Mexico it is located within the American continent, specifically in North America. It is an extension of 1,943,945 square kilometers of land along with 20,430 kilometers of water that make it one of the largest nations of the continent.
It is ranked number 14 worldwide 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 is 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 evolved in the evolution of the planet.
About 514 million years ago, when the Eero Fanerozoico began, all the continents were united in a supercontinent called Pangea.
During the Mesozoic Era, in the Jurassic period, which extends from about 200 to 145 million years ago, Pangea began to divide into a northern continent, Laurasia, and another to the south, Gondwana.
Pangea
Finally, during the Cretaceous, some 145 to 66 million years ago, the Pangea supercontinent, which appeared between the end of the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, completed its division in the current continents.
It is located on five lithospheric plates belonging to the North American plate, with the exception of Baja California, belonging to the Pacific plate.
The first inhabitants would arrive through the Bering Strait in the last glaciation. They inhabited their territory temporarily until some groups arrived at 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 the year 1917.
Within the territory four time zones are used: Southeast Time, Center Time, Pacific Time and also Northwest Time.
It is a territory recognized for its great diversity of reliefs that play a large role in economic and social activities, resulting in a territory where livestock, mining, agriculture and industry are the main activities of the country.
Population, language, religion and history of Mexico
For the year 2006 there were about 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 the Zapotec . As for religion, 90% of Mexicans have adopted the Catholic religion as a belief.
With respect to its history, in the year 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortes arrived on 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 with 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 geographic, economic and political data of Mexico. Recovered from elperiodicodemexico.com
- Nation Encyclopedia (2013) Country overview Mexico. Retrieved from nationsencyclopedia.com
- Wordatlas (2015) Where is Mexico? Retrieved from worldatlas.com
- Bernstein, Martin. Bamford, Henry. Griffin, Ernst (2017) Mexico. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from britannica.com
- mx (2015) Evolution of Mexican tectonics. Retrieved from sgm.gob.mx
- Hurray Mexico. Geography of Mexico. Recovered from paratodomexico.com