| Estados Unidos Mexicanos United Mexican States |
|
|
Anthem:"Himno Nacional Mexicano"
"National Anthem of Mexico"
|
|
|
Capital
(and largest city)
| Mexico City
19°03′N, 99°22′W
|
| Official languages |
none |
| National language |
Spanish (de facto)1 |
| Demonym |
Mexican
|
| Government |
Federal presidential republic |
| - |
President |
Felipe Calderón
( PAN) |
| Independence |
from Spain |
|---|
| - |
Declared |
September 16 1810 |
| - |
Recognized |
September 27 1821 |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
1,972,550km²(15th)
761,606sqmi |
| - |
Water(%) |
2.5 |
| Population |
| - |
2007estimate |
108,700,891(11th) |
| - |
2005census |
103,263,388 |
| - |
Density |
55/km²(142nd)
142/sqmi |
| GDP(PPP) |
2006estimate |
| - |
Total |
$1.149 trillion(12th) |
| - |
Per capita |
$11,249(63rd) |
| GDP (nominal) |
2006estimate |
| - |
Total |
$840.012 billion (short scale)(14th) |
| - |
Per capita |
$8,066(55th) |
| Gini(2006) |
47.3(high) |
| HDI(2007) |
▲ 0.829(high)(52nd) |
| Currency |
Mexican peso (MXN) |
| Time zone |
(UTC-8 to -6) |
| Internet TLD |
.mx |
| Calling code |
+52
|
1 See languages note (below): [There is no official language stipulated in the constitution. However, the General Law of Linguistic Rights for the Indigenous Peoples recognizes all Amerindian minority languages therein spoken, along with Spanish, as "national languages" and "equally valid" in territories where spoken.] |
United Mexican States[The alternative translation Mexican United States is also, but not often, used.[1]] (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), or commonly Mexico (IPA: /ˈmɛksɪkoʊ/) (Spanish: México (help·info) IPA: [ˈmexiko]), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bounded on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the North Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico.[Merriam-Webster\'s Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc.; p. 733 ]["Mexico". The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2001–6. New York: Columbia University Press.] The United Mexican States is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a federal district, the capital Mexico City, which is one of the world\'s most populous cities.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometers,[Mexico - Geography. CIA The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million,[Mexico - People. CIA The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
As a regional power[Japan\'s Regional Diplomacy, Latin America and the Caribbean (PDF). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.][Latin America:Region is losing ground to competitors. Oxford Analytica. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.] and the only Latin American member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.[List of upper middle-income countries. The World Bank. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.]
Mexico is the 12th largest economy in the world by gross domestic product (GDP) by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional: PRI) which had held it since 1929, culminating the political alternation at the federal level, which had begun at the local level during the 1980s.
Etymology
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After winning independence from Spain, it was decided that the new country would be named after its capital city, whose original name of foundation was México-Tenochtitlan, in reference to the Mexica tribe, the main group of people of what came to be known as the Aztec civilization. The origin of the name of the Mexica is obscure and subject to diverse interpretations. Some[Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel (2006). Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. Facts of Life, Inc., 19. ISBN 0-8160-5673-0.] argue that it derives from the Nahuatl Mexitl or Mexitli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mexico means "Place where Mexitli lives". Another hypothesis is that the word Mexiko derives from the metztli ("moon"), xictli ("navel", "center" or "son"), and the suffix -co (place), in which case it means "Place at the center of the moon" or "Place at the center of the Lake Moon", in reference to Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco was at the center, had the form of a rabbit, the same image that the Aztecs saw in the moon. Tenochtitlan was located at the center (or navel) of the lake (or rabbit/moon).[(Spanish) Nombre del Estado de México. Government of the State of Mexico. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mectli, the goddess of maguey.
The name of the city was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the x in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, represented by a j, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative /x/ during the sixteenth century.[Evolution of the pronunciation of "x". Real Academia Española.] This led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and some other Spanish–speaking countries México was the preferred spelling. In recent years the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish language, determined that both variants are acceptable in Spanish but that the normative recommended spelling is México.[Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas. Real Academia Española.] The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used.[Mexico. Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.] In English, the x in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster /ks/.
History
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Pre-Columbian civilizations
Human presence in Mexico has been shown to date back 40,000 years based upon ancient human footprints discovered in the Valley of Mexico (previous evidence substantiated indigenous inhabitants at 12,500 years ago). For thousands of years, Mexico was a land of hunter-gatherers. Around 9,000 years ago, ancient Mexicans domesticated corn and initiated an agricultural revolution, leading to the formation of many complex civilizations.
These civilizations revolved around cities with writing, monumental architecture, astronomical studies, mathematics, and militaries.
For almost three thousand years, Aridoamerica (northern Mexico)[Aridomerica. The Language of Anthropology Dictionary. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.] and Mesoamerica (central and southern Mexico)[Mesoamerica. Online Learning Center. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.] were the site of several advanced Amerindian civilizations, among them the Olmecs, the Mayas and the Aztecs.
In 1519, the native civilizations of what is now Mexico were invaded by Spain;[Anonymous Conqueror, the [1550] (1917). Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan, Marshall Saville (trans).] this was one of the most important conquest campaigns in America. Two years later, in 1521, the Aztec capital and metropolis of Tenochtitlan was conquered by an alliance between Spanish and Tlaxcaltecs, the main enemies of the Aztecs, setting up a three-century colonial rule in Mexico. The viceroyalty of New Spain became the first and largest provider of resources for the Spanish Empire, and the most populated of all Spanish colonies.
After the independence of the vice-royalty of New Spain, it was decided to name the country after its capital, Mexico City. The city\'s original name was Mexico-Tenochtitlan, in reference to the name of the Nahua Aztec tribe, the Mexica.
Colonial era and independence
On September 16, 1810, independence from Spain was declared by Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato state.[Catholic Encylopedia Miguel Hidalgo Biography. Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.] This was the catalyst for a long war that eventually led to recognized independence in 1821 and the creation of an ephemeral First Mexican Empire. Agustín de Iturbide was the first and only emperor. Two years later, he was deposed by the republican forces. In 1824, a republican constitution was drafted creating the United Mexican States with Guadalupe Victoria as its first President.
The first four decades of independent Mexico were marked by a constant strife between liberales (those who supported the federal form of government stipulated in the 1824 constitution) and conservadores (who proposed a hierarchical form of government in which all local authorities were appointed and subject to a central authority).[The Early Republic. Mexico. Microsoft Encarta (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-29.] General Antonio López de Santa Anna was a strong influence in Mexican politics, a centralist and a two-time dictator. In 1836, he approved the Siete Leyes, a radical amendment to the constitution that institutionalized the centralized form of government, after which Texas declared independence from Mexico, obtained in 1836. The annexation of Texas by the United States created a border dispute that would cause the Mexican-American War. Santa Anna played a big role in trying to muster Mexican forces but this war resulted in the resolute defeat of Mexico and as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), Mexico lost one third of its surface area to the United States.
Evolution of the Mexican territory.
Dissatisfaction with Santa Anna\'s return to power, and his unconstitutional rule, led to the liberal Revolution of Ayutla, which initiated an era of liberal reforms, known as La Reforma, after which a new constitution was drafted that reestablished federalism as the form of government and first introduced freedom of religion. In the 1860s the country again underwent a military occupation, this time by France, which established the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria on the Mexican throne as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico with support from the Catholic clergy and the conservative Mexicans. This Second Mexican Empire was victorious for only a few years, when the previous president of the Republic, the Zapotec Indian Benito Juárez, managed to restore the republic in 1867.
20th and 21st centuries
Porfirio Díaz, a republican general during the French intervention, ruled Mexico from 1876–1880 and then from 1880–1911 in five consecutive reelections. The period of his rule is known as the Porfiriato, which was characterized by remarkable economic achievements, investments in art and sciences, but also of huge economic inequality and political repression.[The Díaz Years. Mexico. Microsoft Encarta (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-30.] An obvious and preposterous electoral fraud that led to his fifth reelection sparked the Mexican Revolution of 1910, initially led by Francisco I. Madero. Díaz resigned in 1911 and Madero was elected president but overthrown and murdered in a coup d\'état in 1913 led by a conservative general named Victoriano Huerta after a secret council held with the U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson. This re-ignited the civil war, with participants such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata who formed their own forces. A third force, the constitutional army led by Venustiano Carranza, managed to bring an end to the war, and radically amended the 1857 Constitution to include many of the social premises and demands of the revolutionaries into what was eventually called the 1917 Constitution. Carranza was killed in 1920 and succeeded by another revolutionary hero, Álvaro Obregón, who in turn was succeeded by Plutarco Elías Calles. Obregón was reelected in 1928 but assassinated before he could assume power. In 1929, Calles founded the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), later renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which became the most influential party during the next 70 years.
Between 1940 en 1980, Mexico experienced substantial economic growth that some historians call "El Milagro Mexicano", the Mexican Miracle.[The Mexican Miracle: 1940-1968. World History from 1500. Emayzine. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.] The assumption of mineral rights by the government, and the subsequent nationalization of the oil industry into PEMEX during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (1938) was a popular move, but sparked a diplomatic crisis with those countries whose citizens had lost businesses expropriated by the Cárdenas government.
Although the economy continued to flourish, social inequality remained a factor of discontent. Moreover, the PRI rule became increasingly authoritarian and at times oppressive.[Krauze, Enrique (January-February 2006). Furthering Democracy in Mexico. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.] An example of this is the Tlatelolco Massacre [Elena Poniatowska (1975). Massacre in Mexico (Original "La noche de Tlatelolco"). Viking, New York. ISBN 0-8262-0817-7.] of 1968, which according to government officials claimed the life of around 30 protesters, while according to many reputable international accounts around 250 protesters were killed.
In the 1970s there was extreme dissatisfaction with the administration of Luis Echeverría which took missteps in both the national and international arenas. Nonetheless, it was in this decade that the first substantial changes to electoral law were made, which initiated a movement of democratization of a system that had become electorally authoritarian.[Schedler, Andreas (2006). Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition. L. Rienner Publishers. ISBN 1-5882-6440-8.][Crandall, R.; Paz and Roett (2004). "Mexico\'s Domestic Economy: Policy Options and Choices", Mexico\'s Democracy at Work. Lynne Reinner Publishers, 160. ISBN 0-8018-5655-8.] While the prices of oil were at historically high records and interest rates were low, Mexico made impressive investments in the state-owned oil company, with the intention of revitalizing the economy, but overborrowing and mismanagement of oil revenues led to inflation and exacerbated the crisis of 1982. That year, oil prices plunged, interest rates soared, and the government defaulted on its debt. In an attempt to stabilize the current account balance, and given the reluctance of international lenders to return to Mexico given the previous default, President de la Madrid resorted to currency devaluations which in turn sparked inflation.
The first small cracks in the political monopolistic position of PRI were seen in the late 1970s with the creation of 100 deputy seats in the Chamber of Deputies assigned through proportional representation with closed party-lists. Even though at the municipal level the first non-PRI mayor was elected in 1947,[(Spanish) Efemérides (Important dates). National Action Party. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] it was not until 1989 that the first non-PRI governor of a state was elected. However, many sources claimed that in 1988 the party resorted to electoral fraud in order to prevent leftist opposition candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas from winning the national presidential elections who lost to Carlos Salinas, which led to massive protests in the capital.[Photius Geographic.org, "Mexico The 1988 Elections", (Sources: The Library of the Congress Country Studies, CIA World Factbook)] Salinas embarked on a program of neoliberal reforms which fixed the exchange rate, controlled inflation and culminated with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which came into effect in 1994. However, that very same day, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) started a two-week-lived armed rebellion against the federal government, and has continued as a non-violent opposition movement against neoliberalism and globalization. Being an election year, in a process that was then called the most transparent in Mexican history, authorities were reluctant to devalue the peso, a move which caused a rapid depletion of the National Reserves. In December 1994, a month after Salinas was succeeded by Ernesto Zedillo, the Mexican economy collapsed.
With a rapid rescue packaged authorized by United States President Bill Clinton and major macroeconomic reforms started by president Zedillo, the economy rapidly recovered and growth peaked at almost 7% by the end of 1999.[(Spanish) Cruz Vasconcelos, Gerardo. Desempeño Histórico 1914–2004 (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-02-17.] After a comprehensive electoral reform to increase party representation during Zedillo\'s administration, as well as discontent with PRI after the economic crisis, led the PRI to lose its absolute majority in the Congress in 1997. In 2000, after 71 years the PRI lost a presidential election to Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party (PAN). Neither party had absolute majority in the Congress.
On March 23 2005, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was signed by Vicente Fox. During the 2006 elections, the position of PRI in the Congress was further weakened and became the third political force in number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies after PAN and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), even though the party still has the plurality of state governorships. In the concurrent presidential elections, Felipe Calderón, from PAN was declared winner, with a razor-thin margin over Andrés Manuel López Obrador PRD. López Obrador, however, contested the election and pledged to create an "alternative government".[(Spanish) Reséndiz, Francisco (2006), "Rinde AMLO protesta como "presidente legítimo"", El Universal, <http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/389114.html>]
Government and politics
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Palacio de San Lázaro, Chamber of Deputies, Congress of the Union.
The United Mexican States are a federation whose government is representative, democratic and republican based on a congressional system according to the 1917 Constitution. The constitution establishes three levels of government: the federal Union, the state governments and the municipal governments. All officials at the three levels are elected by voters through first-past-the-post plurality, proportional representation or are appointed by other elected officials.
The federal government is constituted by the Powers of the Union, the three separate branches of government:
- Legislative: the bicameral Congress of the Union, composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, which makes federal law, declares war, imposes taxes, approves the national budget and international treaties, and ratifies diplomatic appointments.
[Articles 50 to 79. Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. Congress of the Union of the United Mexican States. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.]
- Executive: the President of the United Mexican States, who is the head of state and government, as well as the commander in chief of the Mexican military forces. The President also appoints, with Senate approval, the Cabinet and other officers. The President is responsible for executing and enforcing the law, and has the authority of vetoing bills.
[Articles 80 to 93. Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. Congress of the Union of the United Mexican States. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.]
- Judiciary: The Supreme Court of Justice, comprised by eleven judges appointed by the President with Senate approval, who interpret laws and judge cases of federal competency. Other institutions of the judiciary are the Electoral Tribunal, collegiate, unitary and district tribunals, and the Council of the Federal Judiciary.
[Articles 90 to 107. Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. Congress of the Union of the United Mexican States. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.]
All elected executive officials are elected by plurality (first-past-the-post). Seats to the legislature are elected by plurality and proportional representation at the federal and state level.[(Spanish) Third Title, First Chapter, About Electoral systems (PDF). Código Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales (Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures). Congress of the Union of the United Mexican States (1990-08-15). Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] The Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union is conformed by 300 deputies elected by plurality and 200 deputies by proportional representation with closed party lists[(Spanish) Third Title, First Chapter, About Electoral systems, Article 11-1 (PDF). Código Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales (Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures). Congress of the Union of the United Mexican States (1990-08-15). Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] for which the country is divided into 5 electoral constituencies or circumscriptions.[(Spanish) Fourth Title, Second Chapter, About coalitions, Article 59-1 (PDF). Código Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales (Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures). Congress of the Union of the United Mexican States (1990-08-15). Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] The Senate is conformed by a total of 128 senators: 64 senators, two per state and the Federal District elected by plurality in pairs; 32 senators assigned to the first minority or first-runner up (one per state and the Federal District), and 32 elected by proportional representation with closed party lists for which the country conforms a single electoral constituency.
According to the constitution, all constituent states must have a republican form of government composed of three branches: the executive, represented by a governor and an appointed cabinet, the legislative branch constituted by a unicameral congress and the judiciary, also called a Supreme Court of Justice. They also have their own civil and judicial codes.
In the 2006–2009 Congress of the Union, eight parties are therein represented; five of them, however, have not received neither in this nor in previous congresses more than 4% of the national votes.[Parliamentary Groups Composition. Chamber of Deputies of the Honorable Congress of the Union (2006-09-20). Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] The other three parties have historically been the dominant parties in Mexican politics:
The PRI held an almost hegemonic power in Mexican politics since 1929. Since 1977 consecutive electoral reforms allowed opposition parties to win more posts at the local and federal level. This process culminated in the 2000 presidential elections in which Vicente Fox, candidate of the PAN, became the first non-PRI president to be elected in 71 years.
In 2006, Felipe Calderón of the PAN faced Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD in a very close election (0.58% difference), in a system without a second-ballot. On September 6, 2006, Felipe Calderón was declared President-elect by the electoral tribunal. His cabinet was sworn in at midnight on December 1, 2006 and Calderón was handed the presidential band by outgoing Vicente Fox at Los Pinos. He was officially sworn as President on the morning of December 1, 2006 in Congress.
Foreign relations
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Traditionally, the Mexican government has sought to maintain its interests abroad and project its influence largely through moral persuasion rather than through political or economical pressure.
Since the Mexican Revolution, and until the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo, Mexico had been known for its foreign policy or "doctrine" known as the Doctrina Estrada ("Estrada Doctrine", named after its creator Genaro Estrada). The Estrada Doctrine was a foreign policy guideline of an enclosed view of sovereignty. It claimed that foreign governments should not judge, positively or negatively, the governments or changes in government of other nations, in that such action would imply a breach to their sovereignty.[(Spanish) Rodríguez, Itzel. De actualidad política: ¿Qué dice la doctrina Estrada?. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.] This policy was said to be based on the principles of Non-Intervention, Pacific Solution to Controversies, and Self-Determination of all nations.
During his presidency, Vicente Fox appointed Jorge Castañeda to be his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Castañeda immediately broke with the Estrada Doctrine, promoting what was called by critics the "Castañeda Doctrine".[Menéndez Quintero, Marina. Adiós, Castañeda. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.] The new foreign policy called for an openness and an acceptance of criticism from the international community, and the increase of Mexican involvement in foreign affairs.[Ramírez, Carlos. Doctrina Estrada; doctrina Castañeda. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.]
In line with this new openness in Mexico\'s foreign policy, some political parties have proposed an amendment of the Constitution in order to allow the Mexican Army, Air Force or Navy to collaborate with the United Nations in peace-keeping missions, or to provide military help to countries that officially ask for it.
Military
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Mexican troops in Mexico City in the Independence Day Parade
[Military Expeditures Rank Order. CIA The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.] and armed forces[Global Fire Power World Ranking. Global Fire Power. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.] in Latin America. Mexico\'s military strength includes 503,777 total personnel, of which around 192,770 are active in the frontline.[Mexico Military Strength. Global Fire Power. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.] The Mexican Military has three branches; the Mexican Army, the Mexican Air Force, and the Mexican Navy.
There are three main components of the Army: a national headquarters, territorial commands, and independent units. The Minister of Defense commands the Army by means of a very centralized system and a large number of general officers. The Army uses a modified continental staff system in its headquarters. The Army is the largest branch of Mexico\'s armed services. At present there are 12 "Military Regions", which are further broken down into 44 subordinate "Military Zones".
The Air Force national headquarters is embedded in the Army headquarters in Mexico City. It also follows the continental staff system, with the usual A1, A2, A3, and A4 sections. The tactical forces form what is loosely called an Air Division, but it is dispersed in four regions—Northeast, Northwest, Central, and Southern. The Air Force maintains a total of 18 air bases, and has the additional capability of opening temporary forward operating bases in austere conditions for some of the rotary wing and light fixed-wing assets.
The Ministry of the Navy, the Navy’s national headquarters, is located in Veracruz City. The “Junta (or Council) of Admirals” plays a unique consultative and advisory role within the headquarters, an indication of the institutional importance placed on seniority and “year groups” that go back to the admirals’ days as cadets in the naval college. They are a very tightly knit group, and great importance is placed on consultation among the factions within these year groups.
The Navy’s operational forces are organized as two independent groups: the Gulf (East) Force and the Pacific (West) Force. Each group has its own headquarters, a destroyer group, an auxiliary vessel group, a Marine Infantry Group, and a Special Forces group. The Navy also has an air arm with troop transport, reconnaissance, and surveillance aircraft.
The Navy maintains significant infrastructure, including naval dockyards that have the capability of building ships, such as the Holzinger class gunboats. These dockyards have a significant employment and economic impact in the country.
The federation: States of Mexico and the Federal District
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- See also: Mexican state name etymologies
