(Texas), and vol. xvii. (New Mexico, &c.). Mention may also be
made of Gaston Routier’s Histoire de Mexique (1895). Standard
Mexican authorities are: C. M. de Bustamante, Quadro historico
de la revolution mexicana, 6 vols. (Mexico, 1832–1846); Lucas
Alaman, Historia de Mexico (Mexico, 1849–1852); N. de Zamacois,
Historia de Mexico desde sus tiempos mas remotos hasta nostras dias,
19 vols. (Barcelona, 1876–1882); J. E. Hernandez y Davalos, Coleccion
de documentos para la historia de la Independencia (Mexico,
6 vols). A huge and informative illustrated work, edited by Justo
Sierra (3 vols. large 4to), sumptuously produced and badly translated,
is Mexico, its Social Evolution (Barcelona, 1900–1904); a useful and
handy chronicle is Nicolas Leon’s Compendio de la historia general
de Mexico hasta el año de 1900 (Mexico and Madrid, 1902). For the
colonial period, Alexander v. Humboldt, Essai politique sur la
royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (Paris, 1811, 2 vols., and atlas; also
an English translation). For the war with the United States see
R. S. Ripley, The War with Mexico (New York, 1849); E. D. Mansfield,
The Mexican War (New York, 1849); and Winfield Scott’s
Memoirs. For Maximilian, the Blue-books on Mexican affairs
contained in Accounts and Papers (presented to parliament), vol.
lxv. 1862, and vol. lxiv. 1863, are valuable; E. de Kératry, La Créance
Jecker; l’empereur Maximilien, son élévation et sa chute (translated into
English by Venables); La Contre-guerilla française au Mexique, are
specially noteworthy; Prince Felix Salm-Salm’s Diary gives valuable
information as to Maximilian’s decline and fall. Also Dela Gorce, Histoire
du second empire, vols. iv. v.; J. F. Domenech, L’Empire mexicain
(Mexico, 1866), and Le Mexique tel qu’il est (Paris, 1867); Daran,
El General Miguel Miramon (in French) (Rome, 1886); Schmidt von
Tavera, Gesch. d. Regierung d. Kaisers Maximilian I. (Vienna, 1903).
Ulick Ralph Burke’s Life of Benito Juarez (London, 1894) is of considerable
value and interest. For the period since 1887 information
in English must be sought chiefly in magazine articles: Matias
Romero, “The Garza Raid and its Lessons,” North American Review
(Sept. 1892); Don Agustin Iturbide, “Mexico under Diaz,” ibid.
(June 1894); Romero, “The Philosophy of Mexican Revolutions,”
ibid. (Jan. 1896); and C. F. Lummis, “The Awakening of a Nation”
(New York, 1898, previously in Harper’s Magazine), are valuable
as giving information (especially the last named) and points of view.
Van Dyke, “Politics in Mexico,” Harper’s Magazine (1885), vol.
lxxi., gives particulars of the opposition to Gonzalez’s debt conversion
scheme of 1884. President Diaz’s message of November 1896,
giving an account of his stewardship from 1884 to that year, has
been translated into French (Rapport du Général Porfirio Diaz . . .
à ses compatriot es sur les actes de son administration, &c.), edited
by Auguste Génin (Paris, 1897). The early constitutions of the
Republic have been published (in Spanish) in three volumes; a study
of that of 1857 by B. Moses (of the University of California) is in the
Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, 11. i. 1891.
Various books, chiefly American, have been written on Mexico of
late years from a tourist’s standpoint. Mrs Alec Tweedie’s Mexico
as I saw it (London, 1901) and Life of Porfirio Diaz (1906) contain
valuable information personally obtained from good authorities
in Mexico. See also Percy F. Martin, Mexico of the Twentieth Century,
2 vols. (London, 1907); and C. R. Enock, Mexico (1909). (J. S. Ma.)
MEXICO, a state of the republic of Mexico, bounded N. by Hidalgo, E. by Tlaxcala and Puebla, S. by Morelos and Guerrero,
and W. by Michoacán. Pop. (1900), 934,468, largely Indian.
Area, 9247 sq. m., a large part of which lies within that great
depression of the Mexican plateau known as the Valley of
Mexico. Enclosed within its boundaries, except on the south,
is the Federal District and capital city of Mexico with an area
of 463 sq. m., which is not included in that of the state. The
state is divided into two unequal parts by the Sierra de Ajusco
and Montes de las Cruces, which form a wooded ridge across it
from east to west, with a general elevation of about 10,000 ft.
above sea-level, or about 2500 above the plateau level. These
ranges are part of a broken irregular chain which sometimes
bears the name of Anahuac. A considerable part of the northern
plateau consists of a broad plain, once the bed of a great lake
but now covered with swamps, sodden meadows and lakes.
The surrounding country drains into this depression, but an artificial
outlet has been created by the opening of the Tequixquiac
tunnel. Beyond its margin the plateau drains westward to the
Pacific through the Lerma, and north-east to the Gulf through
the San Juan and Pánuco. South of the Sierra de Ajusco the
country is roughly mountainous and drains to the Pacific
through tributaries of the Balsas. Within the lacustrine depression
of the north are the lakes of Zumpango, San Cristobal,
Xaltocán, Chalco, Xochimilco, and Texcoco, the latter three
lying partly or wholly in the Federal District. Texcoco has the
lowest level and its water is brackish and undrinkable, though
that of the streams flowing into it and of the other lakes is sweet.
Lake Xochimilco is celebrated for its “floating gardens” or
chinampas (see Mexico, Federal District of). The principal
industries of the state are agricultural, and the principal products
are cereals, sugar, maguey (from which “pulque” is
made), coffee, and fruit. Stock-raising has also had a profitable
development, owing to the proximity of the national capital.
The manufacturing industries are important; among the
manufactures are cotton and woollen fabrics, flour, dairy products,
glass-ware, pottery, bricks, wines and spirits. The
making of “pulque” from the sap of the maguey plant (Agave
americana) is the chief industry of the state, and the product
is exported in large quantities to the national capital. The
state is traversed by the Central, National, Mexican International
and Interoceanic railways, and by short lines from the national
capital to neighbouring towns. The capital is Toluca, and other
important towns are Zumpango (pop. 5942 in 1900), 30 m. N.
of the national capital, Tenango del Valle (5881 in 1900), 15 m.
S.E. of Toluca, and Lerma (estimated, 7200), near the western
frontier of the state.
MEXICO, a city and the county-seat of Audrain county,
Missouri, U.S.A., N.E. of the centre of the state, and about
110 m. N.W. of St Louis. Pop. (1890), 4789; (1900), 5099,
including 948 negroes and 111 foreign-born; (1910), 5939. It is
served by the Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy, and the Wabash railway systems. Mexico is the seat
of Hardin College and Conservatory of Music (Baptist, 1873),
for young women, an institution founded and endowed by
Charles H. Hardin (1820–1892), governor of the state in 1872–1874,
and of the Missouri Military Academy (1889). The city is
situated in the blue grass region of Missouri, and is a shipping-point
for horses and mules. Among the manufactures are Hour,
shoes and fire-clay products. Mexico was laid out as “New
Mexico” in 1836, and became the county-seat under its present
name in 1837. It was incorporated as a town in 1855, was
entered by the Wabash road in 1858 and by the Alton in 1872,
and was first chartered as a city in 1874.
MEXICO CITY, capital of the Republic of Mexico and chief town of the Federal District, near the southern margin of the great central plateau of Mexico, in lat. 19° 25′ 45″ N., long. 99° 7′ W. It is about 200 m. in a direct line W. by N. of Vera Cruz, its nearest port on the Gulf of Mexico, with which it is connected by two railway lines, one of which is 264 m. long; and about 181 m. in a direct line N.N.E. of Acapulco, its nearest port on the Pacific, with which it is connected partly by rail and partly by a rough mountain trail (the camino real) to the coast. Pop. (1900), 344,721.
The city stands on a small plain occupying the south-western part of a large lacustrine depression known as the Valley of Mexico (El Valle de México), about 3 m. from the western shore of Lake Texcoco, whose waters once covered a considerable part of the ground now occupied by the city. The Valley, including the drainage basin of Lake Zumpango, has an area of 2219 sq. m. (1627 sq. m. without that basin). The elevation of the city above sea-level is 7415 ft., only a few feet above the level of Lake Texcoco. The general elevation of the Valley is about 7500 ft., that of Lake Zumpango being 7493 ft., and of Lake Chalco 7480 ft. The rim of the Valley is formed by spurs of the transverse cordillera on the north and south sides—the Sierra de Guadalupe (650 to 750 ft. above the city) on the north, and the Sierra Nevada with its snow-clad peaks of Popocatapetl and Ixtaccihuatl farther away to the south-east—and by a part of the Sierra de Ajusco, known as the Montes de las Cruces, from which the greater part of the city’s water supply is derived. Lake Texcoco (Tezcoco or Tezcuco) is a comparatively shallow body of brackish water, with an area of about 1112 sq. m., and is fed by a number of small streams from the neighbouring mountains, and by the overflow of the other lakes. Its shores are swampy and desolate and show considerable belts of saline incrustations with the fall in its level. The Aztecs settled there because of the security afforded by its islands and shallow waters—their city, Tenochtitlán, being so completely surrounded by water that a handful of warriors could easily
