| Summary: | The relationship between Mexico and the United States during the twentieth
century has evolved from one mostly characterized by Mexican economic dependence
on the US to one of interdependence between the two countries. In the 1930s, trade
became a concrete expression of this interdependence and the link that eventually
brought these two countries to friendly terms. The objective of this paper is to
evaluate the impact of international trade on the growing interdependence of Mexico
and the US between 1934 and 1940.
This thesis is structured in two parts. The first section deals with the factors
which shaped American foreign policy towards Mexico; the second discusses the
Mexican side of the relationship. The two analyses are pulled together in a brief
conclusion. The emphasis of this thesis is on the Mexican side of the relationship, and
the discussion of American policy serves primarily to provide a context for the
subsequent analysis of the factors shaping Mexico’s treatment of the United States.
Much of the primary source material used in this thesis was researched in the
Banco de Comercio Exterior and the Secretarla de Relaciones Exteriores in Mexico City.
Contemporary economic journals and newspapers were also an important source of
information; the secondary literature on Mexican-American relations and on the
government of Lázaro Cárdenas was also valuable.
The thesis concludes that trade was the key element promoting cooperation and
that the relationship between Mexico and the United States in the period 1934-1940
was not determined by nationalism, capitalism, imperialism, or any other ‘ism”. The
limits of the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico have not been based on some
ardent nationalism, but on the shifting interests of the sectors controlling political
power in both countries.
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