Middle America:
MEXICO
Mexico: Regional Criteria
The Five Nations of
Mexico
Mexico: Regional Criteria
- Introduction
The region of Mexico dominates the realm with 70% of the land
[mmarebar],
over 50% of the realm's population (97.8 million- soon to be the
11th country with over 100 million people) (See: http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa051198.htm)
[mmpopbar],
and two thirds of the realm's total economic activity.
- physical barriers [map]
[mmclimat]
[mmphys]
- much like western U.S. but more tropical
- "Y" shaped mountains, [mexphy5]
- Sierra Madre Oriental
- Sierra madre Occidental
- Sierra madre del Sur
- Plateau of Mexico
- Valley of Mexico
- Climate [mmclimat]
- Dry - especially in the north [mmprecip]
- only 12% of land receives adequate rainfall
[wdarable]
- more tropical in south and east
- cultural geography [mmethnic]
- 60% Mestizo; 30% Amerindian; 8% European
- transculturation
- economic geography
- historical geography
- Mesoamerican culture hearth [wwhearth]
[mmmesoam]
- Aztec
- Spanish colony [mmlacol]
- Hacienda system of land tenure
- 1900: more than 8,000 haciendas covered 40% of the
land
- 96% of all rural families were landless, working on the
haciendas
- independence 1810
- Mexican Revolution 1910-1917 led by Emiliano Zapata
- Article 27 of the new constitution guarenteed a program of
land redistribution
- since 1917 about 50% of farmland redistributed mostly as
ejidos
- ejidos - government owned land, use rights given to
peasant communities of approximately 20 families