Mexico during World War II

However, this intensified with the sinking of oil tankers by German submarine attacks, resulting in Mexico declaring war on the Axis Powers of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan in May 1942.

On November 6, 1935, Mexico joined the League of Nations economic blockades against the Kingdom of Italy for the invasion and subsequent annexation of the Ethiopian Empire.

In addition, the Soviet Union had withdrawn its ambassador since the Cardenista government gave political asylum to Leon Trotsky, who was a strong opponent of Joseph Stalin's regime.

The United States, seeing Mexico's stability, decided not to retaliate following the expropriation and reached a compensation agreement as part of the Good Neighbor policy, which would help establish post-war Pan-American cooperation.

On September 4, President Lázaro Cárdenas, faithful to Mexico's pacifist policy, declared neutrality in the European conflict, which was seen as a new kind of war.

Before the German aggression against Holland and Belgium, Cárdenas declared on May 13, 1940 that: On behalf of the Mexican nation I send my message of protest to all the countries of the world for the new outrages committed by the militarist imperialism that has attacked Belgium and Holland, without encountering any other obstacle than the heroic defense of the invaded peoples, while other countries, forgetting their responsibility, have assumed an expectant and indolent attitude.When General Avila Camacho took office as President of Mexico in December 1940, neutrality was less firm.

After the invasions of Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941, the new president declared: Once again, the German armies have invaded by force the territory of a neutral country, abusing its military potential.

(...) For those who still think that neutrality is a guarantee of peace and salvation, the case of these two nations, small for their territory, but great for their sense of dignity and for their generous love of independence and sovereignty, should serve as an example and also as an encouragement.In April 1941, Avila Camacho ordered the seizure of German and Italian ships in national ports; among the ships thus seized was the Italian-flagged tanker Lucifero, which would later be called Potrero del Llano.

This decision primarily affected Mexican oil, whose only major buyer would then be the United States, a country with which political tension was beginning to dissipate as the U.S. arms industry now required Mexico's raw material.

On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, precipitating the Americans to abandon neutrality and enter the war which, from being purely European, thus became world-wide.

[11] On May 22, the president called an extraordinary session of the Congress of the Union to grant the executive the power to declare a state of war between Mexico and the Axis countries.

Before the congress, Avila Camacho said the following: The attitude that Mexico takes in the present eventuality is based on the fact that our determination stems from a need for legitimate defense.

Lázaro Cárdenas was appointed Secretary of Defense, the National Military Service (SMN) was created, the United States delivered armaments to improve the capacity of the Mexican army, and the properties of German, Japanese and Italian citizens were seized.

[16] In view of this situation, the United States, under the pretext of the possibility of aggression by Japan on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean, began discreet negotiations to be allowed to install a military base on the Baja California peninsula; according to historian Humberto Musacchio, that there was speculation that he might have tried to occupy that part of Mexican territory without success.

[citation needed] President Avila Camacho immediately met with his cabinet, which, analyzing the situation, took precautionary measures to reinforce the surveillance and defense of the Pacific coast.

[citation needed] Initially, Mexican participation in the war was limited to the military defense of the coasts of Baja California, but the Allied powers pressed for Mexico to send a symbolic force to the battlefield.

In charge of the group was Colonel Antonio Cárdenas Rodríguez, and Captain First Class Radamés Gaxiola Andrade was named squadron commander.

The squadron arrived in Manila on April 30, 1945, and was assigned to the Fifth Air Force's 58th Fighter Group, based at Porac, Pampanga, in the Clark Field complex on the island of Luzon.

The Mexican Expeditionary Air Force was assigned to the service group of 311th Squadron, and on August 24, it carried out an escort mission to a convoy north of the Philippine Sea to prevent Japanese attacks.

On D-Day there were also Mexican fighters, all of whom were volunteers and born in other countries, including Luis Pérez Gómez (1922-1944), who enlisted as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, participating in various missions during the Normandy landings.

201st Squadron returned to Mexico City on November 18 in a military parade in the Zócalo and the subsequent presentation of the flag to the president, General Manuel Ávila Camacho, being received as heroes for battling fascism in the Pacific.

Under these conditions we are seriously exposed to a deadly annulment of our national personality.Nonetheless, labour leader and head of the Mexican left Vicente Lombardo Toledano supported the allied cause in the tribunes and advised the president not to take refuge in prudence because the time had come for the country to honor its traditions.

Agustín Lara premiered his Cantar del Regimiento and the cinema achieved resounding successes that everyone likes to this day: ¡Mexicanos al Grito de Guerra!

In the international arena, Mexico was more present, taking part in the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, the Treaty of San Francisco,[23] the Bretton Woods Conference, and managed to have its initiative approved so that the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain would not be recognized or admitted as a legitimate government before the UN, because it had been formed with the military aid of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

Mexico's geographic position and the global crisis the world was facing placed the country in a strategic role for the supply and security of its northern neighbors, Canada and the United States.

The U.S. labor force was insufficiently large and international trade was hampered, while Mexico had strong bargaining power with the U.S. and began producing products that it had previously imported.

The country had natural resources indispensable for the war industry, such as copper, zinc, graphite, minerals, silver, cattle, beer and agricultural products, which increased its exports and stimulated its development.

The conditions that allowed the accelerated growth of the economy contributed to the emergence of the import substitution model that Mexico maintained for several decades after the end of the war.

[26] The Bracero Program remained in effect until 1964 and benefited neighboring countries, securing needed labor for the United States and reducing unemployment in Mexico.

In 1943, the film Wild Flower brought together filmmaker Emilio Fernández, photographer Gabriel Figueroa, actor Pedro Armendariz and actress Dolores del Río.