- The geographical emergence of Mexico from its geological formation
- Current geography of Mexico
- Population, language, religion and history of Mexico
- References
Mexico is located within the American continent, specifically in North America. It is an area of 1,943,945 square kilometers of land along with 20,430 kilometers of water that make it one of the largest nations on the continent.
It is ranked 14th in the world for its total sum of its square kilometers of territory. The country borders the United States to the north and Belize and Guatemala to the south.
The Gulf of Mexico lies to the east and to the west is the Pacific Ocean. Its capital is Mexico City, located in the south central part of the country.
The geographical emergence of Mexico from its geological formation
Geologically, the physical geography of Mexico is the result of various tectonic processes that developed in the evolution of the planet.
About 514 million years ago, when the Phanerozoic Aeon began, all the continents were united in a supercontinent called Pangea.
During the Mesozoic Era, in the Jurassic period, which spans from about 200 to 145 million years ago, Pangea began to divide into a northern continent, Laurasia, and a southern continent, Gondwana.
Pangea
Finally, during the Cretaceous - about 145 to 66 million years ago - the supercontinent of Pangea, which appeared between the end of the Paleozoic and the beginning of the Mesozoic, completed its division into the current continents.
It is located on five lithospheric plates belonging to the North American plate, with the exception of Baja California, which belongs to the Pacific plate.
The first inhabitants would arrive through the Bering Strait in the last ice age. These inhabited their territory temporarily until some groups reached the settlement.
The first activities carried out more than 9,000 years before Christ were the domestication of the huaje and pumpkin, as well as the domestication of corn.
Current geography of Mexico
The Mexican Republic or the United Mexican States are divided into 32 states. Its territorial organization was defined by the Political Constitution of 1917.
Within the territory four time zones are used: Southeast Time, Central Time, Pacific Time and also Northwest Time.
It is a territory recognized for its great diversity of reliefs that play a great role in economic and social activities, resulting in a territory where livestock, mining, agriculture and industry are the main activities in the country.
Population, language, religion and history of Mexico
By 2006, there were around 103 million inhabitants, of which a total of 12 million were indigenous, while 11 million live in the United States.
Its main language is Spanish, but there are currently several indigenous languages that are still spoken, such as Nahuatl or Zapotec. Regarding religion, 90% of Mexicans have adopted the Catholic religion as their belief.
Regarding its history, in the year 1519, the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortes reached the shores of Mexico and defeated the Aztec empire. Spanish power remained in this territory for at least 300 years until the war of independence from 1819 to 1821 ended the domination.
On the other hand, Mexico's economic income depends on exports and oil revenues. They are the fifth world producer of this item.
References
- Rodríguez, José Manuel. (2009) Main geographical, economic and political data of Mexico. Recovered from elperiodicodemexico.com
- Nation Encyclopedia (2013) Country overview Mexico. Recovered from nationsencyclopedia.com
- Wordatlas (2015) Where is Mexico? Recovered from worldatlas.com
- Bernstein, Martin. Bamford, Henry. Griffin, Ernst (2017) Mexico. Encyclopedia Britannica. Recovered from britannica.com
- mx (2015) Evolution of Mexico's tectonics. Recovered from sgm.gob.mx
- Hurray Mexico. Geography of Mexico. Recovered from paratodomexico.com