Mexico

million,[2] it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Hispanophone country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contactwith Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colonyindependence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican–American War and territorial cession to the US, a civil war, two empires anda domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's currentpolitical system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Mexico is both one of the world'slargest economies and a regional power,[11][12] and since 1994 the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and a firmly establishedupper-middle income country.[13] Mexico is considered a newly industrialized country[14][15][16][17] and an emerging power.[18] It has the 13th largest nominal GDP and the 11th largest bypurchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, especially the United States.[19][20] Mexico ranks fifth in the worldand first in the Americas by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites with 31,[21][22][23] and in 2007 was the 10th most visited country in the world with 21.4 million international arrivals.[24]