Mexico

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The United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), generally known as Mexico (Spanish: México (help·info)) is a country located in North America, bordered at the north by the United States, and at the south by Guatemala and Belize, in Central America. It is the northernmost and westernmost country in Latin America, and also the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.

The site of advanced Mesoamerican or Amerindian civilizations, the land that currently makes up Mexico, existed as a Spanish colony for three centuries before achieving independence early in the nineteenth century. The first century of independence was tumultuous, culminating in the decade-long Mexican Revolution, followed by roughly seventy years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

As the only Latin American country member of the OECD since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the 1910 Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the PRI and Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in as President on 1 December 2000.

Mexico is a powerful and influential neighbor of the United States, in terms of trade, culture, and diplomacy, with a history of emigration of Mexicans into the U.S. since the early 1900s.

History

Pre-Columbian Civilizations

For almost three thousand years, Mexico was the site of several advanced Amerindian civilizations – the Mesoamerican cultures – such as the Olmec, the Maya and the Aztecs. The arrival of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztecs 1521, marking the beginning of the three hundred year-long colonial period of Mexico as New Spain.

European colonization

In 1519, the native civilizations of Mexico were invaded by Spain, this was one of the most important conquest campaigns in America. Two years later in 1521, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was conquered by an alliance between Spanish and Tlaxcaltecs (the main enemies of Aztecs). Francisco Hernández de Córdoba explored the shores of South Mexico in 1517, followed by Juan de Grijalva in 1518. The most important of the early Conquistadores was Hernán Cortés, who entered the country in 1519 from a native coastal town which he renamed "Puerto de la Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz" (today's Veracruz).

Read more at Wikipedia.org