page_title: Mexico
section_title: Political consolidation and one-party rule (1920–2000)
hierarchical_section_title: Mexico / History / Political consolidation and one-party rule (1920–2000)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Signature de l'Accord de libre-échange nord-américain en octobre 1992. De gauche à droite, debouts&#160;: Carlos Salinas de Gortari (président mexicain), George H. W. Bush (président américain) et Brian Mulroney (premier ministre canadien). De gauche à droite, assis&#160;: Jaime Serra Puche (Secrétaire du Commerce international et du développement industriel du Mexique), Carla Hills (Représentant au Commerce des États-Unis) et Michael Wilson (ministre du Commerce international du Canada). English: NAFTA Initialing Ceremony, October 1992 From left to right (standing) Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, US President George H. W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. (Seated) Mexican Secretary of Commerce and Industrial Development Jaime Serra Puche, United States Trade Representative Carla Hills, Canadian Minister of International Trade Michael Wilson.
context_page_description: Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico covers 1,972,550 square kilometers and has approximately 128,649,565 inhabitants, making it the world's 13th-largest country by area, 10th-most populous country, and most populous Spanish-speaking nation. It is a federation comprising 31 states and Mexico City, its capital city and largest metropolis. Other major urban areas include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and León.
  Pre-Columbian Mexico traces its origins to 8,000 BC and is identified as one of six cradles of civilization; it was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, most well-known among them the Maya and the Aztecs. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico City, which then became known as New Spain. The Catholic Church played an important role as millions of indigenous inhabitants converted.
context_section_description: The first quarter-century of the post-revolutionary period (1920-1946) was characterized by revolutionary generals serving as Presidents of Mexico.  In consolidating power, victorious northern revolutionary generals systematically worked to tame the military and bring it under civilian n control. Alvaro Obregón (1920–24); Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-28; and behind the scenes power until 1935); Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–40); and Manuel Avila Camacho (1940–46) succeeded in that endeavor, such that the modern Mexican military is under civilian rule and since 1946 no member of the military has been president of Mexico. The post-revolutionary project of the Mexican government sought to bring order to the country, end military intervention in politics, and create organizations of interest groups. Workers, peasants, urban office workers, and even the army for a short period were incorporated as sectors of the single party that dominated Mexican politics from its founding in 1929. 
  Obregón instigated land reform and strengthened the power of organized labor. He gained recognition from the United States and took steps to settle claims with companies and individuals that lost property during the Revolution. He imposed his fellow former Sonoran revolutionary general, Calles, as his successor, prompting an unsuccessful military revolt. As president Calles provoked a major conflict with the Catholic Church and Catholic guerrilla armies when he strictly enforced anticlerical articles of the 1917 Constitution. The Church-State conflict was mediated and ended with the aid of the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Although the constitution prohibited reelection of the president, Obregón wished to run again and the constitution was amended to allow non-consecutive re-election.  Obregón won the 1928 elections but was assassinated by a Catholic zealot, causing a political crisis of succession. Calles could not become president again, since he has just ended his term.  He sought to set up a structure to manage presidential succession, founding the party that was to dominate Mexico until the late twentieth century. Calles declared that the Revolution had moved from caudillismo (rule by strongmen) to the era institucional (institutional era). 
  Despite not holding the presidency, Calles remained the key political figure during the period known as the Maximato (1929-1934). The Maximato ended during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, who expelled Calles from the country and implemented many economic and social reforms. This included the Mexican oil expropriation in March 1938, which nationalized the U.S. and Anglo-Dutch oil company known as the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company. This movement would result in the creation of the state-owned Mexican oil company Pemex. This sparked a diplomatic crisis with the countries whose citizens had lost businesses by Cárdenas's radical measure, but since then the company has played an important role in the economic development of Mexico. Cárdenas's successor, Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940-1946) was more moderate, and relations between the U.S. and Mexico vastly improved during World War II, when Mexico was a significant ally, providing manpower and materiel to aid the war effort.
  From 1946 the election of Miguel Alemán, the first civilian president in the post-revolutionary period, Mexico embarked on an aggressive program of economic development, known as the Mexican miracle, which was characterized by industrialization, urbanization, and the increase of inequality in Mexico between urban and rural areas.  With robust economic growth, Mexico sought to showcase it to the world by hosting the 1968 Summer Olympics. The government poured huge resources into building new facilities. At the same time, there was political unrest by university students and others with those expenditures, while their own circumstances were difficult. Demonstrations in central Mexico City went on for weeks before the planned opening of the games, with the government of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz cracking down. The culmination was the Tlatelolco Massacre, which
caption: NAFTA signing ceremony, October 1992. From left to right: (standing) President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (Mexico), President George H. W. Bush (U.S.), and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (Canada)
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