<Articles>Silver and Oil : The Good Neighbor Policy and the Retrenchment of Cardenas's Reforms, 1938-1940

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  • <論説>銀と石油 : 善隣外交とメキシコのカルデナス改革の後退、一九三八－四〇年
  • 銀と石油--善隣外交とメキシコのカルデナス改革の後退,1938-40年
  • ギン ト セキユ ゼンリン ガイコウ ト メキシコ ノ カルデナス カイカク

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Abstract

Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas expropriated the foreign oil industries on 18 March 1938. This paper examines the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration's policy toward Mexico after the oil expropriation. Specifically, it looks at four factors: a financial crisis of the Cardenas government; oil nationalization; foreign silver purchases; and the international context. Several themes emerge. First, New Dealers, such as Roosevelt, Ambassador Josephus Daniels, and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., had strong sympathy for Cardenas's land reform. Their national security concern also played an important role; they wanted to avoid a pitched battle between capital and labor on the model of the Spanish Civil War in Mexico. They were ready to provide substantial financial aid for the Cardenas government in December 1937. Second, the oil nationalization was a political decision resulted from the intransigence of the foreign oil industries. However, economic and political costs of the oil nationalization exceeded Mexico's revenues created by U. S. silver purchases, which furnished Mexico with an assured market for its most important export commodity. Thus, the oil nationalization jeopardized a large loan program the Roosevelt administration contemplated then, increased Mexico's economic and political constraints resulting from rapid social reforms, and led Cardenas to compromise with conservative forces in Mexico. Third, U. S. sympathy and silver purchases were not sufficient to ameliorate Mexico's economic crisis, and consequent political crisis. The U. S. policy toward Mexico became to act as a preventive policy of collapse of the Cardenas government. Lastly, by April 1940 U. S. and Mexican policymakers faced a critical conjuncture resulting from the near collapse of Mexican monetary system, the presidential elections in Mexico, and the impasse of the oil dispute. The German invasion of the Low Countries and the subsequent fall of France made the policymakers of the two nations cooperate.

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 80 (5), 745-776, 1997-09-01

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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