A Mesoamerican cradle now ranks thirteenth in world GDP
Mexico—the United Mexican States—is Latin America’s northernmost country, bordering the United States, Guatemala, and Belize, with Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean shores. Human presence dates to at least 11,500 BC, and Mesoamerica’s Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, and Aztec societies made it one of the world’s few independent cradles of civilization.
At 1,972,550 square kilometres, Mexico is the world’s 13th-largest country by land, and with more than 134 million people in 2026 it ranks tenth by population and first for native Spanish speakers. Its 32 states enjoy autonomy under a federal presidential system with a two-chamber Congress. The economy is 13th by both nominal GDP and purchasing power, and 42.2 million foreign visitors in 2022 made it the sixth most-visited nation. Drug cartel violence has killed around 127,000 people since 2006.
Farmers here domesticated maize, tomatoes and beans, and settled villages appeared around 5000 BC. The Olmec rose on the Gulf Coast from about 1500 BC, Epi-Olmec and Zapotec peoples produced the first true writing, and Classic Maya script carried the tradition to its peak. Teotihuacan housed over 150,000 people before its collapse near 600 AD; Toltecs, Mixtecs and the Maya of Chichén Itzá followed, and the Aztecs ruled from Tenochtitlan as far as Guatemala.
The name derives from Mēxihko, the Nahuatl word for the Aztec heartland in the Valley of Mexico, home of the Mexica. Spain heard of the land through Juan de Grijalva in 1518; Hernán Cortés founded Veracruz in 1519, and Tenochtitlan fell in 1521, with Mexico City raised on its ruins. New Spain got its first viceroy in 1535, grew rich on northern silver and allowed foreign trade only through Veracruz and Acapulco. Pirates sacked Campeche in 1663, and a maize-price riot in 1692 attacked the viceroy’s palace.
Independence followed a war from 1810 to 1821, and the country lost nearly half its territory in 1848. Constitutions of 1824, 1857 and the current 1917 charter all use the name United Mexican States, and each of 68 Indigenous languages has its own translation. Mexico also counts the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Americas.
Source: Mexico
