THE
WORLD FACT BOOKCLICK ABOVE FOR MORE INFORMATION
Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country and the
second-largest Roman Catholic nation in the world. It extends from the 14th
to the 32d parallel north of the equator in southern North America. Brazil
and Argentina are the only Latin American countries larger in area. The
United States borders Mexico on the north, while Guatemala and Belize are on
the southeast, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea on the east, and the
Pacific Ocean on the west and south. The name is taken from the MŽxica, one
of seven Nahuatl tribes that inhabit the central highland.
Ancient Native American civilizationsÑincluding those
of the Maya, Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Toltec, and AztecÑflourished there for
centuries before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Under the
Spaniards, Mexico became the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was ruled as a
colony for more than 300 years and gained independence on Oct. 4, 1824.
Political strife, anarchy, and war marked the next half
century. War with the United States in 1846 caused the loss of what is now
Texas, followed in 1848 by lands in the present Arizona, Colorado, Nevada,
Utah, New Mexico, and California. Benito Ju‡rez, who became president in
1867, instituted many reforms, which, however, were largely unsuccessful. In
the late 1800s dictator Porfirio D’az brought prolonged stability and
development by foreign interests. The 1910 Revolution inaugurated dramatic
social change that led to the creation of the Constitution of 1917, still in
force. President L‡zaro C‡rdenas achieved major land reform and
nationalized basic industries in the 1930s. Although industry surged from
1940 to 1980, partly owing to oil discoveries in the 1970s, population
growth kept millions of Mexicans in poverty. Democratic reforms and economic
issues have contributed to major changes on the Mexican political scene in
recent years. (See also Mexico, history of.)
LAND AND RESOURCES
Mexico is mostly mountainous. The volcano Orizaba,
located near Puebla in a chain of mountains called the Transverse Volcanic
Sierra, is Mexico's highest mountain, with an elevation of 5,747 m (18,855
ft). This sierra extends east-west across Mexico to the south of Mexico
City, the country's capital, and includes the spectacular volcanoes PopocatŽpetl
(5,452 m/17,887 ft), Ixtacihuatl (5,386 m/17,671 ft), and Par’cutin (2,774
m/9,101 ft), the last born only in 1943.
Landforms
The two main mountain ranges to the north of Mexico
City run north and south; they are southward continuations of the Rocky
Mountains. These are the Sierra Madre Occidental in the west, with
elevations exceeding 3,300 m (10,827 ft) and the Sierra Madre Oriental in
the east, which rises to more than 4,000 m (13,120 ft). The Mexican Plateau,
covering over 40% of the country's area, sits between them. Toward the south
this tableland increases in elevation, and it becomes cooler and rainier.
The Sierra Zacatecas divides the Mexican Plateau into the dry, sparsely
settled Northern Mesa and the lake-dotted, densely populated Central Mesa.
Coastal plains border the mountains along the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific
coasts. The Baja California peninsula is separated from the mainland by the
Gulf of California.
Mountains along the southern Pacific coast are
dominated by east-west trend lines; they are structurally related to
landforms in Central America and the West Indies. These mountains are
interrupted by the down-faulted lowland of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,
Mexico's narrowest point. They include the rounded, worn, and ancient rocks
of the Southern Sierra Madre, which descend steeply to the Pacific coast
between Cape Corrientes and the Gulf of Tehuantepec. The isolated Balsas
River Basin separates the volcanic zone from the Southern Sierra Madre.
In the east the Yucat‡n Peninsula is a low limestone
platform that projects northward into the Gulf of Mexico. In the southeast,
between the Yucat‡n Peninsula and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the
principal landforms are the Tabasco Plain, along the Gulf of Mexico; the
Chiapas Highlands, which reach elevations of more than 2,850 m (9,350 ft);
the Chiapas Valley; the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, an eastward continuation of
the Southern Sierra Madre; and a narrow coastal plain along the Pacific
Ocean.
Soils
Mexico's most fertile soils are alluvial; they develop
mainly in river valleys and along the Gulf and Pacific coastal plains.
Lacustrine soils are formed on the dry beds of ancient lakes; they are
common in the Baj’o de Guanajuato and other basins and are also very
fertile. Soils of volcanic origin are likewise generally productive. Arid
soils, deficient in humus and often highly alkaline, are found in dry areas
of the northern Mexican Plateau, in the Sonoran Desert, in Baja California,
and in the northern Yucat‡n Peninsula. Rendzina soils, found in warm and
humid areas underlain by limestone, dominate the northern Gulf coast plain,
parts of the Balsas River Basin, and the southern Yucat‡n Peninsula.
Mexico's climate is hot and humid in the southern
coastal areas but becomes increasingly arid toward the north. Temperatures
decrease with increasing altitude. One of the most important features of
Mexico's climate is the pronounced seasonality it experiences in rainfall
distribution. The rainy season comes during the warmer half of the year,
from May through October; during those months moist winds blow onto the land
from the adjoining oceans and are forced to rise up over mountainous areas,
creating orographic precipitation. Tropical cyclones add to summer rainfall.
In 1998 an El Ni–oÐinduced drought and a delay in the onset of the rainy
season caused hundreds of fires set to clear land for farming to burn out of
control, blanketing much of Mexico and the southern United States with smoke
and threatening the unique ecosystem of the biosphere reserve of Las
Chimalapas in Oaxaca. In the cooler half of the year, when the world's wind
belts shift southward, the Bermuda Subtropical High dominates the climate of
most of Mexico and brings clear skies with almost no precipitation.
Drainage
The six principal rivers draining to the Gulf of Mexico
are the R’o Bravo del Norte (R’o Grande) on the U.S.-Mexican border;
R’o Grijalva (700 km/435 mi long); R’o Usumacinta (966 km/600 mi); R’o
Papaloapan (314 km/195 mi); R’o Coatzacoalcos (300 km/186 mi); and R’o
Panuco (510 km/317 mi). The Grijalva River is by far the largest in volume
of flow.
The major rivers flowing to the Pacific are the
Colorado River, which empties into the northern end of the Gulf of
California; the 724-km-long (450-mi) Balsas; and the 927-km-long (576-mi)
Lerma-Santiago river system (the longest in Mexico), whose headwaters are
diverted for use by Mexico City. The valley within which Mexico City is
situated is a basin of interior drainage, and its major rivers evaporate,
disappear underground, or flow into lakes. The nation's capital suffers from
chronic water shortages.
Vegetation
and Animal Life
Mexico is divided by a major biogeographic regional
boundary: the imaginary line that separates the temperate and tropical
floral and faunal zones. This contributes to Mexico's great biological
diversity. Rain-forest vegetation predominates in the states of southeastern
Mexico, especially southwestern Campeche, northeastern Chiapas, northern
Tabasco, southeastern Veracruz, and in the southern and eastern regions of
the Yucatan Peninsula. Coniferous and oak-tree forests predominate in humid
areas at higher elevations, including the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Sierra
Madre Occidental, the Sierra Madre del Sur, the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the
Transverse Volcanic Sierra, and the uplands of northern Baja California.
Tropical savanna dominates much of the Yucat‡n Peninsula and some parts of
the Pacific and Gulf coastal plains. Thorny desert thickets and dry
grasslands can be found in dry areas of the Mexican Plateau, northeastern
and northwestern parts of the country, and in Baja California. Mangrove
swamps are common in low, muddy areas along the Gulf and Pacific coasts
south of the Tropic of Cancer.
Widely distributed fauna include deer, coyote, rabbits,
skunks, badgers, pumas, bears, snakes, and many species of birds. Tropical
areas are inhabited by armadillos, iguanas, tapirs, monkeys, macaws,
parrots, crocodiles, and snakes.
Resources
Mexico has abundant petroleum resources along the Gulf
coastal plain. The Reforma field of Chiapas and Tabasco states, developed
since 1972, and offshore in the Gulf of Campeche, where deposits were
discovered in 1978 and 1981, have made Mexico the fifth-leading exporter of
oil in the world. More gas and oil fields were found in 1984, bringing
Mexico's proven oil reserves to almost 49 billion barrels in 1997. Natural
gas, sulfur, and salt are found with the petroleum deposits. Other minerals
of commercial importance are coal and iron ore. Mexico is also the world's
leading exporter of silver and an important producer of gold, copper, lead,
manganese, zinc, mercury, fluorite, and salt.
Because Mexico has so much arid territory and terrain
in slope, lands suitable for farming are only about 15% of the total area
while lands for grazing make up about 38%. Forests cover 25% of the land.
Fish are abundant in waters off both coasts. The government in the mid-1980s
worked to increase greatly the exploitation of marine resources. Many
hydroelectric power sites are located along the steep edge of the Mexican
Plateau.
PEOPLE
The Mexican government has not collected or officially
recorded racial data since 1921; for that reason precise data about the
ethnic composition of the population are not available. About 55% of the
Mexican people are mestizos. Roughly 29% are Native Americans, 15%
Caucasians, and 1% fall into other categories. In the 1990 census, 91% of
the people reported that Spanish was their primary language. The most widely
spoken languages other than Spanish are: Nahuatl, used in east central
Mexico; Maya, primarily in the Yucat‡n; Zapotec and Mixtec, spoken in
Oaxaca state; and Otomi, spoken near Mexico City and in parts of Puebla and
Veracruz states. In 1999 nearly 7.7 million Mexicans spoke one of the
dialects of these languages.
Religion
An estimated 89% of the population are Roman Catholics,
6% are Protestants, and 5% identify themselves as nonreligious; Jews number
about 100,000. Freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed. Church
and state are strictly separated, partly because of a strong anticlerical
tradition.
Demography
From only about 15 million persons in 1910, Mexico's
population grew to 34 million in 1960, more than 69 million in 1980, and
99.6 million in 2000. With an annual rate of natural increase of 1.95%, the
population is projected to double by 2036. By 2045, however, Mexico's
population is expected to stabilize. The fertility rate has declined from 7
children per woman in 1965 to 2.7 children per woman in 2000 because of a
vigorous family-planning program backed by the Mexican government. Although
birthrates have declined, they are still high. Because of these established
demographic trends, Mexico has a very young population; 37% of the people
are under 15 years of age. Because the economy is unable to provide jobs for
the estimated 1.3 million new workers who enter the labor market each year,
many Mexicans emigrate to the United States in search of work. In the 1960s,
an estimated 27,000 Mexican workers moved to the United States each year; by
the 1990s this migration had increased to about 277,000 per year. By the
year 2010, however, the number of new Mexican workers seeking employment was
expected to fall to about 650,000, contributing to a rising standard of
living.
The most densely populated areas are found in the south
central part of the country, mostly at altitudes above 1,000 m (3,280 ft).
This central core was heavily populated even before the arrival of the
Spaniards. The most sparsely populated areas are the states of Baja
California Sur, plus Campeche and Quintana Roo on the Yucat‡n Peninsula.
Migration from rural to urban areas proceeded at a rapid pace during the
last half of the 20th century. Mexico is now a highly urbanized country,
with 74% of the people living in cities and towns. Mexico City is the
nation's largest city as well as the capital. So many people have moved into
the metropolitan area that it has become one of the world's largest
conurbations, with an estimated population of 18.1 million in 2000.
Netzahualcoyotl is Mexico City's biggest suburb. Mexico's second-largest
city is Guadalajara. Other large
cities include Monterrey, Puebla, Le—n, Ciudad Ju‡rez, Culiac‡n,
Mexicali, Tijuana, MŽrida, Acapulco, Chihuahua, and Zapopan.
Education
and Health
Intensive adult education programs were begun in the
1970s to decrease illiteracy. Today, the literacy rate is nearly 90%. Most
of the young people between 6 and 14 years old attend a 6-year, free,
compulsory elementary-school program. About 9 million students are enrolled
in secondary schools and colleges; of these, many attend regional
technological institutes where training emphasizes skills needed for
national development. Only about 5% attend institutions of higher learning,
such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico or the National
Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1936. (See also Latin American
universities.)
Since 1931, when the first Social Security Law was
passed, health conditions in Mexico have improved dramatically under the
aegis of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). Life expectancy
has steadily increased in the decades since 1930, and the number of medical
specialists has risen markedly. Mexico now has about one physician for every
613 people.
The
Arts
Mexican literature's most famous writers are Mariano
Azuela, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz, and Agust’n Y‡–ez. Noted Mexican
poets include Amado Nervo and Manuel GutiŽrrez N‡jera. Modern Mexican art
dates from the Revolution of 1910 and is expressed in the work of such
famous artists as JosŽ Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro
Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, and Juan O'Gorman. Their murals and mosaics, which
often contain social and political criticism, decorate many of Mexico's
modern buildings. Carlos Ch‡vez and Silvestre Revueltas are two
outstanding composers. Mexican music is rich and varied. Its influence has
extended far beyond the borders of the country. Regional folk arts, a legacy
of Mexico's ancient native cultures, also flourish. Mexico has an
influential film industry. The Churubusco studios in Mexico City produce a
stream of movies shown widely in Spanish-speaking countries. The television
industry is also expanding rapidly. (See also Latin American art and
architecture; Latin American literature; Latin American music and dance.)
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Mining and subsistence farming, the predominant
economic activities during the Spanish colonial period, remain important.
However, silver is now less significant than petroleum, natural gas, and
other industrial minerals, and commercial agriculture has been actively
promoted by government-sponsored programs of agrarian reform, irrigation,
and road construction. Manufacturing grew rapidly after 1940, and
manufactured goods now account for more than 90% of all exports. Today,
however, services such as tourism, banking, and advertising are the dominant
and fastest-growing sector of the economy, contributing 68% of the gross
domestic product (GDP). Tourism, which has been officially encouraged, is
Mexico's second-largest earner of foreign exchange, after manufacturing. The
country earned nearly $7.6 billion from tourism in 1997 and nearly $7.2
billion from oil exports in 1998.
Nevertheless, a fluctuating world economy and depressed
oil markets contributed to an economic crisis that started in the early
1980s and persisted. Beginning in the late 1980s, the government imposed a
broad austerity program to stimulate the economy, taking such measures as
the privatization of more than 1,000 companies. In 1991 the country began
emerging from its economic tailspin. With inflation abating and growth
returning, the government sought further expansion through membership in the
North American Free Trade Agreement (1994). However, prosperity was
fleeting. A new peso equal to 1,000 old ones, introduced in 1993 and
exchanged at 3.36 per dollar in March 1994, was devalued by 30% in December
1994 and continued to slide in 1995. Meanwhile, the nation, facing
bankruptcy, required a $52 billion foreign bailout. In 1997, three years
ahead of schedule, Mexico repaid the last of $12.5 billion loaned to Mexico
by the United States in 1995. By the fall of 1998, falling world oil prices
and the deepening world economic crisis had forced the government to cut
spending, and the peso declined in value, leading to fears of renewed
inflation. Nevertheless the Mexican economy, fueled by strong domestic
consumption, grew at a robust 5.0% in the third quarter of 1998. Economic
growth was negatively impacted in late 1999 by eastern Mexico's most serious
flooding in decades but received a boost after the turn of the century due
to rising world oil prices.
Manufacturing
If not abreast of the recent growth of service
industries, the economically active population is increasingly engaged in
manufacturing. Principal iron and steel centers are located at Monterrey and
Monclova, close to the Sabinas coalfield, and at L‡zaro C‡rdenas, near
the mouth of the Balsas River. The two largest government-owned steel mills
were sold in 1991. Most other industries are attracted to the densely
populated urban areas in and around Mexico City, Guadalajara, Orizaba, and
Puebla. Besides steel, the main industries are food processing, petroleum
refining, the manufacture of petrochemicals, synthetic fibers, textiles,
fertilizers, paper, and pharmaceuticals, and automobile assembly.
The growth of maquiladora factories in cities along the
U.S. border is a relatively recent development. The Border Industries
Program, begun in 1965, has led to the creation of thousands of part
assembly plants that import raw materials duty-free from the United States
and assemble them with cheap labor into such products as appliances, which
they export back to the United States.
Mining
Petroleum, the production of which was nationalized in
1938 and is now controlled by the government agency PEMEX (Petroleos
Mexicanos), is Mexico's principal mineral resource. Mexico mines more iron
ore than it does any other metallic mineral; the biggest iron mines are
found in the state of Durango and near the mouth of the Balsas River. The
tonnage of salt production almost matches that of iron ore; most of the salt
is made in evaporation ponds on the eastern shore of Baja California.
Mexico's other minerals include silver (about 15% of
the world's production), lead, and zinc; these are mostly produced from the
old colonial mining centers of Guanajuato, La Paz, Pachuca, San Luis Potos’,
Taxco, Zacatecas, and Parral. Copper, worked at Cananea in the northwest and
near Santa Rosal’a on the Baja California Peninsula, is exported mostly to
Arizona for smelting. Since 1956 sulfur has been extracted from deep beneath
the ground near Jaltipan in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Energy
In 1996, Mexico produced an estimated 154.4 billion kW
h of electricity. About 71% was generated in thermoelectric plants fueled by
coal, petroleum, and natural gas; another 20% was produced in hydroelectric
plants located on the steep southern and eastern edges of the Mexican
Plateau. Over half of all electricity is produced in this densely populated
and industrialized zone, and distribution to other areas is limited. Nearly
5% of Mexico's electricity is generated by nuclear power.
Agriculture,
Forestry, and Fishing
Less than one quarter of the economically active
population are employed in agriculture, forestry, or fishing. Most are
subsistence farmers producing small amounts of maize, beans, and squash,
while sometimes raising a goat, some chickens, or a pig. Maize is Mexico's
leading crop, with production exceeding 18 million metric tons (19.8 million
U.S. tons) in 1998. Much is used for making tortillas, an important
food for most Mexicans.
A major region of commercial farming is concentrated in
irrigated districts of the arid north, where cotton, wheat, and sorghum are
the chief crops; this region experienced severe droughts in 1998 and 1999
that adversely affected crops and cattle. Tomatoes and melons are specialty
crops along the Mayo, Yaqui, and Fuerte rivers. Other commercial crops
include sugarcane (grown in Veracruz, Sinaloa, and Morelos); rice (a
specialty of Morelos); coffee (concentrated in Chiapas and Veracruz); cacao,
tobacco, and vanilla (mostly in Veracruz); plus pineapples, bananas, and
coconuts (in tropical rainy lowlands).
Cattle raising, an important colonial activity, is
concentrated in the semiarid north; sheep are raised in drier parts of the
Mexican Plateau and goats in more rugged sections. Since the 1910 Revolution
many large estates (haciendas) and ranches have been broken up and
distributed as small holdings (ejidos) to landless farmworkers.
However, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari proposed in 1991 to dismantle
the ejido system; it was replaced by larger, private landholdings and
an improved rural credit system to stimulate farm productivity.
The forest industry is as yet small. The principal
trees cut are pine, oak, and tropical hardwoods. About 80% of cut wood is
used for lumber, and about 20% for pulpwood. Fishing is similarly
underdeveloped but potentially profitable. Fish plays a minor role in
Mexican diets, and most of the catch is exported. The most valuable catches
are shrimp from the Gulf of California, Campeche Bay, and the Gulf of
Tehuantepec; tuna and sardines taken from the Pacific Ocean off Baja
California; and groupers, snappers, pompano, and other tropical fish from
the Gulf of Mexico.
Transportation
Despite the mountainous terrain most parts of Mexico
are now well served by a network of modern highways. Mexico has the most
paved highways of any nation in Latin America. The road system focuses on
Mexico City, the nation's cultural and economic hub, and includes the
1,189-km-long (739-mi) Pan American Highway to Nuevo Laredo and the
1,979-km-long (1,230-mi) Central Highway to Ciudad Ju‡rez as well as the
Pacific Coast Highway. The nationally owned rail network is well maintained,
carrying millions of passengers and millions of tons of freight each year.
The airport at Mexico City is by far the busiest in the
nation. It offers both national and international flights, as do many other
commercial airports. Air services now carry many more passengers than do the
railroads. Veracruz is Mexico's chief general
cargo port. Coatzacoalcos (the nation's tonnage leader if salt from
ports on Baja California is not counted), Ciudad del Carmen, and Tampico are
other important Gulf ports. Mazatl‡n, Guaymas, Manzanillo, L‡zaro C‡rdenas,
and Salina Cruz stand out on the Pacific coast.
Trade
Partly as a result of its devaluation of the peso and
the ensuing government austerity plan, Mexico ended a succession of large
unfavorable trade balances in 1995. Important export commodities include
consumer electronics and other manufactured goods assembled for export,
petroleum, metal products, machinery, vehicles, chemicals, silver and other
minerals, cotton, and foodstuffs. Imports include metal products, machinery,
industrial vehicles, chemicals, consumer goods, and capital goods. Trade
with the United States accounts for more than three-fourths of all imports
and exports; other major trading partners include Japan, Germany, and
Canada. Late in 1998, in part due to the effects of NAFTA, Mexico surpassed
Japan as the United States' second-largest trading partner, after Canada. In
the year 2000, Mexico and the members of the European Union signed a
free-trade agreement that would reduce tariffs on about 95% of the trade
between Mexico and the European Union within seven years. That same year,
Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras signed a regional free-trade
accord.
Communications
More than 200 daily newspapers are published in Mexico,
many of them in the Mexico City area. The government-run daily newspaper El
Nacional, founded in 1929, was shut down in 1998. Well over 700
television stations are broadcasting, as are several hundred radio stations.
GOVERNMENT
Mexico's present constitution was adopted in 1917 and
in much-amended form provides for a division of powers between the central
government and the 31 states and the federal district (Mexico City). The
president is elected by popular vote and is limited to one 6-year term.
Despite the limit, the president has tremendous executive power. Mexico has
a bicameral National Congress, composed of a Chamber of Deputies, with 500
members, and a Senate, with 128 members. Judicial powers are vested in the
Supreme Court of Justice.
The Institutional Revolutionary party (PRI) dominated
national politics from 1929 to 1997 and controlled the presidency until
2000. Its candidate in 1994, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Le—n, became
president that year. In 1996, Zedillo and the leaders of Mexico's four main
opposition parties signed a significant accord designed to eliminate
electoral fraud, modernize the political system, and lead to true multiparty
democracy. The political reforms contributed to PRI's setbacks in 1997, when
it lost its majority in the lower house of the legislature for the first
time in its history and failed to win the mayorality of Mexico City in the
first election for that post since 1928. In an effort to increase its
popularity prior to the year 2000 elections, the PRI decided to select its
candidate via a Nov. 7, 1999, presidential primary election open to voters
of all parties. The winner of this primary, former interior minister
Francisco Labastida, captured about 36% of the vote to about 43% for winner
Vicente Fox Quesada of the National Action party in the historic July 2000
presidential elections. Fox, who called for national reconciliation while
pledging to fight against corruption and institute additional democratic
reforms, assumed office on Dec. 1, 2000Ñthe first non-PRI president in 71
years.
James N. Snaden
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[1]Copyright (c) 2001 Grolier Interactive Inc.