People's party proposed to break the monopolistic control offreight rates by the railroads through "national ownership of . . . transportation." The first government to initiate a complete nationalization of industry was that of theSoviet Union under Lenin. With respect to other governments, nationalization was usedby formerly colonial and semicolonial countries to secure their natural resources againstexploitation by foreign capitalist interests; a typical example was the nationalization bythe Mexican government in the 1920s and '30s of the country's various mines and, tosafeguard Mexico's vast oil deposits, of the subsoil. More recent examples of nationalization can be found in the Middle East and in LatinAmerica. One was the expropriation of the Suez Canal by Egypt in 1956. During theearly 1970s many of the foreign-owned oil interests in the Middle East were either partlyor totally nationalized in a concerted move by the Arab states to gain control over theirleading, and sometimes only, international commodity. In Latin America utilities and oiland mining operations have been nationalized in Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. Whennationalization does not work out favorably, some countries may follow Chile's exampleand denationalize certain properties. C.J.F. nationalizationacquisition and operation by a country of businesses owned and operated by privateindividuals or corporations. It is usually done in the name of social and economicequality, often as part of Communist or socialist doctrine. Nationalization of foreign-owned property, e.g., the Suez Canal by Egypt (1958) and the copper-mining industry byChile (1971), typically attempts to end foreign control of an industry or the economy andposes complex problems for INTERNATIONAL LAW. After World War II, CommunistEastern Europe nationalized all industry and most agriculture, and Western Europeannations nationalized some key industries, such as transportation. By the 1990s the ...
