Mexico Is About to Get Rich (All parts)

#Mexico #Economy #PikeProductions

Mexico is destined for rapid economic advancement. While the republic has monumental challenges, chiefly a rugged geography and a history of instability, the young democracy is destined for greatness.

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A big, huge, heartfelt thank you to The Histories of Mexico podcast for their help. To learn more about Mexico, be sure to check out their podcast: https://juliojccs1992.podbean.com/

Chapters:
00:00 - Mexican Geography
03:27 - Mexico Economy Today
04:48 - Mexico Post Independence
10:28 - Mexico Post Revolution
18:23 - Mexico and Oil
36:36 - 1988 Presidential Election
38:24 - Carlos Salinas Presidencey
44:53 - Salinas Creates NAFTA
55:37 - Democratization of Mexico
1:01:47- Peso Devaluation
1:10:27 - Pros of NAFTA
1:22:44 - Cons of NAFTA
1:25:30 - Politicization of NAFTA
1:29:21 - Saving NAFTA
1:45:56 - Mexico in a Changing World

Required Attributions:

Hall of the Mountain King by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Heartbreaking by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Cumbia No Frills Faster by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Abridged Transcript:

Mexico should be a failed state. This has nothing to do with the people, culture, or even the politics, but rather with a more powerful force that can not be changed: geography.

Most powerful nations have two key characteristics: a temperate climate that is favorable for agricultural production, and flat land that is easy for trade and economic expansion.

Mexico is far from being temperate or flat. The north is dominated by desert which makes agricultural and economic growth incredibly difficult. The south is a rugged jungle, which has forced much of the local population into substance living.

If that didn’t make the Mexican geography challenging enough, the nation is full of mountain chains, that makes infrastructure incredibly costly. Mexico’s greatest geographic asset, its coastlines, is largely mitigated by the rugged interior. Getting goods from the Gulf side to the Pacific side is not cheap, easy, or quick.

If that wasn’t challenging enough, Mexican rivers are terrible for navigation. The total water flow across all Mexican rivers is about 25% less than that of the Mississippi River alone. While The EU has The Rhine, and South America has the Amazon, Mexico has nothing, with the exception of a few stretches of the Grijalva River which can only accommodate shallow draft vessels in certain spots. The lack of navigable rivers paired with the mountainous interior makes domestic trade a costly endeavor.

The daunting geography not only hinders economic activity, but also political stability. Keeping Mexico united is no easy task. Shortly after gaining independence from Spain, Mexico would be rife with insurrections and rebellions. The challenging geography made it easy for Texas and the provinces of Central America to secede from the motherland. Parts of the Yucatan also seceded for several years before rejoining the fold. And when American President James Polk decided that it was time to take a few states from Mexico, the mountainous and arid geography made it difficult for Santa Anna to get troops to the front lines.

13 years later, Napoleon the Third decided that Mexico should be a puppet of the French Empire. But even the mighty French couldn’t handle Mexico’s geography. Mexican republicans were able to remain in power in certain states, and would push the French out in about 5 years.

Mexico’s harsh geography would make political stability and economic advancement almost impossible, and made the nation an easy target for foreign intervention. The jungles, deserts, mountains, and lack of navigable rivers would be problematic enough on their own. But all four of these features combined within a country that is nearly four times the size of Spain, is a recipe for disaster. Mexico arguably has the worst geography in the world in terms of economic development and political stability.