Mexico
hideThe United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), commonly known as Mexico (English: /ˈmɛksɪkoʊ/) (Spanish: México (help·info) [ˈmexiko]), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost 2 million square kilometres, Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million, it is the 11th most populous country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain created the New Spain which would eventually become Mexico as the colony gained independence in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, territorial secession and civil war, including foreign intervention, two empires and two long domestic dictatorships. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI).
As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country, considered as a newly industrialized country and has the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity, and also the largest GDP per capita in Latin America according to the International Monetary Fund. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Despite being considered an emerging power, the uneven income distribution and the increase in drug-related violence are issues of concern.
For more information about Mexico, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with mexico
Mexican labs target adulterers with DNA testing
Nov 20, 2009 |
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Suspect your significant other might be cheating on you? In Mexico, numerous laboratories are now offering a way to find out for sure -- DNA tests.
Germany, Mexico, US top smart energy list
Nov 05, 2009 |
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Germany, Mexico and the United States have crafted some of the world's smartest policies for improving energy use, according to a study released on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN climate talks here.
Mexico pushing for homegrown swine flu vaccine
Medicine & Health / Medications
Oct 23, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Grappling with low supplies of swine flu vaccines, President Felipe Calderon persuaded drug makers this week to sell him 30 million doses, while 1,000 Mexicans lined up for an experimental vaccine ...
Swine flu 6 months later: Relief, but winter looms
Oct 15, 2009 |
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(AP) -- It was six months ago that scientists discovered an ominous new flu virus, touching off fears of a catastrophic global outbreak that could cause people to drop dead in the streets. Doomsday, of course, ...
Tropical Storm Patricia approaches Mexico
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 13, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Officials closed schools and readied emergency shelters as Tropical Storm Patricia neared Mexico's Los Cabos resorts on Tuesday.
Critical illness from 2009 H1N1 in Mexico associated with high fatality rate
Oct 12, 2009 |
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Critical illness from 2009 influenza A(H1N1) in Mexico occurred among young patients, was associated with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock, and had a fatality rate of about 40 percent, according to a study ...
NASA satellite sees Olaf stretch out and fizzle over northwestern mainland Mexico
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 05, 2009 |
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Tropical Storm Olaf wasn't given much of a chance when he was born, and he never did make it to hurricane strength before fizzling out late Saturday night. NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared imagery that ...
How will future sea-level rise linked to climate change affect coastal areas?
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 05, 2009 |
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The anticipated sea-level rise associated with climate change, including increased storminess, over the next 100 years and the impact on the nation's low-lying coastal infrastructure is the focus of a new, ...
Storm killers: Earth Scan Lab tracks cold water upwellings in Gulf
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 28, 2009 |
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Complex interactions between the ocean and overlying atmosphere cause hurricanes to form, and also have a tremendous amount of influence on the path, intensity and duration of a hurricane or tropical weather event. As researchers ...
Female monarch butterflies on 30-year decline in eastern North America
Sep 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Female monarch butterflies in eastern North America have significantly declined over the past 30 years, a new study by a University of Georgia researcher reveals.
Study Finds Narrowed Cultural Gap With Mexico
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Sep 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The cultural divide that has existed between the U.S. and Mexico is slowly diminishing, research by a UT Dallas professor finds.
Biofuel production could undercut efforts to shrink Gulf 'Dead Zone'
Sep 16, 2009 |
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Scientists in Pennsylvania report that boosting production of crops used to make biofuels could make a difficult task to shrink a vast, oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico more difficult. The ...
Tornado threat increases as Gulf hurricanes get larger (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 08, 2009 |
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Tornadoes that occur from hurricanes moving inland from the Gulf Coast are increasing in frequency, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This increase seems to reflect the increase ...
NASA Heads Out to Sea
Aug 24, 2009 |
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NASA scientists Maury Estes and Mohammad Al-Hamdan have been seafaring in the Gulf of Mexico, and one of them grew a bit green around the gills. It's not surprising that a space agency scientist might have ...
Mexican health care reform has been convoluted and ineffective
Aug 18, 2009 |
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A Policy Forum published in this week's open access journal PLoS Medicine argues that twenty-five years of health care reforms in Mexico have increased insurance coverage but have not resulted in greater efficiency and ha ...
