The most fertile soils and the largest areas of agricultural land are located in the Mesa Central, where a dense farming population has been present for at least 1,000 years. Aridity in the north and dense tropical vegetation in much of the south have hampered the spread of agriculture to these areas. Ranching has been extended into many areas considered marginal for crops.
Slightly less than a fifth of Mexico’s national territory is forested. It is estimated that nearly two thirds of the country was covered by forests in the mid-1500s, but indiscriminate exploitation decimated the resource. While conservation methods are now practiced in some of the pine forests in the north, the uprooting of rain forest continues elsewhere.
Metallic minerals have been a significant part of the economy throughout the nation’s history. Silver was long the most valuable product mined, and Mexico was the world’s leading producer until about 1970. The major mining area during the colonial period was the Silver Belt, a region that extended from Zacatecas and Guanajuato in the northern part of the Mesa Central into Chihuahua on the Mesa del Norte. San Luis Potosi was an eastern outpost. The Silver Belt is still the primary region of mineral production, but the focus is now on industrial rather than precious minerals.
exico’s nearly 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) of coastline is richly endowed with marine resources. Seafood products do not form a major part of the Mexican diet despite attempts to increase it, so the nation’s fishing industry has not yet been developed to its potential. Commercial exploitation of ocean products has occurred only since the 1940s.
Mexico has rich shrimping grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Gulf of California, and along the southern Pacific coast. The gulf coast from Tampico to the United States border and from Veracruz to Campeche has been fished commercially since the 1940s, producing about 25,000 tons of shrimp in 1984. The Gulf of California shrimping grounds were not exploited on a large scale until the late 1950s but are now the most productive. More than 40,000 tons of shrimp were taken there in 1984, with another 10,000 tons landed in the far south.
Petroleum is Mexico’s primary economic asset. Nearly 70 percent of the nation’s foreign-exchange earnings are derived from the sale of oil and natural gas, the overwhelming majority of which is exported to the United States. Petroleum is seen as the commodity capable of creating enough resources to bring about significant changes in the country’s social and economic systems. Oil money will be used to create jobs, improve infrastructure, and finance social programs. Oil revenues could lead to the modernization of Mexico.
exico is the most industrialized country in Latin America after Brazil. A disproportionate share of manufacturing is located in the Mexico City metropolitan area largely because of its huge market and superior infrastructure. Its impressive array of manufacturing includes everything from agricultural processing to automotive assemblage and electronics to iron and steel production. Most of the country’s industrial jobs are located in this urban area, acting as a magnet to migrants from throughout Mexico.
Because of its physical diversity and economic status, Mexico has had a difficult time creating an integrated transportation network. Although it was one of the first in Latin America to develop railway lines, the nation is joined together by an extensive but inefficient state-owned railway system.
Major rail routes extend outward from the Mexico City hub along the west coast to Mexicali, through the Central Plateau to El Paso and Laredo, via the Gulf Coastal Plain to the Yucatan peninsula, and south to Oaxaca. Rail traffic, both for passengers and freight, is slow and unreliable.
Tourism is a growth industry in Mexico. The country attracted visitors, especially from the United States, for many years, but in relatively limited numbers. Historically these tourists came to visit Mexico City and surrounding colonial towns in the Mesa Central and to see the archaeological ruins at Tenochtitlan and Tulum. More adventurous tourists went to the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan or to the Indian-dominated Oaxaca Valley. People later discovered Mexico’s beaches, and the government invested heavily in this sector of the economy.
Before the Spanish arrival in 1519, Mexico was occupied by a large number of Indian groups with very different social and economic systems. In general the tribes in the arid north were relatively small groups of hunters and gatherers who roamed extensive areas of sparsely vegetated deserts and steppes. These people are often referred to as Chichimecs, though they were a mixture of several linguistically distinctive cultural groups.
In the rest of the country the natives were agriculturalists, which allowed the support of dense populations. Among these were the Maya of the Yucatan, Totonac, Huastec, Otomi, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Tlaxcalans, Tarascans, and Aztecs. A number of these groups developed high civilizations with elaborate urban centers used for religious, political, and commercial purposes. The Mayan cities of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Palenque, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, Tzintzuntzan of the Tarastec, and Monte Alban of the Zapotecs are examples.
By AD 1100 the Toltecs had conquered much of central and southern Mexico and had established their capital at Tula in the Mesa Central. They also built the city of Teotihuacan near present-day Mexico City. At about the same time, the Zapotecs controlled the Oaxaca Valley and parts of the Southern Highlands. The cities they built at Mitla and Monte Alban remain, though they were taken over by the Mixtecs prior to the arrival of the Spanish.
When the Spanish arrived in central Mexico, the Aztecs controlled most of the Mesa Central through a state tribute system that extracted taxes and political servility from conquered tribal groups. The Aztecs migrated into the Mesa Central from the north and fulfilled a tribal prophesy by establishing a city where an eagle with a snake in its beak rested on a cactus. This became the national symbol of Mexico and adorns the country’s flag and official seal. The Aztecs founded the city of Tenochtitlan in the early 1300s, and it became the capital of their empire. The Tlaxcalans to the east, the Tarascans on the west, and the Chichimecs in the north were outside the Aztec domain and frequently warred with them. The nation’s name derives from the Aztecs’ war god, Mexitli.