United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution
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[edit] Overview
Initially, the United States stayed informed about the Mexican Revolution from documents conveyed from the U.S. Consulate in Mexico to the Secretary of State in Washington, D.C., who then informed President William Howard Taft. They informed the American government of the build up to the Revolution and push to keep the Díaz government in power. It became clear that initially the United States did not want to intervene but wanted to keep the Díaz government in power to prevent problems with business relations between the two countries, such as the sales of oil between Mexico and the United States.
The documents received were not only letters from the U.S. Consulate, but were also translations of official documents of the constant changing government during the Revolution. The Consulate had sent the Secretary of State translations of documents stating that after having overthrown Díaz, Francisco I. Madero had declared himself President of Mexico. Along with this document sent were Madero’s 10 Platform promises for Mexico.
The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson, was involved in plotting the February 1913 coup d'état (Known as La decena trágica) that overthrew Francisco I. Madero and installed Victoriano Huerta. However, he did this without the approval of President-elect Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was horrified at the murder of Madero, and made destabilizing the Huerta regime a priority.
On April 9, 1914, officials in the port of Tampico, Tamaulipas, arrested a group of U.S. sailors — including, at least one taken from on board his ship, and thus from U.S. territory. Mexico's failure to apologize in the terms demanded led to the U.S. navy's bombardment of the port of Veracruz and the occupation of Veracruz for seven months; see Tampico Affair. Woodrow Wilson's actual motivation was a desire to overthrow Huerta; the Tampico Affair did succeed in further destabilizing his regime and encouraging the rebels.
In 1916, Pancho Villa crossed the U.S. border and attacked the town of Columbus, New Mexico. Villa’s group killed 17 men, burned army barracks and robbed stores. After the attack Villa came to represent mindless violence and banditry to people in the U.S. This raid led the U.S. to send a force under General John Pershing into Mexico, which spent 11 months unsuccessfully chasing him in the punitive Pancho Villa Expedition (March 1916 – February 1917). The expedition proved futile and did not yield any notable results.
Although the Zimmermann Telegram affair of January 1917 did not lead to a direct U.S. intervention, it took place against the backdrop of the Constitutional Convention and exacerbated tensions between the USA and Mexico.
During the Mexican Revolution there was a great migration from Mexico into Southwestern U.S.: thousands fled the civil war. Although there was a mix of social classes, the majority were poor and illiterate. They were seen as much needed cheap labor in the agrarian industry. Almost 10% of the total Mexican population emigrated during civil war years,[citation needed] many going to Texas. Some of the Mexican exiles living in the United States were intellectuals, doctors, and professionals who wrote about their experience under the Díaz government and also spoke out against Díaz in Spanish-American newspapers. Many publications were smuggled into Mexico to show support for the Mexicans back home, encouraging the fight, believing that Díaz was not fit to rule Mexico.
[edit] American, Canadian and other foreign mercenaries in Mexico
Many adventurers (e.g. Sarah "Wildwoman" Horn), ideologues and freebooters from outside Mexico were attracted by the purported excitement and romance, not to mention possible booty, of the Mexican Revolution. Most mercenaries served in armies operating in the north of Mexico, partly because those areas were the closest to popular entry points to Mexico from the US, partly because Pancho Villa had no compunction about hiring mercenaries. The first legion of foreign mercenaries, during the 1910 Madero revolt, was the Falange de los Extranjeros (Foreign Phalanx), which included the son of famed Italian freebooter Giuseppe Garibaldi and well as many American recruits. Later, during the revolt against the coup d'état of Victoriano Huerta, many of the same foreigners and others were recruited and enlisted by Pancho Villa and his División del Norte. Villa recruited Americans, Canadians and other foreigners of all ranks from simple infantrymen on up, but the most highly prized and best paid were machine gun experts such as Sam Dreben, artillery experts such as Ivor Thord-Gray, and doctors for Villa's celebrated Servicio sanitario medic and mobile hospital corps. There is little doubt that Villa's Mexican equivalent of the French Foreign Legion (known as the "Legion of Honor") was an important factor in Villa's successes against Huerta's Federal Army.
