Mexico in the 20th century

Mexico in the 20th century

Woman Suffrage

1934-1940

1924-1928

Maximato

Lázaro Cardenas Administration

1953

1928-1934

Plutarco Elias Calles Administration

López Portillo Administration

La caída del sistema

1968

1985

1988

1976-1982

Tlatelolco massacre

Earthquake

NAFTA signature

1994

1990

1992

IFE creation

Plutarco Elías Calles Administration 1924-1928

• Founder of the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), which became the major political party, later renamed in 1946 as Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
• He sponsored agrarian, labour, and educational reforms.
• He introduced a series of oppressive laws aimed to eliminate the church's influence:
• Limited the number of clergy
• Prhohibition of church schools
• Cristero war

Lázaro Cárdenas Administration 1934-1940

• Cárdenas continued and expanded the agrarian reform. He redistributed land to peasants, dismantling large haciendas and distributing land among the rural population.
• Nationalization of the oil industry (1938). Leading to the creation of PEMEX (Petróleos Mexicanos), a state-owned oil company.
• His administration played a key role in the creation of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM).

• Mexican corporativism

José López Portillo Adminsitration1976-1982

How it started

• Important oil deposits were discovered, at a time of high international crude oil prices
• Low international interest rates on loans and increased in public spending
• "Deberemos aprender a administrar la abundancia"

How it finished

• Changes in the international oil market and interests rates
• "Debo no niego, pago no tengo"
• Banks nationalization: Banking and credit services were provided exclusively by the State.

References

• Aboites, L. (2019) Nueva Historia Mínima de Méxcio: El último tramo del siglo XX en México. ISBN: 978-84-16714-54-4

• Instituto Nacional Electoral. (2024). Historia del Instituto Federal Electoral. Retrieved from https://portalanterior.ine.mx/archivos3/portal/historico/contenido/menuitem.cdd858023b32d5b7787e6910d08600a0/

• Meyer, L. (1983). MEXICO EN EL SIGLO XX.: La concentración del poder político. In M. Palacios (Ed.), La unidad nacional en América Latina: del regionalismo a la nacionalidad (1st ed., pp. 131–148). El Colegio de Mexico. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv26d99j.8

1985 Earthquake

The earthquake of 1985 in Mexico had significant social and political consequences. Some of them are:

• Inability of the State to respond adequately to the emergency
• Greater political participation of citizens and the strengthening of Mexican civil society

North American Free Trade Agreement

• It established a free-trade zone in North America; it was signed in 1992 and took effect on Jan. 1, 1994.
• It immediately lifted tariffs on the majority of goods produced by the signatory nations.

Mexican Corporativism

A political and economic system where various interest groups, such as labor unions, peasants, and business organizations, were incorporated into state-controlled entities.

• Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)
• National Peasant Confederation (CNC)
• National Confederation of Industrial Chambers (CONCIN)

It contributed to a certain level of stability in Mexico during the mid-20th century. However, it also led to a concentration of power in the hands of the ruling party

IFE creation

As a result of the Reforms made to the Constitution on electoral matters, the Congress issued the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures (COFIPE) and ordered the creation of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), in order to have an impartial institution that gives certainty, transparency and legality to federal elections.