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The United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), or simply Mexico (Spanish: México (help·info) or Méjico), is a country located in southern North America, bounded 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. Its capital is Mexico City (Ciudad de México), which is one of the largest cities on Earth.

Covering almost 2 million square kilometres, Mexico is the 6th largest country in America by total area and 15th largest in the world. With a population of about 108 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.

As the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since 1910 that the opposition defeated the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional: PRI), and Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional: PAN) was sworn in as President on December 1, 2000. The current President is Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, from the same party.

History

For almost three thousand years, Mexico was the site of several advanced Amerindian civilizations – the Mesoamerican cultures – such as the Olmec, the Maya and the Aztecs. In 1519, the native civilizations of what now is known as Mexico were invaded by Spain; this was one of the most important conquest campaigns in America. Two years later in 1521, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was conquered by an alliance between Spanish and Tlaxcaltecs, the main enemies of Aztecs.

On September 16, 1810, the independence from Spain was declared by Miguel Hidalgo in the small town of Dolores, causing a long war that eventually led to recognized independence in 1821 and the creation of the First Mexican Empire with Agustín de Iturbide being the first and only emperor. In 1824, the new republic proclaimed Guadalupe Victoria as its first President. During the first decades of its independence, Antonio López de Santa Anna was the strong man of Mexican politics, and on-and-off dictator. After Santa Anna revoked the federal constitution, Texas declared its independence, which they managed to obtain in 1836. The annexation of Texas by the United States created a border dispute, that would cause the Mexican-American War. This war resulted in a Mexican defeat. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 Mexico lost one third of its area to the United States.

Read more at Wikipedia.org