Mexican Economic Crisis (Better Dead Than Red)

Prelude
Since the US took Baja California and Yucatan during the Mexican-American War the Mexican economy collapsed in 1878.

Crisis
Mexico was on the brink of collapse. The government began to encourage industry with little success but it did help establish an oil industry in the south in 1880. Mexico's corn industry was growing too slow to sustain the economy so in 1879, Mexico invaded Guatemala to annex it. Mexico did the same with El Salvador in 1882. With the annexations in Central America, other Central American countries were worried about Mexico coming to annex them too but Mexico instead went to Honduras, Costa Rica, and Colombia to open up more trade. The Mexican economy began to stabilize in 1899 but Mexico was still a poor country with huge poverty and unemployment rate.