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Lazaro Cardenas and the Importance of his Government - Coggle Diagram
Lazaro Cardenas and the Importance of his Government
The Agrarian Reform
Agrarian reform more than anything else dominated the administration's concern during the first few years.
Cárdenas early made up his to fullfill twenty years of promises.
By the time his term expired, he had distributed 49 million acres, about twice as much as all his predecessors combined.
By 1940 approximately one third of the Mexican population had received land under the agrarian reform program.
In fact, most of Mexico’s arable land had been redistributed. Only the large cattle haciendas on arid or semiarid land remained untouched.
“The vast majority of the land distributed did not go to individuals or even heads of but rather to the communal
ejidos
.
.
The complex grew cotton, corn, wheat and alfalfa provided schools and had a hospital.
However, “Cárdenas’ dedication to agrarian reform spelled the the demise of the traditional hacienda complex in Mexico. Millions of peasants were given a new faith in the revolutionary concept the type of servitude that had bound hacendado and peón for centuries was broken by 1940.
.
Its performance is weakened by a population which grew faster than its assets, and by favoritism in its loans.
Economically, the ejidos were not as efficient, and agricultural production declined.
.
The largest ejido was Laguna, with 8,000,000 acres.
Cárdenas created the
Banco de Crédito Ejidal
to provide loans for the
small farmers
.
Still, this is a very positive step–agrarian reform must go beyond merely redistributing the land.
Labor
Cárdenas supported the creation of a new labor organization, the Confederación de Trabajadores de México, (CTM) under the leadership of Vicente Lombardo Toledano.