Mexico City
2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Cities; North America
| Mexico City Ciudad de México |
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| Nickname(s): Ciudad de los Palacios (City of Palaces) (given by Alexander von Humboldt) | |||
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| Coordinates: | |||
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| Country | Mexico | ||
| Federal entity | Federal District | ||
| Boroughs | The 16 delegaciones | ||
| Founded | c. March 18, 1325 (as Tenochtitlan) |
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| Municipality of New Spain | 1524 | ||
| Federal District | 1824 | ||
| Government | |||
| - Type | Republic | ||
| - Head of Government | Marcelo Ebrard ( PRD) | ||
| Area 1 | |||
| - City | 1,499 km² (578.77 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 2,240 m (7,349 ft) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| - City | 8,720,916 | ||
| - Density | 5,741/km² (14,869.1/sq mi) | ||
| - Metro | 19,231,829 | ||
| - Demonym | capitalino (formal), defeño (informal), chilango (colloquial) | ||
| Time zone | Central Standard Time ( UTC-6) | ||
| - Summer ( DST) | Central Daylight Time ( UTC-5) | ||
| 1 Area of the Federal District that includes non-urban areas at the south. | |||
| Website: http://www.df.gob.mx | |||
Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México, D.F. or simply México) is the capital city of Mexico. It is the most important economic, industrial and cultural centre in the country, and the most populous city with 8,720,916 inhabitants in 2005. Greater Mexico City (Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México) incorporates 58 adjacent municipalities of Mexico State and 1 municipality of the state of Hidalgo, according to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments. In 2006 Greater Mexico City had a population of 19.2 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the second largest in the world. In 2005, it ranked the eighth in terms of GDP (PPP) among urban agglomerations in the world. Along with São Paulo it is the only Beta global city with 8 points in Latin America.
Mexico City is also the Federal District (Distrito Federal in Spanish, and hence the abbreviation D.F.). The Federal District is coextensive with Mexico City: both are governed by a single institution and are constitutionally considered to be the same entity. This has not always been the case. The Federal District, created in 1824, was integrated by several municipalities, one of which was the municipality of Mexico City. As the city began to grow, it engulfed all other municipalities into one large urban area. In 1928, all municipalities within the Federal District were abolished, an action that left a vacuum in the legal status of Mexico City vis-à-vis the Federal District, even though for most practical purposes they were traditionally considered to be the same entity. In 1993, to end the sterile discussions about whether one concept had engulfed the other, or if any of the two entities had any existence in lieu of the other, the 44th Article of the Constitution of Mexico was reformed to clearly state that Mexico City is the Federal District, seat of the Powers of the Union and capital of the United Mexican States.
Mexico City is located in the Valley of Mexico, also called the Valley of Anáhuac, a large valley in the high plateaus at the centre of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,349 ft). It was originally built by the Aztecs in 1325 on an island of Lake Texcoco. The city was almost completely destroyed in the siege of 1521, and was redesigned and rebuilt in the following years following the Spanish urban standards. In 1524 the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenustitlán, and as of 1585 it is officially known as ciudad de México.
History
Prehispanic era and Spanish colonial period
Mexico (in Spanish pronounced "Me-hee-co") City was founded as Mexico-Tenochtitlan on March 18, 1325 by the Nahua Aztec or Mexican tribe, which rapidly became the capital of a sophisticated growing empire. Located on a small island on the middle of Lake Texcoco, the layout of the city forced the Aztecs to build an artificial island with a series of canals to allow the growth of the metropolis.
A number of causeways were also constructed from the shoreline to the central island.These causeways are the foundation of the various calzadas which are today principal avenues in Mexico City. In fact, although the lake was salty, dams built by the Aztecs kept the city surrounded by clear water from the rivers that fed the lake. Two double aqueducts provided the city with fresh water; this was intended mainly for cleaning and washing.
After centuries of pre-Columbian civilization, the Spanish conquistador (conqueror) Hernán Cortés first arrived in the area in 1519. He did not succeed in conquering the city until August 13, 1521, after a 79-day siege that destroyed most of the old Aztec city.
In 1524 the rebuilt city served as the capital of the viceroyalty of New Spain and the political and cultural centre of Mexico. The importance of the city was such that the Captaincy General of Guatemala, Yucatán, Cuba, Florida, and the Philippines were administered from it. This colonial period culminated with the construction of the baroque Metropolitan Cathedral and the Basilica of Guadalupe.
Independence
The outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810, and the eventual independence of the country in 1821 were unable to hamper the influence of the city even though it shook internal politics. The capital became host of the first ruler of the Mexican Empire, Agustin de Iturbide, who abdicated a year later in 1823. The nation became a federal republic in October 1824.
In 1824, the Mexican Federal District was established by the new government and by the signing of their new constitution, where the concept of a federal district was adapted from the American constitution. Before this designation, Mexico City had served as the seat of government for both the State of Mexico and the nation as a whole. Texcoco and then Toluca became the capital of the state of Mexico.
The war with the United States led to an invasion into Mexico City by U.S. General Winfield Scott on September 14, 1847, and obligated Mexico to cede the provinces of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California, what are today the States of California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Utah and Wyoming to the U.S. and recognize Texas as independent. This was formally recognized in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was signed in what is now the suburb of the city of the same name. The invasion culminated at Chapultepec Castle, the military centre of the country where, according to the legend, 13 young Mexican cadets (see Niños Héroes) fought helpless and outnumbered to keep the Americans from taking the symbolic castle. This event is remembered by a series of monolithic columns that bear their names at the base of the Castle. A short-lived monarchy in 1864-1867, under Emperor Maximilian I, left its mark on the reconstruction of Chapultepec Castle and other urban planning that was said to have been modeled after the Champs-Élysées to help his consort Empress Carlota adjust to the city.
A three decade long dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz left a French influence upon Mexico City. The stunning, bronze Angel of Independence was built under his administration to celebrate the first centenary of the beginning of the War of Independence. Other urban highlights built at the time were the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the expansion of Paseo de la Reforma à la Champs-Élysées. Following the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution, whereby president Díaz was forced to resign and a new president was elected, Mexico City suffered from what has been called La decena trágica ("The Tragic Ten Days") in February 1913. La decena trágica was a coup d'état orchestrated by Victoriano Huerta in complicity with the United States Ambassador to Mexico Henry Lane Wilson.
The post-revolutionary government of Mexico following the Mexican Revolution of 1910 reinforced the importance of the city which saw an important influx of immigrants during the rest of the 20th century. Most of the growth of Mexico City in population occurred in the late 20th century. In 1950, the city had about 3 million inhabitants. By 2000, the estimated population for the metropolitan area was around 18 million.
Recent history
The city hosted the 1968 Summer Olympic Games, an event marred by the massacre of hundreds of students in what came to be known as the Tlatelolco Massacre, which occurred only a couple of weeks before the inauguration ceremony. Two other sporting events hosted by the city were the 1970 FIFA World Cup and the 1986 FIFA World Cup, the final matches of which took place in the Estadio Azteca.
At 07:19 on September 19, 1985, the city was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the Richter scale which resulted in the deaths of between 5,000 (government estimate) and 20,000 people and rendered 50,000-90,000 people homeless. One hundred thousand housing units were destroyed, together with many government buildings. Up to USD $4 billion of damage was caused in three minutes. There was an additional magnitude 7.5 aftershock 36 hours later. When Mexico City hosted the FIFA World Cup again in 1986, the event was seen as an evidence of its rapid recovery.
During the 1990s, Mexico City continued to grow as an economic and cultural centre of international importance, which has spurred the construction of new skyscrapers such as Latin America's tallest building, the Torre Mayor (a literal translation of which is Greater Tower) and a remodelled World Trade Centre México, originally the Hotel de México built during the 1960s and early 70's.
Mexico City is ranked 8th among North America’s Top Ten Major Cities of the Future 2007-2008. It is ranked 4th in Economic Potential and 4th as Most Cost Effective. Mexico City was the one of the two Mexican cities that made the top ten, along with Guadalajara, which ranked 5th place.
Geography
| Climate chart for Mexico City | |||||||||||
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| J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
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13
19
6
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5
21
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10
24
8
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53
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12
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119
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13
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170
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12
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152
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12
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130
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12
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51
21
10
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18
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8
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8
19
6
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Imperial conversion
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The Federal District is located in central-South Mexico. It is bounded by the state of Mexico on the west, north and east, and by the state of Morelos on the south. Mexico City and its metropolitan area, which extends over the state of Mexico, are located in the Valley of Mexico or Anáhuac, a 9,560 km² (3,691 sq mi) valley that lies at an average of 2,240 m (7,349 ft) above sea level. This valley is a basin surrounded by mountains on all four sides, with only one small opening at the north. At the southern part of the basin, the mountain range reaches an altitude of 3,952 m (12,966 ft) above sea level; and to the east the volcanoes reach an altitude of more than 5,000 m (16,000 ft). The region receives anti-cyclonic systems, whose weak winds do not allow for the dispersion, outside the basin, of the air pollutants which are produced by the 50,000 industries and 4 million vehicles operating in the metropolitan area. The federal and local governments have implemented numerous plans to alleviate the problem of air pollution, including the constant monitoring and reporting of environmental conditions, such as ozone and nitrogen oxides. If the levels of these two pollutants reach critical levels, contingency actions are implemented which may include closing factories, changing school hours, and extending the A day without a car program to two days of the week. To control air pollution, the government has instituted industrial technology improvements, a strict biannual vehicle emission inspection and the reformulation of gasoline and diesel fuels).
In 1986, the non-urban forest areas of the southern boroughs were declared National Ecological Reserves by president de la Madrid. Other areas of the Federal District became protected in the following years.
Mexico City has a temperate highland climate (Koppen Cwb), due to its tropical location and high elevation. The lower region of the valley receives less rainfall than the upper regions of the south; the lower boroughs of Iztapalapa, Iztacalco, Venustiano Carranza and the west portion of Gustavo A. Madero are usually drier and warmer than the upper southern boroughs of Tlalpan and Milpa Alta, a mountainous region of pine and oak trees known as the range of Ajusco. The average annual temperature varies from 12 to 16°C (53 to 60°F), depending on the altitude of the borough. Lowest temperatures, usually registered during January and February, may reach -2 to -5°C (28 to 23°F), usually accompanied by snow showers on the southern regions of Ajusco, and the maximum temperatures of late spring and summer may reach up to 32°C (90°F). Overall precipitation is heavily concentrated in the summer months. The central valley of Mexico rarely gets precipitation in the form of snow during winter; the two last recorded instances of such an event were on January 12, 1967, and March 5, 1940.
Originally much of the valley lay beneath the waters of Lake of Texcoco, a system of interconnected saline and freshwater lakes. The Aztecs built dikes to separate the fresh water used to raise crops in chinampas and to prevent recurrent floods. These dikes were destroyed during the siege of Tenochtitlan, and during colonial times the Spanish regularly drained the lake to prevent floods. Only a small section of the original lake remains, located outside the Federal District, in the State of Mexico, in the municipality of Atenco.
| Geophysical maps of the Federal District | |||
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| Topography | Hydrology | Climate patterns | |
Politics
Federal District
In 1824, when the United Mexican States were born as a federation, the Congress of the Union decided to create a Federal District containing the capital of the federation, Mexico City. Mexico City and the surrounding territories that became the Federal District originally belonged to the state of Mexico, and the city was also the capital of the state. Being now the capital of the federation, and not of a single state, the city had to be administered directly by all the states through the power vested upon the powers of the Union. The Federal District was thus created on November 18, 1824, as a perfect circle with its centre at the Central Square (Plaza de la Constitución, popularly known as "el Zócalo") and a radius of 8.38 km (5.21 mi). The Federal District was constituted by the municipality of Mexico City, and six additional municipalities: Tacuba, Tacubaya, Azcapotzalco, Mixcoac, Iztacalco, and Villa de Guadalupe.
In 1854, president Antonio López de Santa Anna, enlarged the area of the Federal District almost eightfold from the original 220 km² (80 sq mi) to 1,700 km² (660 sq mi), annexing the rural and mountainous areas in order to secure the strategic mountain passes to the south and southwest to protect the city should a foreign invasion occur again. (The Mexican-American War had just been fought). The last changes to the limits of the Federal District were made between 1898 and 1902, reducing the area to the current 1,499 km² (579 sq mi) by adjusting the southern border with the state of Morelos. By that time, the total number of municipalities within the Federal District was twenty-two.
While the Federal District was ruled by the federal government through an appointed governor, the municipalities within it were autonomous, and this duality of powers created constant tensions between the municipalities and the federal government for more than a century. In 1903 already, Porfirio Díaz largely reduced the powers of the municipalities within the Federal District. Eventually, in December 1928, the federal government decided to abolish all the municipalities of the Federal District. In place of the municipalities, the Federal District was divided into one "Central Department" and 13 delegaciones (boroughs) administered directly by the government of the Federal District. The Central Department was integrated by the former municipalities of Mexico City, Tacuba, Tacubaya and Mixcoac.
In 1941, the General Anaya borough was merged to the Central Department, which was then renamed "Mexico City" (thus reviving the name, but not the autonomous municipality). From 1941 to 1970, the Federal District was comprised by 12 delegaciones and Mexico City. In 1970 Mexico City was split into four different delegaciones: Cuauhtémoc, Miguel Hidalgo, Venustiano Carranza and Benito Juárez, thus increasing the number of delegaciones to sixteen. Since then, in a de facto manner, the whole Federal District, whose delegaciones had by then almost formed a single urban area, began to be considered a synonym of Mexico City. However, the lack of a de jure stipulation left a legal vacuum that led to a number of sterile discussions about whether one concept had engulfed the other or if the latter had ceased to exist altogether. In 1993 this situation was solved by an amendment to the 44th article of the Constitution whereby Mexico City and the Federal District were set to be the same entity. This amendment was later introduced into the second article of the Statute of Government of the Federal District.
Political structure
Mexico City, being the seat of the powers of the Union, did not belong to any particular state but to all. Therefore, it was the president, representing the federation, who used to designate the head of government of the Federal District, a position which is sometimes presented outside Mexico as the "Mayor" of Mexico City. In the 1980s, given the dramatic increase in population of the previous decades, the inherent political inconsistencies of the system—like in 1988, when the opposition candidate had received the majority of votes in the Federal District, but the president, however designated a governor form the party in power at the federal level—as well as the dissatisfaction with the inadequate response of the federal government to assist the city after the 1985 earthquake, the residents began to request political and administrative autonomy in order to manage their own local affairs. Some political groups even proposed that the Federal District be converted into the 32nd state of the federation.
In response to the demands, in 1987 the Federal District received a greater degree of autonomy, with the elaboration the first Statute of Government (Estatuto de Gobierno), and the creation of an Assembly of Representatives. In the 1990s this autonomy was further expanded and, starting from 1997, residents can directly elect the head of government of the Federal District and the representatives of a unicameral Legislative Assembly (which succeeded the previous Assembly) by popular vote. The first elected head of government was Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. Cárdenas resigned in 1999 in order to run in the 2000 presidential elections and designated Rosario Robles to succeed him, who became the first woman (elected or otherwise) to govern Mexico City. In 2000 Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected, and resigned in 2005 to run in the 2006 presidential elections, Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez being designated by the Legislative Assembly to finish the term. In 2006, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon was elected for the 2006–2012 period.
The Federal District does not have a constitution, like the states of