But the capital’s huge metropolitan population constitutes some one-fifth of Mexico’s total, representing one of the world’s most significant ratios of capital-to-national population. How well do you know the capital cities of the world? This quiz will show you the names of countries in North America and South America, and you’ll need to identify their capitals.īy itself the Federal District (the city proper) is comparable in many ways to New York City, Mumbai, and Shanghai.
Area Federal District, 571 square miles (1,479 square km). Throughout the centuries, the city has attracted people from the surrounding provinces seeking jobs and opportunities or the possibilities of comparative safety and shelter, as well as a myriad of amenities from schools and hospitals to neighbourhood organizations and government agencies. The simple footpaths and trails of the pre-Hispanic trade routes became the roads for carts and mule trains of the colonial period and eventually the core of the country’s transportation system, all converging on Mexico City.
Its highland location makes it a natural crossroads for trade between the arid north, the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico (east) and the Pacific Ocean (west), and southern Mexico. Centralism has perhaps influenced Mexico City’s character the most, for the city has been a hub of politics, religion, and trade since the late Post-Classic Period (13th–16th century ce). Mexico City’s leading position with regard to other urban centres of the developing world can be attributed to its origins in a rich and diverse environment, its long history as a densely populated area, and the central role that its rulers have defined for it throughout the ages. Mexico City: Zócalo, Metropolitan Cathedral, National Palace Jeremy Woodhouse-Digital Vision/Getty Images The name México is derived from Nahuatl, the language of its precolonial inhabitants. The valley is an extension of the southern Mexican Plateau and is also known as Anáhuac (Nahuatl: “Close to the Water”) because the area once contained several large lakes. One of the few major cities not located along the banks of a river, it lies in an inland basin called the Valley of Mexico, or Mesa Central. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban settlements in the Western Hemisphere, and it is ranked as one of the world’s most populous metropolitan areas. Spanish conquistadors founded Mexico City in 1521 atop the razed island-capital of Tenochtitlán, the cultural and political centre of the Aztec (Mexica) empire. In contrast, the southern part of the Federal District sustains a limited population on its mountain slopes. The term Mexico City can also apply to the capital’s metropolitan area, which includes the Federal District but extends beyond it to the west, north, and east, where the state ( estado) of México surrounds it on three sides.
Mexico City, Nahuatl México, Spanish Ciudad de México or in full Ciudad de México, D.F., city and capital of Mexico, synonymous with the Federal District (Distrito Federal D.F.). Mexico City Jeremy Woodhouse-Digital Vision/Getty Images
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