These trivia questions about Mexico come in five rounds: coasts, volcanoes and the Tropic, before the Spanish, New Spain to the Restored Republic, Díaz, the Revolution and after, and murals, buildings, books and the table.
Read the full guide
Mexican history trivia questions and answers in three rounds
Before the Spanish, and their arrival runs from the Olmec coast to Veracruz in 1519. New Spain to the Restored Republic covers Acapulco, Guadalupe Victoria and the Pastry War. Díaz, the Revolution and after ends with the Green Revolution.
For a class, a fiesta or a quiz night
Tap any of the four choices; the right one is flagged and a short note says why, with its source. The card serves ten questions per set, and Scored round serves 20 and waits to mark them.
Questions and answers
What are some easy Mexican trivia questions and answers?
Which line of latitude divides the country into temperate and tropical zones? What does científicos mean? Which people painted the murals of Bonampak? The answers are the Tropic of Cancer, scientists and the Maya.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the Wikipedia article Mexico, linked under the question. Tenochtitlan, Cortés, the Cry of Dolores and Cinco de Mayo are left to the packs that already ask them.
What is the highest mountain in Mexico?
Pico de Orizaba, a volcano more than 5,600 meters high in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. Popocatépetl is second.
Is this a New Mexico trivia page?
No. Every question is about the country of Mexico. Its 31 states and Mexico City are in the pack; the state of New Mexico is not.
Almost all of Mexico lies on the North American plate. On which plate does the Baja California peninsula ride?Answer: The Pacific plate. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Guatemala is one neighbor of Mexico on the southeast. Which country is the other?Answer: Belize. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In which desert of Mexico do temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius or more?Answer: The Sonoran Desert. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Leaving Mexico City aside, how many free and sovereign states form the Mexican federation?Answer: 31. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Mexico and Guatemala are divided in part by a natural line of water. Which river is it?Answer: The Usumacinta. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Mexico is one of 17 countries given which label for their wealth of species?Answer: Megadiverse countries. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
The tallest peaks of Mexico stand in a band of volcanoes that crosses the country from east to west. What is the band called?Answer: The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Until 2016 the capital of Mexico had another official name. What was it?Answer: The Federal District. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which line of latitude divides Mexico into temperate and tropical zones?Answer: The Tropic of Cancer. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which resort town stands at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula?Answer: Cabo San Lucas. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which town to the south of Cancún is notable for its ruins of the Maya civilization?Answer: Tulum. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which volcano stands higher than any other ground in Mexico?Answer: Pico de Orizaba. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Before the Spanish, and their arrival 12
Bonampak is known for mural paintings made by which people?Answer: The Maya. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
By which name were the people of the Aztec heartland, the Valley of Mexico, known?Answer: The Mexica. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Cave paintings about 7,500 years old have been found on which peninsula of Mexico?Answer: The Baja California Peninsula. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
The first true writing systems of Mesoamerica were developed in the Epi-Olmec culture and which other?Answer: The Zapotec. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In 1518 an expedition brought Spain its first news of Mexico. Who led it?Answer: Juan de Grijalva. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In the centuries before the Spanish came, the lowland Maya had centers at Chichén Itzá and which other city?Answer: Mayapán. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
On which coast did the Olmec culture, the earliest complex civilization of Mexico, flourish?Answer: The Gulf Coast. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire began in 1519 with the founding of which city?Answer: Veracruz. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Tenochtitlan was the political capital of the Aztecs. Which city was the cultural center?Answer: Texcoco. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which city of central Mexico formed a military and commercial empire and collapsed around 600 AD?Answer: Teotihuacán. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which culture dominated Oaxaca between 1000 and 1519 AD?Answer: The Mixtec. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Who is the best-known poet of Mexico from the time before Columbus?Answer: Nezahualcoyotl. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
New Spain to the Restored Republic 12
A riot in Mexico City in 1692 began over the price of what?Answer: Maize. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
The colonial era began with the capture of Tenochtitlan in 1521. For about how long did it last?Answer: 300 years. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In which year did the crown appoint the first Viceroy of New Spain?Answer: 1535. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Only two ports of New Spain were open to foreign trade. Veracruz faced Spain. Which Pacific port linked the colony to the Philippines?Answer: Acapulco. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
What name is given to the war between Liberal and Conservative governments in Mexico from 1858 to 1861?Answer: The Reform War. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which body did King Charles I create in 1524 to oversee the colonies from Spain?Answer: The Council of the Indies. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which former Royal Army general was declared Emperor Agustín I of Mexico?Answer: Agustín de Iturbide. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which metal, found in the north, helped to make Mexico a jewel of the Spanish Empire?Answer: Silver. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which president abolished slavery in Mexico during his term in 1829?Answer: Vicente Guerrero. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Who became the first president when the First Mexican Republic was established in 1824?Answer: Guadalupe Victoria. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Whom did the French Army place on a newly made throne of Mexico in the 1860s?Answer: Maximilian of Habsburg. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
With which country did Mexico fight the Pastry War of 1838 and 1839?Answer: France. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Díaz, the Revolution and after 12
After Díaz resigned in May 1911, who was democratically elected president that fall?Answer: Francisco I. Madero. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
By which name is the long rule of Porfirio Díaz, from 1876 to 1911, known?Answer: The Porfiriato. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Díaz ruled with a group of advisors known as the científicos. What does the name mean?Answer: Scientists. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Emiliano Zapata led a peasant army in which part of Mexico?Answer: The south. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Germany sent Mexico a coded telegram in 1917, hoping for an ally. What position did Mexico keep in the conflict?Answer: It remained neutral. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
The Green Revolution, which raised crop yields around the world, began in which valley of Mexico?Answer: The Yaqui Valley. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In which battle of 1915 did Álvaro Obregón defeat Pancho Villa?Answer: The Battle of Celaya. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In which year was the constitution that still governs Mexico ratified?Answer: 1917. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Mario Molina shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on the formation and breakdown of what?Answer: Ozone. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Under which president was the oil industry of Mexico nationalized in 1938?Answer: Lázaro Cárdenas. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
What name is given to the program of development and industrial growth that Mexico began in 1946?Answer: The Mexican miracle. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
What was the Gran Telescopio Milimétrico designed to observe?Answer: Regions of space hidden by stellar dust. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Murals, buildings, books and the table 12
Art nouveau and which other style were brought into the design of the Palacio de Bellas Artes?Answer: Art deco. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Baroque literature flourished in Mexico in the 17th century. Which nun was one of its two most notable writers?Answer: Juana Inés de la Cruz. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros were two of the "Big Three" of Mexican muralism. Who was the third?Answer: José Clemente Orozco. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In a Mexican kitchen, what are a molcajete and a metate used for?Answer: Grinding. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In the town of Chipilo, in the state of Puebla, people speak a variant of which European language?Answer: Venetian. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
In which year did UNESCO recognize Mexican gastronomy as intangible cultural heritage?Answer: 2010. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
The Mangy Parrot, by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, is said to be the first what?Answer: Latin American novel. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which kind of traditional song was especially popular during the Mexican Revolution?Answer: Corridos. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which Mexican architect won the Pritzker Prize in 1980?Answer: Luis Barragán. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which of these foods came to Mexico with the Spaniards?Answer: Rice. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which participant in the conquest wrote a True History of it that is still widely read?Answer: Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
Which way of treating corn do Mexican cooks inherit from the peoples who lived there before Columbus?Answer: Nixtamalization. Source: Wikipedia: Mexico
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every answer was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Mexico (text under CC BY-SA 4.0), which is linked beside each question; the questions, wrong choices and explanations are in our own words. Left out on purpose: population figures and ranks, current office-holders and living people, sports teams, companies and brands, drink, crime and party politics, religion as a round, and the facts other packs on this site already ask (Tenochtitlan and Mexico City, Cortés, the Cry of Dolores, Cinco de Mayo and Puebla, the treaty of 1848, the Olmec heads, the Rio Grande, the Chicxulub crater). The state of New Mexico is not part of this pack. Levels are our estimate. Licence: own work