Chapter One - Reconstrucción de la Nación (Rebuilding the Nation)
Mexico in 1936 was, like the rest of the world, striving for answers that would lead them out of the stifling grip of the Great Depression. President Lázaro Cárdenas after his election in 1934, has carefully been searching for avenues from which he could find those answers. To the north, America, who is our biggest trading partner had been implementing a series of policies and economic reforms under the watchful eye of President Franklin Roosevelt known to the American people as "The New Deal". Small but noticeable gains had been made after the "Deal" was implemented, though it turns out it was incredibly unpopular. President Roosevelt did not last long enough in office for the American people to realize the benefits of these reforms, and was replaced by the ever defiant General Douglas MacArthur.
Out with the old, in with the new
President Cardenas was determined to reform the old Mexico that was run by dictators parading as Presidents. To win the favor of the Mexican people, the first thing he did upon his election was cut his Presidential salary in half. His reasons for doing so remain private, but it was looked upon very favorably by the people. Cardenas wished to combat his image as the old revolutionary General that he was, and implement policies that would help the common people of the Mexican Republic.
Mexico could not afford Isolationist ideology anymore
An economic philosopher by the name of Keynes had introduced some theories about why governments needed to involve themselves into their nations economies or the Depression would just continue to be self perpetuating. The economies of nations run mostly on the consumption of goods by their respective people, but with unemployment so high, the people did not have enough money to sustain growth. The idea would be that governments could "fill the gap" by increasing their own spending until industry picked up and unemployment reached a desirable level.
This is where Cardenas stepped in and started a six year plan that would implement a massive overhaul of the Mexican economy. In order to insure against further loss of employment, he nationalized key industries such as oil and returned large tracts of land to poor individuals in order for them to be able to develop it. The key parts of this plan included again, the giving of land to poor individuals to insure that it did not get purchased by corporations, a large education initiative to provide an educated workforce that would provide benefits far into the future, and the creation of unions in order to combat low pay and unemployment.
Education was seen as important tool to increase our research power
These reforms proved to be very popular in Mexico, and Cardenas benefited from increased popularity and fame. The question now being posed to the Mexican people... was how much they wanted to come out their isolationist policies and join the world stage.
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A question for folks that have done previous AAR's... I would like to make the photos in my story bigger, so the audience does not have to click on them to enlarge them. Any suggestions so as to remedy this problem would be much appreciated. I'm good with math, but not with computers, thanks.
