Mexico

Mexico is a country in North America, south of the United States and northwest of Guatemala and Belize. It has coasts on the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

Mexico City is the capital. Spanish is the de facto national language and shares legal equality with 68 indigenous languages, each of which has its own translation of the country's name. Maize, tomatoes and beans were first domesticated there. The Olmecs flourished on the Gulf Coast from about 1500 BC, followed by the Maya and Zapotecs, the great city of Teotihuacan and the Toltecs. The Aztecs ruled an empire from Tenochtitlan until Hernán Cortés began the Spanish conquest in 1519, and Mexico City was founded on its site in 1521 as the capital of New Spain.

Silver mines made New Spain a center of trade between Europe and Asia. Miguel Hidalgo called for independence in Dolores in 1810, a day marked every 16 September, and independence came in 1821. The First Mexican Republic was set up in 1824, and the present constitution dates from 1917. Mexico is a federal presidential republic of 32 states with a two-chamber Congress of the Union. It covers 1,972,550 km2 (761,610 sq mi), crossed by the high Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt.

Mexico builds more cars than any other North American country, and the state company Pemex handles its oil and natural gas. Tequila, distilled from agave, is a major industry, and chocolate, vanilla and avocados all come from its native crops. Teotihuacan and Chichén Itzá preserve its ancient past, and Cancún and Tulum line the Yucatán coast. Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco painted public murals, Frida Kahlo painted self-portraits, and Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mexico City hosted the Summer Olympics in 1968.