Coordinates	51°20′28″N20°53′17″N
Native name	}}

|conventional_long_name = United Mexican States |common_name = Mexico |image_flag = Flag_of_Mexico.svg |alt_flag = |image_coat = Coat of arms of Mexico.svg |alt_coat = |symbol_type = Coat of arms |national_motto = |national_anthem = "Himno Nacional Mexicano"Mexican National Anthem |royal_anthem = |motto = |other_symbol_type = National seal: |other_symbol = Seal of the United Mexican States |image_map = Mexico (orthographic projection).svg |map_width = 220px |alt_map = |map_caption = |image_map2 = |alt_map2 = |map_caption2 = |capital = Mexico City |latd= 19 | latm= 03 | latNS = N |longd= 99 |longm= 22 |longEW = W |largest_city = Mexico City |official_languages = Spanish |national_languages = 62 Indigenous Amerindian languages |regional_languages = |languages_type = |languages = |ethnic_groups = - Mestizo 70% - White 15% - Indigenous 9.8%- Other 1% |ethnic_groups_year = |demonym = Mexican |government_type = }} |leader_title1 = President |leader_name1 = Felipe Calderón (PAN) |leader_title2 = Secretary of the Interior |leader_name2 = José Francisco Blake Mora |leader_title3 = Supreme Court President |leader_name3 = Juan Silva Meza |leader_title4 = |leader_name4 = |leader_title5 = |leader_name5 = |leader_title6 = |leader_name6 = |legislature = Congress |upper_house = Senate |lower_house = Chamber of Deputies |sovereignty_type = Independence |sovereignty_note = from Spain |established_event1 = Declared |established_date1 = September 16, 1810 |established_event2 = Recognized |established_date2 = September 27, 1821 |established_event3 = |established_date3 = |established_event4 = |established_date4 = |established_event5 = |established_date5 = |established_event9 = |established_date9 = |area_rank = 14th |area_magnitude = 1 E12 |area = |area_km2 = 1,972,550 |area_sq_mi = 761,606 |area_footnote = |percent_water = 2.5 |area_dabodyalign = |population_census = 112,322,757 |population_census_rank = 11th |population_census_year = 2010 |population_density_km2 = 57 |population_density_sq_mi = 142 |population_density_rank = 142nd |GDP_PPP = $1.629 trillion |GDP_PPP_rank = 11th |GDP_PPP_year = 2011 |GDP_PPP_per_capita = $15,113 |GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = 58th |GDP_nominal = $1.041 trillion |GDP_nominal_rank = 13th |GDP_nominal_year = 2011 |GDP_nominal_per_capita = $9,489 |GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = 58th |Gini = 51.6 |Gini_rank = |Gini_year = 2008 |Gini_category = high |HDI = 0.750 |HDI_rank = 56th |HDI_year = 2010 |HDI_category = high |currency = Peso |currency_code = MXN |time_zone = Official Mexican Timezones |utc_offset = −8 to −6 |time_zone_DST = varies |antipodes = |date_format = |DST_note = |utc_offset_DST = −7 to −5 |drives_on = right |cctld = .mx |iso3166code = |calling_code = +52 |image_map3 = |alt_map3 = |footnotes = |footnote1 = |footnote2 = |footnote7 = }} The United Mexican States (), commonly known as Mexico (pronounced ; ), 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 two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 112 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking 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 Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. 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.

Mexico is both one of the world's largest economies and a regional power, and since 1994 the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and a firmly established upper-middle income country. Mexico is considered a newly industrialized country and an emerging power. It has the thirteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, especially the United States. Mexico ranks fifth in the world and first in the Americas by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites with 31, and in 2007 was the tenth most visited country in the world with 21.4 million international arrivals.

Etymology

After New Spain won independence from Spain, it was decided that the new country would be named after its capital, Mexico City, which was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Aztec capital of México-Tenochtitlan. The name comes from the Nahuatl language, but its meaning is not well known.

Anáhuac is the term used by the Aztecs to refer to the territory they dominated, e.g. the empire as a whole, including tributary peoples; and as such was among the terms proposed for the name of the new country prior to independence, as in, for example, Congress of Anáhuac, another name for the Congress of Chilpancingo.

''Mēxihco'' was the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica, and surrounding territories which became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence; compare ''Latium''. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley which became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result, or vice versa. It has been suggested that it is derived from Mextli or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mēxihco means "Place where Mēxihtli lives".

Another hypothesis suggests that the word Mēxihco derives from the mētztli ("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). Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mēctli, the goddess of maguey.

The name of the city-state was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the x in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative . This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative , represented by a j, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative during the sixteenth century. This led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and most 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. The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used. In English, the x in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster .

The official name of the country has changed as the form of government has changed. On two occasions (1821–1823 and 1863–1867), the country was known as Imperio Mexicano (Mexican Empire). All three federal constitutions (1824, 1857 and 1917, the current constitution) used the name Estados Unidos Mexicanos—or the variants Estados Unidos mexicanos and Estados-Unidos Mexicanos, all of which have been translated as "United Mexican States". The term República Mexicana, "Mexican Republic" was used in the 1836 Constitutional Laws.

History

Ancient cultures

The earliest human remains in Mexico are chips of stone tools found near campfire remains in the Valley of Mexico and radiocarbon-dated to ca. 21,000 BCE. Around 9,000 years ago, ancient indigenous peoples domesticated corn and initiated an agricultural revolution, leading to the formation of many complex civilizations. Between 1,800 and 300 BCE, many matured into advanced pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as: the Olmec, Izapa, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huastec, Purepecha, Totonac, Toltec and Aztec: Mexica, which flourished for nearly 4,000 years before the first contact with Europeans.

These civilizations are credited with many inventions and advancements in fields such as architecture (pyramid-temples), mathematics, astronomy, medicine and theology. The Aztecs were noted for practicing human sacrifice on a large scale. At its peak, Teotihuacan, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas, had a population of more than 150,000 people. Estimates of the population before the Spanish conquest range from 6 million to 25 million.

At the time of Spanish contact, Teotihuacan was no longer occupied, although the site was well-known; the population of the Aztec Empire and its immediate predecessors had become centered on Lake Texcoco, also in the Valley of Mexico, where the island city of Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325.

New Spain

In the early 16th century, from the landing of Hernán Cortés, the Aztec civilization was invaded and conquered by the Spaniards. Unintentionally introduced by Spanish conquerors, smallpox ravaged Mesoamerica in the 1520s, killing millions of Aztecs, including the emperor, and was credited with the victory of Hernán Cortés over the Aztec empire. The territory became part of the Spanish Empire under the name of New Spain. Mexico City was systematically rebuilt by Cortés following the Fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. Much of the identity, traditions and architecture of Mexico were created during the colonial period.

Independence

On September 16, 1810, independence from Spain was declared by priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato. The first insurgent group was formed by Hidalgo, the Spanish viceregal army captain Ignacio Allende, the militia captain Juan Aldama and "La Corregidora" Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez. Hidalgo and some of his soldiers were captured and executed by firing squad in Chihuahua, on July 31, 1811. Following his death, the leadership was assumed by priest José María Morelos, who occupied key southern cities.

In 1813 the Congress of Chilpancingo was convened and, on November 6, signed the "Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America". Morelos was captured and executed on December 22, 1815. In subsequent years, the insurgency was near collapse, but in 1820 Viceroy Juan Ruiz de Apodaca sent an army under the criollo general Agustín de Iturbide against the troops of Vicente Guerrero. Instead, Iturbide approached Guerrero to join forces, and in 1821 representatives of the Spanish Crown and Iturbide signed the "Treaty of Córdoba" and the "Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire", which recognized the independence of Mexico under the terms of the "Plan of Iguala".

Agustín de Iturbide immediately proclaimed himself emperor of the First Mexican Empire. A revolt against him in 1823 established the United Mexican States. In 1824, a Republican Constitution was drafted and Guadalupe Victoria became the first president of the newly born country. The first decades of the post-independence period were marked by economic instability, which led to the Pastry War in 1836, and a constant strife between liberales, supporters of a federal form of government, and conservadores, proposals of a hierarchical form of government.

General Antonio López de Santa Anna, a centralist and two-time dictator, approved the Siete Leyes in 1836, a radical amendment that institutionalized the centralized form of government. When he suspended the 1824 Constitution, civil war spread across the country, and three new governments declared independence: the Republic of Texas, the Republic of the Rio Grande and the Republic of Yucatán.

Texas successfully achieved independence and was annexed by the United States. A border dispute led to the Mexican-American War, which began in 1846 and lasted for two years; the War was settled via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which forced Mexico to give up over half of its land to the U.S., including Alta California, New Mexico, and the disputed parts of Texas. A much smaller transfer of territory in what is today southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico — the Gadsden Purchase — occurred in 1854. The Caste War of Yucatán, the Mayan uprising that began in 1847, was one of the most successful modern Native American revolts. Maya rebels, or Cruzob, maintained relatively independent enclaves until the 1930s.

thumb|300px|Territorial evolution of Mexico.Dissatisfaction with Santa Anna's return to power led to the liberal "Plan of Ayutla", initiating an era known as La Reforma, after which a new Constitution was drafted in 1857 that established a secular state, federalism as the form of government, and several freedoms. As the conservadores refused to recognize it, the Reform War began in 1858, during which both groups had their own governments. The war ended in 1861 with victory by the Liberals, led by Amerindian President Benito Juárez. In the 1860s Mexico underwent a military occupation by France, which established the Second Mexican Empire under the rule of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria with support from the Roman Catholic clergy and the conservadores, who later switched sides and joined the liberales. Maximilian surrendered, was tried on June 14 and was executed on June 19, 1867.

Porfirio Díaz, a republican general during the French intervention, ruled Mexico from 1876–1880 and then from 1884–1911 in five consecutive reelections, period known as the Porfiriato, characterized by remarkable economic achievements, investments in the arts and sciences, but also of economic inequality and political repression.

20th century to present

A likely electoral fraud that led to Diaz's fifth reelection sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution, initially led by Francisco I. Madero.

Díaz resigned in 1911 and Madero was elected president but overthrown and murdered in a coup d'état two years later directed by conservative general Victoriano Huerta. That event re-ignited the civil war, involving figures such as Francisco 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. It is estimated that the war killed 900,000 of the 1910 population of 15 million.

Assassinated in 1920, Carranza was 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), and started a period known as the Maximato, which ended with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas, who implemented many economic and social reforms, and most significantly expropriated the oil industry into Pemex on March 18, 1938, but sparked a diplomatic crisis with the countries whose citizens had lost businesses by Cárdenas' radical measure.

Between 1940 and 1980, Mexico experienced a substantial economic growth that some historians call the "Mexican miracle". Although the economy continued to flourish, social inequality remained a factor of discontent. Moreover, the PRI rule became increasingly authoritarian and at times oppressive (see the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, which claimed the life of around 30–800 protesters).

Electoral reforms and high oil prices followed the administration of Luis Echeverría, mismanagement of these revenues led to inflation and exacerbated the 1982 Crisis. That year, oil prices plunged, interest rates soared, and the government defaulted on its debt. President Miguel de la Madrid resorted to currency devaluations which in turn sparked inflation.

In the 1980s the first cracks emerged in PRI's monopolistic position. In Baja California, Ernesto Ruffo Appel was elected as governor. In 1988, electoral fraud prevented leftist candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas from winning the national presidential elections, giving Carlos Salinas de Gortari the Presidency and leading to massive protests in Mexico City.

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 on January 1, 1994. The same day, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) started a two-week-long armed rebellion against the federal government, and has continued as a non-violent opposition movement against neoliberalism and globalization.

In December 1994, a month after Salinas was succeeded by Ernesto Zedillo, the Mexican economy collapsed, with a rapid rescue packaged authorized by U.S. 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.

In 2000, after 71 years, the PRI lost a presidential election to Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party (PAN). In the 2006 presidential elections, Felipe Calderón from the PAN was declared the winner, with a very narrow margin over leftist politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). López Obrador, however, contested the election and pledged to create an "alternative government".

Politics

The United Mexican States are a federation whose government is representative, democratic and republican based on a presidential system according to the 1917 Constitution. The constitution establishes three levels of government: the federal Union, the state governments and the municipal governments. According to the constitution, all constituent states of the federation 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, which will include called state Supreme Court of Justice. They also have their own civil and judicial codes.

The bicameral Congress of the Union, composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, makes federal law, declares war, imposes taxes, approves the national budget and international treaties, and ratifies diplomatic appointments. Seats to federal and state legislatures are elected by a system of parallel voting that includes plurality and proportional representation. 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 for which the country is divided into 5 electoral constituencies or circumscriptions. The Senate is conformed by a total of 128 senators: 64 senators, two for each state and two for the Federal District, elected by plurality in pairs; 32 senators assigned to the first minority or first-runner up (one for each state and one for the Federal District), and 32 are assigned by proportional representation with closed party lists for which the country conforms a single electoral constituency.

The Executive, is 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 the Cabinet and other officers. The President is responsible for executing and enforcing the law, and has the authority of vetoing bills.

The Judiciary branch of government is 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.

Three parties have historically been the dominant parties in Mexican politics: the National Action Party: a right-wing conservative party founded in 1939 and belonging to the Christian Democrat Organization of America; the Institutional Revolutionary Party, a center-left party and member of Socialist International that was founded in 1929 to unite all the factions of the Mexican Revolution and held an almost hegemonic power in Mexican politics since then; the Party of the Democratic Revolution: a left-wing party, founded in 1989 as the successor of the coalition of socialists and liberal parties.

Foreign relations

The foreign relations of Mexico are directed by the President of Mexico and managed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The principles of the foreign policy are constitutionally recognized in the Article 89, Section 10, which include: respect for international law and legal equality of states, their sovereignty and independence, non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other countries, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and promotion of collective security through active participation in international organizations. Since the 1930s, the Estrada Doctrine has served as a crucial complement to these principles.

Mexico is one of the founding members of several international organizations, most notably the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the OPANAL and the Rio Group. In 2008, Mexico contributed over 40 million dollars to the United Nations regular budget. In addition, it has been the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since it joined in 1994 though Chile is in the process of gaining full membership. Mexico is considered as a regional power hence its presence in major economic groups such as the G8+5 and the G-20. In addition, since the 1990s Mexico has sought a reform of the United Nations Security Council and its working methods with the support of Canada, Italy, Pakistan and other nine countries, which form a group informally called the Coffee Club.

After the War of Independence, the relations of Mexico were focused primarily on the United States, its northern neighbor, largest trading partner, and the most powerful actor in hemispheric and world affairs. Mexico supported the Cuban government since its establishment in the early 1960s, the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua during the late 1970s, and leftist revolutionary groups in El Salvador during the 1980s. A greater priority to Latin America and the Caribbean has been given in the administration of President Felipe Calderón.

Military

The Mexican Armed Forces have two branches: the Mexican Army (which includes the Mexican Air Force), and the Mexican Navy. The Mexican Armed Forces maintain significant infrastructure, including facilities for design, research, and testing of weapons, vehicles, aircraft, naval vessels, defense systems and electronics; military industry manufacturing centers for building such systems, and advanced naval dockyards that build heavy military vessels and advanced missile technologies.

In recent years, Mexico has improved its training techniques, military command and information structures and has taken steps to becoming more self-reliant in supplying its military by designing as well as manufacturing its own arms, missiles, aircraft, vehicles, heavy weaponry, electronics, defense systems, armor, heavy military industrial equipment and heavy naval vessels. Since the 1990s, when the military escalated its role in the war on drugs, increasing importance has been placed on acquiring airborne surveillance platforms, aircraft, helicopters, digital war-fighting technologies, urban warfare equipment and rapid troop transport.

Mexico has the capabilities to manufacture nuclear weapons, but forwent this possibility with the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1968 and pledged to only use its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. In 1970 Mexico's national institute for nuclear research successfully refined weapons grade uranium which is used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons but in April 2010, Mexico agreed to turn over its weapons grade uranium to the United States.

Historically, Mexico has remained neutral in international conflicts with the exception of World War II. However, in recent years 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 peacekeeping missions, or to provide military help to countries that officially ask for it.

Administrative divisions

The United Mexican States are a federation of thirty-one free and sovereign states, which form a union that exercises a degree of jurisdiction over the Federal District and other territories.

Each state has its own constitution, congress, and a judiciary, and its citizens elect by direct voting a governor for a six-year term, and representatives to their respective unicameral state congresses for three-year terms.

The Federal District is a special political division that belongs to the federation as a whole and not to a particular state, and as such, has more limited local rule than the nation's states.

The states are divided into municipalities, the smallest administrative political entity in the country, governed by a mayor or municipal president (Presidente municipal), elected by its residents by plurality.

Geography

Mexico is located between latitudes 14° and 33°N, and longitudes 86° and 119°W in the southern portion of North America. Almost all of Mexico lies in the North American Plate, with small parts of the Baja California peninsula on the Pacific and Cocos Plates. Geophysically, some geographers include the territory east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (around 12% of the total) within Central America. Geopolitically, however, Mexico is entirely considered part of North America, along with Canada and the United States.

Mexico's total area is , making it the world's 14th largest country by total area, and includes approximately of islands in the Pacific Ocean (including the remote Guadalupe Island and the Revillagigedo Islands), Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Gulf of California. From its farthest land points, Mexico is a little over in length.

On its north, Mexico shares a border with the United States. The meandering Río Bravo del Norte (known as the Rio Grande in the United States) defines the border from Ciudad Juárez east to the Gulf of Mexico. A series of natural and artificial markers delineate the United States-Mexican border west from Ciudad Juárez to the Pacific Ocean. On its south, Mexico shares an border with Guatemala and a border with Belize.

Mexico is crossed from north to south by two mountain ranges known as Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental, which are the extension of the Rocky Mountains from northern North America. From east to west at the center, the country is crossed by the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt also known as the Sierra Nevada. A fourth mountain range, the Sierra Madre del Sur, runs from Michoacán to Oaxaca.

As such, the majority of the Mexican central and northern territories are located at high altitudes, and the highest elevations are found at the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt: Pico de Orizaba (), Popocatepetl () and Iztaccihuatl () and the Nevado de Toluca (). Three major urban agglomerations are located in the valleys between these four elevations: Toluca, Greater Mexico City and Puebla.

Climate

The Tropic of Cancer effectively divides the country into temperate and tropical zones. Land north of the twenty-fourth parallel experiences cooler temperatures during the winter months. South of the twenty-fourth parallel, temperatures are fairly constant year round and vary solely as a function of elevation. This gives Mexico one of the world's most diverse weather systems.

Areas south of the twenty-fourth parallel with elevations up to (the southern parts of both coastal plains as well as the Yucatán Peninsula), have a yearly median temperature between . Temperatures here remain high throughout the year, with only a difference between winter and summer median temperatures. Both Mexican coasts, except for the south coast of the Bay of Campeche and northern Baja, are also vulnerable to serious hurricanes during the summer and fall. Although low-lying areas north of the twentieth-fourth parallel are hot and humid during the summer, they generally have lower yearly temperature averages (from ) because of more moderate conditions during the winter.

Many large cities in Mexico are located in the Valley of Mexico or in adjacent valleys with altitudes generally above . This gives them a year-round temperate climate with yearly temperature averages (from ) and cool nighttime temperatures throughout the year.

Many parts of Mexico, particularly the north, have a dry climate with sporadic rainfall while parts of the tropical lowlands in the south average more than of annual precipitation. For example, many cities in the north like Monterrey, Hermosillo, and Mexicali experience temperatures of or more in summer. In the Sonoran Desert temperatures reach or more.

Biodiversity

Mexico is one of the 18 megadiverse countries of the world. With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home of 10–12% of the world's biodiversity. Mexico ranks first in biodiversity in reptiles with 707 known species, second in mammals with 438 species, fourth in amphibians with 290 species, and fourth in flora, with 26,000 different species. Mexico is also considered the second country in the world in ecosystems and fourth in overall species. Approximately 2,500 species are protected by Mexican legislations.

As of 2002, Mexico had the second fastest rate of deforestation in the world, second only to Brazil. The government has taken another initiative in the late 1990s to expand the people's knowledge, interest and use of the country's esteemed biodiversity, through the Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad.

In Mexico, are considered "Protected Natural Areas." These include 34 reserve biospheres (unaltered ecosystems), 64 national parks, 4 natural monuments (protected in perpetuity for their aesthetic, scientific or historical value), 26 areas of protected flora and fauna, 4 areas for natural resource protection (conservation of soil, hydrological basins and forests) and 17 sanctuaries (zones rich in diverse species).

The discovery of the Americas brought to the rest of the world many widely used food crops and edible plants. Some of Mexico's native culinary ingredients include: chocolate, avocado, tomato, maize, vanilla, guava, chayote, epazote, camote, jícama, nopal, zucchini, tejocote, huitlacoche, sapote, mamey sapote, many varieties of beans, and an even greater variety of chiles, such as the habanero and the jalapeño. Most of these names come from indigenous languages like Nahuatl.

Economy

Mexico has the 13th largest nominal GDP and the 11th largest by purchasing power parity. GDP annual average growth for the period of 1995–2002 was 5.1%. Foreign debt decreased to less than 20% of GDP. From 2000 to 2004, the population in poverty has decreased from 24.2% to 17.6% in the general population and from 42% to 27.9% in rural areas. Since the late 1990s, the majority of the population has been part of the growing middle class. The Mexican economy is expected to nearly triple by 2020. According to Goldman Sachs, by 2050 Mexico will have the 5th largest economy in the world.

According to a 2008 UN report the average income in a typical urbanized area of Mexico was $26,654, a rate higher than advanced nations like South Korea or Taiwan, while the average income in rural areas just miles away was only $8,403, a rate comparable to developing countries such as Russia or Turkey. Daily minimum wages are set annually by law and determined by zone; $57.46 Mexican pesos ($4.52 USD) in Zona A (Baja California, Federal District, State of Mexico, and large cities), $55.84 Mexican pesos ($4.39 USD) in Zone B (Sonora, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Jalisco), and $54.47 Mexican pesos ($4.29 USD) in Zone C (all other states)

In 2006, trade with the United States and Canada accounted for almost 50% of its exports and 45% of its imports. During the first three quarters of 2010, the United States had a $46.0 billion trade deficit with Mexico. In August 2010 Mexico surpassed France to became the 9th largest holder of US debt. The commercial and financial dependence on the US is a cause for concern. The remittances from Mexican citizens working in the United States account for 0.2% of Mexico's GDP which was equal to US$20 billion dollars per year in 2004 and is the tenth largest source of foreign income after oil, industrial exports, manufactured goods, electronics, heavy industry, automobiles, construction, food, banking and financial services. According to Mexico's central bank, remittances in 2008 amounted to $25bn.

Mexico is the largest North American auto-producing nation, recently surpassing Canada and the U.S. The industry produces technologically complex components and engages in some research and development activities. The "Big Three" (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) have been operating in Mexico since the 1930s, while Volkswagen and Nissan built their plants in the 1960s. In Puebla alone, 70 industrial part-makers cluster around Volkswagen. The relatively small domestic car industry is represented by DINA S.A., which has built buses and trucks for almost half a century, and the new Mastretta company that builds the high performance Mastretta MXT sports car.

Foreign firms such as MD Helicopters and Bombardier build helicopters and commercial jets respectively in Mexico.

A percentage of American-branded home appliances are actually of Mexican origin but sold under local brand names. As of 2008, one out of every four consumer appliances sold in the United States was of Mexican origin.

In 2010, Mexico had 86 companies in the Forbes Global 2000 list. Mexico is the first and only Latin American country to be included in the World Government Bond Index or WGBI, which list the most important global economies that circulate government debt bonds.

Major players in the broadcasting industry are Televisa, the largest Spanish media company in the Spanish-speaking world, and TV Azteca.

Tourism

Mexico is the twenty-third highest tourism spender in the world, and the highest in Latin America. The vast majority of tourists come to Mexico from the United States and Canada. Many other visitors come from Europe and Asia. A small number of tourists also come from other Latin American countries. In the 2008 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, fifth among Latin American countries, and the ninth in the Americas.

Mexico City is most popular with tourists as an ancient Meso-American city and the site of many popular tourist attractions such as the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. The city is also home to the Plaza México and to the Mexican National Palace, built on the site of Montezuma's palace, and the huge Metropolitan Cathedral, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, built over the even greater Temple of Teocalli.

Guadalajara, Jalisco, the second-largest city by population in the Republic, is home of some of Mexico's best known traditions, such as tequila, mariachi music and charros, or Mexican cowboys. Its similitude with western European countries mixed with modern architecture and infrastructure makes Guadalajara very attractive to tourists. Along with Mexico City and beach destinations (Cancún, Acapulco, etc.), Guadalajara is one of the most visited cities in Mexico. Cultural tourism is the main attraction, the city being home to a large number of museums, art galleries and theatres.

Monterrey, was founded in the late 16th century. The downtown district is the oldest section in the city, surrounded by newer neighbourhoods. The Museo de Historia Mexicana (Museum of Mexican History), MARCO (Monterrey Museum of Contemporary Art), Metropolitan Museum of Monterrey and the Museum of the Palacio de Gobierno, or State House, are some of the better known museums in the city, as well as nationally. The Santa Lucía Riverwalk is a popular tourist site, connecting the Fundidora Park with the Macroplaza, one of the largest plazas in the world.

Energy

Energy production in Mexico is managed by state-owned companies: the Federal Commission of Electricity and Pemex.

Pemex, the public company in charge of exploration, extraction, transportation and marketing of crude oil and natural gas, as well as the refining and distribution of petroleum products and petrochemicals, is one of the largest companies in the world by revenue, making US $86 billion in sales a year. Mexico is the sixth-largest oil producer in the world, with 3.7 million barrels per day. In 1980 oil exports accounted for 61.6% of total exports; by 2000 it was only 7.3%.

The largest hydro plant in Mexico is the 2,400 MW Manuel Moreno Torres Dam in Chicoasén, Chiapas, in the Grijalva River. This is the world's fourth most productive hydroelectric plant.

The country's gross solar potential is estimated at 5kWh/m2 daily, which corresponds to 50 times national electricity generation. Currently, there is over 1 million square meters of solar thermal panels installed in Mexico, while in 2005, there were 115,000 square meters of solar PV (photo-voltaic). It is expected that in 2012 there will be 1,8 million square meters of installed solar thermal panels. As of 2010, Mexico generates approximately 23% of its power from renewable resources.

Transportation

The paved-roadway network extended for in 2005; were multi-lane freeways or expressways, most of which were tollways. Nonetheless, it still cannot meet national needs adequately. Most of the domestic passenger transport needs are served by an extensive bus network.

Mexico was one of the first Latin American countries to promote railway development, and the network covers . The Secretary of Communications and Transport of Mexico is currently building a high-speed rail link that will transport its passengers from Mexico City to Guadalajara, Jalisco. The train, which travels at 300 kilometers per hour, allows passengers to travel from Mexico City to Guadalajara in just 2 hours. The whole project was projected to cost 240 billion pesos, or about 25 billion dollars and is being paid for jointly by the Mexican government and the local private sector including the wealthiest man in the world, Mexico's billionaire business tycoon Carlos Slim. The government of the state of Yucatán is also funding the construction of a high speed line connecting the cities of Cozumel to Mérida and Chichen Itza and Cancún.

In 1999, Mexico had 1,806 airports, of which 233 had paved runways; of these, 35 carry 97% of the passenger traffic. The Mexico City International Airport remains the largest in Latin America and the 44th largest in the world transporting 21 million passengers a year.

Communications

The telecommunications industry is mostly dominated by Telmex (''Teléfonos de México''), privatized in 1990. As of 2006, Telmex had expanded its operations to Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and the United States. Other players in the domestic industry are Axtel and Maxcom. Due to Mexican orography, providing landline telephone service at remote mountainous areas is expensive, and the penetration of line-phones per capita is low compared to other Latin American countries, at forty-percent, however 82% of Mexicans over the age of 14 own a mobile phone. Mobile telephony has the advantage of reaching all areas at a lower cost, and the total number of mobile lines is almost two times that of landlines, with an estimation of 63 million lines. The telecommunication industry is regulated by the government through Cofetel (''Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones'').

The Mexican satellite system is domestic and operates 120 earth stations. There is also extensive microwave radio relay network and considerable use of fiber-optic and coaxial cable. Mexican satellites are operated by ''Satélites Mexicanos'' (Satmex), a private company, leader in Latin America and servicing both North and South America. It offers broadcast, telephone and telecommunication services to 37 countries in the Americas, from Canada to Argentina. Through business partnerships Satmex provides high-speed connectivity to ISPs and Digital Broadcast Services. Satmex maintains its own satellite fleet with most of the fleet being Mexican designed and built.

Mexico has recently emerged as a major producer of communications technology. In 2008 Mexico manufactured over 130 million mobile phones making it the third largest producer of mobile phones and in 2008 Mexico surpassed China, South Korea and Taiwan to become the largest producer of smartphones in the world.

Usage of radio, television, and Internet in Mexico is prevalent. There are approximately 1,410 radio broadcast stations and 236 television stations (excluding repeaters). Major players in the broadcasting industry are Televisa—the largest Spanish media company in the Spanish-speaking world—and TV Azteca.

Science and technology

The National Autonomous University of Mexico was officially established in 1910, and the university become one of the most important institutes of higher learning in Mexico. UNAM provides world class education in science, medicine, and engineering. Many scientific institutes and new institutes of higher learning, such as National Polytechnic Institute (founded in 1936), were established during the first half of the 20th century. Most of the new research institutes were created within UNAM. Twelve institutes were integrated into UNAM from 1929 to 1973. In 1959, the Mexican Academy of Sciences was created to coordinate scientific efforts between academics.

In 1985 Rodolfo Neri Vela became the first Mexican citizen to enter space as part of the STS-61-B mission. In 1995 Mexican chemist Mario J. Molina shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul J. Crutzen, and F. Sherwood Rowland for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone. Molina, an alumnus of UNAM, became the first Mexican citizen to win the Nobel Prize in science.

In recent years, the biggest scientific project being developed in Mexico was the construction of the Large Millimeter Telescope (Gran Telescopio Milimétrico, GMT), the world's largest and most sensitive single-aperture telescope in its frequency range. It was designed to observe regions of space obscured by stellar dust.

A large percentage of American branded appliances are actually of Mexican design and origin but sold under local brand names. In fact as of 2008 one out of every four consumer appliances sold in the United States was of Mexican origin. According to the World Bank, production of high-technology good represented 22% of Mexico's GDP in 2000 with the high tech sector gorwing by roughly 63% yearly. Since the 1990s Mexico has produced advanced automobiles for foreign companies (mainly BMW and Mercedes-Benz), and for domestic corporations such as Mastretta.

According to a study by the Carnegie Endowment Mexico is among the developing countries well prepared for more rapid adoption of foreign technologies, largely because of relatively high levels of educational attainment and supportive infrastructure.

Based on the information managed by the Scopus, a bibliographic database for science, the Spanish web portal SCImago places Mexico in the position 18 of the country scientific ranking with 82,792 publications, and in the position 34 if considering its value of 134 for the h-index. Both positions are computed for the period 1996-2.

The electronics industry of Mexico has grown enormously within the last decade. In 2007 Mexico surpassed South Korea as the second largest manufacturer of televisions, and in 2008 Mexico surpassed China, South Korea and Taiwan to become the largest producer of smartphones in the world. There are almost half a million (451,000) students enrolled in electronics engineering programs with an additional 90,000 students graduating from electronics engineering and technical programs each year and Mexico had over half a million (580,000) certified IT professionals employed in 2007. In 2005, according to the World Bank, high-tech industrial production represented 19.6% of Mexico's economy. Mexico is also home to a large number of electronics Original design manufacturers (ODMs) and Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), companies which manufacture or design products on behalf of another company, for example Lanix, Mexico's largest electronics company manufacturers the PlayStation 3 for Sony.

Demographics

The recently-conducted 2010 Census showed a population of 112,336,538, making it the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.

- Mexico is ethnically diverse, the various indigenous peoples and European immigrants are united under a single national identity. The core part of Mexican national identity is formed on the basis of a synthesis of European culture with Indigenous cultures in a process known as mestizaje, alluding to the mixed biological origins of the majority of Mexicans. Mexican politicians and reformers such as José Vasconcelos and Manuel Gamio were instrumental in building a Mexican national identity on the concept of mestizaje. The term mestizo often used in literature about Mexican social identities carries a variety of meanings containing both socio-cultural, economic, racial and biological components and for this reason it has been deemed to imprecise to be used for ethnic classification, for which reason it has been abandoned in Mexican censuses. In 2004, the Mexican government founded the National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) which launched the Mexican Genome Diversity Project. In May 2009, the Institute issued a report on a major genomic study of 300 mestizos in the Mexican population. Among the findings it was reported that over 80% of the population is mestizo and that the proportions of European and indigenous ancestry are approximately even. A study presented by the American Society of Human Genetics has shown (based on genes) that, on average, Mestizo Mexicans are (genetically) 58.96% European, 35.05% "Asian" (Amerindian), and 05.03% African. Sonora shows the highest European contribution (70.63%) and Guerrero the lowest (51.98%) where we also observe the highest Asian contribution (37.17%). African contribution ranges from 2.8% in Sonora to 11.13% in Veracruz. 80% of the Mexican population was classed as mestizo (defined as "being racially mixed in some degree").

The category of "indígena" (indigenous) can be defined narrowly according to linguistic criteria including only persons that speak one of Mexicos 62 indigenous languages or self-identify as having an indigenous cultural background. According with the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples as of 2005, there are 10.1 million Mexicans who speak an indigenous language and claim indigenous heritage, representing 9.8% of the total population.

The word "mestizo" is sometimes used with the meaning of a person with mixed Indigenous and European blood. This usage does not conform to the Mexican social reality where a person of pure indigenous genetic heritage would be considered Mestizo either by rejecting his indigenous culture or by not speaking an indigenous language, and a person with a very low percentage of indigenous genetic heritage would be considered fully indigenous either by speaking an indigenous language or by identifying with a particular indigenous cultural heritage.

Mexico represents the largest source of immigration to the United States. About 9% of the population born in Mexico is now living in the United States. 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006. Per the 2000 U.S. Census, a plurality of 47.3% of Mexican Americans self identify as White, closely followed by Mexican Americans who self identify as "Some other race", usually Mestizo (European/Indian) with 45.5%.

Mexico is home to the largest number of U.S. citizens abroad (estimated at one million as of 1999). The Argentine community is considered to be the second largest foreign community in the country (estimated somewhere between 30,000 and 150,000). Mexico also has a large Lebanese community, now numbering around 400,000. In October 2008, Mexico agreed to deport Cubans using the country as an entry point to the US. Large numbers of Central American migrants who have crossed Guatemala's western border into Mexico are deported every year. Small numbers of illegal immigrants come from Ecuador, Cuba, China, South Africa, and Pakistan.

Languages

There is no de jure constitutional official language at the federal level in Mexico. Mexico has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, almost a third of all Spanish native speakers live in Mexico.

Mexico is home to a large number of indigenous languages, spoken by some 5.4% of the population - 1.2% of the population are monolingual speakers of an indigenous language. The indigenous languages with most speakers are Nahuatl, spoken by approximately 1,45 million people, Yukatek Maya spoken by some 750,000 people and the Mixtec and Zapotec languages each spoken by more than 400,000 people. The National Institute of Indigenous Languages [INALI] recognizes 68 linguistic groups and some 364 different specific varieties of indigenous languages. Since the promulgation of the Law of Indigenous Linguistic Rights in 2003, these languages have had status as national languages, with equal validity with Spanish in all the areas and contexts in which they are spoken.

In addition to the indigenous languages other minority languages are spoken by immigrant populations such as the 80,000 German-speaking Mennonites in Mexico. And the Chipilo dialect of the Venetian language spoken in Chipilo, Puebla.

Religion

{{Bar box |title=Religion in Mexico (2010 census) |titlebar=#ddd |float=right |bars= }} The 2010 census by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía gave Roman Catholicism as the main religion, with 82.7% of the population, while 9.7% (10,924,103) belong to other Christian denominations, including Evangelicals (5.2%); Pentecostals (1.6%); other Protestant or Reformed (0.7%); Jehovah's Witnesses (1.4%); Seventh-day Adventists (0.6%); and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (0.3%). 172,891 (or less than 0.2% of the total) belonged to other, non-Christian religions; 4.7% declared having no religion; 2.7% were unspecified.

The 92,924,489 Catholics of Mexico constitute in absolute terms the second largest Catholic community in the world, after Brazil's. 47% percent of them attend church services weekly. Most Mexican cities, towns and villages hold a yearly feast day to commemorate their local patron saints. The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, is celebrated on December 12 and is regarded by many Mexicans as the most important religious holiday of their country.

The 2010 census reported 314,932 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though the church in 2009 claimed to have over one million registered members. About 25% of registered members attend a weekly sacrament service although this can fluctuate up and down.

The presence of Jews in Mexico dates back to 1521, when Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs, accompanied by several Conversos. According to the 2010 census, there are 67,476 Jews in Mexico. Islam in Mexico is practiced by a small population in the city of Torreón, Coahuila, and there are an estimated 300 Muslims in the San Cristóbal de las Casas area in Chiapas. In the 2010 census 18,185 Mexicans reported belonging to an Eastern religion, a category which includes a tiny Buddhist population.

Metropolitan areas

Metropolitan areas in Mexico have been traditionally defined as the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city. In 2004, a joint effort between CONAPO, INEGI and the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL) agreed to define metropolitan areas as either:

the group of two or more municipalities in which a city with a population of at least 50,000 is located whose urban area extends over the limit of the municipality that originally contained the core city incorporating either physically or under its area of direct influence other adjacent predominantly urban municipalities all of which have a high degree of social and economic integration or are relevant for urban politics and administration; or

a single municipality in which a city of a population of at least one million is located and fully contained, (that is, it does not transcend the limits of a single municipality); or

a city with a population of at least 250,000 which forms a conurbation with other cities in the United States.

Culture

Mexican culture reflects the complexity of the country's history through the blending of indigenous cultures and the culture of Spain, imparted during Spain's 300-year colonization of Mexico. Exogenous cultural elements mainly from the United States have been incorporated into Mexican culture.

The Porfirian era (''el Porfiriato''), in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, was marked by economic progress and peace. After four decades of civil unrest and war, Mexico saw the development of philosophy and the arts, promoted by President Díaz himself. Since that time, as accentuated during the Mexican Revolution, cultural identity has had its foundation in the ''mestizaje'', of which the indigenous (i.e. Amerindian) element is the core. In light of the various ethnicities that formed the Mexican people, José Vasconcelos in his publication ''La Raza Cósmica'' (The Cosmic Race) (1925) defined Mexico to be the melting pot of all races (thus extending the definition of the ''mestizo'') not only biologically but culturally as well. This exalting of ''mestizaje'' was a revolutionary idea that sharply contrasted with the idea of a superior pure race prevalent in Europe at the time.

Literature

The literature of Mexico has its antecedents in the literatures of the indigenous settlements of Mesoamerica. The most well known prehispanic poet is Nezahualcoyotl. Modern Mexican literature was influenced by the concepts of the Spanish colonialization of Mesoamerica. Outstanding colonial writers and poets include Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Juana Inés de la Cruz.

In light of the various ethnicities that formed the Mexican people, José Vasconcelos in his publication La Raza Cósmica (The Cosmic Race) (1925) defined Mexico to be the melting pot of all races, biologically as well as culturally.

Other writers include Alfonso Reyes, José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz (Nobel Laureate), Renato Leduc, Carlos Monsiváis, Elena Poniatowska, Mariano Azuela ("Los de abajo") and Juan Rulfo ("Pedro Páramo"). Bruno Traven wrote "Canasta de cuentos mexicanos", "El tesoro de la Sierra Madre."

Visual arts

Post-revolutionary art in Mexico had its expression in the works of renowned artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, Federico Cantú Garza, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Juan O'Gorman. Diego Rivera, the most well-known figure of Mexican muralism, painted the Man at the Crossroads at the Rockefeller Center in New York City, a huge mural that was destroyed the next year due to the inclusion of a portrait of Russian communist leader Lenin. Some of Rivera's murals are displayed at the Mexican National Palace and the Palace of Fine Arts.

Mesoamerican architecture is mostly noted for its pyramids which are the largest such structures outside of Ancient Egypt. Spanish Colonial architecture is marked by the contrast between the simple, solid construction demanded by the new environment and the Baroque ornamentation exported from Spain. Mexico, as the center of New Spain has some of the most renowned buildings built in this style.

Cinema and media

Mexican films from the Golden Age in the 1940s and 1950s are the greatest examples of Latin American cinema, with a huge industry comparable to the Hollywood of those years. Mexican films were exported and exhibited in all of Latin America and Europe. Maria Candelaria (1944) by Emilio Fernández, was one of the first films awarded a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946, the first time the event was held after World War II. The famous Spanish-born director Luis Buñuel realized in Mexico, between 1947 to 1965 some of him master pieces like Los Olvidados (1949), Viridiana (1961) and El angel exterminador (1963). Famous actors and actresses from this period include María Félix, Pedro Infante, Dolores del Río, Jorge Negrete and the comedian Cantinflas.

More recently, films such as Como agua para chocolate (1992), Cronos (1993), Amores perros (2000), Y tu mamá también (2001), El crimen del Padre Amaro (The Crime of Father Amaro) (2002), Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Babel (2006) have been successful in creating universal stories about contemporary subjects, and were internationally recognised, as in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Mexican directors Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores perros, Babel), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Guillermo del Toro, Carlos Carrera (The Crime of Father Amaro), and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are some of the most known present-day film makers.

Two of the major television networks based in Mexico are Televisa and TV Azteca. Televisa is also the largest producer of Spanish-language content in the world and also the world's largest Spanish-language media network. Grupo Multimedios is another media conglomerate with Spanish-language broadcasting in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. Soap operas (telenovelas) are translated to many languages and seen all over the world with renowned names like Verónica Castro, Lucía Méndez, Lucero, and Thalía.

Music

Mexican society enjoys a vast array of music genres, showing the diversity of Mexican culture. Traditional music includes Mariachi, Banda, Norteño, Ranchera and Corridos; on an every-day basis most Mexicans listen to contemporary music such as pop, rock, etc. in both English and Spanish. Mexico has the largest media industry in Latin America, producing Mexican artists who are famous in Central and South America and parts of Europe, especially Spain. Some well-known Mexican singers are Thalía, Luis Miguel, Alejandro Fernández, Julieta Venegas and Paulina Rubio. Mexican singers of traditional music are: Lila Downs, Susana Harp, Jaramar, GEO Meneses and Alejandra Robles. Popular groups are Café Tacuba, Molotov and Maná, among others. Since the early 2000s Mexican rock has seen widespread growth both domesticly and internationally.

According to the Sistema Nacional de Fomento Musical, there are between 120 and 140 youth orchestras affiliated to this federal agency from all federal states. Some states, through their state agencies in charge of culture and the arts—Ministry or Secretary or Institute or Council of Culture, in some cases Secretary of Education or the State University—sponsor the activities of a professional Symphony Orchestra or Philharmonic Orchestra so all citizens can have access to this artistic expression from the field of classical music. Mexico City is the most intense hub of this activity hosting 12 professional orchestras sponsored by different agencies such as the National Intitute of Fine Arts, the Secretary of Culture of the Federal District, The National University, the National Polytechnic Institute, a Delegación Política (Coyoacán) and very few are a kind of private ventures.

Cuisine

Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices. Most of today's Mexican food is based on pre-Columbian traditions, including the Aztecs and Maya, combined with culinary trends introduced by Spanish colonists.

The conquistadores eventually combined their imported diet of rice, beef, pork, chicken, wine, garlic and onions with the native pre-Columbian food, including maize, tomato, vanilla, avocado, papaya, pineapple, chili pepper, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut and turkey.

Mexican food varies by region, because of local climate and geography and ethnic differences among the indigenous inhabitants and because these different populations were influenced by the Spaniards in varying degrees. The north of Mexico is known for its beef, goat and ostrich production and meat dishes, in particular the well-known Arrachera cut.

Central Mexico's cuisine is largely made up of influences from the rest of the country, but also has its authentics, such as barbacoa, pozole, menudo, tamales, and carnitas.

Southeastern Mexico, on the other hand, is known for its spicy vegetable and chicken-based dishes. The cuisine of Southeastern Mexico also has quite a bit of Caribbean influence, given its geographical location. Seafood is commonly prepared in the states that border the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, the latter having a famous reputation for its fish dishes, à la veracruzana.

In modern times, other cuisines of the world have become very popular in Mexico, thus adopting a Mexican fusion. For example, sushi in Mexico is often made with a variety of sauces based on mango or tamarind, and very often served with serrano-chili-blended soy sauce, or complemented with vinegar, habanero and chipotle peppers

The most internationally recognized dishes include chocolate, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, burritos, tamales and mole among others. Regional dishes include mole poblano, chiles en nogada and chalupas from Puebla; cabrito and machaca from Monterrey, cochinita pibil from Yucatán, Tlayudas from Oaxaca, as well as barbacoa, chilaquiles, milanesas, and many others.

Sports

Mexico City hosted the XIX Olympic Games in 1968, making it the first Latin American city to do so. The country has also hosted the FIFA World Cup twice, in 1970 and 1986.

Mexico's most popular sport is association football (soccer). It is commonly believed that Football was introduced in Mexico by Cornish miners at the end of the 19th century. By 1902 a five-team league had emerged with a strong British influence. Mexico's top clubs are Guadalajara with 11 championships, América with 10 and Toluca with 9. Antonio Carbajal was the first player to appear in five World Cups, and Hugo Sánchez was named best CONCACAF player of the 20th century by IFFHS.

Baseball has traditionally been more popular than soccer in some regions. The Mexican professional league is named the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol. While usually not as strong as the United States, the Caribbean countries and Japan, Mexico has nonetheless achieved several international baseball titles. Mexico has had several players signed by Major League teams, the most famous of them being Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.

Bullfighting is a popular sport in the country, and almost all large cities have bullrings. Plaza México in Mexico City, is the largest bullring in the world, which seats 55,000 people. Professional wrestling (or Lucha libre in Spanish) is a major crowd draw with national promotions such as AAA, LLL, CMLL and others.

Mexico is an international power in professional boxing (at the amateur level, several Olympic boxing medals have also been won by Mexico). Vicente Saldivar, Rubén Olivares, Salvador Sánchez, Julio César Chávez, Ricardo Lopez and Erik Morales are but a few Mexican fighters who have been ranked among the best of all time.

Notable Mexican athletes include golfer Lorena Ochoa, who is currently ranked first in the LPGA world rankings, Ana Guevara, former world champion of the and Olympic subchampion in Athens 2004, and Fernando Platas, a numerous Olympic medal winning diver.

Health care

Since the early 1990s, Mexico entered a transitional stage in the health of its population and some indicators such as mortality patterns are identical to those found in highly developed countries like Germany or Japan. Although all Mexicans are entitled to receive medical care by the state, 50.3 million Mexicans had no medical insurance as of 2002. Efforts to increase the number of people are being made, and the current administration intends to achieve universal health care by 2011.

Mexico's medical infrastructure is highly rated for the most part and is usually excellent in major cities, but rural communities still lack equipment for advanced medical procedures, forcing patients in those locations to travel to the closest urban areas to get specialized medical care.

State-funded institutions such as Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) play a major role in health and social security. Private health services are also very important and account for 13% of all medical units in the country.

Medical training is done mostly at public universities with much specializations done in vocational or internship settings. Some public universities in Mexico, such as the University of Guadalajara, have signed agreements with the U.S. to receive and train American students in Medicine. Health care costs in private institutions and prescription drugs in Mexico are on average lower than that of its North American economic partners.

Education

Mexico has one of the oldest traditions of education in the world with the Aztec empire being the first recorded civilization requiring mandatory universal education for all citizens. The Aztec system had been destroyed by the Spanish who then replaced it with the European based system of their own.

Mexico has one of the highest student-to-teaching staff ratio in the world with 26 students per teacher nationwide, when all levels from pre-kindergarten through post secondary education are included. According to the OCED, compared to students from the worlds thirty most developed nations, Mexican students came in fourth in problem solving, third in science and technology and eighth in mathematics. In 2004, the literacy rate was at 97% for youth under the age of 14 and 91% for people over 15, placing Mexico at the 24th place in the world rank accordingly to UNESCO.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico ranks 15th place in the Top 200 World University Ranking published by The Times Higher Education Supplement in 2008. One of the most prestigious private universities is Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM). It was ranked by the Wall Street Journal as the 7th top International School worldwide.

Law enforcement

Public security is enacted at the three levels of government, each of which has different prerogatives and responsibilities. Local and state police department are primarily in charge of law enforcement, whereas the Mexican Federal Police is in charge of specialized duties. All levels report to the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (Secretary of Public Security). The General Attorney's Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) is the executive power's agency in charge of investigating and prosecuting crimes at the federal level, mainly those related to drug and arms trafficking, espionage, and bank robberies. The PGR operates the Federal Investigations Agency (Agencia Federal de Investigación, AFI) an investigative and preventive agency.

While the government respects the human rights of most citizens, serious abuses of power have been reported in security operations in indigenous communities and poor urban neighborhoods. The National Human Rights Commission has had little impact in reversing this trend, engaging mostly in documentation but failing to use its powers to issue public condemnations to the officials who ignore its recommendations. By law, all defendants have the rights that assure them fair trials and human treatment; however, the system is overburdened and overwhelmed with several problems.

Despite the efforts of the authorities to fight crime and fraud, few Mexicans have strong confidence in the police or the judicial system, and therefore, few crimes are actually reported by the citizens. The ''Global Integrity Index'' which measures the existence and effectiveness of national anti-corruption mechanisms rated Mexico 31st behind Kenya, Thailand, and Russia. In 2008, president Calderón proposed a major reform of the judicial system, which was approved by the Congress of the Union, which included oral trials, the presumption of innocence for defendants, the authority of local police to investigate crime—until then a prerogative of special police units—and several other changes intended to speed up trials.

Crime

Total crimes per capita average 12 per 1,000 people in Mexico, ranking 39th in a survey of 60 countries. As of 2009 Mexico's homicide rate varied from 10~14 per 100,000 inhabitants; the world average is 10.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. Drug-traffic and narco-related activities are a major concern in Mexico.

Current president Felipe Calderón made abating drug-trafficking one of the top priorities of his administration. In a very controversial move, Calderón deployed military personnel to cities where drug cartels operate. While this move has been criticized by the opposition parties and the National Human Rights Commission, its effects have been praised by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs as having obtained "unprecedented results..." with "many important successes". Since President Felipe Calderón launched a crackdown against cartels in 2006 more than 28,000 alleged criminals have been killed. Of the total drug-related violence only 4% are innocent people, mostly by-passers and people trapped in between shootings; 90% accounts for criminals and 6% for military personnel and police officers. In October 2007, the president Calderón and US president George W. Bush announced the Mérida Initiative a historic plan of law enforcement cooperation between the two countries.

See also

International rankings of Mexico

List of Mexicans

State governments of Mexico

References

Bibliography

External links

Category:Countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean Category:Countries bordering the Pacific Ocean Category:Federal countries Category:Former Spanish colonies Category:G15 nations Category:G20 nations Category:Member states of the United Nations Category:Nahuatl words and phrases Category:North American countries Category:Spanish-speaking countries Category:States and territories established in 1813

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Coordinates	51°20′28″N20°53′17″N
Conventional long name	Viceroyalty of New Spain
Native name	''Virreinato de Nueva España''
Common name	New Spain
Continent	North America, Central America, Caribbean, coastal Asia and others territories.
Country	Mexico, and other nations formerly part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain's territory.
Era	Colonial era, Spanish Empire
Status	Colony of Castile and Spain
Empire	Spain
Government type	Monarchy
Year start	1521
Year end	1821
Event pre	Conquest of Mexico
Date pre	1519–1521
Event start	Viceroyalty created
Event1	New Granada estab.,including Panama
Date event1	27 May 1717
Event2	Treaty of San Ildefonso
Date event2	01 October 1800
Event3	Grito de Dolores
Date event3	1810
Event4	Adams-Onís Treaty
Date event4	1819
Event end	Mexican and CentralAmerican Independence
Date end
P1	Aztec Empire
Flag p1	CodexMendoza01.jpg
P2	Tarascan state
Flag p2	Glifo Michhuahcān.png
P3	Maya Civilization
P4	Indigenous peoples of the Americas
P5	Native Americans in the United States
Flag p6	Pavillon_royal_de_France.svg
P6	Louisiana (New France)
S1	First Mexican Empire
Flag s1	Flag of Mexico (1821-1823).svg
S2	Spanish West Indies
Flag s2	Flag of Spain (1785-1873 and 1875-1931).svg
S3	Spanish East Indies
Flag s3	Flag of Spain (1785-1873 and 1875-1931).svg
S4	Louisiana Territory
Flag s4	US flag 15 stars.svg
S5	Florida Territory
Flag s5	US flag 23 stars.svg
S6	Native Americans in the United States
S7	Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Flag type	Cross of Burgundy(Flag of New Spain)
Image map caption	A map of the territories of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, at its zenith in 1795.
Capital	Mexico City
Common languages	Spanish, Nahuatl, Mayan, and other indigenous languages of the Americas.
Religion	Roman Catholicism, Traditional indigenous spiritual and religious beliefs
Currency	Spanish colonial real
Title leader	King of Spain
Leader1	Charles I, absentia Co-reign Joanna I
Year leader1	1535–1556
Leader2	Ferdinand VII
Year leader2	1813–1821
Title deputy	Viceroy
Deputy1	Antonio de Mendoza
Year deputy1	1535–1550
|deputy2	Gaspar de la Cerda Sandoval, Conde de Galve
Year deputy2	1688–1696
Deputy3	Juan O'Donojú
Year deputy3	July – Sept 1821
Stat year1	1519
Stat pop1	20 million
Stat year2	1810
Stat pop2	5 to 6.5 million
Today	(British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan) (California, Oregon, Washington, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Alaska)
Footnotes	}}

New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain (), was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. New Spain was established following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521, and at its greatest extent included much of North America south of Canada: all of present-day Mexico and Central America (except Panama), most of the United States west of the Mississippi River and the Floridas.

New Spain also included the Spanish East Indies (Philippine Islands, Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands, Taiwan, and parts of the Moluccas) and the Spanish West Indies (Cuba, Hispaniola with Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Trinidad, and the Bay Islands).

Administrative units included Las Californias (present-day California, Nevada, Baja California, and Baja California Sur), Nueva Extremadura (including the present-day states of Coahuila and Texas), and Santa Fe de Nuevo México (including parts of Texas and New Mexico).

New Spain was the first of four viceroyalties created to govern Spain's foreign colonies. New Spain was ruled by a viceroy in Mexico City who governed the various territories of New Spain on behalf of the King of Spain. The Viceroyalty of Peru was created in 1542 following the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. In the 18th century the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, and the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata were also created.

History

Establishment (1521–1535)

The creation of a viceroyalty in the Americas was a result of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519 to 1521). The lands and societies brought under Spanish control were of unprecedented complexity and wealth, which presented both an incredible opportunity and a threat to the Crown of Castile. The societies could provide the conquistadors, especially Hernán Cortés, a base from which to become autonomous, or even independent, of the Crown. As a result the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V created the Council of the Indies in 1524.

A few years later the first mainland Audiencia was created in 1527 to take over the administration of New Spain from Hernán Cortés. An earlier Audiencia had been established in Santo Domingo in 1526 to deal with the Caribbean settlements. The Audiencia, housed in the Casa Reales in Santo Domingo, was charged with encouraging further exploration and settlements under its own authority. Management by the Audiencia, which was expected to make executive decisions as a body, proved unwieldy.

Therefore in 1535, King Charles V named Antonio de Mendoza as the first Viceroy of New Spain. After the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 opened up the vast territories of South America to further conquests, the Crown established an independent Viceroyalty of Peru there in 1540.

Exploration and Settlement (1519–1643)

Upon his arrival, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza vigorously took to the duties entrusted to him by the King and encouraged the exploration of Spain's new mainland territories. He commissioned the expeditions of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado into the present day American Southwest in 1540–1542. The Viceroy commissioned Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in the first Spanish exploration up the Pacific Ocean along the western coast of the Las Californias Province in 1542–1543. He sailed above present day Baja California ''(Vieja California)'', to what he called 'New California' ''(Nueva California)'', becoming the first European to see present day California, U.S. The Viceroy also sent Ruy López de Villalobos to the Spanish East Indies in 1542–1543. As these new territories became controlled, they were brought under the purview of the Viceroy of New Spain.

During the 16th century, many Spanish cities were established in North and Central America. Spain attempted to establish missions in what is now the Southern United States including Georgia and South Carolina between 1568 and 1587. Despite their efforts, the Spaniards were only successful in the region of present day Florida, where they founded St. Augustine in 1565.

Seeking to develop trade between the East Indies and the Americas across the Pacific Ocean, Miguel López de Legazpi established the first Spanish settlement in the Philippine Islands in 1565, which became the town of San Miguel. Andrés de Urdaneta discovered an efficient sailing route from the Philippine Islands returning to Mexico. In 1571, the city of Manila became the capital of the Spanish East Indies, with trade soon beginning via the Manila-Acapulco Galleons. The Manila-Acapulco trade route shipped products such as silks, spices, silver, and gold, and enslaved people to the Americas from Asia.

Products brought from East Asia were sent to Veracruz México, then shipped to Spain, and then traded across Europe. There were attacks on these shipments in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea by British and Dutch pirates and privateers, led by Francis Drake in 1586, and Thomas Cavendish in 1587. In addition, the cities of Huatulco (Oaxaca) and Barra de Navidad in Jalisco Province of México were sacked. Lope Díez de Armendáriz was the first Viceroy of New Spain that was born in the 'New World' ''(Nueva España)''. He formed the 'Navy of Barlovento' ''(Armada de Barlovento)'', based in Veracruz, to patrol coastal regions and protect the harbors, port towns, and trade ships from pirates and privateers.

New Mexico

Luis de Velasco, marqués de Salinas gained control over many of the semi-nomadic Chichimeca indigenous tribes of northern México in 1591 for awhile. This allowed expansion into the 'Province of New Mexico' or ''Provincia de Nuevo México''. In 1598, Juan de Oñate pioneered 'The Royal Road of the Interior Land' or ''El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro'' between Mexico City and the 12CE Tewa village of 'Ohkay Owingeh' or San Juan Pueblo. He also founded the settlement ''(a Spanish pueblo)'' of San Juan on the Rio Grande near the Native American Pueblo, located in the present day U.S. state of New Mexico. In 1609, Pedro de Peralta, a later governor of the Province of New Mexico, established the settlement of Santa Fe in the region of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the Rio Grande. Missions were established for conversions and agricultural industry. The territory's Puebloan peoples resented the Spaniards denigration and prohibition of their traditional religion, and their encomienda system's forced labor. The Pueblo Revolt ensued in 1680, with final resolution including some freedom from Spanish efforts to eradicate their culture and religion, the issuing of substantial communal land grants to each Pueblo, and a public defender of their rights and for their legal cases in Spanish courts. In 1776 the Province came under the new Provincias Internas jurisdiction. In the late 18th century the Spanish land grant encouraged the settlement by individuals of large land parcels outside Mission and Pueblo boundaries, many of which became ranchos.

California

In 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno, the first Spanish presence in the 'New California' or ''Nueva California'' region of the frontier Las Californias Province since Cabrillo in 1542, sailed as far upcoast north as Monterey Bay. In 1767 King Charles III ordered the Jesuits, who had established missions in the lower ''Baja California'' region of Las Californias, forcibly expelled and returned to Spain.[15] New Spain's Visitador General José de Gálvez replaced them with the Dominican Order in Baja, and the Franciscans to establish the new northern missions. In 1768, Visitador General José de Gálvez received the following orders: "Occupy and fortify San Diego and Monterey for God and the King of Spain." The Spanish colonization there, with far fewer recognized natural resources and less cultural development than Mexico or Peru, was to combine establishing a presence for defense of the territory with a perceived responsibility to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. The method was the traditional missions ''(misiones)'', forts ''(presidios)'', civilian towns ''(pueblos)'', and land grant ranches ''(ranchos)'' model, but more simplified due to the region's great distance from supplies and support in México. Between 1769 and 1833 twenty one Spanish missions in California were established. In 1776 the Province came under the administration of the new 'Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North' ''(Provincias Internas)'' to invigorate growth. The crown created two new governments in Las Californias, the southern peninsular one called Baja California, and the northern mainland one called Alta California in 1804. The issuing of Spanish land grants in California encouraged settlement and establishment of large California ranchos. Some Californio rancho grantees emulated the Dons of Spain, with cattle and sheep marking wealth. The work was usually done by displaced and relocated Native Americans. After the Mexican War of Independence and subsequent secularization ("disestablishment") of mission lands, Mexican land grant transactions increased the spread of ranchos. The land grants and ranchos established land-use patterns that are recognizable in present day California and New Mexico.

The last Spanish Habsburgs (1643–1713)

The Presidios (forts), pueblos (civilian towns) and the misiones (missions) were the three major agencies employed by the Spanish crown to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial holdings in these territories.

The town of Alburquerque (present day Albuquerque, New Mexico) was founded in 1706. The Mexican towns of: Paso del Norte (present day Ciudad Juárez) founded in 1667; Santiago de la Monclova in 1689; Panzacola, Tejas in 1681; and San Francisco de Cuéllar (present day city of Chihuahua) in 1709. From 1687, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, with the marqués de Villapuente's economic help, founded over twenty missions in the Sonoran Desert (in present day Mexican state Sonora and U.S. state Arizona). From 1697, Jesuits established eighteen missions throughout the Baja California Peninsula. In 1668 Padre San Vitores established the first mission in the Mariana Islands (now Guam). Between 1687 and 1700 several Missions were founded in Trinidad, but only four survived as Amerindian villages throughout the 18th century. In 1691, explorers and missionaries visited the interior of Texas and came upon a river and Amerindian settlement on June 13, the feast day of St. Anthony, and named the location and river San Antonio in his honor.

Immersed in a low intensity war with Great Britain (mostly over the Spanish ports and trade routes harassed by British pirates), the defenses of Veracruz and San Juan de Ulúa, Jamaica, Cuba and Florida were strengthened. Santiago de Cuba (1662), St. Augustine Spanish Florida (1665) or Campeche 1678 were sacked by the British. The Tarahumara Indians were in revolt in the mountains of Chihuahua for several years. In 1670 Chichimecas invaded Durango, and the governor, Francisco González, abandoned its defense. In 1680, 25,000 previously subjugated Indians in 24 pueblos of New Mexico rose against the Spanish and killed all the Europeans they encountered. In 1685, after a revolt of the Chamorros, the Marianas islands were incorporated to the Captaincy General of the Philippines. In 1695, this time with the British help, the viceroy Gaspar de la Cerda attacked the French who had established a base on the island of Española.

Early in the Queen Anne's War, in 1702, the English captured and burned the Spanish town St. Augustine, Florida. However, the English were unable to take the main fortress ''(presidio)'' of St. Augustine, resulting in the campaign being condemned by the English as a failure. The Spanish maintained St. Augustine and Pensacola for more than a century after the war, but their mission system in Florida was destroyed and the Apalachee tribe was decimated in what became known as the Apalachee Massacre of 1704. Also in 1704 the viceroy Francisco Fernández de la Cueva suppressed a rebellion of the Pima Indians in Nueva Vizcaya.

Diego Osorio de Escobar y Llamas reformed the postal service and the marketing of mercury. In 1701 under the Duke of Alburquerque the 'Court of the Agreement' ''(Tribunal de la Acordada)'', an organization of volunteers, similar to the 'Holy Brotherhood' ''(Hermandad)'', intended to capture and quickly try bandits, was founded. The church of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron of Mexico, was finished in 1702.

The Bourbon Reforms (1713–1806)

The new Bourbon kings did not split the Viceroyalty of New Spain into smaller administrative units as they did with the Viceroyalty of Peru. The first innovation, in 1776, was by José de Gálvez, the new Minister of the Indies (1775–1787), establishing the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas known as the ''Provincias Internas'' (Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North, (). He appointed Teodoro de Croix (nephew of the former viceroy) as the first Commander General of the Provinicas Internas, independent of the Viceroy of New Spain, to provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces. They included Nueva Vizcaya, Nuevo Santander, Sonora y Sinaloa, Las Californias, Coahuila y Tejas (Coahuila and Texas), and Nuevo México.

The prime innovation introduction of intendancies, an institution borrowed from France. They were first introduced on a large scale in New Spain, by the Minister of the Indies José de Gálvez, in the 1770s, who originally envisioned that they would replace the viceregal system (viceroyalty) altogether. With broad powers over tax collection and the public treasury and with a mandate to help foster economic growth over their districts, intendants encroached on the traditional powers of viceroys, governors and local officials, such as the corregidores, which were phased out as intendancies were established. The Crown saw the intendants as a check on these other officers. Over time accommodations were made. For example, after a period of experimentation in which an independent intendant was assigned to Mexico City, the office was thereafter given to the same person who simultaneously held the post of viceroy. Nevertheless, the creation of scores of autonomous intendancies throughout the Viceroyalty, created a great deal of decentralization, and in the Captaincy General of Guatemala, in particular, the intendancy laid the groundwork for the future independent nations of the 19th century.

In 1780, Minister of the Indies José de Gálvez sent a royal dispatch to Teodoro de Croix, Commandant General of the Internal Provinces of New Spain ''(Provincias Internas)'', asking all subjects to donate money to help the American Revolution. Millions of pesos were given.

The focus on the economy (and the revenues it provided to the royal coffers) was also extended to society at large. Economic associations were promoted, such as the Economic Society of Friends of the Country Governor-General José Basco y Vargas established in the Philippines in 1781. Similar "Friends of the Country" economic societies were established throughout the Spanish world, including Cuba and Guatemala.

A secondary feature of the Bourbon Reforms was that it was an attempt to end the significant amount of local control that had crept into the bureaucracy under the Habsburgs, especially through the sale of offices. The Bourbons sought a return to the monarchical ideal of having outsiders, who in theory should be disinterested, staff the higher echelons of regional government. In practice this meant that there was a concerted effort to appoint mostly peninsulares, usually military men with long records of service (as opposed to the Habsburg preference for prelates), who were willing to move around the global empire. The intendancies were one new office that could be staffed with peninsulares, but throughout the 18th century significant gains were made in the numbers of governors-captain generals, audiencia judges and bishops, in addition to other posts, who were Spanish-born.

18th century military conflicts

The first century that saw the Bourbons on the Spanish throne coincided with series of global conflicts that pitted primarily France against Great Britain. Spain as an ally of Bourbon France was drawn into these conflicts. In fact part of the motivation for the Bourbon Reforms was the perceived need to prepare the empire administratively, economically and militarily for what was the next expected war. The Seven Years' War proved to be catalyst for most of the reforms in the overseas possessions, just like the War of the Spanish Succession had been for the reforms on the Peninsula.

In 1720, the Villasur expedition from Santa Fe met and attempted to parley with French- allied Pawnee in what is now Nebraska. Negotiations were unsuccessful, and a battle ensued; the Spanish were badly defeated, with only thirteen managing to return to New Mexico. Although this was a small engagement, it is significant in that it was the deepest penetration of the Spanish into the Great Plains, establishing the limit to Spanish expansion and influence there.

The War of Jenkins' Ear broke out in 1739 between the Spanish and British and was confined to the Caribbean and Georgia. The major action in the War of Jenkins' Ear was a major amphibious attack launched by the British under Admiral Edward Vernon in March, 1741 against Cartagena de Indias, one of Spain's major gold-trading ports in the Caribbean (today Colombia). Although this episode is largely forgotten, it ended in a decisive victory for Spain, who managed to prolong its control of the Caribbean and indeed secure the Spanish Main until the 19th century.

Following the French and Indian War/Seven Years War, the British troops invaded and captured the Spanish cities of Havana in Cuba and Manila in the Philippines in 1762. The Treaty of Paris (1763) gave Spain control over the New France Louisiana Territory including New Orleans, Louisiana creating a Spanish empire that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, but Spain also ceded Florida to Great Britain to regain Cuba, which the British occupied during the war. Louisiana settlers, hoping to restore the territory to France, in the bloodless Rebellion of 1768 forced the Louisiana Governor Antonio de Ulloa to flee to Spain. The rebellion was crushed in 1769 by the next governor Alejandro O'Reilly who executed five of the conspirators. The Louisiana territory was to be administered by superiors in Cuba with a governor onsite in New Orleans.

The 21 northern missions in present-day California (U.S.) were established along California's El Camino Real from 1769. In an effort to exclude Britain and Russia from the eastern Pacific, King Charles III of Spain sent forth from Mexico a number of expeditions to the Pacific Northwest between 1774 and 1793. Spain's long-held claims and navigation rights were strengthened and a settlement and fort were built in Nootka Sound, Alaska.

Spain entered the American Revolutionary War as an ally of France in June 1779, a renewal of the Bourbon Family Compact. In 1781, a Spanish expedition during the American Revolutionary War left St. Louis, Missouri (then under Spanish control) and reached as far as Fort St. Joseph at Niles, Michigan where they captured the fort while the British were away. On 8 May 1782, Count Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, captured the British naval base at New Providence in the Bahamas. On the Gulf Coast, the actions of Gálvez led to Spain acquiring East and West Florida in the peace settlement, as well as controlling the mouth of the Mississippi River after the war—which would prove to be a major source of tension between Spain and the United States in the years to come.

In the second Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolution, Britain ceded West Florida back to Spain to regain The Bahamas, which Spain had occupied during the war. Spain then had control over the river south of 32°30' north latitude, and, in what is known as the Spanish Conspiracy, hoped to gain greater control of Louisiana and all of the west. These hopes ended when Spain was pressured into signing Pinckney's Treaty in 1795. France reacquired 'Louisiana' from Spain in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. The United States bought the territory from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

New Spain claimed the entire west coast of North America and therefore considered the Russian fur trading activity in Alaska, which began in the middle to late 18th century, an encroachment and threat. Likewise, the exploration of the northwest coast by James Cook of the British Navy and the subsequent fur trading activities by British ships was considered an invasion of Spanish territory. To protect and strengthen its claim, New Spain sent a number of expeditions to the Pacific Northwest between 1774 and 1793. In 1789 a naval outpost called Santa Cruz de Nuca (or just Nuca) was established at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound (now Yuquot), Vancouver Island. It was protected by an artillery land battery called Fort San Miguel. Santa Cruz de Nuca was the northermost establishment of New Spain. It was the first colony in British Columbia and the only Spanish settlement in what is now Canada. Santa Cruz de Nuca remained under the control of New Spain until 1795, when it was abandoned under the terms of the third Nootka Convention. Another outpost, intended to replace Santa Cruz de Nuca, was partially built at Neah Bay on the southern side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in what is now the U.S. state of Washington. Neah Bay was known as ''Bahía de Núñez Gaona'' in New Spain, and the outpost there was referred to as "Fuca". It was abandoned, partially finished, in 1792. Its personnel, livestock, cannons, and ammunition were transferred to Nuca.

In 1789, at Santa Cruz de Nuca, a conflict occurred between the Spanish naval officer Esteban José Martínez and the British merchant James Colnett, triggering the Nootka Crisis, which grew into an international incident and the threat of war between Britain and Spain. The first Nootka Convention averted the war but left many specific issues unresolved. Both sides sought to define a northern boundary for New Spain. At Nootka Sound, the diplomatic representative of New Spain, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, proposed a boundary at the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but the British representative, George Vancouver refused to accept any boundary north of San Francisco. No agreement could be reached and the northern boundary of New Spain remained unspecified until the Adams–Onís Treaty with the United States (1819). That treaty also ceded Spanish Florida to the United States.

End of the Viceroyalty (1806–1821)

The Third Treaty of San Ildefonso ceded to France the vast territory that Napoleon then sold to the United States, known as the Louisiana Purchase (1803). Spanish Florida followed in 1819. In the 1821 Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire, Mexico and Central America declared their independence after three centuries of Spanish rule and formed the First Mexican Empire. After priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla's 1810 Grito de Dolores (call for independence), the insurgent army began an eleven-year war. At first, the Criollo class fought against the rebels. But in 1820, coinciding with the approval of the Spanish Constitution, which took privileges away from the Criollos, they switched sides. This led to Mexican triumph in 1821. The new Mexican Empire offered the crown to Ferdinand VII or to a member of the Spanish royal family that he would designate. After the refusal of the Spanish monarchy to recognize the independence of Mexico, the '''' (Army of the Three Guarantees), led by Agustin de Iturbide and Vincente Guerrero, cut all political and economic ties with Spain and crowned Agustin I as emperor of Mexico. Central America was originally part of the Mexican Empire, but seceded peacefully in 1823, forming the United Provinces of Central America.

This left only Cuba, the Spanish East Indies (including the Philippines and Guam), and Puerto Rico in the Spanish empire until their loss to the United States in the Spanish–American War (1898).

Politics

The Viceroyalty of New Spain united many regions and provinces of the Spanish Empire throughout half a world. These included on the North American mainland, New Spain proper (central Mexico), Nueva Extremadura, Nueva Galicia, Nueva Vizcaya, and Nuevo Santander, as well as the Captaincy General of Guatemala. In the Caribbean it included Cuba, Santo Domingo, most of the Venezuelan mainland and the other islands in the Caribbean controlled by the Spanish. In Asia, the Viceroyalty ruled the Captaincy General of the Philippines, which covered all of the Spanish territories in the Asia-Pacific region. The outpost at Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island, was considered part of the province of California.

Therefore, the Viceroyalty's former territories included what is now the present day countries of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica; the United States regions of California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Puerto Rico, Guam, Mariana Islands, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Florida; a portion of the Canadian province of British Columbia; the Caribbean nations of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the island of Hispaniola, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda; the Asia-Pacific nations of the Philippine Islands, Palau and Caroline Islands.

The Viceroyalty was administered by a viceroy residing in Mexico City and appointed by the Spanish monarch, who had administrative oversight of all of these regions, although most matters were handled by the local governmental bodies, which ruled the various regions of the viceroyalty. First among these were the audiencias, which were primarily superior tribunals, but which also had administrative and legislative functions. Each of these was responsible to the Viceroy of New Spain in administrative matters (though not in judicial ones), but they also answered directly to the Council of the Indies. Audiencia districts further incorporated the older, smaller divisions known as governorates (''gobernaciones'', roughly equivalent to provinces), which had been originally established by conquistador-governors known as ''adelantados''. Provinces, which were under military threat, were grouped into captaincies general, such as the Captaincies General of the Philippines (established 1574) and Guatemala (established in 1609) mentioned above, which were joint military and political commands with a certain level of autonomy. (The viceroy was captain-general of those provinces that remained directly under his command).

At the local level there were over two hundred districts, in both Indian and Spanish areas, which were headed by either a ''corregidor'' (also known as an ''alcalde mayor'') or a ''cabildo'' (town council), both of which had judicial and administrative powers. In the late 18th century the Bourbon dynasty began phasing out the ''corregidores'' and introduced intendants, whose broad fiscal powers cut into the authority of the viceroys, governors and ''cabildos''. Despite their late creation, these intendancies had such an impact in the formation of regional identity that they became the basis for the nations of Central America and the first Mexican states after independence.

Audiencias

With dates of creation:

1. Santo Domingo (1511, effective 1526, predated the Viceroyalty) 2. Mexico (1527, predated the Viceroyalty) 3. Panama (1st one, 1538–1543) 4. Guatemala (1543) 5. Guadalajara (1548) 6. Manila (1583)

Autonomous Captaincies General

With dates of creation:

1. Santo Domingo (1535) 2. Philippines (1574) 3. Puerto Rico (1580) 4. Cuba (1607) 5. Guatemala (1609) 6. Yucatán (1617)

7. Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas (1776) (Analogous to a dependent captaincy general.)

Intendancies

Year of Creation<		! Intendancy
1764	Captaincy General of Cuba>Havana
1766	Spanish Louisiana>New Orleans
1784	Captaincy General of Puerto Rico>Puerto Rico
rowspan="8">1786	Mexico State>Mexico
Chiapas
Guatemala
Santiago de Cuba (separated from the Intendency of Havana)
	Guanajuato
Michoacán	Valladolid
Zacatecas
San Luis Potosí
Veracruz
Puebla
Oaxaca
Durango
Sonora
1789	Yucatán>Mérida

Economy

In order to pay off the debts incurred by the conquistadors and their companies, the new Spanish governors awarded their men grants of native tribute and labor, known as encomiendas. In New Spain these grants were modeled after the tribute and corvee labor that the Mexica rulers had demanded from native communities. This system came to signify the oppression and exploitation of natives, although its originators may not have set out with such intent. In short order the upper echelons of patrons and priests in the society lived off the work of the lower classes. Due to some horrifying instances of abuse against the indigenous peoples, Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas suggested bringing black slaves to replace them. Fray Bartolomé later repented when he saw the even worse treatment given to the black slaves. The other discovery that perpetuated this system was extensive silver mines discovered at Potosi and other places that were worked for hundreds of years by forced native labor and contributed most of the wealth flowing to Spain. The Viceroyalty of New Spain was the principal source of income for Spain among the Spanish colonies, with important mining centers like Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí and Hidalgo.

There were several major ports in New Spain. There were the ports of Veracruz the viceroyalty's principal port on the Atlantic, Acapulco on the Pacific, and Manila near the South China Sea. The ports were fundamental for overseas trade, stretching a trade route from Asia, through the Manila Galleon to the Spanish mainland.

These were ships that made voyages from the Philippines to Mexico, whose goods were then transported overland from Acapulco to Veracruz and later reshipped from Veracruz to Cádiz in Spain. So then, the ships that set sail from Veracruz were generally loaded with merchandise from the East Indies originating from the commercial centers of the Philippines, plus the precious metals and natural resources of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. During the 16th century, Spain held the equivalent of US$1.5 trillion (1990 terms) in gold and silver received from New Spain.

However, these resources did not translate into development for the Metropolis (mother country) due to Spanish Roman Catholic Monarchy's frequent preoccupation with European wars (enormous amounts of this wealth were spent hiring mercenaries to fight the Protestant Reformation), as well as the incessant decrease in overseas transportation caused by assaults from companies of British buccaneers, Dutch corsairs and pirates of various origin. These companies were initially financed by, at first, by the Amsterdam stock market, the first in history and whose origin is owed precisely to the need for funds to finance pirate expeditions, as later by the London market. The above is what some authors call the "historical process of the transfer of wealth from the south to the north."

Demographics

The role of epidemics

Spanish settlers brought to the American continent smallpox, typhoid fever, and other diseases. Most of the Spanish settlers had developed an immunity to these diseases from childhood, but the indigenous peoples lacked the needed antibodies since these diseases were totally alien to the native population at the time. There were at least three, separate, major epidemics that decimated the population: smallpox (1520 to 1521), measles (1545 to 1548) and typhus (1576 to 1581). In the course of the 16th century, the native population in Mexico went an estimated pre-Columbian population of 8 to 20 million to less than two million. Therefore, at the start of the 17th century, continental New Spain was a depopulated country with abandoned cities and maize fields. These diseases would not have a similar impact in the Philippines because they were already present there.

The role of interracial mixing

Following the Spanish conquests, new ethnic groups were created, primary among them the Mestizo. The Mestizo population emerged as a result of the Spanish colonizers having children with indigenous women, both within and outside of wedlock, which brought about the mixing of both cultures. Many of the Spanish colonists were either men or women with no wives or husbands and took partners from the indigenous population.

Initially, if a child was born in wedlock, the child was considered, and raised as, a member of the prominent parent's ethnicity. (''See Hyperdescent and Hypodescent.'') Because of this, the term "Mestizo" was associated with illegitimacy. Mestizos do not appear in large numbers in official censuses until the second half of the 17th century, when a sizable and stable community of mixed-race people with no claims to being either Indian or Spanish appeared, although, of course, a large population of biological Mestizos had already existed for over a century in Mexico.

The Spanish conquest also brought the migration of people of African descent to the many regions of the Viceroyalty. Some came as free blacks, but vast majority came because of the introduction of African slavery. As the native population was decimated by epidemics and forced labor, black slaves were imported. Mixes with Europeans and indigenous peoples also occurred, resulting in the creation of new racial categories such as Mulattos and Zambos to account for these offspring. As with the term Mestizo, these other terms were associated with illegitimacy, since a majority—though not all—of these people were born outside of wedlock.

Eventually a caste system was created to describe the various mixes and to assign them a different social level. In theory, each different mix had a name and different sets of privileges or prohibitions. In reality, mixed-race people were able to negotiate various racial and ethnic identities (often several ones at different points in their lives) depending on the family ties and wealth they had. In its general outline, the system reflected reality. The upper echelons of government were staffed by Spaniards born in Spain (''peninsulares''), the middle and lower levels of government and other higher paying jobs were held by Criollos (Criollos were "Spaniards" born in the Americas, or—as permitted by the ''casta'' system—"Spaniards" with some Amerindian or even other ancestry.) The best lands were owned by Peninsulares and Criollos, with Native communities for the most part relegated to marginal lands. Mestizos and Mulattos held artisanal positions and unskilled laborers were either more mixed people, such as Zambos, recently freed slaves or Natives who had left their communities and settled in areas with large Hispanic populations. Native populations tended to have their own legally recognized communities (the ''repúblicas de indios'') with their own social and economic hierarchies. This rough sketch must be complicated by the fact that not only did exceptions exist, but also that all these "racial" categories represented social conventions, as demonstrated by the fact that many persons were assigned a caste based on hyperdescent or hypodescent.

Even if mixes were common, the white population tried to keep their higher status, and were largely successful in doing so. With Mexican and Central American independence, the caste system and slavery were theoretically abolished. However, it can be argued that the Criollos simply replaced the Peninsulares in terms of power. Thus, for example, in modern Mexico, while Mestizos no longer have a separate legal status from other groups, they comprise approximately 65% of the population. White people, who also no longer have a special legal status, are thought to be about 9–18% of the population,. In modern Mexico, "Mestizo" has become more a cultural term, since Indigenous people who abandon their traditional ways are considered Mestizos. Also, most Afro-Mexicans prefer to be considered Mestizo, since they identify closely with this group. (''See also, Demographics of Mexico.'')

The population of New Spain in 1810

Population estimates from the first decade of the 19th century varied between 6,122,354 as calculated by Francisco Navarro y Noriega in 1810, to 6.5 million as figured by Alexander von Humboldt in 1808. Navarro y Noriega figured that half of his estimate constituted indigenous peoples. More recent data suggests that the actual population of New Spain in 1810 was closer to 5 or 5.5 million individuals.

Culture

Because the Roman Catholic Church had played such an important role in re-conquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors, the Church in essence became another arm of the of Spanish government. The Spanish Crown granted it a large role in the administration of the state, and this practice became even more pronounced in the New World, where prelates often assumed the role of government officials. In addition to the Church's explicit political role, the Catholic faith became a central part of Spanish identity after the conquest of last Muslim kingdom in the peninsula, the Emirate of Granada, and the expulsion of all Jews who did not convert to Christianity.

The conquistadors brought with them many missionaries to promulgate the Catholic religion. Amerindians were taught the Roman Catholic religion and the language of Spain. Initially, the missionaries hoped to create a large body of Amerindian priests, but this did not come to be. Moreover, efforts were made to keep the Amerindian cultural aspects which did not violate the Catholic traditions. As an example, some Spaniards learned some of the Amerindian languages (especially during the 16th century) and wrote grammars for them so that they could be more easily translated. This was similarly practiced by the French colonists.

At first, conversion seemed to be happening rapidly. The missionaries soon found that most of the natives had simply adopted "the god of the heavens", as they called the Christian god, as just another one of their many gods. While they often held the Christian god to be an important deity because it was the god of the victorious conquerors, they did not see the need to abandon their old beliefs. As a result, a second wave of missionaries began an effort to completely erase the old beliefs, which they associated with the ritualized human sacrifice found in many of the native religions, eventually putting an end to this practice common before the arrival of the Spaniards. In the process many artifacts of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture were destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of native codices were burned, native priests and teachers were persecuted, and the temples and statues of the old gods were torn down. Even some foods associated with the native religions, like amaranth, were forbidden.

Many clerics, such as Bartolomé de las Casas, also tried to protect the natives from de facto and actual enslavement to the settlers, and obtained from the Crown decrees and promises to protect native Mesoamericans, most notably the New Laws. Unfortunately, the royal government was too far to fully enforce them, and many abuses against the natives, even among the clergy, continued. Eventually, the Crown declared the natives to be legal minors and placed under the guardianship of the Crown, which was responsible for their indoctrination. It was this status that barred the native population from the priesthood. During the following centuries, under Spanish rule, a new culture developed that combined the customs and traditions of the indigenous peoples with that of Catholic Spain. Numerous churches and other buildings were constructed by native labor in the Spanish style, and cities were named after various saints or religious topics such as San Luis Potosí (after Saint Louis) and Vera Cruz (the True Cross).

The Spanish Inquisition, and its New Spanish counterpart, the Mexican Inquisition, continued to operate in the viceroyalty until Mexico declared its independence. During the seventeenth and 18th centuries, the Inquisition worked with the viceregal government to block the diffusion of liberal ideas during the Enlightenment and the revolutionary republican and democratic ideas of the United States War of Independence and the French Revolution.

Arts

The Viceroyalty of New Spain was one of the principal centers of European cultural expansion in the Americas. The viceroyalty was the basis for a racial and cultural mosaic of the Spanish American colonial period.

The first printing press in the New World was brought to Mexico in 1539, by printer Juan Pablos (Giovanni Paoli). The first book printed in Mexico was entitled ''La escala espiritual de San Juan Clímaco''. In 1568, Bernal Díaz del Castillo finished ''La Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España''. Figures such as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Juan Ruiz de Alarcón stand out as some of the viceroyalty's most notable contributors to Spanish Literature. In 1693, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora published ''El Mercurio Volante'', the first newspaper in New Spain.

Architects Pedro Martínez Vázquez and Lorenzo Rodriguez produced some fantastically extravagant and visually frenetic architecture known as Mexican Churrigueresque in the own capital, Ocotlan, Puebla or remote silver-mining towns.

See also

Colonialism

List of Viceroys of New Spain

List of Governors in the Viceroyalty of New Spain

Spanish colonization of the Americas

Spanish Empire

References

External links

MEXICO'S COLONIAL ERA—PART I: The Settlement of New Spain at mexconnect.com

Index to the DeWitt Colony Region under New Spain at Texas A&M; University

1492 – Middle America at ibiblio.org ''the public's library and digital archive''

Encyclopedia Britannica : Hispanic Heritage in The Americas

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* Category:Former Spanish colonies + Category:Viceroyalties of the Spanish Empire Category:History of North America Spain Category:Pre-state history of California Category:Pre-state history of New Mexico Category:Pre-state history of Arizona Category:Spanish colonization of the Americas + Category:States and territories established in 1519 Category:1821 disestablishments

Category:Nobility of the Americas Category:Latin American history

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The Spanish Colonization of America was the exploration, conquest, settlement and political rule over much of the western hemisphere by the Spanish Empire. It was initiated by the Spanish ''conquistadores'' and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions. It lasted for over four hundred years, from 1492 to 1898.

Beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus, over nearly four centuries the Spanish Empire would expand across: most of present day Central America, the Caribbean islands, and Mexico; much of the rest of North America including the Southwestern, Southern coastal, and California Pacific Coast regions of the United States; and though inactive, with claimed territory in present day British Columbia Canada; and U.S. states of Alaska, Washington, and Oregon; and the western half of South America. In the early 19th century the revolutionary movements resulted in the independence of most Spanish colonies in America, except for Cuba and Puerto Rico, given up in 1898 following the Spanish-American War, together with Guam and the Philippines in the Pacific. Spain's loss of these last territories politically ended Spanish colonization in America. The cultural influences, though, still remain.

Exploration

Christopher Columbus

Since the early 15th century, Portuguese explorers sailing caravels established new southward routes along the coast of West Africa. In 1488 they rounded the Cape of Good Hope and explored parts of East Africa. They discovered rich trading regions in the Indonesian continent and established several trading ports along the West Indonesia coast, and later India.

In 1485 Christopher Columbus unsuccessfully tried to persuade King John II of Portugal ''(João II)'' to sponsor an expedition to Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. This alternative route, different from the theoretical eastward route, was based on the conviction that the earth was round. His proposal was rejected by the Portuguese, who thought the distance to Asia was much greater than Columbus had assured. In 1488 again he presented his plan to the Portuguese King, who refused based on the recent discovery by Bartholomeu Dias of the eastward route along the African coast and across the Indian Ocean.

Columbus was more persuasive with the Catholic Monarchs of Spain: recently crowned Isabella I Queen of Castile and her husband Ferdinand II King of Aragon. Although he presented his plan as early as 1486, his arguments for reaching Asian trade centers by sailing West across the Atlantic Ocean did not convince the Spanish Monarchs until 1491. Queen Isabella played a decisive role in the decision of supporting Colombus' plans.

Finally, in August 1492 Colombus sailed from the Andalusian port of Palos de la Frontera in Southern Spain. Columbus arrived on the island of Guanahani in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. On this first voyage, Columbus and his sailors were greeted by the Arawak people of the Bahamas. They were kind and curious people who brought them food, water and gifts. Columbus later wrote in his log: ''....They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.'' In the year of 1495, Columbus and his sailors rounded up fifteen hundred Arawak men, women and children. Out of those fifteen hundred, they picked five hundred of the best specimens and out of those five hundred, two hundred died en route. He presented the Spanish monarchs with small items of gold, parrots, and other 'exotic' things. They commissioned Columbus for a second voyage, providing him with seventeen ships, nearly 1,500 men, cannons, crossbows, guns, cavalry, and attack dogs. He returned to claim the island of Hispaniola, present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic, from the indigenous Taíno people in 1493.

Columbus was granted governorship of the new territories and made more journeys across the Atlantic Ocean. While generally regarded as an excellent navigator, during this first stay in the New World, Columbus wrecked his flagship, the Santa Maria. He was a poor administrator and was stripped of the governorship in 1500, and in fact was jailed for six weeks once he returned to Spain. Spain then agreed to fund a fourth voyage, but Columbus could not be governor again.

He profited by using the labour of native slaves for agriculture and to mine gold. He attempted to sell native people as slaves in Spain, bringing five hundred people back. The Taínos began to resist the Spanish, refusing to plant and abandoning captured native villages. Over time the rebellion grew violent. In the resulting conflict, the native inhabitants used their extensive knowledge of the terrain and applied guerilla tactics such as booby traps, ambushes, attrition, and forced marches to tire the Spanish columns. Although stone arrows couldn't penetrate the best of the Spanish armor, they were somewhat effective if they were used as shrapnel, since they tended to shatter on impact; stone and copper or bronze maces were used more effectively. However, the most crucial weapon the native Americans used was the sling, which could hurl massive stones that easily crushed even the most heavily armoured caballero.

In 1522, a Taíno Cacique named Enriquillo waged a successful rebellion causing the Spaniards to sign a treaty granting the Indian population the rights of Freedom and of Possession. It had little consequence however, as by then the Taíno population was rapidly declining due to European diseases, forced labour, and ritual suicides. The Taíno often refused to participate in activities forced upon them by the Spanish which resulted in suicide. Their children were killed as a perceived escape from a terrible future.

On his fourth and final voyage to America in 1502, Columbus encountered a large canoe off the coast of what is now Honduras filled with trade goods. He boarded the canoe and found cacao beans, copper and flint axes, copper bells, pottery, and colorful cotton garments. This was the first contact of the Spanish with the civilizations of Central America.

First mainland explorations

In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, to find gold but instead led the first European expedition to the Pacific Ocean and the west coast of the New World. In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown. It was 1517 before another expedition from Cuba explored Central America. It landed on the coast of the Yucatán peninsula in search of slaves.

Conquests

First settlements in America

The first mainland explorations were followed by a phase of inland expeditions and conquest. The Spanish crown extended the Reconquista effort, completed in Spain in 1492, to non-Catholic people in new territories. In 1502 on the coast of present day Colombia, near the Gulf of Urabá, Spanish explorers led by Vasco Núñez de Balboa explored and conquered the area near the Atrato River. The conquest was of the Chibchan speaking nations, mainly the Muisca and Tairona indigenous people that lived here. The Spanish founded San Sebastian de Uraba in 1509—abandoned within the year, and in 1510 the first permanent Spanish mainland settlement in America, Santa María la Antigua del Darién. These were the first European settlements in America. The conquistadors were truly amazed by what they found — immense wealth in gold and silver, complex cities rivaling or surpassing those in Europe, and remarkable artistic and scientific achievements. Spanish conquest in the New World was driven by the three 'G's—gold, glory, and gospel.

Mexico

There is a difference in the 'Spanish conquest of Mexico' between the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. The former is conquest of the campaign, led by Hernán Cortés from 1519–21 and his Tlaxcala and other 'indigenous peoples' allied against the Mexica/Aztec empire. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán is the much longer campaign, from 1551–1697, against the Maya peoples of the Maya civilization in the Yucatán Peninsula of present day Mexico and northern Central America. The day Hernán Cortés landed ashore at present day Veracruz, April 22, 1519, marks the beginning of 300 years of Spanish hegemony over the region.

Peru

In 1532 at the Battle of Cajamarca a group of Spanish soldiers under Francisco Pizarro and their indigenous Andean ''Indian auxiliaries'' native allies ambushed and captured the Emperor Atahualpa of the Inca Empire. It was the first step in a long campaign that took decades of fighting to subdue the mightiest empire in the Americas. In the following years Spain extended its rule over the Empire of the Inca civilization.

The Spanish took advantage of a recent civil war between the factions of the two brothers Emperor Atahualpa and Huáscar, and the enmity of indigenous nations the Incas had subjugated, such as the Huancas, Chachapoyas, and Cañaris. In the following years the conquistadors and indigenous allies extended control over the greater Andes region. The Viceroyalty of Perú was established in 1542.

Governing

Spain's administration of its colonies in the Americas was divided into the Viceroyalty of New Spain 1535 (capital, México City), and the Viceroyalty of Peru 1542 (capital, Lima). In the 18th century the additional Viceroyalty of New Granada 1717 (capital, Bogotá), and Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata 1776 (capital, Buenos Aires) were established from portions of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

This evolved from the Council of the Indies and Viceroyalties into an Intendant system, in an attempt for more revenue and efficiency.

19th century

During the Peninsular War in Europe between France and Spain, assemblies called ''juntas'' were established to rule in the name of Ferdinand VII of Spain. The Libertadores (Spanish and Portuguese for "Liberators") were the principal leaders of the Latin American wars of independence from Spain. They were predominantly ''criollos'' (local-born people of European, mostly of Spanish or Portuguese, ancestry), bourgeois and influenced by liberalism and in most cases with military training in the mother country.

In 1809 the first declarations of independence from Spanish rule occurred in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The first two were in present day Bolivia at Sucre (May 25), and La Paz ( July 16); and the third in present day Ecuador at Quito (August 10). In 1810 Mexico declared independence, with the Mexican War of Independence following for over a decade. In 1821 Treaty of Córdoba established Mexican independence from Spain and concluded the War. The Plan of Iguala was part of the peace treaty to establish a constitutional foundation for an independent Mexico.

These began a movement for colonial independence that spread to Spain's other colonies in the Americas. The ideas from the French and the American Revolution influenced the efforts. All of the colonies, except Cuba and Puerto Rico, attained independence by the 1820s. The British Empire offered support, wanting to end the Spanish monopoly on trade with its colonies in the Americas.

In 1898, the United States won victory in the Spanish-American War from Spain, ending the colonial era. Spanish possession and rule of its remaining colonies in the Americas ended in that year with its ownership transfer to the United States. The U.S. took occupation of Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. The latter possession now officially continues as a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States.

Cultural impact

Indigenous peoples (Native Americans)

The cultures and populations of the indigenous peoples of the Americas were changed by the Spanish assumption and colonization of their lands.

Before the arrival of Columbus, in Hispaniola the indigenous Taíno pre-contact population of several hundred thousand declined to sixty thousand by 1509. Although population estimates vary, Father Bartolomé de las Casas, the “Defender of the Indians” estimated there were 6 million (6,000,000) Taíno and Arawak in the Caribbean at the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492.

The population of the Native Amerindian population in Mexico declined by an estimated 90% (reduced to 1 - 2.5 million people) by the early 17th century. In Peru the indigenous Amerindian pre-contact population of around 6.5 million declined to 1 million by the early 17th century.

Of the history of the indigenous population of California, Sherburne F. Cook (1896–1974) was the most painstakingly careful researcher. From decades of research he made estimates for the pre-contact population and the history of demographic decline during the Spanish and post-Spanish periods. According to Cook, the indigenous Californian population at first contact, in 1769, was about 310,000 and had dropped to 25,000 by 1910. The vast majority of the decline happened after the Spanish period, in the Mexican and U.S. periods of Californian history (1821–1910), with the most dramatic collapse (200,000 to 25,000) occurring in the U.S. period (1846–1910).

Missionary effort

The Spaniards were committed, by Vatican decree, to convert their New World indigenous subjects to Catholicism. However, often initial efforts were questionably successful, as the indigenous people added Catholicism into their longstanding traditional ceremonies and beliefs. The many native expressions, forms, practices, and items of art could be considered idolatry and prohibited or destroyed by Spanish missionaries, military, and civilians. This included religious items, sculptures, and jewelry made of gold or silver, which were melted down before shipment to Spain.

Though the Spanish did not impose their language to the extent they did their religion, some indigenous languages of the Americas evolved into replacement with Spanish, and lost to present day tribal members. When more efficient they did evangelize in native languages. Introduced writing systems to the Quechua, Nahuatl and Guarani peoples may have contributed to their expansion.

Spanish emigration

It has been estimated that in the 16th century about 240,000 Spaniards emigrated to America, and in the 17th century about 500,000, predominantly to Mexico and Peru. In the early 20th century impoverished Spaniards, and from the 1930s-70s political exiles from the Spanish Civil War and the Franco government, immigrated to the countries that were former colonies in America - predominantly Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica and Argentina. After the 1970s, the direction reversed as Hispanic Americans began settling in Spain.

See also

Spanish conquest of Guatemala

Atlantic world

Global Empire

Population history of American indigenous peoples

Habsburg Spain

Inter caetera

Old Spanish Trail (trade route)

Valladolid debate

Smallpox Epidemics in the New World

Black Legend

References

Further reading

David A. Brading, ''The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, I492-1867'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993

External links

Spanish Exploration and Conquest of North America

NPS/INAH: Spanish Colonial Missions Initiative

''Spain in America'' (Edward Gaylord Bourne, 1904) 'Spain in America'

''The Spanish Borderlands'' (Herbert E. Bolton, 1921) 'The Spanish Borderlands'

Indigenous Puerto Rico DNA evidence upsets established history

Category:Colonization of the Americas Americas Category:History of indigenous peoples of the Americas + + + + Category:1525 establishments Category:1821 disestablishments Category:Former empires

be:Іспанская каланізацыя Амерыкі bg:Испанска колонизация на Америка ca:Colonització espanyola d'Amèrica cs:Conquista da:Spaniens kolonisering af Amerika es:Colonización española de América eu:Amerikako espainiar kolonizazioa fr:Colonisation espagnole des Amériques id:Kolonisasi Spanyol di Amerika it:Colonizzazione spagnola delle Americhe lt:Ispanijos kolonijos Amerikoje mk:Шпанска колонизација на Америка ja:スペインによるアメリカ大陸の植民地化 pl:Hiszpański podbój Ameryki pt:Colonização espanhola da América ro:Colonizarea spaniolă a Americilor ru:Испанская колонизация Америки sah:Конкииста simple:Spanish colonization of the Americas fi:Espanjan kolonialismin historia sv:Den spanska koloniseringen av Amerika zh:西班牙美洲殖民地