Reform Phase

1. Reform Phase

2. Obregon's presidency • Elected to office in special election, assumes control in November 1920 • Pragmatic business approach to government • Sought accomodation with all groups except reactionary clergy and landlords • Modern version of "pan o palo”

3. Obregon's Policies • Land reform • Labor • Education • Indigenismo • U.S. relationship

4. Land Reform • Agrarian reform was useful safety valve for peasant discontent • Created national agrarian commission which oversaw state commissions • Power to expropriate hacendado land for landless villages • Paid for with 20 year bonds • Reform proceeded slowly due to: • Litigation by landlords

5. Land Reform (con’t) • Armed resistance by landlords • Opposition by clergy • 3 million acres distributed • 320 million acres in hands of hacendados • Even with land, failure occurred as government did not provide: seeds, tools, adequate credit or training

6. Labor • Encouraged labor to organize • Confederacion Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM) - labor union headed by Luis Morones • Ties to Samuel Gompers and the AFL in the United States • Semi-official status, supported by the government • Coopted by Obregon

7. Education • Jose Vasconcelos - Secretary of Education • Created new type of rural school, La Casa del Pueblo (The House of the People) • Designed to serve all of village • Three Rs, art, music, sports, theater, instruction in sanitation and agriculture • Idealistic but at times unprepared teachers • Itinerant (wandering) teachers were sent to train those in the villages

8. Education (con’t) • Murals on public buildings • Conflict between new secular schools and religious schools • Priest denounced secular education • Obregon did not enforce Article 3 of the Constitution (ban on religious primary schools) • In the absence of state resources better to be taught by priest than stay illiterate

9. Indigenismo • Reassessment of Indian cultural heritage, pushing the greatness of old Indian arts • Manuel Gamio - director of Office of Anthropology (1st in Americas) • Study of Teotihuacan • Preserve & restore cultural heritage • Amass data for sound plan of economic and social recovery • Partisans of Revolution idealized Aztec Mexico

10. U.S. Relationship • Problem with retroactivity of Article 27 - Obregon will not openly state nonretroactivity • U.S. withholds diplomatic recognition of the Obregon government • Obregon compromises • threat of counterrevolutionary coup against selection of Plutarco Calles as successor

11. U.S. Relationship (con’t) • Bucareli Agreement - August 1923 • Obregon confirms nonretroactivity • U.S. gives formal recognition to Obregon government • Coup attempt - December 1923 • put down coup with military supplies purchased from the U.S.

12. Calles' Presidency • Dominates the next decade of Mexican politics • Continued on foundations of Obregon • Radical rhetoric - pragmatic policy

13. Calles' Economic and Land Policies • Rapid growth of national capitalism • Creation of National Bank • strengthens fiscal/monetary policy • National Road Commission organized • National Electric Codes enacted • stimulates growth of construction and consumer goods industries

14. Calles' Economic and Land Policies (con’t) • Aid given to industry (foreign and domestic) • protective tariffs • subsidies • Land reform • distribution increased from Obregon • over twice as much land distributed 8 million hectares • problems • Hacendados were able to choose the land they gave up, most of it was not arable • Calles did not provide tools or other items to make the land productive

15. Calles' Economic and Land Policies (con’t • Government bank was created to lend money to ejidos • 4/5 of money went to the hacendados because of superior credit ratings • Land reform judged a failure because the grain production of 1930 was below the production of 1910 • Calles concluded peasant proprietorship was not economically desirable and ended land redistribution

16. Labor • Trade unions serve two purposes • keep growing power of capitalism in check • barricade in the event of attack on capitalists • Labor began to split from CROM form independent unions • disillusioned with corrupt leaders and low wages

17. Conflict with U.S. • Calles welcomed foreign capital but believed that Mexico had the right to regulate the conditions surrounding it • 1925 dispute over land ownership

18. Conflict with U.S. (cont.) • Mexican Congress passes laws implementing Article 27 • Oil ownership becomes a lease arrangement • exchange title for 50 year concession (lease agreement) • possible 30 year renewal • possible further extension

19. Mexican view • Eliminated vagueness and gave oil companies firm titles. Stopped calls for outright nationalization of oil

20. Oil Company view • Law was confiscatory, they threatened to drill without confirming concessions

21. Conflict with U.S. (cont.) • American hardliners were "saber rattling" • American ambassador "there is little white blood in Calle's government" • Secretary of State Kellog stated that there were "Bolshevik aims in Mexico and Latin America"

22. Conflict with U.S. (cont.) • Intervention was stopped by arguments from: • progressive senators • press, church, academic groups • realization that war with Mexico would have little national support

23. Conflict with U.S. (cont.) • Dwight Morrow appointed Ambassador to Mexico • Negotiated an understanding with Calles concerning the time limitation on concessions • Mexican Supreme Court ruled that aspect of the law unconstitutional • Crisis was averted • Law still provided for confirmatory concessions and reaffirmed national ownership of the subsoil

24. Religious Conflict • Church v. modernizing thrust of the Revolution • January 1926 the church heirarchy disavowed the Constitution • Calles enforces dormant anti-clerical clauses of the Constitution • Calles law • registration of priests • closing of all religious primary schools

25. Religious Conflict • Church suspended all services in Mexico and boycotted all goods except necessities • Militant Catholics took up arms - Cristeros (Catholic guerrillas) • government schools and young teachers were targets • government repression was severe

26. Presidential Election 1928 • Deal between Calles and Obregon • supporters in Congress change the Constitution to allow former presidents to be reelected after one term • term was extended from 4 to 6 years

27. Presidential Election 1928 (cont.) • Two opponents for the office conspire against Obregon and Calles • Calles has them arrested and shot • Obregon is elected, then three weeks later he is assassinated by a fanatical Cristero in Mexico City

28. Calles - "El jefe maximo" • Calles places three different men in the office of president to fulfill Obregon's term but he is the power behind the office. Each one resigns after displeasing "el jefe" • Military uprising is crushed in 1929, the "last hurrah" of the military caudillos

29. National Revolutionary Party (PNR) • Calles institutionalizes the rule of the "revolutionary family" (military and political leaders since 1920) • Under different names this party has been ruling Mexico since 1929. • Their official presidential candidate had never lost until the election of Vincente Fox in 2000.

30. National Revolutionary Party (PNR) • After consolidating power the "revolutionary family" turns conservative • shift concides with beginning of the Great Depression • By 1933 a progressive wing of PNR emerges with General Lazaro Cardenas as leader of the reformers • has been a part of the inner circle of the party • 1930 was named Party Chairmen

31. National Revolutionary Party (PNR) • 1934 elections Cardenas is nominated by the Party ( with Calles blessing) for the presidency • seen as a concession to reformers in the party • Calles thought he would remain loyal • cabinet was hand picked by Calles

32. Cardenas' Programs • Established a Six Year Plan • Mexican Revolution continues under Cardenas • Established a spirit of service in the bureaucracy • Closed down the gambling houses • Cut his own salary in 1/2

33. Agrarian Reform • Land distribution on large scale • Ejido was the focal point of agrarian reform • land given to both the ejido (communal) and the rancho (individual land) • where appropriate large collective farms were established • government provided seeds, machinery and credit

34. Agrarian Reform (cont.) • 45 million acres of land distributed • productivity was increased • Structural defects of reforms • conceived to satisfy land hunger instead of real agricultural development • ejidal parcel was very small • land distributed was often of poor quality • technical assistance was often inadequate

35. Labor Reform • Corrupts leaders are removed • Confederacion de Trobajadores Mexicanos (CTM) replaces CROM • Strikes supported by government (where appropriate)

36. Fall of Calles • All of these actions angered Calles, he begin to plot against Cardenas • Cardenas calls for the resignation of the cabinet and forms and new Anti - Calles cabinet • By 1935 Cardenas is the master of Mexico. • 1936 Calles is deported for "plotting against the government"

37. PRM - Party of the Mexican Revolution • Cardenas reorganized and purged the party of Calles influence. • It emerges as the PRM • The three pillars of this party are labor, the peasantry and the army. • First populist leader

38. Oil Crisis • American and British oil companies v. workers unions • Strike leads to arbitration • Arbitration finding is scaled down from original union demands but the companies refuse to settle • March 18, 1938 Cardenas nationalized the oil companies

39. Oil Crisis (cont.) • Economic Independence • Action was not a precedent, 90% of mining was still in foreign hands • U.S. took no strong action due to • Good Neighbor Policy being in effect under Franklin Roosevelt • Ambassador to Mexico understood Cardenas policy and reasons

40. Oil Crisis (cont.) • Timing of the move was also fortunate • War in Europe was looming • Cardenas announced Mexico would pay all just claims

41. Cardenas’ Presidency was the highwater mark for the reform movement

42. In 1940 election, Avila Camancho, loyal to Cardenas but more conservative, was elected president