Mexico is a large country with regions which are very different from each other. The interior sections of Mexico are full of beautiful mountain cities with Spanish Colonial architecture. These cities will range from large modern cities like Monterrey and Mexico City to quaint pueblos like San Luis Potosi and San Miguel. Virtually all of the inland destinations from Mexico City and on south offer the addition of ruins from a once mighty civilization which rivaled the Roman empire 2000 years ago.

Capital

Mexico City

Location
 
Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and the US

Flag

The Mexican Flag is a red, white and green banner whose center contains an eagle eating a rattlesnake while standing with its left claw upon a nopal cactus, and a half circle of green oak (enciño) on the left (symbolizing strength) and laurel branches on the right (symbolizing victory). The red symbolizes the blood that was shed during the battles for Independence. The white symbolizes purity. The green symbolizes the fertility of the earth.

112,468,855 (growth rate: 1.1%); birth rate: 19.4/1000; infant mortality rate: 17.8/1000; life expectancy: 76.2; density per sq km: 57

Mexico is bordered by the United States to the north and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. Mexico is about one-fifth the size of the United States. Baja California in the west is an 800-mile (1,287-km) peninsula that 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 Yucatán. 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 beyond.

History

From 1821 to 1877, there were two emperors, several dictators, and enough presidents and provisional executives to make a new government on the average of every nine months. Mexico lost Texas (1836), and after defeat in the war with the U.S. (1846–1848), it lost the area that is now California, Nevada, and Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1855, the Indian patriot Benito Juárez began a series of reforms, including the disestablishment of the Catholic Church, which owned vast property. The subsequent civil war was interrupted by the French invasion of Mexico (1861) and the crowning of Maximilian of Austria as emperor (1864). He was overthrown and executed by forces under Juárez, who again became president in 1867.

The Mexican people can speak a variety of languages. There are over 60 indigenous languages in Mexico, although only 6% can speak any of it. This percentage approximately corresponds to about 6 million people in Mexico. The official language in Mexico is Spanish, simply because this is the language that most Mexicans communicate with. The most widespread indigenous language in Mexico is the Nahuatl language, which was the native tongue of the Aztecs. There are over a million Mexicans who can speak Nahuatl.