I. GENERALITIES & KEY FIGURES

|Area | 1 972 550 km2 |
|Water (%) |2.5 |
|Population |111 211 789 (11th) |
|(2009) | |
|Density |55/km2 (142nd) |
|Capital |Mexico City |
|Currency |Peso |
|Official language: Spanish |
|« Trade » language: English & Spanish |

• Administrative organization & Population

Mexico, equally called the United Mexican States, is a federation of thirty-one free and sovereign states, which form a union that exercises jurisdiction over the Federal District and other territories (some of them are : Chihuahua, Yucatan, Oaxaca, Veracruz, etc). Each state has its own constitution, congress, and a judiciary, and its citizens elect by direct voting a governor for a six-year term and representatives to their respective unicameral state congresses for three-year terms. The states are divided into municipalities, the smallest administrative political entity in the country, governed by a mayor or municipal president (Presidente municipal), elected by its residents by plurality. Municipalities can be further subdivided into non-autonomous boroughs or in semi-autonomous auxiliary presidencies.

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 contact with 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 colony independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the