers as national languages, both Spanish and 65 of the indigenous languagesamong which the Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya languages predominate by number of speakers (totaling almost 2 million people).
Regarding music, Mexico has an extremely rich folklore of popular musical traditions (such as the corrido and the ranchera), and the mariachi, a musical emblem of the Mexican tradition of the early and mid-20th century, is internationally known.
Mexico has also stood out in Literature with names of world importance such as Sor Juana de la Cruz, Octavio Paz (winner of the Nobel Prize in 1990), Juan Rulfo, Jame Sabines and Elena Poniatowska, and in painting, with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo as leading exponents.
National symbols of Mexico
The Mexican coat of arms features an eagle on a cactus.
The national symbols of Mexico are:
- Mexico’s flag. It shows three vertical stripes of green, white and red, and in the center is the Mexican coat of arms. Its current version was adopted in 1968.
- The Mexican national anthem. It was written by Francisco González Bocanegra and the music was composed by Jaime Nunó. It was adopted as the national anthem in 1943.
- The shield of MexicoIt was created in 1968. It is on the Mexican flag, in the central white stripe. It has a golden eagle catching a snake on a cactus.
Economic activities of Mexico
The official currency of Mexico is the Mexican peso. The most important economic activities in Mexico are:
- Agriculture. Mexico is one of the main producers and exporters of tomatoes, peppers, red fruits and avocados.
- Industry. The manufacturing industry is one of the main economic activities in Mexico today. Sectors such as the automotive, processed food, petrochemical and textile industries are some of the main producers and exporters of Mexican manufacturing.
- Oil production. Mexico is a major American oil producer and exporter, with an average production of more than 230,000 barrels of oil per day.
- Tourism. Tourism is a crucial activity for the Mexican economy. It has different types of tourist attractions, such as its enormous cultural and historical heritage and its beaches, which attract millions of visitors every year.
Mexico history
The Mexican Revolution allowed the creation of a modern democratic State.
The first human settlements in the territory of Mexico date back more than 10,000 years ago. Subsequently, the Mesoamerican populations, such as the Olmecs, Teotihuacanos, Mayans, Zapotecs, Toltecs, Mixtecs and finally the Mexica or Aztecs, succeeded one another in importance as the cultural and political center of the region until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés in the century XVI.
The next stage was a war of conquest that culminated in the subjugation of the aboriginal populations and the creation of a colonial state: the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was a highly stratified society, made up of Spanish settlers, indigenous people and African slaves, and based on the exploitation of resources such as silver and gold.
The Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century favoured the emergence of independence movements in the Spanish colonies in America, which began their respective wars of independence. Mexican independence was achieved in 1821 and gave rise to the First Mexican Empire (1821-1823) and then to the First Federal Republic (1824-1835), followed by a conflict between centralists and federalists.
In its history as an independent nation, Mexico survived two French and one American intervention. In these episodes it lost a significant part of its territory and went through political transformations such as the Empire of Maximilian (1864-1867). The Republic was restored by Benito Juárez in 1867.
Between 1876 and 1911, an authoritarian regime headed by Porfirio Díaz was in power, but he was overthrown in the context of the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910. After the revolution, a modern democratic state was created in Mexico based on the Mexican Constitution of 1917.
From 1930, the National Revolutionary Party, later called the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), came into power and remained in power for seventy years. In January 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force and a neo-Zapatista uprising took place in Chiapas.
In 2000, political alternation began to exist after the election of Vicente Fox of the National Action Party. In 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the National Regeneration Movement assumed the presidency.
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