Chapter LX: Fallout and Aftershocks Part XI - Latin America.
Leaving North America behind us we head south into Mexico, a nation that held the rare distinction of having improved it's economic position during the early 1930s, though admittedly it was from a war ravaged base. The end of the Catholic Cristero War had neatly coincided with the onset of the Great Depression, barely had Mexicans finished celebrating the peace deal than the battered economy collapsed. This however would be the low point, the establishment of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (National Revolutionary Party, PNR) would, ironically, mark the final end of the Mexican revolution that had been ongoing in various forms since 1910. The immediate post-war President, revolutionary war general Plutarco Calles was originally a pragmatic social democrat who, though bombastically radical in speech, preferred slow and steady reform to dramatic change. Unfortunately his time in the Presidency gave him a taste for the power and money of high political office, his reforming zeal petering out by the early 1930s being replaced by corruption and nepotism. After his first term Calles declared himself "Jefe Maximato" the Political Chieftain of Mexico, and became the de facto ruler of Mexico through a string of puppet Presidents.
Calles' reign came to an end when he was forced to appoint one of his old colleagues, Lázaro Cárdenas, as President. Playing on the growing dissatisfaction with both the lack of reforming zeal, and the growing corruption, Cárdenas soon outmanoeuvred Calles, culminating in the deportation and exile of Calles and his entire inner circle. This would mark the start of radical change in Mexico as Cárdenas accelerated the pace of change, increasing labour rights and union power while pushing through wide ranging land reform, seizing the haciendas of land owners and turning them into 'Ejido' areas, state owned land that was parcelled out for communities to use for free. At the industrial end of the economy he continued Calles policy of nationalise the weakened private railways at bargain prices, extending it to other small scale 'strategic' industries that could be seized with minimal compensation. Ordinarily this would have caused problems for the Mexican economy, giving foreign investors the entirely accurate impression that property rights and the rule of law were less important than the ill-defined 'social revolutionary justice'. However due to the Depression Calles judged such concerns were unimportant, overseas investment had been reduced to minimal levels already, while Mexico's exports had never been a vital part of the economy, even before the Depression decimated trade, so could easily be sacrificed. The one exception was the vital oil industry, such a key area of the economy that successive Mexican Presidents had trod lightly around it. However as the new generation of Mexican engineers proved capable of running the nationalised industries unaided, and the US oil majors pulled out of the Middle East to consolidate at home, Calles thoughts naturally turned to the fate of the oil industry, his decision would prove fateful for all parties involved.
Lázaro Cárdenas, the reforming President of Mexico. His brand of state intervention, nationalisation and land reform would gain him many admirers across the region, not least for the impressive results it yielded for the Mexican people and economy. Significantly this included many people north of the border, for whom the policies of Cárdenas offered a genuinely new alternative.
Leaving Mexico we pass over the remainder of Central America, not because these nations lack interesting and diverse histories of their own, but because their affairs were of a more regional nature, impacting and being impacted on only by their neighbours and, of course, the ever present US commercial and military interests. As such matters are outside the scope of this work we pass over them, though it is perhaps worth noting that relations between the United States and it's Caribbean and Central American neighbours remained tense during the period. The somewhat idealistic non-intervention doctrine that had been floated after the Les Cayes incident in Haiti, short handed to 'The Good Neighbour Policy' by some, had failed to find favour with President Smith and thus the Roosevelt Corollary remained the guiding principle of US regional policy. Though public pressure had forced a scaling back of many US interventions, particularly the occupation of Haiti, this was more to do with a desire to see Federal funds spent at home on domestic problems or tax rebates rather than on foreign adventures. Thus it was that many a government in the region still had to keep half an eye on the potential US reaction to any policy decision, for fear of economic, political or military intervention should they go too far for American tastes, a state of affairs naturally resented by many in the region.
We end our tour of the world in South America, where the entire range of reactions can be found; from the interest of Venezuela and Argentina, through to the regional focus of Ecuador and finally the quiet indifference of Uruguay. For all the events across the world South America had concerns of it's own, a ceasefire in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia had only been arranged the in June of the previous year and negotiations on a final peace treaty were still ongoing. Moreover a second territorial dispute, between Ecuador and Peru over border territory and the start of the Amazon basin, was growing increasingly bad tempered despite, or may because of, an agreement over the status quo border line arranged over the summer. Quite naturally for many governments these events, being closer, were of far more importance than any affair in Europe. There were however exceptions, countries for whom overseas affairs could have large domestic impacts and thus naturally paid greater attention to world affairs. As one might expect Venezuela was one of these nations, as the second largest oil producer on earth and with oil comprising over 90% of exports anything that might affect the price was naturally watched carefully. After prices fell dramatically at the start of the Great Depression, sinking to less the £1 a barrel in the early 1930s, the Abyssinian War had seen prices spike to well over £10 a barrel over fears the Iraqi and Persian fields may be cut off, the resultant injection of funds naturally welcomed in the Venezuelan Finance Ministry. The other notably observant party was Argentina, possibly unique as the only nation outside the protagonists to express any interest in the Anglo-Irish trade war, for higher tariffs on Irish trade could only mean greater imports of Argentinian beef. There were also the strong ties between the two nations, after the Roca-Runciman Treaty of 1933 the Vice-President of Argentina summed up the new agreement; "It can be said that Argentina is an integral economic part of the British Empire." As trade between the two nations expanded there was an appetite on both sides for a revised and expanded deal, further strengthening ties and increasing the already considerable British influence in the continent.