Mexico could be one of the rare countries who will benefit tremendously from the collapse of globalization. It’s not simply their proximity to the United States that will cause this boom for Mexico. Like all overnight success stories, this story has been many years in the making.

If you have been watching the news about Mexico over the last dozen years, you have likely seen a lot of ugly news about cartels and crimes in northern Mexico. While that is true, and it certainly is all nasty business, it doesn’t tell the entire story.

Shipping goods from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, or from the Atlantic to the Pacific has historically been quite challenging. The reason being, there are the two massive continents of North and South America that are in the way. This used to mean that to transfer cargo, you had to ship all the way around the southern tip of South America, an extremely long and dangerous route. Or the far more expensive, and time consuming overland route.

A US overland route from Corpus Christi Texas to San Diego California is 1,419 miles. That is a very long distance and on early 20th century roads this could take quite a few weeks.