Mexico, officially, the United Mexican States, is a country in North America with borders on the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.
The United States is to the north. Guatemala and Belize are to the south.
Mexico has an area of 761,604 square miles (1,972,545 square kilometers).
Mexico City is the capital of Mexico and the second most highly populated urban area in the world, after Tokyo, Japan.
The official currency of Mexico is the peso, which is equal to 100 centavos.
Mexico has a presidential system of government.
Most of Mexico consists of a high plateau that rises southward from the Rio Grande River, which forms the border between Mexico and the United States.
The eastern and western ranges of the the Sierra Madre Mountains - the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre Oriental, lie on either side of this plateau, separating it from the coastal planes.
These two ranges converge around Mexico City.
The land around Mexico City is prone to earthquakes. This area is an upland basin that was once full of shallow lakes. The water in these lakes has almost completely disappeared because of flood control measures as well as domestic use.
The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico.
Fold mountains of western North America running north to south converging with an arc of mountains running east to west through the Caribbean have created a rugged desert landscape around the Sierra Madre del Sur.
Volcán Pico de Orizaba is Mexico's highest mountain. It is an inactive volcano. Volcán Pico de Orizaba is North America's third highest mountain, after Mount McKinley in Alaska, USA and Mount Logan in Yukon, Canada.
Popocatépetl, another dormant volcano, has a crater that is more than half a mile (1 kilometer) wide.
The Balsas River is an important river in central-southern Mexico.
Baja California is a long, narrow peninsula in northwestern Mexico. The Gulf of California separates it from Mexico's mainland. The Gulf of California is a rift valley that has been flooded. It began to open up about 4 million years ago.
The Yucatán Peninsula in the south is the main lowland area in Mexico. The Yucatán Peninsula divides the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. It is covered in tropical rainforest that is fed primarily by streams and underground water.
Parts of the countries of Guatemala and Belize are also located in the Yucatán Peninsula.
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in southern Mexico, lies between the Gulf of Tehuantepec off of the Pacific Ocean and the Bay of Campeche off of the Gulf of Mexico. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is only about 120 miles (200 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point.
There are many forests on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which is a graben, a low-lying trough that formed as bedrock moved downward between two fault lines.
The Chiapas Highlands, in Mexico's far south, consist of a series of horsts, blocks of land between two fault lines that have been thrust upwards. There are volcanic cones where lava has flowed out of the faults.
Along Mexico's central plateau, the climate is warm. It is hot and humid in the lowlands.
In the mountains, it is cool and there are cold winters.
There is heavy rainfall in southern Mexico, but northern Mexico is arid.
Few people live in the dry north.
109,610,000 people live in Mexico.
60% are mixed white and Native American and 30% are Native American.
Spanish is the official language. Mexico has the largest Spanish-speaking population of any country on Earth.
Other languages spoken in Mexico include Mayan, Zapotec, Nahuatl, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Otomi, Totonac and Mixtec.
88% of the population is Roman Catholic and 5% is Protestant.
Mexico has large reserves of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and is one of the world's largest producers of oil.
The economy of Mexico is dominated by oil and petrochemical industries.
Other important industries are food, tobacco, textiles, chemicals, iron and steel, and motor vehicles.
About 20% of the workforce is involved in agriculture.
Main crops include coffee, cotton and corn.
Fishing is a significant economic activity. Shellfish is an important export.
Mexico has large reserves of silver, zinc, copper, tin, lead and sulfur.
Tourism is a growing industry.
Mexico is a signatory of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) along with Canada and the United States.
Before Europeans arrived in the Americas, Mexico was the home of a number of advanced civilizations, including the Olmec, the Toltec and the Maya.
The ancient Aztec Empire was based in Mexico.
Mexico became part of the Spanish empire in the sixteenth century.
Mexico declared its independence from Spain on September 16, 1810.
This declaration led to a war that did not end until 1821, when Mexico became an empire. This empire included what is now a large part of the southwestern United States of America.
Mexico became a constitutional federal republic in 1824.
After a violent revolution, Texas, which had been part of Mexico, became an independent republic in 1836. Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845.
A war between Mexico and the United States took place between 1846 and 1848. A United States victory resulted in the US gaining control over the land that now makes up the American states of California, Nevada and Utah, and most of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
In 1854, the United States purchased a section of land in southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico, in what has become known as the Gadsden Purchase, after the American ambassador to Mexico, James Gadsen.
In 1864, Mexico became an empire under the control of Maximilian I, who was associated with Napoleon.
Maximilian I was executed in 1867, and Mexico became a republic once more.
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