| Résumé: | This article studies colonization in 20th Century Mexico, which is a little-studied issue due to the preference for studying the agrarian reform misunderstood as the establishment of ejidos. This error is largely a result of the neglect of other methods proposed for ending latifundia, which was the unspoken goal of Mexican revolutionaries. To do away with this confusion, this article reconstructs the history of the National Colonization Commission (CNC), arguing that the brief life of the CNC (1947-1963) expresses not so much the lack of prestige of the liberal path incarnated by colonization so much as a reflection of the weakness of governmental efforts to regulate the expansion of private property in rural areas. This type of property expanded and consolidated itself thanks to social and political developments that had no use for institutions such as the CNC.
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