Natural Resources: Coal, iron ore, phosphates, uranium, silver, gold, copper, lead, zinc, petroleum natural-gas reserves, Forests, and woodland
Plants: Cactus, yucca, agave
Population: 100,000,000
Political Standings: Democratic Republic
Religion: Roman Catholicism is the faith of about 90 percent of the people.
Education: Education is free and compulsory for all children through the age of 15.
Literacy: 88%
Culture: Mexican culture is a rich, complex blend of Native American, Spanish, and American traditions. Rural areas are populated by Native Americans, descendants of the highly developed societies of the Maya, Aztec, and Toltecs, and by Spanish and mestizo farmers and laborers; each of these heritages has enriched the regional culture. In the cities both European, particularly Spanish and French, and other North American influences are evident. Most contemporary Mexican artists are striving to produce identifiably Mexican work that blends Spanish, Native American, and modern European styles.
Music: The distinctive folk songs and dances heard from region to region are accompanied by several kinds of guitar-based ensembles. The mariachi, or popular strolling bands, consist of a standard group of instruments: two violins, two five-string guitars, and a guittarón, or large bass guitar, and usually a pair of trumpets. In Veracruz the usual musical ensemble is a harp and two small guitars. Marimba ensembles are found in the south. The corrido, a narrative folk ballad in rhymed quatrains derived from the Spanish romanza, is probably Mexico's most outstanding contribution to American folk music, as well as folk poetry. Some pre-Hispanic dances survive, with Hispanic-influenced music; they include the concheros and voladores dances. In the field of concert or art music, Mexican musicians led by the composer and conductor Carlos Chávez have received critical acclaim throughout the world. The National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico was founded in 1928 by Chávez and the Ballet Folklórico in 1952 by the choreographer Amalia Hernández.
Architecture: Spanish colonial architecture, constructed in Gothic, plateresque (a 16th-century Spanish style suggestive of silver plate), classic, and baroque styles sometimes decorated with Native American motifs, is found throughout Mexico. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, first during the short reign of the Habsburg emperor Maximilian and later under President Porfirio Díaz, the French splendors of the second Empire style were introduced into the capital. Díaz also commissioned the ornate Palace of Fine Arts, completed in the 1930s. Since 1945 an architectural renaissance has occurred in Mexico, attracting worldwide attention. The new buildings erected at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, designed by a group of artists and architects under the direction of Carlos Lazo, feature outstanding murals in fresco and mosaic; among these are works by the architect and painter Juan O'Gorman. Another Mexican architect, Felix Candela, created highly original concrete shell designs for several churches and for the sports palace at the 1968 Olympic Games.
Art: A rich tradition of painting and sculpture existed in Mexico long before the arrival of the Spanish. Combining this tradition with imported Spanish techniques, artists of the colonial period produced works of remarkable depth and purity. The late colonial years, however, were characterized by a purely academic output. One of the most significant artists of the present century was José Guadalupe Posada, who produced violent, powerful posters, lithographs, and woodcuts of contemporary scenes. His followers, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco, were the leaders of a remarkable group of distinctly Mexican artists who revived the art of fresco painting and produced important easel painting as well. Frida Kahlo used motifs from Mexican popular art in her paintings, which mix fantasy with autobiography and self portraiture. See also Latin American Art and Architecture. As weavers, potters, and silversmiths, Mexican artisans produce a variety of beautiful and distinctive products, which attract connoisseurs throughout the world. These artisans are also noted for their work in wood, glass, and leather.
Economy: Mexico reflects a shift from a primary-production economy, based on mining and agriculture, to a semi-industrialized nation. Economic achievements are the result of a vigorous private enterprise sector and government policies that have made economic growth a predominant objective. Traditionally, the government also emphasized Mexicanization of industry, and local control of companies engaged in mining, fishing, transportation, and exploitation of forests was required by law. More recently, however, foreign investment in new enterprises has been actively encouraged, and government controls on some sectors of the economy have been loosened. The number of enterprises owned by the government had decreased from 1155 in 1982 to 210 by the mid-1990s. Financial crises have slowed the expansion of Mexico's economy twice since the early 1980s. The exploitation of huge oil reserves stimulated the economy until price drops in world markets sent Mexico into recession beginning in 1982. The country, which had grown to depend on oil for three-quarters of its export revenues, was forced to default on foreign loans, resulting in a loss of investor confidence, which prolonged the recession throughout most of the 1980s. Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 9.5 percent annually between 1970 and 1981, but grew at only 1.4 percent annually from 1981 to 1992. Monetary and fiscal discipline had restored confidence in Mexico's economy by the early 1990s, aided by agreements to lower trade restrictions. The economy began to recover, based on a steady flow of foreign investment. However, domestic troubles in Mexico, including an uprising by Native Americans in the southern state of Chiapas and the assassination of two leading political figures, again damaged investor confidence. When the investment flow reversed, the economy entered recession. Inflation was estimated at as much as 40 percent annually, interest rates on borrowing climbed to 60 percent, and the currency continued to lose value. In 1994 Mexico's estimated GDP was $375.5 billion. The annual budget included $58.1 billion in revenues and $53 billion in expenditures.
Commerce: The Mexican unit of currency is the nuevo peso, consisting of 100 centavos. The peso was officially devalued by the Mexican government in December 1994, after which it dropped 45 percent against major world currencies. (7.45 nuevo pesos equal U.S.$1; 1996). The central bank and bank of issue is the Bank of Mexico (1925). Mexico's commercial banking system, nationalized in 1982, was restored to private control in the early 1990s. Annual exports in the early 1990s were valued at about $50.5 billion, and imports in the same period cost approximately $65.5 billion per year. Major exports include crude petroleum, petroleum products, coffee, silver, internal combustion engines, motor vehicles, cotton, and consumer electronics. The country's chief imports were metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment, automobile parts for assembly and repair, and aircraft. The great bulk of Mexico's trade is with the United States, which purchases about two-thirds of its exports and provides the same amount of its imports. Other leading customers for Mexico's products are Japan, Spain, France, Canada, Germany, and Belgium and Luxembourg. Chief sources for imports in addition to the United States are Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Brazil, and Italy. Tourism, border trade, foreign investments, and remittances from Mexican workers in the United States are significant sources of foreign exchange revenue. Mexico is a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); the Group of Three, a free-trade group that includes Colombia and Venezuela; and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), a free-trade group comprised of the members of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) as well as 12 other nations bordering the Caribbean.
Transportation: The Mexican railway system, which is nationalized, includes about 20,425 km (about 12,690 mi) of mainline railroad track. The highway system includes about 242,300 km (about 150,600 mi) of roads, of which some 35 percent are paved. Several highways traverse the country,
History
In the 11th century the Toltec were vanquished and dispersed by the Chichimeca, who took over the Toltec civilization. A century later seven allied Nahuatlan tribes entered the valley from the north, probably coming from areas now in New Mexico and Arizona. In 1325 the Aztec, or Mexica, the leading tribe, founded a settlement named Tenochtitlán in an area surrounded by marshes in Texcoco, one of the valley lakes. As the settlement grew, its military strength was increased by the construction of causeways that dammed the waters of the surrounding marshes and made the town a virtually impregnable island fortress. Under Itzcoatl, the first Aztec emperor, the Aztec extended their influence through the entire Valley of Mexico, becoming the preeminent power in central and southern Mexico by the 15th century. Their civilization, based on that of the Toltec and Chichimeca, was highly developed, both intellectually and artistically. The Aztec economy was dependent on agriculture, particularly the cultivation of corn. As they grew wealthy and powerful, the Aztec built great cities and developed an intricate social, political, and religious organization.
The first European explorer to visit Mexican territory was Francisco Fernández de Córdoba, who in 1517 discovered traces of the Maya in Yucatán. A year later Juan de Grijalva headed an expedition that explored the eastern coast of Mexico and brought back to the Spanish colony in Cuba the first reports of the rich Aztec Empire. These reports prompted Diego Velázquez, governor of Cuba, to dispatch a large force in 1519, under the command of Hernán Cortés. For the history of the conquest of the Aztec and of Mexico by the Spanish, see Cortes, Hernan.
In 1535, some years after the fall of the Aztec capital, the basic form of colonial government in Mexico was instituted with the appointment of the first Spanish viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza. For the remainder of the Spanish colonial period, from 1535 to 1821, a total of 61 viceroys ruled Mexico. Mendoza and his successors directed a series of military and exploratory expeditions, which eventually made present-day Texas, New Mexico, and California part of New Spain.
A distinguishing characteristic of colonial Mexico was the exploitation of the Native Americans. Although thousands of them were killed during the Spanish conquest, they continued to be the great majority of inhabitants of New Spain, speaking their own languages and retaining much of their native culture. Inevitably they became the creed nominally free and entitled to wages by Spain, in actuality they were treated little better than slaves. Their plight was the result of the encomienda system, by which Spanish nobles, priests, and soldiers were granted not only large tracts of land but also jurisdiction over all Native American residents. The government of Spain made several attempts to regulate the exploitation of Native American labor on farms and in mines. Reforms decreed by Spain, however, were largely ineffectual because of the difficulty of enforcement. The condition of the Native Americans became a primary concern of the Mexican government when the colonial administration was later overthrown.
A second characteristic of colonial Mexico was the position and power of the Roman Catholic church. Franciscan, Augustinian, Dominican, and Jesuit missionaries entered the country with the Spanish conquerors (conquistadores). Juan de Zumárraga became the first bishop of Mexico in 1528, and the country was created an archbishopric about 1548. The Mexican church became enormously wealthy through gifts and bequests that could be held in perpetuity. Before 1859, when church holdings were nationalized, the church owned one-third of all property and land.
A third characteristic was the existence of rigid social
classes: the Native Americans, the mestizos (an increasingly large group during the
colonial era), black slaves, freed blacks and white Mexicans. The white Mexicans were
themselves divided. Highest of all classes was that of the peninsulares, those born in
Spain, as opposed to the criollos, or Creoles—people of pure European descent who had
been born and raised in New Spain. The peninsulares were sent from Spain to hold the
highest.
It became known that Mexico was to set up a government system that satisfied the monarchy
they had lived in at the time. Many of the friends and family of the King of Spain
were given these high positions. These people would be known as "Dons."
The Dons would exist with their rule over Mexico until Don Cortez attempted to
conquer all of Mexico in 1594. Don Cortez was hung and executed.
The New King
A new king had been crowned, and he had ambitions. This new king ruled over all land as if he was there. He set up a system of generals to take control of the areas. Mexicans acted much like slaves and were forced to work harder. The king had sent many men out to look for large quantities of gold to find one of the biggest gold mine areas in the world. At this time Spain was at war with Portugal. The King of Spain married the Queen of Portugal to end the war and unite the two countries into a super power of the world. United Sportugal existed with all of South America, Central America, Bahamas, Portugal, Spain, and Cuba. This was indeed a massive empire with large amounts of gold.
There came a time when the king could no longer look after his territory and made the mistake of his father before him. The king gave his land and split it between his children. Each piece of land was split, Mexico, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Columbia, and Peru. One of his son's was named King of Portugal, and another one the King of Spain.
The king stayed in power until the 1920s, during times of war a revolution came up. The Mexicans revolted against the King of Spain who was ordering them to work harder and to take punishment if not doing so. The King was taking all the resources from their country including gold, silver, and copper. Mexico became it's own republic before the war had ended. Mexico did not enter the war. A democratic government was set up in Mexico and slavery was abolished. In short time many regulations were made. Mexico exists today due to all of this.