ABSTRACT
Using the theories and rhetoric of import-substituting industrialization, and emerging nationalism, Latin Americans pursued internal industrial development, especially in those areas with large populations, abundant natural resources, and a stable labor force. Latin American countries also began to restructure commercial networks and placed a new emphasis on trade with Europe and Asia in the mid-twentieth century. Mexican industrialization benefited from close proximity to the United States. Mexico counted on a large internal market and an educated, organized industrial work force. The Mexican oil industry was born shortly after 1938, the year when the populist President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized foreign oil properties in Mexico. Copper production and exports contributed to the growth of the Chilean economy. Copper represented 10 percent of Chile’s gross domestic product and 70 percent of total exports. When considering production by nations after 1945, a critical component of Latin Americans’ drive to industrialize centered on their desire to achieve “status” in the club of industrial nations.
