Sphere of Influence: Mexico (1877-1917)

I have examined the years spanning 1877-1917, and will present my findings with regard to how the events of those years formed patterns of behavior and attitudes that persist today, in the relations of the United States and Mexico.

Porfirio Diaz stabilized a country that had been in chaos and civil tumult since 1810. Call it “Diaz-potism,” call it tyranny, but he did whip law and order into shape in Mexico during his 35-year clutch on power, and banditry was all but wiped out. Commercial, industrial and mineral development saw big success, and property became secure—that is, as long as you were a big landowner or a foreign property-owner. Americans held about a billion dollars’ worth of oil, silver, railroads and land. Investment capital was free-flowing, and Mexico’s credit rating in the foreign exchanges was truly high. Diaz had the admiration of the international contingent, but what he got from his citizens was a revolution.

How so? His tenure had shown he had built a most authoritarian and centralist police state out of what was essentially a liberal and federalist Constitution. Effective suffrage? Non-existent. His judges, legislators, local

Back in Mexico, numerous claims remained outstanding for damaged and for expropriated land. These were still unsettled when yet another revolution brought General Alvaro Obregon to power in 1920. Compounding these claims was the nationalization of the oil industry. Again, U.S. investors were furiously yapping for war, some kind of intervention. Resisting this, the U.S. patiently negotiated our recognition of Obregon in exchange for Mexico attending to the acceptable settlement of the claims. One year later, unfortunately, another government was in control, and dismissed the previous agreement. It wasn’t until 1928 that Ambassador Dwight W. Morrow (a native of Huntington, West Virginia) negotiated a compromise.

What had America learned? Non-involvement and neutrality were admirable intentions, but difficult for a great power to express. When the U.S. began meddling in Mexico, the situation was already beyond its control. Nothing profitable came of either the Veracruz or the Pancho Villa episodes. President Wilson, oddly enough, pursued nearly the same policies between 1914-1917 in Europe. As for Villa, the Mexican government accepted his eventual surrender, and retired him on a general’s salary. In 1923, however, he was assassinated while returning from some bank business.

An interesting rumor persists about Villa being a German agent. After having been extremely friendly the United States, Villa felt terribly betrayed when it recognized the Carranza regime, and was determined to inflict retributive damage back onto the United States.

The three non-Revolutionaries who require and arranged his deposition were General Victoriano Huerta, General Felix Diaz, and U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson. The last thing they wanted was a furtherance of any social reform movement Madero might undertake.

Some topics in this essay:
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