During the late nineteenth century, most governments in
Latin America had been dominated by landed or military
elites, who governed by the blatant use of military force.
This trend toward authoritarianism increased during the
1930s as domestic instability caused by the effects of the
Great Depression led to the creation of military dictatorships
throughout the region. This trend was especially
evident in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico—three countries
that together possessed more than half of the land
and wealth of Latin America (see Map 5.2 on the next
page).
Autocratic rule by an elite minority often had disastrous
effects. The government of Argentina, controlled
by landowners who had benefited from the export of
beef and wheat, was slow to recognize the need to establish
a local industrial base. In 1916, Hipólito Irigoyen
(1852–1933), head of the Radical Party, was elected
president on a program to improve conditions for the
middle and lower classes. Little was achieved, however, as
the party became increasingly corrupt and drew closer to
the large landowners. In 1930, the army overthrew Irigoyen’s
government and reestablished the power of the
landed class. But their effort to return to the past and
suppress the growing influence of labor unions failed,
and in 1946, General Juan Perón—claiming the support
of the descamisados (“shirtless ones”)—seized sole power
(see Chapter 11).
Brazil followed a similar path. In 1889, the army overthrew
the Brazilian monarchy, installed by Portugal
decades before, and established a republic. But it was
dominated by landed elites, many of whom had grown
wealthy through their ownership of coffee plantations. By
1900, three-quarters of the world’s coffee was grown in
Brazil. As in Argentina, the ruling oligarchy ignored the
importance of establishing an urban industrial base.
When the Great Depression ravaged profits from coffee
exports, a wealthy rancher, Getúlio Vargas (1883–1954),
seized power and served as president from 1930 to 1945.
At first, Vargas sought to appease workers by declaring an
eight-hour day and a minimum wage, but influenced by
the apparent success of fascist regimes in Europe, he ruled
by increasingly autocratic means and relied on a police
force that used torture to silence his opponents. His industrial
policy was successful, however, and by the end of
World War II, Brazil had become Latin America’s major
industrial power. In 1945, the army, concerned that Vargas
was turning increasingly to leftist elements for support,
forced him to resign.
Mexico, in the early years of the twentieth century,
was in a state of turbulence. Under the rule of dictator
Porfirio Díaz (see Chapter 1), the real wages of the working
class had declined. Moreover, 95 percent of the rural
population owned no land, and about a thousand families
ruled almost all of Mexico. When a liberal landowner,
Francisco Madero, forced Díaz from power in 1910, he
opened the door to a wider revolution. Madero’s ineffectiveness
triggered a demand for agrarian reform led by
Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919), who aroused the masses
of landless peasants in southern Mexico and began to
seize the haciendas of wealthy landholders.
For the next several years, Zapata and rebel leader
Pancho Villa (1878–1923), who operated in the northern
state of Chihuahua, became an important political
force in the country by publicly advocating efforts to redress
the economic grievances of the poor. But neither
had a broad grasp of the challenges facing the country,
and power eventually gravitated to a more moderate
group of reformists around the Constitutionalist Party.
The latter were intent on breaking the power of the great
landed families and U.S. corporations, but without engaging
in radical land reform or the nationalization of
property. After a bloody conflict that cost the lives of
thousands, the moderates consolidated power, and in
1917, they promulgated a new constitution that established
a strong presidency, initiated land reform policies,
established limits on foreign investment, and set an
agenda for social welfare programs.
In 1920, Constitutionalist leader Alvaro Obregón assumed
the presidency and began to carry out his reform
program. But real change did not take place until the
presidency of General Lazaro Cárdenas (1895–1970) in
1934. Cárdenas won wide popularity with the peasants
by ordering the redistribution of 44 million acres of
land controlled by landed elites. He also seized control of
the oil industry, which had hitherto been dominated by
major U.S. oil companies. Alluding to the Good Neighbor
Policy, President Roosevelt refused to intervene, and
eventually Mexico agreed to compensate U.S. oil companies
for their lost property. It then set up PEMEX, a
governmental organization, to run the oil industry. By
now, the revolution was democratic in name only, as the
official political party, known as the Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI), controlled the levers of power
throughout society. Every six years, for more than half a
century, PRI presidential candidates automatically succeeded
each other in office.
World History
