Where is Mexico?
A: Mexico is a country in the southern portion of
North America.
It is bordered to the north by the United States; to
the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala,
Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by what?
A: The Gulf of Mexico.
What area does Mexico cover?
A: 1,972,550 square kilometers (761,610 sq mi), making it the world's
13th-largest country by area.
Mexico is organized as a federal republic comprising
how many states?
A: 31.
What is Mexico’s capital city?
A: Mexico City.
Major urban areas include what?
A: Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and León.
Pre-Columbian Mexico traces its origins to when?
A: 8,000 BCE and is identified as one of the world's six cradles of
civilization.
In particular, the Mesoamerican region was home to many
what?
A: Intertwined civilizations; including the Olmec, Maya, Zapotec,
Teotihuacan, and Purepecha.
In the century before European contact, who dominated
the region?
A: The Aztecs
In 1521, the Spanish Empire and its indigenous allies
conquered whom?
A: The Aztec Empire from its capital Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City),
establishing the colony of New Spain.
Over the next three centuries, Spain and the Catholic
Church played an important role doing what?
A: Expanding the territory, enforcing Christianity and spreading the Spanish
language throughout.
With the discovery of rich deposits of silver in
Zacatecas and Guanajuato, New Spain soon became what?
A: One of the most important mining centers worldwide.
Wealth coming from Asia and the New World contributed
to what?
A: Spain's status as a major world power for the next centuries and brought
about a price revolution in Western Europe.
The colonial order came to an end in the early
nineteenth century with what?
A: The War of Independence against Spain.
Mexico's early history as an independent nation state
was marked by what?
A: Political and socioeconomic upheaval, both domestically and in foreign
affairs.
The Federal Republic of Central America shortly did
what?
A: Seceded the country.
Then two invasions by foreign powers took place: first,
by the United States as a consequence of the Texas Revolt by American
settlers, which led to what?
A: The Mexican American War and huge territorial losses in 1848.
After the introduction of liberal reforms in the
Constitution of 1857, conservatives reacted with what?
A: The war of Reform.
It prompted France to invade the country and install an
Empire, against the Republican resistance led by whom?
A: Liberal President Benito Juárez, which emerged victorious.
The last decades of the 19th century were dominated by
the dictatorship of whom?
A: Porfirio Díaz, who sought to modernize Mexico and restore order.
However, the Porfiriato era led to great social unrest
and ended with what?
A: The outbreak in 1910 of the decade-long Mexican Revolution (civil war).
This conflict had profound changes in Mexican society,
including the proclamation of what?
A: The 1917 Constitution, which remains in effect to this day.
The remaining war generals ruled as a succession of
presidents until what?
A: Until the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) emerged in 1929.
The PRI in turn governed Mexico for how long?
A: For the next 70 years.
