Editing History of Mexico (section)

=== Revitalization of the revolution under Cárdenas ===
{{Main|Lázaro Cárdenas}}
[[File:Lazaro Cardenas Jijilpan.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Lázaro Cárdenas mural]]

[[Lázaro Cárdenas]] was hand-picked by Calles as the successor to the presidency in 1934. Cárdenas managed to unite the different forces in the PRI and set the rules that allowed his party to rule unchallenged for decades without internal fights. He nationalized the oil industry (on 18 March 1938) and the electricity industry, created the [[National Polytechnic Institute]] and implemented extensive [[land reform]] and the distribution of free textbooks to children.<ref>{{cite book|author=Dan La Botz|title=Democracy in Mexico: Peasant Rebellion and Political Reform|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7H3sN3ugnbMC&pg=PA55|year=1995|publisher=South End Press|page=55|isbn=978-0-89608-507-7}}</ref> In 1936 he exiled Calles, the last general with dictatorial ambitions, thereby removing the army from power.

On the eve of [[World War II]], the [[Lázaro Cárdenas#Presidential career|Cárdenas administration]] (1934–1940) was stabilizing, and consolidating control over, a Mexican nation that, for decades, had been in revolutionary flux,<ref>{{cite book |last=Rankin |first=Monica |chapter=Mexico: Industrialization through Unity |editor-last1=Leonard |editor-first1=Thomas M. |editor-last2=Bratzel |editor-first2=John F. |title=Latin America During World War II |date=11 September 2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1-4616-3862-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVQeAAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> and Mexicans were beginning to interpret the European battle between the communists and fascists, especially the [[Spanish Civil War]], through their unique revolutionary lens. As he remained neutral, whether Mexico would side with the United States was unclear during [[Lázaro Cárdenas]] 's rule. "Capitalists, businessmen, Catholics, and middle-class Mexicans who opposed many of the reforms implemented by the revolutionary government sided with the Spanish Falange".<ref>{{harvnb|Rankin|2006|p=18}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Friedrich E. Schuler|title=Mexico Between Hitler and Roosevelt: Mexican Foreign Relations in the Age of Lázaro Cárdenas, 1934–1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q4ZiwTZpWoYC&pg=PA101|year= 1999|publisher=UNM Press|page=101|isbn=978-0-8263-2160-2}}</ref>

Nazi propagandist Arthur Dietrich and his team of agents in Mexico successfully manipulated editorials and coverage of Europe by paying hefty subsidies to Mexican newspapers, including the widely read dailies [[Excélsior]] and [[El Universal (Mexico City)|El Universal]].<ref>{{harvnb|Rankin|2006|pp=18–19}}</ref> The situation became even more problematic for the Allies when major oil companies boycotted Mexican oil following [[Lázaro Cárdenas#1938 oil expropriation|Lázaro Cárdenas' nationalization of the oil industry]] and [[Mexican oil expropriation|expropriation of all corporate oil properties]] in 1938,<ref>{{harvnb|Rankin|2006|p=19}}</ref> which severed Mexico's access to its traditional markets and led Mexico to sell its oil to Germany and Italy.<ref>{{Cite book|last = Smith|first = Peter H.|title = Talons of the Eagle: Dynamics of U.S. – Latin American Relations|edition = 2nd|publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]|page = [https://archive.org/details/talonsofeagledyn00smit_0/page/79 79]|date = 1996|isbn = 0-19-508303-2|url = https://archive.org/details/talonsofeagledyn00smit_0/page/79}}</ref>