1975: 2 Minutes to Midnight(AH/Cold War/OOC/Sign-Ups/Open)

[Krugeristan]

Raid on an embassy.

Do you hold actual territory?

Most of it is catch-and-release territory. When there's nothing more we can get out of it, we leave, although a small group of 'Ashbah Alfidd controls about thirty square miles of rain forest in Pro's country.

[Bolovia]

Do you hold actual territory?

Most of it is catch-and-release territory. When there's nothing more we can get out of it, we leave, although a small group of 'Ashbah Alfidd controls about thirty square miles of rain forest in Pro's country.

You're primarily centered in Northern Yemen? Or just scattered everywhere?

[Krugeristan]

Most of it is catch-and-release territory. When there's nothing more we can get out of it, we leave, although a small group of 'Ashbah Alfidd controls about thirty square miles of rain forest in Pro's country.

You're primarily centered in Northern Yemen? Or just scattered everywhere?

Largely scattered. Main base is in North Yemen.

Like ISIS . . . but we're not ISIS.

[Bolovia]

You're primarily centered in Northern Yemen? Or just scattered everywhere?

Largely scattered. Main base is in North Yemen.

Like ISIS . . . but we're not ISIS.

Still terrorists though.

[The V O I D]

I need help with the military section of my app...

[Krugeristan]

Largely scattered. Main base is in North Yemen.

Like ISIS . . . but we're not ISIS.

Still terrorists though.

True.

We're just not suicidal.

[Bolovia]

I need help with the military section of my app...

What do you need help with?

[Pimps Inc]

Nation App:
GENERAL INFORMATION:
NS Name: Pimps Inc
Official Nation Name: United Mexican States
Nation short Name: Mexico
Territorial Claims: Mexico plus El Peten Province of Guatemala
El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua in Mexico's sphere of influence
Population: 100 million
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION:
Government Style: Presidential Representative Republic
Political Freedoms: 6/10, all Mexican have the right to vote freely in open elections at state and local levels, but corruption still heavily plagues the system and the President still picks his sucessor in a move known as El Dedazo(Tap of the Finger)
Civil Freedoms: 8/10, after President Echeverria held a moment of silence for the victims of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre and arrested his predecessor, his administration has moved Mexico towards a more democratic style
Economic Freedoms:
Nations Capitol: Mexico City
Head of State: President Cuauhtemoc Cardenas
Head of Government: See Above
State Religion: The government enforces strict anti-clerical in education and governance, but 99% of Mexicans are Roman Catholic
Legislature type: Unicameral
Main Political Party: Juarez Constitutionalist Party
Political beliefs: Civic Nationalism, Socialism
Political Agenda and/or goals: Wrench Latin America free of US influence, help Che Guevara in his communist campaigns in Latin America

MILITARY INFORMATION:
Foreign Policy: With the so-called "tercermundismo", a reorientation in Mexican foreign policy has taken place during the presidential term of Echeverría. He shows his solidarity with the developing nations and tried to establish Mexico as the defender of Third World interests. The aims of Echeverría's foreign policy are to diversify Mexico's economic links and to fight for a more equal and just international order. He visited various countries and had strong ties with the communist governments of Cuba and Chile. Cardenas is set to visit Cuba very soon. Moreover, Mexico provided political asylum to many political refugees from South American countries who fled their country's repressive military dictatorships; among them Hortensia Bussi, the widow of former Chilean President Salvador Allende, as well as allowed Che to use Mexico as a platform for his campaigns into Latin America
Alignment: Economically tied to US, President Echeverria's foreign policy has moved Mexico towards the WarPac since the start of his Sexenio.
Potential Allies: USSR, Warsaw Pact, Cuba, every Latin American nation
Potential Enemies: USA, NATO,
Military Branch names:
Mexican Army
Mexican Navy
Mexican Naval Infantry
Mexican Air Force
Size of each military branch:
180,00 Mexican Army
6,000 Mexican Navy
-2,000 Mexican Marines
2,000 Mexican Air Force
Type(s) of Automatic Rifle: FN FAL
Type(s) of Pistol: Obregon pistol, M1911,
Number and Type(S) of MBT: 10 T-72s secretly on order
Number and Type(s) of IFV: 20 M50 Ontos, 200 Sedena-Henschel HWK-11, 500 SEDENA AMX, 200 M8 Greyhound
Number of MRLS's: None
Number of Towed Artillery: Hundreds of various calibres
Number of APC's: 200 Sedena-Henschel HWK-12, 30 BTR-60, 10 BTR-70
-----------------------------------------
Number and Type(s) of Fighter Jets: 10 F-5E, 24 IAI Kfir, 30 AT-33A,
Number and Type(s) of Bombers:None
Number and Type(s) of Cargo Planes: 7 C130 Hercules, 20 Cessna aircraft
Number and Type(s) of Attack Helicopters: 5 Mil Mi-24 on order
Number and Type(s) of Transport Helicopters: 10 Mil Mi 8, 20 Mil Mi 17, x202 Bell 212 Twin Huey, x219 Bell 206
------------------------------------------
Number and Type(s) of Aircraft Carriers:
Number and Type(s) of Destroyer: 1 Quetzalcóatl-class, 1 Manuel Azueta-class
Number and Type(s) of Frigates:None
Number and Type(s) of Missile Cruisers:None
Number and Type(s) of Submarines:None
Number and Type(s) of LST or LPD: 1 Panuco-class LST
-----------------------------------------
Number of Nuclear Weapons: A stagnant nuclear program successfully created enriched uranium but budget cuts led to its suspension
Number of Biological Weapons:None
Number of Chemical Weapons:None

ECONOMIC SECTION:
Economy: Mix of state owned and private
GDP: $180.8 Billion USD
Main Imports: metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery, aircraft, and aircraft parts,
Main Exports: automobiles, electronics, televisions, ,oil and oil products, silver, fruits, vegetables, coffee, cotton, metals, precious metals

GENERAL INFORMATION CONT.:
History of Nation:

Within several years of taking power most European and Latin American countries recognized Diaz's government, but the US held out. The Americans had several claims against Mexico over debts and banditos crossing into US territory. These raids almost led to war with the US in 1877. Diaz came to an agreement with the Americans and agreed to repay over 14 million in claims. Diaz reduced the number of civil servants to ease the burden on the treasury and tried to stimulate trade and crack down on smuggling. At the end of his first term, Diaz was true to his ' no-reelection ' pledge and did not seek another term. For once Mexico had a peaceful transfer of power and foreign governments began to believe Mexican politics was maturing. Diaz threw his support behind Manuel Gonzalez, who won the election with a large majority in 1880.

Two steps forward, one step back 1880-1884:
Gonzalez strove to modernize the country, but the strain was too much for the treasury. During his administration, the railway from Mexico City to El Paso, Texas was inaugurated and the Banco Nacional de México was founded. He felt he could not cut back on foreign repayment and railroad construction, so he cut the salaries of government officials. The administration of Gonzalez was accused of corruption and graft and Gonzalez himself was accused of sexual improprieties. Diaz ran again for president in 1884 and easily won with a landslide. In the future he would not be bothered by his former "no-reelection' pledge". Díaz had the constitution amended, first to allow two terms in office, and then to remove all restrictions on re-election.

Porfiriato 1884-1900
Diaz continued his modernization drive and the country had tremendous economic growth. Jose Limantour, secretary of the treasury, made economic changes such as changing tariffs, switching Mexico to the gold standard and getting more favorable foreign loans for Mexico and reduced corruption. By 1890, the Mexican treasury was running in the black.

The United States offered a near unlimited market for Mexican goods and by 1900, 63 million dollars in annual trade was passing between the two countries, up from a mere 7 million dollars in 1880, with 75% of Mexican exports going north of the border. In addition, Díaz had paid the last four million pesos of debt owed to the United States in January of 1890 and signed an extradition treaty that greatly reduced crime rates and improved safety on the northern border. Indeed, when Díaz was quoted as saying, “pity poor Mexico, so far from God, and so close to the United States”, he was surely referring to political or military risks, as Mexico’s economy was able to flourish from trade with its northern neighbour.

The budget and loan management of Mexico is one of the areas where the benefits of the Porfiriato are most evident. The instability of the previous century had resulted in a great deal of governmental debt and continuous deficit budgets, while loans that were taken out were done so at painfully high interest rates. Although criticized for its dictatorial nature, the relative autonomy afforded to Díaz’s regime due to a lack of formal political opposition allowed it a great deal of flexibility in terms of financial planning and an economic growth rate that would have been impossible with constant political bickering and catering to elite factions. As such, as early as 1895 the national treasury had balanced the budget and was even running consecutive surpluses. This allowed the regime a better negotiating position with the banks and, for the first time, Mexico as a state negotiated with foreign powers from a position of unquestionable financial strength.

Interest rates on loans were soon fixed at a mere 5% as Mexico was increasingly seen as a safe investment, and rates were in the process of dropping to 4% when the first decade of the new century ended. A financial report in 1909 by José Yves Limantour, Díaz’s much praised Secretary of Finance, reported that between the years 1895 and 1909, Mexico’s aggregate surplus amounted to over 157 million pesos, with over 81 million of this going towards public works such as the National Theatre in Mexico City and a canal to drain the Valley of Mexico to prevent flooding. In addition, this unprecedented government income meant service workers and the military were paid regularly and fairly, resulting in more satisfied and efficient officials than could be obtained when bribery and graft were the only ways in which a serviceman could extract payment for his services. Indeed, the financial management of the Díaz regime brought a great deal of wealth to Mexico, and proved instrumental in beginning a massive infrastructural modernization effort in the late nineteenth century.

New Century, Same Dictator 1900-15
Beginning the new century, the Communist Manifesto emerged as a tsunami across the globe with the rise of the Soviet Union, and all who read it were entranced. Either with hate or amazement. And it so happened that among the Mexican peasants, it was loved, while it was despised among the elite at the top. It gave them words to use against the Porfiriato, and this time, the "palo" would not silence them.

Panic set in throughout the regime, as labour unions threatened to become rebelling armies, the President began a wide reform in the agrarian sector. An insane idea to the Porfirio of 20 years ago, it seemed like the only sane thing to do now. He was completely convinced of the decision when he realized that the War in Europe would take every world power's attention. Especially Great Britain's and the US, the two biggest investors in Mexico.

Land distribution began almost immediately, and affected both foreign and large domestic land owners. The process was very slow, however. Between 1903 and 1910, 53,000 square kilometres was distributed to over 500,000 recipients in some 1500 communities. By 1920, ejidal lands constituted only 6.3% of national agricultural property. For now the masses were appeased, while the Europeans engaged at having lost their investments. These were quickly dissipated with the start of the Great War.

In 1916, Guatemala, at the time under the control of another dictator, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, had began to test the patience of his Mexican counterpart. After repeated international incidents involving the assassinations of a US ambassador and an ex-Guatemalan president in Mexico City, repeated allegations of publicized human rights abuses, and finally, the forceful demanding of the claimed lands Soconusco and Chiapas from Mexico, President Diaz had enough. On the 13th of February, 5,000 Mexican soldiers lead by a mix of youngblood officers and the dying ancient veterans marched into Guatemala in the middle of the dry season. Facing a smaller, rag-tag band of uneducated peasants that Guatemala called a national army and with the dry season making travel easier, Mexican soldiers raised their tricolor and eagle above Guatemala City by the end of the month. The city fell after its own population surrendered Cabrera to Mexican forces. Costa Rica, at the time under the control of dictator Federico Tinoco Granados, supported Guatemala shortly but this was enough to incur the wrath of Diaz. Mexican forces landed at Puntarenas after a shelling of the city before advancing to Alajuela where a battle ensued. The Mexican forces were victorious over the larger but inferior Costa Rican army. The capital of San Jose fell after a quick battle and the tricolor raised.

Soon after, the dictators was forced to sign over not only claims to Chiapas and Soconusco to Mexico, but also the entire department of El Peten. He would go on the commit suicide shortly after. The Porfirian Regime wasted no time in extending the Pax Porfiriana into the newly conquered lands. Guatemala and Costa Rica were reformed as the puppet state of the Central American Republic and a puppet president installed after sham elections. The United Fruit Company's holdings were seized and kicked out of the country, replaced by the Jumex owned, Videxport Fruit Company. This, of course, further strained relations between the US and Mexico, but once again, the Great War took the US's attention. Guatemala was naturally rich, and the Mexican companies began to exploit this moneycow to its fullest. On the Pacific coast one found sugar, coffee, spices and cocoa in great quantities, the former United Fruit plantations gave a splendid yield, and the productiveness of the soil in proportion to area was unique. On the east coast, there were enormous banana plantations. And on the highlands, maize, wheat and corn were grown, and fine coffee grew as far up as 1600 m above sea level. Minerals such as gold, copper, tin and quicksilver were abundant after the war forced natives to reveal the locations of these to the Mexican mining company, Industrias Peñoles. All these riches were exported to the US and Europe at new found prices, and Mexico's economy grew more per year, to a nearly $30 billion dollar one in 1920.

But the means of communication were poorly developed, aside from the railway that ran from shore to shore going through Guatemala City and was run by the United Fruit Company(now Videxport), there were only paths and tracks, marked on the maps as highways, but in reality just narrow mule-roads. These were quickly turned into paved modern roads and the railroad tracks and telegraph lines expanded from Mexico into Guatemala. Besides being oppressed by brutal and dishonest officials and landowners, the natives were suffering of an endemic alcoholism problem. There were drinking places everything - as the Cabrera government derived a certain revenue from the proceeds- with low quality spirits that had terrible effects. The workers were quickly given better conditions, though nowhere near that of Mexican ones, much less Europeans while regulations enacted on drinking and the drinks themselves, with the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery finding a new line of clients at these with their beers, albeit with much less terrible effects.

Se sienta un buen hombre, y se levanta un tiran
In 1915, Porfirio Diaz dies shortly after the country holds elections, giving the presidency to Francisco I. Madero. Madero immediately set himself to try to keep Mexico's strong economic growth alive without the oppressive policies of Diaz. He created the Department of Labor; introduced regulation of the labor practices in the textile industry; and oversaw the creation of the Casa del Obrero Mundial ("House of the World Worker"), an organization with anarcho-syndicalist connections, that would play a major role in the subsequent Mexican labor movement. Although not as radical as the Zapatistas would have liked, Madero did introduce some agrarian reforms, such as a reorganization of rural credit and the creation of agricultural stations. He launched an infrastructure program, building schools, railroads, and new highways. He introduced new taxation on foreign oil companies, which would anger the US and UK and lead to his assassination, some say, in 1919. He launched a modest programme of school lunches for the poor. In 1918, his Good Neighbor reform sought to improve the conditions in the CAR, inciting some opposition from the Conservative Party, but it was the clause calling for the liberation of CAR as a puppet state that froze Congress for months. The vast amounts of wealth flowing from the benevolent exploitation of the puppet state increasingly elevated Mexico's prestige in global politics. Madero, the Liberal he was, refused to listen. Finally, his adoption of the Constitution of 1917 is regarded as his greatest accomplishment.

In 1919, days before his meeting with the Central American Republic president, Madero was shot on his way to Balbuena Military Airfield in Mexico City by a sniper. The shooter was never caught, but it is believed that the Conservatives and foreign oil companies were somehow involved. Emergency elections were held and General Alvaro Obregon was declared the winner, to the anger of the Liberals and their candidate Adolfo de la Huerta, who staged a rebellion But Obregón demonstrated his brilliance as a military tactician who now had arms and even air support from the United States to suppress it brutally. The failed rebellion is considered as the end of the political instability that followed Porfirio's death.

Obregón also sought to shape public perceptions by staging elaborate celebrations in 1921 on the centenary of Mexico's independence from Spain. There had been such celebrations in 1910 by the Díaz regime, commemorating the start of the insurgency by Miguel Hidalgo. The political fact of independence was achieved by former royalist officer Agustín de Iturbide, who was more celebrated by conservatives in post-independence Mexico than liberals. However, 1921 provided a date for Obregon's government to shape historical memory of independence and the Porfiriato. After decades of dictatorship and economic growth, the centennial celebrations provided an opportunity for Mexicans to reflect on their history and identity, as well as to enjoy diversions in peacetime. The government inaugurated the new legislative assembly building, the Federal Legislative Palace, which was started by Diaz but never finished due to his death. In spite of Obregón's moderate approach, his presidency saw the beginnings of clashes between Catholics and supporters of the Mexican Revolution. Some bishops campaigned actively against land distribution and against the organization of workers into secular unions.

In 1923, Obregón endorsed Plutarco Elías Calles for president in the 1924 election (in which Obregón was not eligible to run) an d won by a landslide. One of the major points of contention with the U.S. was oil. Calles quickly rejected the Bucareli Agreements of 1923 between the U.S. and Mexico, when Álvaro Obregón was president, and began drafting a new oil law that would strictly enforce article 27 of the Mexican constitution. The oil problem stemmed from article 27 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which re-stated a law from Spanish origin that made everything under the soil property of the state. The language of article 27 threatened the oil possession of U.S. and European oil companies, especially if the article was applied retroactively. A Mexican Supreme Court decision had ruled that foreign-owned fields could not be seized as long as they were already in operation before the constitution went into effect. The Bucareli Agreements stated that Mexico would agree to respect the Mexican Supreme Court decision in exchange for official recognition from Washington of the presidency of Álvaro Obregón.

The reaction of the U.S. government to Calles's intention to enforce article 27 was swift. The American ambassador to Mexico branded Calles a communist, and Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg issued a threat against Mexico on 12 June 1925. Calles himself never considered himself a communist, but considered revolution a way of governing rather than an ideological position. Public opinion in the United States turned particularly anti-Mexican when the first embassy of the Soviet Union in any country was opened in Mexico, on which occasion the Soviet ambassador remarked that "no other two countries show more similarities than the Soviet Union and Mexico." After this, some in the United States government, considering Calles's regime Bolshevik, started to refer to Mexico as "Soviet Mexico".

Another source of conflict with the United States was Mexico's support for the liberals in the civil war in Nicaragua, as the United States supported the conservatives. This conflict ended when both countries signed a treaty in which they allowed each other to support the side they considered to be the most democratic. Calles would go on to send around 10,000 Mexican regular soldiers as "volunteers" alongside 2 tanks and 5 aircraft to support the Liberals, after calling upon Europe's support, citing the Liberals having been the democratically elected government before being removed by the Conservative coup d'etat. The US would counter with their deployment of US Marines, albeit too late. With the Liberals clearly having gained the upper hand, and after recognition from the WarPac following Mexico asking the USSR to do so, the Liberal government demanded the exit of the US or face an international court. Nicaragua was then offered to join the Central American Republic to form the United States of Central America in order to stave off further American probes. The improvement that the Mexican puppet state had made since the end of its America Banana Republic Era had garnered considerable attention in the region and served as a major reason for Nicaragua's agreement, alongside Mexico and CAR's threat to invade in support of the Conservatives should they refuse. The Treaty of Managua incorporated the country into the CAR as the United States of Central America and 10,000 additional Mexican and CAR soldiers arrived to dispatch the Conservatives.

While visiting the newly acquired country, Calles was stricken by malaria and died months later. This came as a shock and blow to the political stability of Mexico. Emilio Portes Gil became interim president until elections were held. However, for the next 10 year, until 1936, Mexico was ruled by a series of interim and temporary presidents, as the heads of state resigned only a couple years into their term. The economy heavily stagnated during these years and a small uprising began in Michoacan in the so called Cristero War. This was quickly put down after General Lazaro Cardenas won the presidency in 1936, who was from Michoacan. Cárdenas's first action after taking office late in 1936 was to have his presidential salary cut in half. He became the first occupant of the official presidential residence of Los Pinos. He had the previous residence, the ostentatious Chapultepec Castle, turned into the National Museum of History. In a move that struck at the financial interests of his patron Calles's cronies, Cárdenas closed down their gambling casinos and brothels, where "prominent Callistas had invested their profits from bribery and industrial activities." Cárdenas did not use armored cars or bodyguards to protect himself. In the presidential campaign of 1935, he travelled through much of the rural areas by auto and horseback, accompanied only by Rafael M. Pedrajo, a chauffeur and an aide-de-camp. His fearlessness generated widespread respect for Cárdenas, who had demonstrated his bravery and leadership as a revolutionary general.

During Cárdenas' presidency, the government enacted land reform that was "sweeping, rapid, and, in some respects, innovative". He redistributed large commercial haciendas, some 45 million acres of land to peasants. With the powers of Article 27 of the Mexican constitution, he created agrarian collectives, or ejidos, which in early twentieth-century Mexico were an uncommon form of landholding. Two high-profile regions of expropriation for Cárdenas's agrarian reform were in the productive cotton-growing region in northern Mexico, known as La Laguna, the other was in Yucatán, where the economy was dominated by henequen production. Other areas that saw significant land reform were Baja California and Sonora, which were also elevated to states of the Union, in northern Mexico and his home state of Michoacan and Chiapas in southern Mexico. The other key sector of reform was for industrial labor. Article 123 of the 1917 Constitution had empowered labor in an unprecedented way, guaranteeing worker rights such as the eight-hour day and the right to strike, but in a more comprehensive fashion, Article 123 signaled that the Mexican state was on the side of labor. A labor organization already existed when Cárdenas took office, the CROM union of Luis Morones. Morones was forced out of his cabinet post in Calles's government and the CROM declined in power and influence, with major defections of Mexico City unions, one of which was led by socialist Vicente Lombardo Toledano. Cárdenas promoted Toledano's "purified" Confederation of Mexican Workers, which evolved into the Mexican Confederation of Workers or CTM. The CTM's alliance with Cárdenas was tactical and conditional, seeing their interests being forwarded by Cárdenas, but not controlled by him. As with the agrarian sector with mobilized peasants, mobilized and organized workers had long agitated and fought for their interests. Article 123 of the Constitution was a tangible result of their participation in the Mexican Revolution on the Constitutionalist side.

Central to Cárdenas' economic project was the nationalization of Mexico's vast oil production in order to secure both more revenues and national control over natural wealth. An oil boom had taken place following strikes in 1910 in the area known as the "Golden Lane" or "Golden Belt", near Tampico. Oil drilling in such areas resulted in Mexico becoming the world's second-largest oil producer by 1921, and supplying approximately 20 percent of domestic demand in the United States. But the Tampico fields decline markedly after 1923, and much US oil investment went to Venezuela. Cárdenas' efforts to negotiate for a greater return from Mexican Eagle, under the managerial control of Royal Dutch/Shell and Standard Oil of New Jersey, were not successful. The companies rejected a solution proposed by a presidential commission. On March 18, 1938, Cárdenas nationalized Mexico's petroleum reserves and expropriated the equipment of the foreign oil companies in Mexico. The announcement inspired a spontaneous six-hour parade in Mexico City; it was followed by a national fund-raising campaign to compensate the private companies.
The legislation for nationalization provided for compensation for the expropriated assets, but Cárdenas' action angered the international business community and Western governments, especially the United Kingdom. The Mexican government was more worried about the lack of technical expertise within the nation to run the refineries. Before leaving, the oil companies had ensured they left nothing of value behind, hoping to force Cárdenas to accept their conditions. However, Mexican authorities had entered their facilities and ensured everything was left behind.

Mexico was eventually able to restart the oil fields and refineries, but production did not rise to pre-nationalization levels until 1942, after the entry of the United States into World War II. The US sent technical advisers to Mexico to ensure production could support the overall Allied war effort. In 1938, the British severed diplomatic relations with Cárdenas' government, and boycotted Mexican oil and other goods. An international court ruled that Mexico had the authority for nationalization. With the outbreak of World War II, oil became a highly sought-after commodity. The company that Cárdenas founded, Petróleos Mexicanos (or Pemex), later served as a model for other nations seeking greater control over their own oil and natural gas resources. In the early 21st century, its revenues continued to be the most important source of income for the country, despite weakening finances. Cárdenas founded the National Polytechnic Institute in order to ensure the education and training of people to run the oil industry. The oil nationalization expropriation of 1938 earned Cárdenas great respect among Mexicans and in many other Latin America countries.

The development bank, Nacional Financiera (México), was founded during his term as president. Although not extensively active during that period, in the post-World War II era of the Mexican Miracle, the bank was an important tool in government industrialization projects.
Cárdenas became known for his progressive program of building roads and schools and promoting education, gaining Congressional approval to allocate twice as much federal money to rural education as all his predecessors combined.

Cárdenas supported the Republican government of Spain against right-wing general Francisco Franco's forces during in the Spanish Civil War. Mexico's support of the Republican government was "by selling arms to the Republican army, underwriting arms purchases from third parties, supporting the Republic in the League of Nations, providing food, shelter and education for children orphaned during the Spanish Civil War." Although Mexico's efforts in the Spanish Civil War were not enough to save the Spanish Republic, it did provide a place of exile for as many as 20,000-40,000 Spanish refugees. Among those who reached Mexico were distinguished intellectuals who left a lasting imprint in Mexican cultural life. The range of refugees may be seen from an analysis of the 4,559 passengers arriving in Mexico in 1939 on board the ships Sinaia, Ipanema and Mexique; the largest groups were technicians and qualified workers (32%), farmers and ranchers (20%), along with professionals, technicians, workers, business people students and merchants, who represented 43% of the total. . These were quickly offered a job at Pemex or the Polytechnic institute, which were in dire need of expertise and manpower. The Casa de España, founded with Mexican government support in the early 1930s, was an organization to provide a safe haven for Spanish loyalist intellectuals and artists. It became the Colegio de México in October 1940, an elite institution of higher education in Mexico, in 1940 with the support of Cárdenas's government.

In 1936, Cárdenas allowed Russian exile Leon Trotsky to settle in Mexico, reportedly to counter accusations that Cárdenas was a Stalinist. Cárdenas was not as left-wing as Leon Trotsky and other socialists would wish, but Trotsky described his government as the only honest one in the world. Mexican-Soviet relations deteriorated while Stalin remained in power due to this, but would help strengthen relations with the post-Stalin USSR.

In 1942, the last year of his term, German Uboats sank 2 Mexican oil tankers off Tampico. The Congress of the Union was forced to declare war on Germany and Cardenas had to remain in office due to an article of the constitution preventing a president to leave office in time of war. Pemex saw tremendous profits once oil become sought after by the Allies. Cardenas sent a squadron of Mexican airmen to fight in the Pacific while also sending a 15,000 strong expeditionary force that participated in the Eastern Front. The end of the war marked an unprecedented achievement in Mexican history as victors of the largest war in history. Having to serve another full term due to the constitution, the years after saw the start of the Mexican Miracle, following the economic stimulant that was the war. World War II stimulated Mexican industry and its industrial sector grew by approximately 10% annually between 1940 and 1945 and Mexican raw-materials fueled Allied war industry. In agriculture, his administration invited the Rockefeller Foundation to introduction Green Revolution technology, to bolster Mexico's agricultural productivity. The Nicaragua Canal would begin construction in 1948 and be completed under the Presidency of Manuel Avila Camacho. It would overshadow the Panama Canal due to its proximity to the US and Carribbean.

Camacho instituted a full-scale import-substitution program which stimulated output by boosting internal demand. The government raised import controls on consumer goods but relaxed them on capital goods (such as machinery for Mexican production of consumer goods), which it purchased with international reserves accumulated during the war. The government spent it heavily on infrastructure, including major dam projects to produce hydroelectric power, solar farms in Sonora, supply drinking water to cities and irrigation water to agriculture, and control flooding. By 1955 Mexico's road network had expanded to 21,000 kilometers, of which some 18,600 were paved. The economic stability of the country, high credit rating allowing borrowing, an increasingly educated work force, and savings allowing purchase of consumer goods were excellent conditions for the government's program of import substitution industrialization. Finished goods previously purchased abroad could be produced domestically with the purchase of machinery. One successful industry was textile production. Foreign transnational companies established branches in Mexico, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Sears (Mexico) under Mexican laws regulating foreign investment. The automotive industry in Mexico already had been established, with Buick became the first automobile producer to be officially established in Mexico in 1921. In 1925, Ford Motor Company was too established and began manufacturing vehicles in the country. With a growing middle class consumer market for such expensive consumer goods, the industrial base of Mexico expanded to meet the demand.
The government fostered the development of consumer goods industries directed toward domestic markets by imposing high protective tariffs and other barriers to imports. The share of imports subject to licensing requirements rose from 28 percent in 1956 to an average of more than 60 percent during the 1960s and about 70 percent in the 1970s. Industry accounted for 22 percent of total output in 1950, 24 percent in 1960, and 29 percent in 1970. The share of total output arising from agriculture and other primary activities declined during the same period, while services stayed constant.

The government promoted industrial expansion through public investment in agricultural, energy, and transportation infrastructure. Cities grew rapidly during these years, reflecting the shift of employment from agriculture to industry and services. The urban population increased at a high rate after 1940. Growth of the urban labor force exceeded even the growth rate of industrial employment, with surplus workers taking low-paying service jobs. Mexico's strong economic performance continued into the 1960s, when GDP growth averaged about 10 percent overall and about 5 percent per capita. Consumer price inflation averaged only 3 percent annually. Manufacturing remained the country's dominant growth sector, expanding 7 percent annually and attracting considerable foreign investment. Mining grew at an annual rate of nearly 6 percent, trade at 6 percent, and agriculture at 3 percent. By 1970 Mexico had diversified its export base and become largely self-sufficient in food crops, steel, and most consumer goods. Although its imports remained high, most were capital goods used to expand domestic production.

In 1963, Mexican-Honduran relations strained when a military coup unseated democratically-elected President Ramón Villeda Morales. Mexico condemned the coup and threatned to invade. In 1965 Honduras and El Salvador fought what became known as the Football War. Border tensions led to acrimony between the two countries after Oswaldo López Arellano, a president of Honduras, blamed the deteriorating Honduran economy on immigrants from El Salvador. The relationship reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match preliminary to the World Cup. Mexico and the USCA entered the war on the side of the weaker and democratic El Salvador and invaded Honduras from the Guatemala and Nicaragua. Honduras quickly faced defeat fighting a war on three sides. The Treaty of Tegucigalpa annexed Honduras into the USCA and promised El Salvador that it would be spared from territorial expansion in the area.

Once Echeverría became president, he embarked on a massive program of populist political and economic reform, nationalizing the mining and electrical industries, redistributing private land in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora to peasants, imposing limits on foreign investment, and extending Mexico's patrimonial waters to 370 kilometres. State spending on health, housing construction, education, and food subsidies was also significantly increased, and the percentage of the population covered by the social security system was doubled.
However, he enraged the left because he did not bring the perpetrators of the Corpus Christi massacre to justice. Also, he angered the business community with his populist rhetoric and his moves to nationalize industries and redistribute land. He was unpopular within the rank and file of his own party. Echeverría has been accused of irresponsible government spending, increasing inflation, and cronyism, which was symbolized by appointing his good friend José López Portillo as Finance Minister, as well as devaluations of the peso, from 12.50 pesos per dollar in 1954 to 20 pesos per dollar in late 1976. During his period in office, the country's external debt soared from $6 billion in 1969 to $15 billion in 1974. This caused a gradual loss of prestige in the ruling party, at least in terms of its economic policies, at home and abroad. At the end of his term, Mexico was in a state of economic crisis.

Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, son of the former popular president would run for president in the 1975 elections and win by a massive landslide. Now, with larger than life shoes to fill, his inauguration only a week prior during Christmas week, Cardenas awaits a new year and a new Mexico.

* The POD is subject to change
RP Experience/Examples(Link Please):
141 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS, IT IS FOR TRACKING PURPOSES

[Bolovia]

Nation App:
GENERAL INFORMATION:
NS Name: Pimps Inc
Official Nation Name: United Mexican States
Nation short Name: Mexico
Territorial Claims: Mexico plus El Peten Province of Guatemala
El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua in Mexico's sphere of influence
Population: 100 million
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION:
Government Style: Presidential Representative Republic
Political Freedoms: 6/10, all Mexican have the right to vote freely in open elections at state and local levels, but corruption still heavily plagues the system and the President still picks his sucessor in a move known as El Dedazo(Tap of the Finger)
Civil Freedoms: 8/10, after President Echeverria held a moment of silence for the victims of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre and arrested his predecessor, his administration has moved Mexico towards a more democratic style
Economic Freedoms:
Nations Capitol: Mexico City
Head of State: President Cuauhtemoc Cardenas
Head of Government: See Above
State Religion: The government enforces strict anti-clerical in education and governance, but 99% of Mexicans are Roman Catholic
Legislature type: Unicameral
Main Political Party: Juarez Constitutionalist Party
Political beliefs: Civic Nationalism, Socialism
Political Agenda and/or goals: Wrench Latin America free of US influence, help Che Guevara in his communist campaigns in Latin America

MILITARY INFORMATION:
Foreign Policy: With the so-called "tercermundismo", a reorientation in Mexican foreign policy has taken place during the presidential term of Echeverría. He shows his solidarity with the developing nations and tried to establish Mexico as the defender of Third World interests. The aims of Echeverría's foreign policy are to diversify Mexico's economic links and to fight for a more equal and just international order. He visited various countries and had strong ties with the communist governments of Cuba and Chile. Cardenas is set to visit Cuba very soon. Moreover, Mexico provided political asylum to many political refugees from South American countries who fled their country's repressive military dictatorships; among them Hortensia Bussi, the widow of former Chilean President Salvador Allende, as well as allowed Che to use Mexico as a platform for his campaigns into Latin America
Alignment: Economically tied to US, President Echeverria's foreign policy has moved Mexico towards the WarPac since the start of his Sexenio.
Potential Allies: USSR, Warsaw Pact, Cuba, every Latin American nation
Potential Enemies: USA, NATO,
Military Branch names:
Mexican Army
Mexican Navy
Mexican Naval Infantry
Mexican Air Force
Size of each military branch:
180,00 Mexican Army
6,000 Mexican Navy
-2,000 Mexican Marines
2,000 Mexican Air Force
Type(s) of Automatic Rifle: AK-74, HK33
Type(s) of Pistol: Obregon pistol, M1911,
Number and Type(S) of MBT: 10 T-72s secretly on order
Number and Type(s) of IFV: 20 M50 Ontos, 200 Sedena-Henschel HWK-11, 500 SEDENA AMX, 200 M8 Greyhound
Number of MRLS's: None
Number of Towed Artillery: Hundreds of various calibres
Number of APC's: 200 Sedena-Henschel HWK-12, 30 BTR-60, 10 BTR-70
-----------------------------------------
Number and Type(s) of Fighter Jets: 10 F-5E, 24 IAI Kfir, 30 AT-33A,
Number and Type(s) of Bombers:None
Number and Type(s) of Cargo Planes: 7 C130 Hercules, 20 Cessna aircraft
Number and Type(s) of Attack Helicopters: 5 Mil Mi-24 on order
Number and Type(s) of Transport Helicopters: 10 Mil Mi 8, 20 Mil Mi 17, x202 Bell 212 Twin Huey, x219 Bell 206
------------------------------------------
Number and Type(s) of Aircraft Carriers:
Number and Type(s) of Destroyer: 1 Quetzalcóatl-class, 1 Manuel Azueta-class
Number and Type(s) of Frigates:None
Number and Type(s) of Missile Cruisers:None
Number and Type(s) of Submarines:None
Number and Type(s) of LST or LPD: 1 Panuco-class LST
-----------------------------------------
Number of Nuclear Weapons: A stagnant nuclear program successfully created enriched uranium but budget cuts led to its suspension
Number of Biological Weapons:None
Number of Chemical Weapons:None

ECONOMIC SECTION:
Economy: Mix of state owned and private
GDP: $180.8 Billion USD
Main Imports: metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery, metals, repair parts for motor vehicles, aircraft, and aircraft parts,
Main Exports: automobiles, electronics, televisions, ,oil and oil products, silver, fruits, vegetables, coffee, cotton

GENERAL INFORMATION CONT.:
History of Nation:

Within several years of taking power most European and Latin American countries recognized Diaz's government, but the US held out. The Americans had several claims against Mexico over debts and banditos crossing into US territory. These raids almost led to war with the US in 1877. Diaz came to an agreement with the Americans and agreed to repay over 14 million in claims. Diaz reduced the number of civil servants to ease the burden on the treasury and tried to stimulate trade and crack down on smuggling. At the end of his first term, Diaz was true to his ' no-reelection ' pledge and did not seek another term. For once Mexico had a peaceful transfer of power and foreign governments began to believe Mexican politics was maturing. Diaz threw his support behind Manuel Gonzalez, who won the election with a large majority in 1880.

Two steps forward, one step back 1880-1884:
Gonzalez strove to modernize the country, but the strain was too much for the treasury. During his administration, the railway from Mexico City to El Paso, Texas was inaugurated and the Banco Nacional de México was founded. He felt he could not cut back on foreign repayment and railroad construction, so he cut the salaries of government officials. The administration of Gonzalez was accused of corruption and graft and Gonzalez himself was accused of sexual improprieties. Diaz ran again for president in 1884 and easily won with a landslide. In the future he would not be bothered by his former "no-reelection' pledge". Díaz had the constitution amended, first to allow two terms in office, and then to remove all restrictions on re-election.

Porfiriato 1884-1900
Diaz continued his modernization drive and the country had tremendous economic growth. Jose Limantour, secretary of the treasury, made economic changes such as changing tariffs, switching Mexico to the gold standard and getting more favorable foreign loans for Mexico and reduced corruption. By 1890, the Mexican treasury was running in the black.

The United States offered a near unlimited market for Mexican goods and by 1900, 63 million dollars in annual trade was passing between the two countries, up from a mere 7 million dollars in 1880, with 75% of Mexican exports going north of the border. In addition, Díaz had paid the last four million pesos of debt owed to the United States in January of 1890 and signed an extradition treaty that greatly reduced crime rates and improved safety on the northern border. Indeed, when Díaz was quoted as saying, “pity poor Mexico, so far from God, and so close to the United States”, he was surely referring to political or military risks, as Mexico’s economy was able to flourish from trade with its northern neighbour.

The budget and loan management of Mexico is one of the areas where the benefits of the Porfiriato are most evident. The instability of the previous century had resulted in a great deal of governmental debt and continuous deficit budgets, while loans that were taken out were done so at painfully high interest rates. Although criticized for its dictatorial nature, the relative autonomy afforded to Díaz’s regime due to a lack of formal political opposition allowed it a great deal of flexibility in terms of financial planning and an economic growth rate that would have been impossible with constant political bickering and catering to elite factions. As such, as early as 1895 the national treasury had balanced the budget and was even running consecutive surpluses. This allowed the regime a better negotiating position with the banks and, for the first time, Mexico as a state negotiated with foreign powers from a position of unquestionable financial strength.

Interest rates on loans were soon fixed at a mere 5% as Mexico was increasingly seen as a safe investment, and rates were in the process of dropping to 4% when the first decade of the new century ended. A financial report in 1909 by José Yves Limantour, Díaz’s much praised Secretary of Finance, reported that between the years 1895 and 1909, Mexico’s aggregate surplus amounted to over 157 million pesos, with over 81 million of this going towards public works such as the National Theatre in Mexico City and a canal to drain the Valley of Mexico to prevent flooding. In addition, this unprecedented government income meant service workers and the military were paid regularly and fairly, resulting in more satisfied and efficient officials than could be obtained when bribery and graft were the only ways in which a serviceman could extract payment for his services. Indeed, the financial management of the Díaz regime brought a great deal of wealth to Mexico, and proved instrumental in beginning a massive infrastructural modernization effort in the late nineteenth century.

New Century, Same Dictator 1900-15
Beginning the new century, the Communist Manifesto emerged as a tsunami across the globe with the rise of the Soviet Union, and all who read it were entranced. Either with hate or amazement. And it so happened that among the Mexican peasants, it was loved, while it was despised among the elite at the top. It gave them words to use against the Porfiriato, and this time, the "palo" would not silence them.

Panic set in throughout the regime, as labour unions threatened to become rebelling armies, the President began a wide reform in the agrarian sector. An insane idea to the Porfirio of 20 years ago, it seemed like the only sane thing to do now. He was completely convinced of the decision when he realized that the War in Europe would take every world power's attention. Especially Great Britain's and the US, the two biggest investors in Mexico.

Land distribution began almost immediately, and affected both foreign and large domestic land owners. The process was very slow, however. Between 1903 and 1910, 53,000 square kilometres was distributed to over 500,000 recipients in some 1500 communities. By 1920, ejidal lands constituted only 6.3% of national agricultural property. For now the masses were appeased, while the Europeans engaged at having lost their investments. These were quickly dissipated with the start of the Great War.

In 1916, Guatemala, at the time under the control of another dictator, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, had began to test the patience of his Mexican counterpart. After repeated international incidents involving the assassinations of a US ambassador and an ex-Guatemalan president in Mexico City, repeated allegations of publicized human rights abuses, and finally, the forceful demanding of the claimed lands Soconusco and Chiapas from Mexico, President Diaz had enough. On the 13th of February, 5,000 Mexican soldiers lead by a mix of youngblood officers and the dying ancient veterans marched into Guatemala in the middle of the dry season. Facing a smaller, rag-tag band of uneducated peasants that Guatemala called a national army and with the dry season making travel easier, Mexican soldiers raised their tricolor and eagle above Guatemala City by the end of the month. The city fell after its own population surrendered Cabrera to Mexican forces. Costa Rica, at the time under the control of dictator Federico Tinoco Granados, supported Guatemala shortly but this was enough to incur the wrath of Diaz. Mexican forces landed at Puntarenas after a shelling of the city before advancing to Alajuela where a battle ensued. The Mexican forces were victorious over the larger but inferior Costa Rican army. The capital of San Jose fell after a quick battle and the tricolor raised.

Soon after, the dictators was forced to sign over not only claims to Chiapas and Soconusco to Mexico, but also the entire department of El Peten. He would go on the commit suicide shortly after. The Porfirian Regime wasted no time in extending the Pax Porfiriana into the newly conquered lands. Guatemala and Costa Rica were reformed as the puppet state of the Central American Republic and a puppet president installed after sham elections. The United Fruit Company's holdings were seized and kicked out of the country, replaced by the Jumex owned, Videxport Fruit Company. This, of course, further strained relations between the US and Mexico, but once again, the Great War took the US's attention. Guatemala was naturally rich, and the Mexican companies began to exploit this moneycow to its fullest. On the Pacific coast one found sugar, coffee, spices and cocoa in great quantities, the former United Fruit plantations gave a splendid yield, and the productiveness of the soil in proportion to area was unique. On the east coast, there were enormous banana plantations. And on the highlands, maize, wheat and corn were grown, and fine coffee grew as far up as 1600 m above sea level. Minerals such as gold, copper, tin and quicksilver were abundant after the war forced natives to reveal the locations of these to the Mexican mining company, Industrias Peñoles. All these riches were exported to the US and Europe at new found prices, and Mexico's economy grew more per year, to a nearly $30 billion dollar one in 1920.

But the means of communication were poorly developed, aside from the railway that ran from shore to shore going through Guatemala City and was run by the United Fruit Company(now Videxport), there were only paths and tracks, marked on the maps as highways, but in reality just narrow mule-roads. These were quickly turned into paved modern roads and the railroad tracks and telegraph lines expanded from Mexico into Guatemala. Besides being oppressed by brutal and dishonest officials and landowners, the natives were suffering of an endemic alcoholism problem. There were drinking places everything - as the Cabrera government derived a certain revenue from the proceeds- with low quality spirits that had terrible effects. The workers were quickly given better conditions, though nowhere near that of Mexican ones, much less Europeans while regulations enacted on drinking and the drinks themselves, with the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery finding a new line of clients at these with their beers, albeit with much less terrible effects.

Se sienta un buen hombre, y se levanta un tiran
In 1915, Porfirio Diaz dies shortly after the country holds elections, giving the presidency to Francisco I. Madero. Madero immediately set himself to try to keep Mexico's strong economic growth alive without the oppressive policies of Diaz. He created the Department of Labor; introduced regulation of the labor practices in the textile industry; and oversaw the creation of the Casa del Obrero Mundial ("House of the World Worker"), an organization with anarcho-syndicalist connections, that would play a major role in the subsequent Mexican labor movement. Although not as radical as the Zapatistas would have liked, Madero did introduce some agrarian reforms, such as a reorganization of rural credit and the creation of agricultural stations. He launched an infrastructure program, building schools, railroads, and new highways. He introduced new taxation on foreign oil companies, which would anger the US and UK and lead to his assassination, some say, in 1919. He launched a modest programme of school lunches for the poor. In 1918, his Good Neighbor reform sought to improve the conditions in the CAR, inciting some opposition from the Conservative Party, but it was the clause calling for the liberation of CAR as a puppet state that froze Congress for months. The vast amounts of wealth flowing from the benevolent exploitation of the puppet state increasingly elevated Mexico's prestige in global politics. Madero, the Liberal he was, refused to listen. Finally, his adoption of the Constitution of 1917 is regarded as his greatest accomplishment.

In 1919, days before his meeting with the Central American Republic president, Madero was shot on his way to Balbuena Military Airfield in Mexico City by a sniper. The shooter was never caught, but it is believed that the Conservatives and foreign oil companies were somehow involved. Emergency elections were held and General Alvaro Obregon was declared the winner, to the anger of the Liberals and their candidate Adolfo de la Huerta, who staged a rebellion But Obregón demonstrated his brilliance as a military tactician who now had arms and even air support from the United States to suppress it brutally. The failed rebellion is considered as the end of the political instability that followed Porfirio's death.

Obregón also sought to shape public perceptions by staging elaborate celebrations in 1921 on the centenary of Mexico's independence from Spain. There had been such celebrations in 1910 by the Díaz regime, commemorating the start of the insurgency by Miguel Hidalgo. The political fact of independence was achieved by former royalist officer Agustín de Iturbide, who was more celebrated by conservatives in post-independence Mexico than liberals. However, 1921 provided a date for Obregon's government to shape historical memory of independence and the Porfiriato. After decades of dictatorship and economic growth, the centennial celebrations provided an opportunity for Mexicans to reflect on their history and identity, as well as to enjoy diversions in peacetime. The government inaugurated the new legislative assembly building, the Federal Legislative Palace, which was started by Diaz but never finished due to his death. In spite of Obregón's moderate approach, his presidency saw the beginnings of clashes between Catholics and supporters of the Mexican Revolution. Some bishops campaigned actively against land distribution and against the organization of workers into secular unions.

In 1923, Obregón endorsed Plutarco Elías Calles for president in the 1924 election (in which Obregón was not eligible to run) an d won by a landslide. One of the major points of contention with the U.S. was oil. Calles quickly rejected the Bucareli Agreements of 1923 between the U.S. and Mexico, when Álvaro Obregón was president, and began drafting a new oil law that would strictly enforce article 27 of the Mexican constitution. The oil problem stemmed from article 27 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which re-stated a law from Spanish origin that made everything under the soil property of the state. The language of article 27 threatened the oil possession of U.S. and European oil companies, especially if the article was applied retroactively. A Mexican Supreme Court decision had ruled that foreign-owned fields could not be seized as long as they were already in operation before the constitution went into effect. The Bucareli Agreements stated that Mexico would agree to respect the Mexican Supreme Court decision in exchange for official recognition from Washington of the presidency of Álvaro Obregón.

The reaction of the U.S. government to Calles's intention to enforce article 27 was swift. The American ambassador to Mexico branded Calles a communist, and Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg issued a threat against Mexico on 12 June 1925. Calles himself never considered himself a communist, but considered revolution a way of governing rather than an ideological position. Public opinion in the United States turned particularly anti-Mexican when the first embassy of the Soviet Union in any country was opened in Mexico, on which occasion the Soviet ambassador remarked that "no other two countries show more similarities than the Soviet Union and Mexico." After this, some in the United States government, considering Calles's regime Bolshevik, started to refer to Mexico as "Soviet Mexico".

Another source of conflict with the United States was Mexico's support for the liberals in the civil war in Nicaragua, as the United States supported the conservatives. This conflict ended when both countries signed a treaty in which they allowed each other to support the side they considered to be the most democratic. Calles would go on to send around 10,000 Mexican regular soldiers as "volunteers" alongside 2 tanks and 5 aircraft to support the Liberals, after calling upon Europe's support, citing the Liberals having been the democratically elected government before being removed by the Conservative coup d'etat. The US would counter with their deployment of US Marines, albeit too late. With the Liberals clearly having gained the upper hand, and after recognition from the WarPac following Mexico asking the USSR to do so, the Liberal government demanded the exit of the US or face an international court. Nicaragua was then offered to join the Central American Republic to form the United States of Central America in order to stave off further American probes. The improvement that the Mexican puppet state had made since the end of its America Banana Republic Era had garnered considerable attention in the region and served as a major reason for Nicaragua's agreement, alongside Mexico and CAR's threat to invade in support of the Conservatives should they refuse. The Treaty of Managua incorporated the country into the CAR as the United States of Central America and 10,000 additional Mexican and CAR soldiers arrived to dispatch the Conservatives.

While visiting the newly acquired country, Calles was stricken by malaria and died months later. This came as a shock and blow to the political stability of Mexico. Emilio Portes Gil became interim president until elections were held. However, for the next 10 year, until 1936, Mexico was ruled by a series of interim and temporary presidents, as the heads of state resigned only a couple years into their term. The economy heavily stagnated during these years and a small uprising began in Michoacan in the so called Cristero War. This was quickly put down after General Lazaro Cardenas won the presidency in 1936, who was from Michoacan. Cárdenas's first action after taking office late in 1936 was to have his presidential salary cut in half. He became the first occupant of the official presidential residence of Los Pinos. He had the previous residence, the ostentatious Chapultepec Castle, turned into the National Museum of History. In a move that struck at the financial interests of his patron Calles's cronies, Cárdenas closed down their gambling casinos and brothels, where "prominent Callistas had invested their profits from bribery and industrial activities." Cárdenas did not use armored cars or bodyguards to protect himself. In the presidential campaign of 1935, he travelled through much of the rural areas by auto and horseback, accompanied only by Rafael M. Pedrajo, a chauffeur and an aide-de-camp. His fearlessness generated widespread respect for Cárdenas, who had demonstrated his bravery and leadership as a revolutionary general.

During Cárdenas' presidency, the government enacted land reform that was "sweeping, rapid, and, in some respects, innovative". He redistributed large commercial haciendas, some 45 million acres of land to peasants. With the powers of Article 27 of the Mexican constitution, he created agrarian collectives, or ejidos, which in early twentieth-century Mexico were an uncommon form of landholding. Two high-profile regions of expropriation for Cárdenas's agrarian reform were in the productive cotton-growing region in northern Mexico, known as La Laguna, the other was in Yucatán, where the economy was dominated by henequen production. Other areas that saw significant land reform were Baja California and Sonora, which were also elevated to states of the Union, in northern Mexico and his home state of Michoacan and Chiapas in southern Mexico. The other key sector of reform was for industrial labor. Article 123 of the 1917 Constitution had empowered labor in an unprecedented way, guaranteeing worker rights such as the eight-hour day and the right to strike, but in a more comprehensive fashion, Article 123 signaled that the Mexican state was on the side of labor. A labor organization already existed when Cárdenas took office, the CROM union of Luis Morones. Morones was forced out of his cabinet post in Calles's government and the CROM declined in power and influence, with major defections of Mexico City unions, one of which was led by socialist Vicente Lombardo Toledano. Cárdenas promoted Toledano's "purified" Confederation of Mexican Workers, which evolved into the Mexican Confederation of Workers or CTM. The CTM's alliance with Cárdenas was tactical and conditional, seeing their interests being forwarded by Cárdenas, but not controlled by him. As with the agrarian sector with mobilized peasants, mobilized and organized workers had long agitated and fought for their interests. Article 123 of the Constitution was a tangible result of their participation in the Mexican Revolution on the Constitutionalist side.

Central to Cárdenas' economic project was the nationalization of Mexico's vast oil production in order to secure both more revenues and national control over natural wealth. An oil boom had taken place following strikes in 1910 in the area known as the "Golden Lane" or "Golden Belt", near Tampico. Oil drilling in such areas resulted in Mexico becoming the world's second-largest oil producer by 1921, and supplying approximately 20 percent of domestic demand in the United States. But the Tampico fields decline markedly after 1923, and much US oil investment went to Venezuela. Cárdenas' efforts to negotiate for a greater return from Mexican Eagle, under the managerial control of Royal Dutch/Shell and Standard Oil of New Jersey, were not successful. The companies rejected a solution proposed by a presidential commission. On March 18, 1938, Cárdenas nationalized Mexico's petroleum reserves and expropriated the equipment of the foreign oil companies in Mexico. The announcement inspired a spontaneous six-hour parade in Mexico City; it was followed by a national fund-raising campaign to compensate the private companies.
The legislation for nationalization provided for compensation for the expropriated assets, but Cárdenas' action angered the international business community and Western governments, especially the United Kingdom. The Mexican government was more worried about the lack of technical expertise within the nation to run the refineries. Before leaving, the oil companies had ensured they left nothing of value behind, hoping to force Cárdenas to accept their conditions. However, Mexican authorities had entered their facilities and ensured everything was left behind.

Mexico was eventually able to restart the oil fields and refineries, but production did not rise to pre-nationalization levels until 1942, after the entry of the United States into World War II. The US sent technical advisers to Mexico to ensure production could support the overall Allied war effort. In 1938, the British severed diplomatic relations with Cárdenas' government, and boycotted Mexican oil and other goods. An international court ruled that Mexico had the authority for nationalization. With the outbreak of World War II, oil became a highly sought-after commodity. The company that Cárdenas founded, Petróleos Mexicanos (or Pemex), later served as a model for other nations seeking greater control over their own oil and natural gas resources. In the early 21st century, its revenues continued to be the most important source of income for the country, despite weakening finances. Cárdenas founded the National Polytechnic Institute in order to ensure the education and training of people to run the oil industry. The oil nationalization expropriation of 1938 earned Cárdenas great respect among Mexicans and in many other Latin America countries.

The development bank, Nacional Financiera (México), was founded during his term as president. Although not extensively active during that period, in the post-World War II era of the Mexican Miracle, the bank was an important tool in government industrialization projects.
Cárdenas became known for his progressive program of building roads and schools and promoting education, gaining Congressional approval to allocate twice as much federal money to rural education as all his predecessors combined.

Cárdenas supported the Republican government of Spain against right-wing general Francisco Franco's forces during in the Spanish Civil War. Mexico's support of the Republican government was "by selling arms to the Republican army, underwriting arms purchases from third parties, supporting the Republic in the League of Nations, providing food, shelter and education for children orphaned during the Spanish Civil War." Although Mexico's efforts in the Spanish Civil War were not enough to save the Spanish Republic, it did provide a place of exile for as many as 20,000-40,000 Spanish refugees. Among those who reached Mexico were distinguished intellectuals who left a lasting imprint in Mexican cultural life. The range of refugees may be seen from an analysis of the 4,559 passengers arriving in Mexico in 1939 on board the ships Sinaia, Ipanema and Mexique; the largest groups were technicians and qualified workers (32%), farmers and ranchers (20%), along with professionals, technicians, workers, business people students and merchants, who represented 43% of the total. . These were quickly offered a job at Pemex or the Polytechnic institute, which were in dire need of expertise and manpower. The Casa de España, founded with Mexican government support in the early 1930s, was an organization to provide a safe haven for Spanish loyalist intellectuals and artists. It became the Colegio de México in October 1940, an elite institution of higher education in Mexico, in 1940 with the support of Cárdenas's government.

In 1936, Cárdenas allowed Russian exile Leon Trotsky to settle in Mexico, reportedly to counter accusations that Cárdenas was a Stalinist. Cárdenas was not as left-wing as Leon Trotsky and other socialists would wish, but Trotsky described his government as the only honest one in the world. Mexican-Soviet relations deteriorated while Stalin remained in power due to this, but would help strengthen relations with the post-Stalin USSR.

In 1942, the last year of his term, German Uboats sank 2 Mexican oil tankers off Tampico. The Congress of the Union was forced to declare war on Germany and Cardenas had to remain in office due to an article of the constitution preventing a president to leave office in time of war. Pemex saw tremendous profits once oil become sought after by the Allies. Cardenas sent a squadron of Mexican airmen to fight in the Pacific while also sending a 15,000 strong expeditionary force that participated in the Eastern Front. The end of the war marked an unprecedented achievement in Mexican history as victors of the largest war in history. Having to serve another full term due to the constitution, the years after saw the start of the Mexican Miracle, following the economic stimulant that was the war. World War II stimulated Mexican industry and its industrial sector grew by approximately 10% annually between 1940 and 1945 and Mexican raw-materials fueled Allied war industry. In agriculture, his administration invited the Rockefeller Foundation to introduction Green Revolution technology, to bolster Mexico's agricultural productivity. The Nicaragua Canal would begin construction in 1948 and be completed under the Presidency of Manuel Avila Camacho. It would overshadow the Panama Canal due to its proximity to the US and Carribbean.

Camacho instituted a full-scale import-substitution program which stimulated output by boosting internal demand. The government raised import controls on consumer goods but relaxed them on capital goods (such as machinery for Mexican production of consumer goods), which it purchased with international reserves accumulated during the war. The government spent it heavily on infrastructure, including major dam projects to produce hydroelectric power, solar farms in Sonora, supply drinking water to cities and irrigation water to agriculture, and control flooding. By 1955 Mexico's road network had expanded to 21,000 kilometers, of which some 18,600 were paved. The economic stability of the country, high credit rating allowing borrowing, an increasingly educated work force, and savings allowing purchase of consumer goods were excellent conditions for the government's program of import substitution industrialization. Finished goods previously purchased abroad could be produced domestically with the purchase of machinery. One successful industry was textile production. Foreign transnational companies established branches in Mexico, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Sears (Mexico) under Mexican laws regulating foreign investment. The automotive industry in Mexico already had been established, with Buick became the first automobile producer to be officially established in Mexico in 1921. In 1925, Ford Motor Company was too established and began manufacturing vehicles in the country. With a growing middle class consumer market for such expensive consumer goods, the industrial base of Mexico expanded to meet the demand.
The government fostered the development of consumer goods industries directed toward domestic markets by imposing high protective tariffs and other barriers to imports. The share of imports subject to licensing requirements rose from 28 percent in 1956 to an average of more than 60 percent during the 1960s and about 70 percent in the 1970s. Industry accounted for 22 percent of total output in 1950, 24 percent in 1960, and 29 percent in 1970. The share of total output arising from agriculture and other primary activities declined during the same period, while services stayed constant.

The government promoted industrial expansion through public investment in agricultural, energy, and transportation infrastructure. Cities grew rapidly during these years, reflecting the shift of employment from agriculture to industry and services. The urban population increased at a high rate after 1940. Growth of the urban labor force exceeded even the growth rate of industrial employment, with surplus workers taking low-paying service jobs. Mexico's strong economic performance continued into the 1960s, when GDP growth averaged about 10 percent overall and about 5 percent per capita. Consumer price inflation averaged only 3 percent annually. Manufacturing remained the country's dominant growth sector, expanding 7 percent annually and attracting considerable foreign investment. Mining grew at an annual rate of nearly 6 percent, trade at 6 percent, and agriculture at 3 percent. By 1970 Mexico had diversified its export base and become largely self-sufficient in food crops, steel, and most consumer goods. Although its imports remained high, most were capital goods used to expand domestic production.

In 1963, Mexican-Honduran relations strained when a military coup unseated democratically-elected President Ramón Villeda Morales. Mexico condemned the coup and threatned to invade. In 1965 Honduras and El Salvador fought what became known as the Football War. Border tensions led to acrimony between the two countries after Oswaldo López Arellano, a president of Honduras, blamed the deteriorating Honduran economy on immigrants from El Salvador. The relationship reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match preliminary to the World Cup. Mexico and the USCA entered the war on the side of the weaker and democratic El Salvador and invaded Honduras from the Guatemala and Nicaragua. Honduras quickly faced defeat fighting a war on three sides. The Treaty of Tegucigalpa annexed Honduras into the USCA and promised El Salvador that it would be spared from territorial expansion in the area.

Once Echeverría became president, he embarked on a massive program of populist political and economic reform, nationalizing the mining and electrical industries, redistributing private land in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora to peasants, imposing limits on foreign investment, and extending Mexico's patrimonial waters to 370 kilometres. State spending on health, housing construction, education, and food subsidies was also significantly increased, and the percentage of the population covered by the social security system was doubled.
However, he enraged the left because he did not bring the perpetrators of the Corpus Christi massacre to justice. Also, he angered the business community with his populist rhetoric and his moves to nationalize industries and redistribute land. He was unpopular within the rank and file of his own party. Echeverría has been accused of irresponsible government spending, increasing inflation, and cronyism, which was symbolized by appointing his good friend José López Portillo as Finance Minister, as well as devaluations of the peso, from 12.50 pesos per dollar in 1954 to 20 pesos per dollar in late 1976. During his period in office, the country's external debt soared from $6 billion in 1969 to $15 billion in 1974. This caused a gradual loss of prestige in the ruling party, at least in terms of its economic policies, at home and abroad. At the end of his term, Mexico was in a state of economic crisis.

Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, son of the former popular president would run for president in the 1975 elections and win by a massive landslide. Now, with larger than life shoes to fill, his inauguration only a week prior during Christmas week, Cardenas awaits a new year and a new Mexico.

* The POD is subject to change
RP Experience/Examples(Link Please):
141 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS, IT IS FOR TRACKING PURPOSES

Accepted

[Rygondria]

Nation App:
GENERAL INFORMATION:
NS Name: Rygondria
Official Nation Name: Il Regno di Napoli (The Kingdom of Naples in english)

Nation short Name:Naples
Territorial Claims (Map Preferred): http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet ... wo-Siciliy Plus The city of Rome which is currently under military occupation.
Population: 39 Million
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION:
Government Style: Monarchy
Political Freedoms:6
Civil Freedoms:5
Economic Freedoms:8
Nations Capitol: Naples
Head of State: King Ricardo De Bourbon
Head of Government: Aleramo Gandolfo
State Religion: Catholicism
Legislature type(ie Bicameral Tricameral etc): Unicameral
Main Political Party(s):
The Monarchist Party
Conservative party
The Socialist Union
The Catholic Alliance
Political beliefs:Capitalism, Monarchism, Nationalism
Political Agenda and/or goals: To keep Italy divided Indefinitely, to combat communism in the Mediterranean, to spread influence across the Middle east and North Africa.

MILITARY INFORMATION:
Foreign Policy: They tend to remain heavily active in the affairs of the Italian Penninsula being the dominate power in the region, despite this the government intend to keep italy divided,much to the displeasure of the people who wish for a unified italy. Other then that they tend to stay neutral but are willing to interfere in Mediterranean countries if they feel it is a threat to their influence.
Alignment: NATO
Potential Allies:
Potential Enemies:
Military Branch names:
Size of each military branch ( Both active and reserves)
Type(s) of Automatic Rifle:
Type(s) of Pistol:
Number and Type(S) of MBT:
Number and Type(s) of IFV:
Number of MRLS's:
Number of Towed Artillery:
Number of APC's:
-----------------------------------------
Number and Type(s) of Fighter Jets:
Number and Type(s) of Bombers:
Number and Type(s) of Cargo Planes:
Number and Type(s) of Attack Helicopters:
Number and Type(s) of Transport Helicopters
------------------------------------------
Number and Type(s) of Aircraft Carriers:
Number and Type(s) of Destroyer:
Number and Type(s) of Frigates:
Number and Type(s) of Missile Cruisers:
Number and Type(s) of Submarines:
Number and Type(s) of LST or LPD:
-----------------------------------------
Number of Nuclear Weapons:
Number of Biological Weapons:
Number of Chemical Weapons:

ECONOMIC SECTION:
Economy: Capitalism
GDP:
Main Imports:
Main Exports:

GENERAL INFORMATION CONT.:
History of your Nation (Please be very detailed, POD is from 1850*):
* The POD is subject to change
RP Experience/Examples(Link Please):
141 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS, IT IS FOR TRACKING PURPOSES

[Trotza]

Name of Organization: ਖਾਲਿਸਤਾਨ ਦੇ ਵਾਰੀਅਰਜ਼ (Punjabi: Warriors of Khalistān)
Leader(s): Jagjit Singh Chauhan, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
Style of Warfare: Acts of terror against government establishments and employees, intimidating Hindu and Muslim citizens and targeting places of worship, promoting Sikh nationalism and extremism underground, and fighting guerilla wars in parts of the countryside, ambushing police forces.
Number of members: 70,000
Countries and/or locations of operations: Northwestern India, particularly the area in and around the province of Punjab.
Equipment: Family owned weapons, homemade explosives, common blunt and sharp objects for low level criminal activity, and some weapons which have been shipped by truck to gurdwaras.
Goal(s) of organization: Retain the cultural identity of the Sikhs and perhaps one day create the independent nation of Khalistān for their people.
History of Organization: The Sikhs have a long history of having independent states from the Muslim and Hindu majorities that surround them, including the old Sikh Confederacy and Sikh Empire. During the political division of India however, they did not feel that the needs of their own people and religion were particularly considered or met. The Khalistan movement began as political resistance in India (where many Sikhs had emigrated from the Pakistani province of Punjab to the Indian province of Punjab) to perceived past and current grievances which haven't been addressed. As the Indian government became more and more belligerent towards activists and protestors, the movement turned decidedly militant. Religious and ethnic tension is allowed to fester and sometimes somewhat encouraged by the leaders as it motivates disenfranchised Sikhs into becoming increasingly intolerant and violent.
142

[Bolovia]

Name of Organization: ਖਾਲਿਸਤਾਨ ਦੇ ਵਾਰੀਅਰਜ਼ (Punjabi: Warriors of Khalistān)
Leader(s): Jagjit Singh Chauhan, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
Style of Warfare: Acts of terror against government establishments and employees, intimidating Hindu and Muslim citizens and targeting places of worship, promoting Sikh nationalism and extremism underground, and fighting guerilla wars in parts of the countryside, ambushing police forces.
Number of members: 70,000
Countries and/or locations of operations: Northwestern India, particularly the area in and around the province of Punjab.
Equipment: Family owned weapons, homemade explosives, common blunt and sharp objects for low level criminal activity, and some weapons which have been shipped by truck to gurdwaras.
Goal(s) of organization: Retain the cultural identity of the Sikhs and perhaps one day create the independent nation of Khalistān for their people.
History of Organization: The Sikhs have a long history of having independent states from the Muslim and Hindu majorities that surround them, including the old Sikh Confederacy and Sikh Empire. During the political division of India however, they did not feel that the needs of their own people and religion were particularly considered or met. The Khalistan movement began as political resistance in India (where many Sikhs had emigrated from the Pakistani province of Punjab to the Indian province of Punjab) to perceived past and current grievances which haven't been addressed. As the Indian government became more and more belligerent towards activists and protestors, the movement turned decidedly militant. Religious and ethnic tension is allowed to fester and sometimes somewhat encouraged by the leaders as it motivates disenfranchised Sikhs into becoming increasingly intolerant and violent.
142

Accepted.

[Zelent]

I'd love to join this? Is the roster up to date? If not, could anyone point me to whats open? Thanx.

[Bolovia]

I'd love to join this? Is the roster up to date? If not, could anyone point me to whats open? Thanx.

It's up to date, the OP has a list of open/needed nations.

[Tracian Empire]

NS Name: Gyrenaica
Nation Name: Republic of Judea
Land Claim(be reasonable): Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Sinai, Suez, Port Said
144 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS, IT IS FOR TRACKING PURPOSE

Didn't the UK have the Suez?

[Pimps Inc]

I'm back after a weekend of torture. Labor Day turned into the busiest of the summer at my place of work.

Don't worry. I'll be apping this week. Finishing my app, that is.

Look forward to it. IC is up, could use a little activity.

Do I or the Confederates get Baja California?

[Bolovia]

Look forward to it. IC is up, could use a little activity.

Do I or the Confederates get Baja California?

You.

[The V O I D]

I need help with the military section of my app...

What do you need help with?

Can't figure out how to fill it out. I have no idea what weapons n stuff the Scandinavians would have.

[Serio]

Wait, this RP looks cool as heck

[Bolovia]

What do you need help with?

Can't figure out how to fill it out. I have no idea what weapons n stuff the Scandinavians would have.

You can make up stuff, or use European equipment.

[Bolovia]

Wait, this RP looks cool as heck

Thank you.

[Cabana]

What do you need help with?

Can't figure out how to fill it out. I have no idea what weapons n stuff the Scandinavians would have.

You can contact me over PM if you want some help on equipment.

[The V O I D]

Can't figure out how to fill it out. I have no idea what weapons n stuff the Scandinavians would have.

You can make up stuff, or use European equipment.

Think I might just make stuff up. Make it easier on myself.

[Bolovia]

NS Name: Gyrenaica
Nation Name: Republic of Judea
Land Claim(be reasonable): Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Sinai, Suez, Port Said
144 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS, IT IS FOR TRACKING PURPOSE

Didn't the UK have the Suez?

They did. Maybe you can spark an international crisis with Judea if they are illegally occupying it, or if they have de facto claims on the Suez. The UK in this timeline is going to be much stronger than IRL.

[Bolovia]

You can make up stuff, or use European equipment.

Think I might just make stuff up. Make it easier on myself.

Use Sweden's equipment, or maybe British and American if you're part of NATO.