Capitales Mexico


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Capitales Mexico

Capitales Mexico

It is hard to think of another country with a similar situation, where one city dominates the nation to the exclusion of all others. How did this area of Mexico come to hold such power? How has it managed to maintain this status throughout the years and up to the present?

Mexico City’s Climate

Much of Mexico lies within the tropical latitudes where areas of low elevation are typically hot and humid. But Mexico City, at 7,300 feet in elevation, enjoys a much more mild climate where the average high temperature from January to July varies by only a few degrees.

Evidence of humans enjoying the moderate climate and abundant game that provided food for them in the area around present day Mexico City goes back as far as 10,000-8,000 B.C.

The Valley Of Mexico

Mexico City sits in the Valley of Mexico, a large, internally drained basin encircled by a ring of volcanic mountains over 19,000 feet high. Over the centuries erosion from the mountainsides has produced deep soils rich in nutrients. This erosion has also produced a series of shallow, swampy, salty lakes in the center of the valley.

These lakes have provided food such as fish, turtles, insect larvae, blue-green algae, and salt to the people who lived in this area over the ages. Among these ancient peoples were the Aztecs who established permanent settlements there. The less salty Lake Texcoco allowed the Aztecs to construct chinampas, or raised fields, which were very productive agriculture areas that supplied food for their population.

This combination of a pleasant, moderate climate, and rich, arable land has attracted human populations to the Valley of Mexico throughout history and helps account for the founding of Mexico City as the nation’s capital and its subsequent domination over the rest of the country.