Mexico's 30 Obstacles to Development: Comparative Differences with the United States

1) Mexico's Place in World Times. New Spain (also known as Mexico by 1800) misses out on a) Industrial, Ag, & Commercial Revolutions b) Enlightenment & Catholic Reformation, c) Transportation Revolution, d) Print Revolution & Rise of Active Citizens

e)

Technological Revolution in Europe and in Britains 13 American Colonies, Rise of real town councils, free speech and free press - all enjoyed by British Colonies and denied in Spanish Colonies, where printing presses only permitted under Church supervision.

f)

g) New Spain watches rise of Revolutionary Capitalism in & world industrial trade by American colonies, which defy the British crowns orders to only produce raw materials. 1776 Declaration of Independence comes to legitimize a new economic, social, political order already in place & fully won by defeating the British King in 1783. A TRUE REVOLUTION VERSUS: h) Mexico (based on mining and haciendas) hears in 1810 a call to make Mexico for the Mexicans by expelling Spanish Colonial authorities-Independence comes accidentally in 1821 as A TRUE COUNTER REVOLUTION to maintain in power the Spanish monopolists & conserve the old anti-capitalist order--not lay the legal basis for a new one, which must await the rule of Porfirio Daz, 1876-1911.

2) Accidental Independence of Mexico: a) Protest in 1810 begins in New Spain by Father Miguel Hidalgo; his movement to readdress grievances eventually becomes movement for Independence from Spain. b) French in 1808 capture Spanish King Ferdinand VII leads Mexico to begin its own political culture 1810-1821, but Independence in 1821was made by conservatives seeking to maintain their Spanish Monopoly System by preventing the rise of democracy and private capitalism

c) Napoleons 1807 wars against Portugal to break its alliance with Britain (which had blockaded ships loaded with arms & goods to resupply his Continental Empire), led Napoleon to seize Spain to get to Lisbon. d) Napoleons having placed his brother Joseph I on the throne of Spain, 1807, causes Spaniards in Spain and Mexico to refuse to cooperate with a foreign King, and to set up City Self-Governments.

e) Many Spaniards flee Spain to Mexico carrying the Enlightened idea of the rights of man Vs. the Napoleonic idea of detailed written Codes of Government (issued between 1804 and 1810). These Codes (e.g., regulating industry and commerce) foster growth of a productive middle class.
f) THE Napoleonic Code of 1810 establishes the unfair legal idea of guilty until proven innocent in direct opposition to Americas fair idea: innocent until proven guilty.

g) Some Mexican towns refuse to obey Joseph I; as in Spain, and they seek to establish free city councils.
h) But the small group of pure-blood Spaniards who hold power in Mexico fears losing its privileges, and seeks to abort the idea of new freedoms that would challenge their power through the rise of town councils demanding free trade and an end to monopolies over economic and political power.

i) When Ferdinand VII returns to power in Spain, he cannot stop the 1812 proclamation in Cdiz of a Constitution providing for the autonomy of town councils in Spain and eventually the Colonies, especially Mexico. j) In 1821 Mexico, the pure-blood Spaniards who controlled politics and monopolies of all activity, declare COUNTER REVOLUTON against the rise of U.S. inspired capitalism, and break with Spain to declare Independence to create the Mexican Empire (1822-1823), including Central America and what is now the U.S. West (Calif., Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and part of Colorado). Size 1,818,000 sq. miles.

3. MEXICO COLLAPSES INTO CHAOS

a) The Mexican Empire is overthrown by 1823 and it loses Central America, which is creating its own political future.
b) The Mexican Republic is established, but breaks into a struggle for and against joint Central Govt./Church rule, which Conservatives demand. Liberals demand power distributed to state governments.

c) Civil war in Mexico 1821-1875 to determine whether it will be Statist under Centralist government or Anti-Centralist governed with much autonomy by Mexicos far-flung state governments such as Jalisco, Coahuila, Yucatn
d) New Napoleons, the Man on the White Horse, is model for hundreds ofgenerals who seek unsuccessfully to organize an army and impose order -- which in 1876 Porfirio Daz finally does. e) No matter who wins, rigid Napoleonic laws and harsh treatment of the guilty is standard.

4) Geography (Chart 1A-2A): a) Most of country has too much, or too little rainfall b) Mexico is a land of earthquakes e.g., Mexico City has 200+ small earth movements daily, causing sewer & water lines to mix e) High Mountain ranges, North to South, impede travel between Gulf and Pacific d) Only 2 major sea ports (Veracruz and Acapulco); no coastal shipping.

e) No navigable rivers as enjoyed by British Colonies - such rivers allowed British Colonies to engage in smuggling.
f) Tropical coasts a diseased place to live until the advent of electrical refrigeration and air conditioning in the 1950s. g) Erosion of top soil due to overgrazing since the 1550s.

5) Loss of Territory and Mineral Wealth (Chart 2B-C): a) After Mexicos 1823 loss of Central America, it is reduced from 1,818,000 sq. mi. to 1,618,000. b) Mexico loss of American West in 1848 reduces it to 760,000 sq. miles, which is only 42% of the country at its maximum (1821-1823). c) Mexico loses Gold, oil, and silver (in California. Texas, and today's U.S. West)

6. Population decrease (Charts 3-4): a} 25 million in 1521 and 1950. In 1608 population fell to one million, b} Missions brought disease, especially in the parts of Mexico which suffer from high heat all year, a problem not faced by the American Colonies with their cold winters

c} New Spains culture for classifying social status by degrees of blood, thus stigmatizing dark people, never vanishes.

7) Crown "taxes" on New Spain were 35 times greater than taxes extracted in English Colonies to the North: a) Depleted base for Mexico wealth. b) Long term decline in GDP/C (gross domestic product per capita) begins in Colonial period: In 1800 New Spains GDP/C was 44% that of USA; today it is about 21%. See Chart 6:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

8) Lost Mining Revenue because mines

destroyed between 1810 and 1876.

9) Reconstruction period after Independence delayed by rural chaos--Hacienda becomes a "refuge" for rural families. By 1880, a prison
10) Spaniards expelled = loss of: a) Intellectuals, managers, engineers b) Flight of Spanish capital 11) Weak central government control & police = a) Unsafe travel & lack of communication 12) Disruption of countryside by warring factions: a) Disruption of bureaucracy

13) Three land systems: a) Haciendas versus b) Ejidos versus c) Church owned 50% of usable land.
14) Govt. fails to replace Church, 1821-1921: a) The Church runs most hospitals, schools, orphanagesGovt. lacks necessary funds, organization, personnel, buildings, etc b) 3 Judicial Systems: Church, Military, Civil. 15) Govt. standing armies vs. Guerrilla Warfare.

16) High illiteracy, many births (many die by age one but pop. reaches 25 mill. by 1950) then pop. explosion by mid-1960s & jobless future 17) N. European migrants not admitted to New Spain & after 1810 migrants avoid violent Mexico and go to USA with their knowledge of Industrial, Tec, Educational Revolutions. 18) Culture of domination is sequential: a) Aztecs, b) Viceroy/Church, c) Generals, 1810-- d) French Army 1861-66, Maximilian 1864-1867, e) Porfirio Daz, 1876-1910.

19) Long Struggle to Achieve in Mexico: a) standard weights and measures b) civil registry of births, marriages, deaths

20) End Arbitrary State Intervention: History of corruption and smuggling to protect against excessive powers of Spanish crown.
21) System of bribery (too often called taxes): Internal taxes at each state border (alcabala) within Mexico increases cost of goods in Calif. 400 times over the landing price at Veracruz.

22) Deficient Commercial System:

a) No joint stock companies b) No patent law

23) Tradition of learning in Mexico's universities until the 1950s by and for a) elite b) Church

24) Mexico invented its own habeas corpus in mid-1840s and calls it amparo. In theory, the amparo prevents persons from being unjustly prosecuted by the Executive Power in Mexico, by permitting judges to assume custody over the accused. Used mainly by rich criminals to protect themselves by bribing a judge. This equals habeas corpus before arrest(Compare to all other legal systems where habeas corpus takes place after the

25) Napoleonic Judicial Code continues in Mexico but will be phased out by 2016 (Chart 7A): a) Under Napoleonic Code, accused are presumed guilty until they prove themselves innocent -vice versus the situation in the U.S.) b) no trial by jury, no right to face accuser or cross examine police or witnesses c) judges never meet most of the accused, only read their depositions d) no real ability for anyone to protest torture (Only in 21st century is change underway for above; Except no jury)

26) Mexico trapped by having mixed 3 legal systems:

a) Spanish Civil Code of inflexibility--light years away from the flexible U.S. & British Common Law Codes, b) French Napoleonic Civil Codes of Ministerial inflexibly centralizing harsh power (and as under Spanish law) causing Central Government to putrefy, and c) U.S. Governing System limiting Centralism by dividing national power between the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary, ii) establishing the same division of powers at the state level which also gives the states some autonomy against federal intervention.

27) The confused combination of a+b+c, above, has led to the need for bribes to keep Mexico functioning in face of the fact that, under a and b, no acts are legal unless previously approved in the detailed civil codes (which discourage innovation because they are years or decades behind reality). VERSUS 28) U.S. law where all acts are legal unless they are made illegal in the codes of common law (which encourage innovation).
29) Wheras U.S. Civil Service Protection for government workers was established in 1883, Mexico does not have a Civil Service Law (except in the Foreign Relations Ministry). Jobs are bought & sold http://mexidata.info/id526.html

30) Mexico faces the rise of Narcotraficantes, especially since 1985 when U.S. DEA agent Enrique Camarena was tortured & killed near Guadalajara.
a) The Central and state governors in Mexicos north and west effectively cede police powers to the Narcotraficantes.

b) Almost all of Mexicos nearly 2,500 municipalities suffer corrupt dealings with Narco Lords.