City-state
A city-state is a sovereign state described as a type of small independent country, that consists of a single city and its dependent territories. This included cities such as Rome, Athens and the Italian city-states during the Renaissance; as of 2019, only a handful of sovereign city-states exist, with some disagreement as to which are city-states. A great deal of consensus exists that the term properly applies to Singapore and Vatican City. City states are sometimes called micro-states which however includes other configurations of small countries, not to be confused with Micronations. A number of other small states share similar characteristics, therefore are sometimes cited as modern city-states—namely, Brunei, Kuwait and Malta, which each have an urban center comprising a significant proportion of the population, though all have several distinct settlements and a designated or de facto capital city. Other small states with high population densities, such as San Marino, are cited, despite lacking a large urban centre characteristic of traditional city-states.
Several non-sovereign cities enjoy a high degree of autonomy, are sometimes considered city-states. Hong Kong and Macau, along with independent members of the United Arab Emirates, most notably Dubai and Abu Dhabi, are cited as such. Historical city-states included Sumerian cities such as Ur. Danish historian Poul Holm has classed the Viking colonial cities in medieval Ireland, most Dublin, as city-states. In Cyprus, the Phoenician settlement of Kition was a city-state that existed from around 800 BC until the end of the 4th century BC; some of the most well-known examples of city-state culture in human history are the ancient Greek city-states and the merchant city-states of Renaissance Italy, which organised themselves as small independent centers. The success of small regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy and Greece prevented their amalgamation into larger national units. However, such small political entities survived only for short periods because they lacked the resources to defend themselves against incursions by larger states.
Thus they gave way to larger organisations of society, including the empire and the nation-state. In the history of mainland Southeast Asia, aristocratic groups, Buddhist leaders, others organized settlements into autonomous or semi-autonomous city-states; these were referred to as mueang, were related in a tributary relationship now described as mandala or as over-lapping sovereignty, in which smaller city-states paid tribute to larger ones that paid tribute to still larger ones—until reaching the apex in cities like Ayutthaya, Bagan and others that served as centers of Southeast Asian royalty. The system existed until the 19th century. Siam, a regional power at the time, needed to define their territories for negotiation with the European powers so the Siamese government established a nation-state system, incorporated their tributary cities into their territory and abolished the mueang and the tributary system. In early Philippine history, the Barangay was a complex sociopolitical unit which scholars have considered the dominant organizational pattern among the various peoples of the Philippine archipelago.
These sociopolitical units were sometimes referred to as Barangay states, but are more properly referred to using the technical term "polity", so they are simply called "barangays." Evidence suggests a considerable degree of independence as "city states" ruled by Datu's, Rajah's and Sultan's. Early chroniclers record that the name evolved from the term balangay, which refers to a plank boat used by various cultures of the Philippine archipelago prior to the arrival of European colonizers. In the Holy Roman Empire over 80 Free Imperial Cities came to enjoy considerable autonomy in the Middle Ages and in early-modern times, buttressed by international law following the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Some, like three of the earlier Hanseatic cities - Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck - pooled their economic relations with foreign powers and were able to wield considerable diplomatic clout. Individual cities made protective alliances with other cities or with neighbouring regions, including the Hanseatic League, the Swabian League of Cities, the Décapole in the Alsace, or the Old Swiss Confederacy.
The Swiss Cantons of Zürich, Lucerne, Solothurn, Basel and Geneva originated as city-states. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, some cities – members of different confederacies – became sovereign city-states – such as the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the Free City of Frankfurt upon Main, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (180
Querétaro
Querétaro the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, its capital city is Santiago de Querétaro. It is located in a region known as Bajío, it is bordered by the states of San Luis Potosí to the north, Guanajuato to the west, Hidalgo to the east, México to the southeast and Michoacán to the southwest. The state is one of the smallest in Mexico, but it is one of the most heterogeneous geographically, with ecosystems varying from deserts to tropical rainforest in the Sierra Gorda, filled with microecosystems; the area of the state was located on the northern edge of Mesoamerica, with both the Purépecha Empire and Aztec Empire having influence in the extreme south, but neither dominating it. The area the Sierra Gorda, had a number of small city-states, but by the time the Spanish arrived, these had all been abandoned, with only small agricultural villages and seminomadic peoples inhabiting the area. Spanish conquest was focused on the establishment of the Santiago de Querétaro, which still dominates the state culturally and educationally.
Querétaro is located in the north-central area of the country of Mexico, connecting the wetter climes of the south with the drier deserts of the north. The state is divided into 18 municipalities: Amealco de Bonfil, Arroyo Seco, Cadereyta de Montes, Colón, Corregidora, El Marqués, Ezequiel Montes, Jalpan de Serra, Landa de Matamoros, Pedro Escobedo, Peñamiller, Pinal de Amoles, Querétaro, San Joaquín, San Juan del Río, Tequisquiapan and Tolimán. Three of Mexico’s geographic zones cover parts of the state; the Mesa del Centro is in the center-west of the state, consists of small mesas with an average altitude of 2,000 meters above sea level. A few elevations reach over 3,000 meters; the Sierra Madre Oriental occupies the northeast of the state and includes the cities of Huasteca area. The topography of this area is rugged, with narrow valleys. Elevations here range between 900 m and 3,000 m m ASL; the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt occupies about half of the state in the south. The area is volcanic rock with peaks and mesas between 200 m and 3,000 m and valleys between 1,800 m and 1,900 m ASL.
The state is divided into five geographical regions: The Sierra Gorda, El Semidesierto Queretano, Los Valles Centrales, El Bajío Queretano and La Sierra Queretana. The Sierra Gorda is located in the north of the state and is part of the Sierra Madre Oriental in a subprovince called the Huasteco Karst, it is found in the municipalities of Arroyo Seco, Jalpan de Serra, Landa de Matamoros, Pinal de Amoles and San Joaquín and covers an area of 3,789km2 or 32.2% of the state. The topography is rugged, with steep valleys, it is a conjunction of mountains and hills formed by limestone, with wide contrasts in climates and vegetation. They range from near desert conditions to forests of pine and holm oak to the tropical rainforests of the Huasteca area in the state of San Luis Potosí; the Sierra Gorda was made a biosphere reserve in 1997, the Reserva de la Biosfera de la Sierra Gorda, to protect its abundance of species and ecosystems. In 2001, the area was registered with the Man and the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO.
This area is managed by la Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources federal agency. El Semidesierto Queretano is a wide strip that crosses the state from east to west, dry due to the blocking of moist air from the Gulf by the Sierra Madre Oriental; the area is found in the municipalities of Cadereyta de Montes, Colón, Peñamiller and Tolimán, with an area of 3,415.6km2 or 29% of the state. As it is near the mountain range, its topography is rugged. Los Valles Centrales is in the center of the state, overlapping all of the area formed by the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, with the exception of the north of the El Marqués municipality, in the Mesa del Centro; the continental divide runs through here marked by the Sierra Queretana, the El Macizo and El Zamoarano mountain chains. This area occupies the municipalities of Ezequiel Montes, El Marqués, Pedro Escobedo and San Juan del Río with an extension of 2,480.2kmw or 21.1% of the state.
El Bajío Queretano is in the western part of the state, a low elevation area that extends into neighboring Guanajuato. This area covers 1,005.7km2 or 8.5% of the state, contains low hills and small mountain chains that are part of the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt. La Sierra Queretana is in the extreme south of the state, part of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, it is found in the municipalities of Amealco de Bonfil and Huimilpan, covering an area of 1,078.3 km or 9.2% of the state. The area has high plains that narrow into valleys and canyons; some of the flat areas border the Lerma River. The state contains two river basins: the Pánuco; the first is represented by the Lerma and La Laja Rivers and the second is represented by the Tamuín and Moctezuma Rivers. Other important rivers include the San Juan; these rivers contain 16 dams, including the Santa Catarina, El Batán, Constitution de 1917 and the San Ildefonso. Most of the state is dry, with the exception of the north, temperate and rainy; the average temperature is 18 °C.
Three well-defined climate areas are in the state. The south has
Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl is a deity in Mesoamerican culture and literature whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and means "feathered serpent" or "Quetzal-feathered Serpent". The worship of a Feathered Serpent is first documented in Teotihuacan in the first century BC or first century AD; that period lies within the Late Preclassic to Early Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, veneration of the figure appears to have spread throughout Mesoamerica by the Late Classic period. In the Postclassic period, the worship of the feathered serpent deity was based in the primary Mexican religious center of Cholula, it is in this period that the deity is known to have been named "Quetzalcoatl" by his Nahua followers. In the Maya area, he was equivalent to Kukulkan and Gukumatz, names that roughly translate as "feathered serpent" in different Mayan languages. Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wind and learning, wears around his neck the "wind breastplate" ehecailacocozcatl, "the spirally voluted wind jewel" made of a conch shell.
This talisman was a conch shell cut at the cross-section and was worn as a necklace by religious rulers, as they have been discovered in burials in archaeological sites throughout Mesoamerica, symbolized patterns witnessed in hurricanes, dust devils and whirlpools, which were elemental forces that had significance in Aztec mythology. In codex drawings and Xolotl were both pictured as wearing an ehecailacocozcatl around each of their necks. There has additionally been at least one major cache of offerings with knives and idols adorned with the symbols of more than one god, some of which were adorned with wind jewels. In the era following the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, a number of sources were written that conflate Quetzalcoatl with Ce Acatl Topiltzin, a ruler of the mythico-historic city of Tollan, it is a matter of much debate among historians to which degree, or whether at all, these narratives about this legendary Toltec ruler describe historical events. Furthermore, early Spanish sources written by clerics tend to identify the god-ruler Quetzalcoatl of these narratives with either Hernán Cortés or Thomas the Apostle—an identification, a source of a diversity of opinions about the nature of Quetzalcoatl.
Among the Aztecs, whose beliefs are the best-documented in the historical sources, Quetzalcoatl was related to gods of the wind, of the planet Venus, of the dawn, of merchants and of arts and knowledge. He was the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning and knowledge. Quetzalcoatl was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon, along with the gods Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli. Two other gods represented by the planet Venus are Quetzalcoatl's ally Tlaloc, the god of rain, Quetzalcoatl's twin and psychopomp, named Xolotl. Animals thought to represent Quetzalcoatl include resplendent quetzals, rattlesnakes and macaws. In his form as Ehecatl he is the wind, is represented by spider monkeys and the wind itself. In his form as the morning star, Venus, he is depicted as a harpy eagle. In Mazatec legends, the astrologer deity Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, represented by Venus, bears a close relationship with Quetzalcoatl. A feathered serpent deity has been worshiped by many different ethnopolitical groups in Mesoamerican history.
The existence of such worship can be seen through studies of the iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs are frequent. On the basis of the different symbolic systems used in portrayals of the feathered serpent deity in different cultures and periods, scholars have interpreted the religious and symbolic meaning of the feathered serpent deity in Mesoamerican cultures; the earliest iconographic depiction of the deity is believed to be found on Stela 19 at the Olmec site of La Venta, depicting a serpent rising up behind a person engaged in a shamanic ritual. This depiction is believed to have been made around 900 BC. Although not a depiction of the same feathered serpent deity worshipped in classic and post-classic periods, it shows the continuity of symbolism of feathered snakes in Mesoamerica from the formative period and on, for example in comparison to the Mayan Vision Serpent shown below; the first culture to use the symbol of a feathered serpent as an important religious and political symbol was Teotihuacan.
At temples such as the aptly named "Quetzalcoatl temple" in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents figure prominently and alternate with a different kind of serpent head. The earliest depictions of the feathered serpent deity were zoomorphic, depicting the serpent as an actual snake, but among the Classic Maya, the deity began acquiring human features. In the iconography of the classic period, Maya serpent imagery is prevalent: a snake is seen as the embodiment of the sky itself, a vision serpent is a shamanic helper presenting Maya kings with visions of the underworld; the archaeological record shows that after the fall of Teotihuacan that marked the beginning of the epi-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology around 600 AD, the cult of the feathered serpent spread to the new religious and political centers in central Mexico, centers such as Xochicalco and Cholula. Feathered serpent iconography is prominent at all of these sites. Cholula is known to have remained the most important center of worship to Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec/Nahua version of the feathered serpent deity, in the post-classic period.
During the epi-classic
Troyville culture
The Troyville culture is an archaeological culture in areas of Louisiana and Arkansas in the Lower Mississippi valley in the southern United States. It lasted from 400 to 700 CE during the Late Woodland period, it was contemporaneous with the Coastal Troyville and Baytown cultures and was succeeded by the Coles Creek culture. Where the Baytown peoples built dispersed settlements, the Troyville people instead continued building major earthwork centers; the Troyville-Coles Creek people lived on gathered wild plants and local domesticates, maize was of only minor importance. Acorns, palmetto and squash were all more important than maize. Tobacco was cultivated as well, protein came from deer and smaller mammals, but the bounty of the region kept maize from being adopted as a staple until as late as the thirteenth century CE. Culture and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum is New York City's third largest in physical size and holds an art collection with 1.5 million works. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Park Slope neighborhoods of Brooklyn and founded in 1895, the Beaux-Arts building, designed by McKim and White, was planned to be the largest art museum in the world; the museum struggled to maintain its building and collection, only to be revitalized in the late 20th century, thanks to major renovations. Significant areas of the collection include antiquities their collection of Egyptian antiquities spanning over 3,000 years. European, African and Japanese art make for notable antiquities collections as well. American art is represented, starting at the Colonial period. Artists represented in the collection include Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, Georgia O'Keeffe, Max Weber; the museum has a "Memorial Sculpture Garden" which features salvaged architectural elements from throughout New York City.
The roots of the Brooklyn Museum extend back to the 1823 founding by Augustus Graham of the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library in Brooklyn Heights. The Library moved into the Brooklyn Lyceum building on Washington Street in 1841. Two years the institutions merged to form the Brooklyn Institute, which offered exhibitions of painting and sculpture and lectures on diverse subjects. In 1890, under its director Franklin Hooper, Institute leaders reorganized as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and began planning the Brooklyn Museum; the museum remained a subdivision of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, along with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Children's Museum until the 1970s when all became independent. Opened in 1897, the Brooklyn Museum building is a steel frame structure encased in classical masonry, designed by the famous architectural firm of McKim and White and built by the Carlin Construction Company; the initial design for the Brooklyn Museum was four times as large as the actualized version.
Daniel Chester French, the noted sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, was the principal designer of the pediment sculptures and the monolithic 12.5-foot figures along the cornice. The figures were carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. French designed the two allegorical figures Brooklyn and Manhattan flanking the museum's entrance, created in 1916 for the Brooklyn approach to the Manhattan Bridge, relocated to the museum in 1963. By 1920, the New York City Subway reached the museum with a subway station; the Brooklyn Institute's director Franklin Hooper was the museum's first director, succeeded by William Henry Fox who served from 1914 to 1934. He was followed by Philip Newell Youtz, Laurance Page Roberts, Isabel Spaulding Roberts, Charles Nagel, Jr. and Edgar Craig Schenck. Thomas S. Buechner became the museum's director in 1960, making him one of the youngest directors in the country. Buechner oversaw a major transformation in the way the museum displayed art and brought some one thousand works that had languished in the museum's archives and put them on display.
Buechner played a pivotal role in rescuing the Daniel Chester French sculptures from destruction due to an expansion project at the Manhattan Bridge in the 1960s. Duncan F. Cameron held the post from 1971 to 1973, with Michael Botwinick succeeding him and Linda S. Ferber acting director for part of 1983 until Robert T. Buck became director in 1983 and served until 1996; the Brooklyn Museum changed its name to Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1997, shortly before the start of Arnold L. Lehman's term as director. On March 12, 2004, the museum announced. In April 2004, the museum opened the James Polshek-designed entrance pavilion on the Eastern Parkway façade. In September 2014, Lehman announced that he was planning to retire around June 2015. In May 2015, Creative Time president and artistic director Anne Pasternak was named the museum's next director; the Brooklyn Museum, along with numerous other New York institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is part of the Cultural Institutions Group.
Member institutions occupy land or buildings owned by the City of New York and derive part of their yearly funding from the City. The Brooklyn Museum supplements its earned income with funding from Federal and State governments, as well as with donations by individuals and organizations. In 1999, the museum hosted the Charles Saatchi exhibition Sensation, resulting in a court battle over New York City's municipal funding of institutions exhibiting controversial art decided in favor of the museum on First Amendment grounds. In 2005, the museum was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Major benefactors include Frank Lusk Babbott; the museum is the site of the annual Brooklyn Artists Ball which has included celebrity hosts such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Liv Tyler. The Brooklyn Museum exhibits collections that seek to embody the rich artistic heritage of world cultures.
The museum is well known for its expansive collections of E
San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí City, it is located in North-Central Mexico. It is bordered by 8 other Mexican states, making it the state with the most borders with other neighboring states; the northern borders are with Nuevo Coahuila. In addition to the capital city, the state's largest cities include Ciudad Valles, Matehuala and Tamazunchale. In pre-Columbian times the territory now occupied by the state of San Luis Potosí contained the cultural areas of Mesoamerica and Aridoamerica, its northern and western-central areas were inhabited by the Chichimeca tribes. These indigenous groups were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Although most natives died during the Spanish settlements, huasteco groups still live, along with pame and náhuatl although their numbers are small. In 1592, gold and silver deposits were discovered.
Spanish miners established the first town known as “San Luis de Mezquitique”, modern location of the capital San Luis Potosí. This led to the first mayor being appointed, Juan de Oñate; the State was given the name "San Luis Rey", King Saint Louis, in honor of Louis IX of France, "Potosí" because the wealth of the state compared to the rich silver mines in Potosí, Bolivia. Settlers hoped of rivaling the Bolivian mine wealth, but this was never accomplished. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Franciscans and Jesuits arrived in the area and settled began to build churches and buildings, many of which are still standing and have been turned into museums and universities. In mid-1821, after the Independence of Mexico, General Jose Antonio Echavarri intimidated and threatened the Mayor and the City Council to surrender the city of San Luis to the Army of the Three Guarantees of Agustín de Iturbide, who at the time was emperor of Mexico, they submitted to his demand, as there was no way to resist, thus proclamation of Independence of San Luis Potosí was declared.
The first Constitution of San Luis Potosí was written on October 16, 1826, this was in effect until 1835 when Congress proclaimed it centralist. At this point, local legislatures disappeared and state governors were appointed by the central government; this situation lasted until the promulgation of the 1857 Constitution. The state participation in the Mexican–American War in the years of 1846-1847 gave it the name "San Luis de la Patria", Saint Louis of the Motherland, for having contributed important leaders and ideas during the struggle with the United States. During the Reform War, state involvement was prominent, during the French Intervention in 1863, the city of San Luis Potosí became the capital of the country under the order of President Benito Juárez. During the regime of Maximilian, San Luis became an important location; the city was held by the Imperialists until late 1866. In that year the telegraph line was opened between San Luis Potosí and Mexico City, which opened up communication lines and helped begin the industrialization of the state.
The state lies on the Mexican Plateau, with the exception of the eastern part of the state, where the tableland breaks down into the tropical valley of the Tampaon River. The surface of the plateau is comparatively level, with some low mountainous wooded ridges; the Sierra Madre Oriental runs north and south through the state, separates the Mexican Plateau from the Gulf Coastal Plain to the east. The Sierra Madre Oriental is home to the Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests; the easternmost portion of the state lies on the Gulf Coastal Plain, covered by the Veracruz moist forests. The eastern part is included in the region referred to as "La Huasteca"; the Tampaón river and its tributaries drain the southeastern portion of the state. The northern and central portion of the state, including the capital, lie on an interior drainage basin which does not drain to the sea; the mean elevation is about 6,000 ft ensuring a temperate climate for the most part. The state lies within the arid zone of the north, while the southern half receiving a more liberal rainfall through the influence of the Nortes, which deliver significant amounts of rain.
The rainfall, however, is uncertain at the western and northern regions, much of the state does not have major rivers. The soil is fertile and in favorable seasons large crops of wheat, maize and cotton are grown on the uplands. In the low tropical valleys, coffee, tobacco and fruit are staple products. Stockraising is an important industry and hides and wool are exported. Fine cabinet and construction woods are made and exported to a limited extent. Potosí was' believed' to have enough gold to build a bridge between Spain. San Luis Potosí was therefore named after it. At one time San Luis Potosí ranked among the leading mining provinces of Mexico, but the revolts following independence resulted in a great decline in that industry; the area around Real de Catorce has some of the richest silver mines in the country. Other well-known silver min
Mexico
Mexico the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States. Covering 2,000,000 square kilometres, the nation is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 120 million people, the country is the eleventh most populous state and the most populous Spanish-speaking state in the world, while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and Mexico City, a special federal entity, the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the state include Guadalajara, Puebla, Tijuana and León. Pre-Columbian Mexico dates to about 8000 BC and is identified as one of five cradles of civilization and was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its politically powerful base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain.
Three centuries the territory became a nation state following its recognition in 1821 after the Mexican War of Independence. The post-independence period was tumultuous, characterized by economic inequality and many contrasting political changes; the Mexican–American War led to a territorial cession of the extant northern territories to the United States. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, two empires, the Porfiriato occurred in the 19th century; the Porfiriato was ended by the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system as a federal, democratic republic. Mexico has the 11th largest by purchasing power parity; the Mexican economy is linked to those of its 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement partners the United States. In 1994, Mexico became the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts.
The country is considered both a regional power and a middle power, is identified as an emerging global power. Due to its rich culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas and seventh in the world for number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Mexico is an ecologically megadiverse country, ranking fourth in the world for its biodiversity. Mexico receives a huge number of tourists every year: in 2018, it was the sixth most-visited country in the world, with 39 million international arrivals. Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus group of the UN, the Pacific Alliance trade bloc. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely the Valley of Mexico and surrounding territories, with its people being known as the Mexica, it is believed to be a toponym for the valley which became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result, although it could have been the other way around.
In the colonial era, back when Mexico was called New Spain this territory became the Intendency of Mexico and after New Spain achieved independence from the Spanish Empire it came to be known as the State of Mexico with the new country being named after its capital: the City of Mexico, which itself was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Traditionally, the name Tenochtitlan was thought to come from Nahuatl tetl and nōchtli and is thought to mean "Among the prickly pears rocks". However, one attestation in the late 16th-century manuscript known as "the Bancroft dialogues" suggests the second vowel was short, so that the true etymology remains uncertain; the suffix -co is the Nahuatl locative, making the word a place name. Beyond that, the etymology is uncertain, it has been suggested that it is derived from Mextli or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Mexica, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mēxihco means "place where Huitzilopochtli lives".
Another hypothesis suggests that Mēxihco derives from a portmanteau of the Nahuatl words for "moon" and navel. This meaning might refer to Tenochtitlan's position in the middle of Lake Texcoco; the system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco formed the center, had the form of a rabbit, which the Mesoamericans pareidolically associated with the moon rabbit. Still another hypothesis suggests that the word is derived from Mēctli, the name of the goddess of maguey; the name of the city-state was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the letter x in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative, represented by a j, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative during the 16th century; this led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and most other Spanish–speaking countries, México was the preferred spelling. In recent years, the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish l
