When I say border war, I don't mean this 'border war,' or this border war, or even this border
war.
The REAL border wars were a series of conflicts between Mexico and the United States from
1911 to 1919.
The US has been in several wars with Mexico, not just the one in 1848.
To understand how this one started we have to look at some Mexican history.
From the late 1870's, a man named Porfirio Diaz had become a dictator in Mexico, though
continuing to hold elections.
In 1910, Diaz jailed his chief rival (Francesco Madero) before election day, setting off a
revolution in response.
Losing control of the country, Diaz was dislodged, but the revolution splintered in a long and
drawn out struggle between any number of revolutionary groups vying for supremacy in Mexico.
This revolution would carry on for decades in one way or another within the country.
President Taft, at the time of the revolution, recognized the peril this conflict caused
for the US along its borders.
The revolutionaries were crossing into Texas and raiding American settlement, before Taft
had even acted.
He sent the US army to secure the entire border and keep the Mexican Revolution in Mexico.
Orders were unclear at first, so much raiding continued and local Texans had to take matters
into their own hands, enforcing border security with their personal arms.
It took a year before the army came into conflict with Mexicans.
As what became typical of this war, a Mexican battle crossed over, and the US stopped the
battle with sheer firepower.
That would happen again and again.
Most of the time, the US won decisively, but the Mexicans had a few victories.
After the first few battles, the US completely armed its border and would not allow anyone
to cross without prior permission.
Illegal immigrants would be shelled and the ones who survived the onslaught would be deported
immediately.
Things became very hectic very quickly.
By 1913 the US sought to have allies in the Mexican Revolution.
Eventually they settled on Pancho Villa.
This picture will seem quite odd later on down the road, but for now Villa seems like
a good guy to support.
In 1914 a small event in Tampico Mexico involving American entrepreneurs and revolutionaries
resulted in the newly elected President Wilson to foolishly send the US Navy to occupy Veracruz
Mexico for over six months.
This soured our relations with the current El Presidente - Huerta and all other Mexicans
at the time.
The skirmishes kept taking place, and the revolution kept splintering to the point that
it ought to be simply called a civil war.
Pancho Villa was losing the war badly in 1916.
In his ignominy, he allowed his army to turn ravenous.
They started to become petty bandits and thugs, plundering and murdering wherever they went,
rather than following their revolutionary aspirations.
The US ceased giving Villa arms and help, and he turned his rage on America.
He started by killing a train full of American oil workers.
Then he attacked the town of Columbus, New Mexico - utterly destroying the place.
He later attacked Glenn Springs and Boquillas, Texas.
That was the last straw, and Wilson wanted Villa's head.
He sent General Pershing, the man standing next to Villa in this picture, to eliminate
the Villistas (villa-istas, villa-stas, whatever Villa supporters were called) and capture
or kill Villa.
A full scale invasion was mounted and the army invaded Mexico for the second time during
the border war.
This punitive expedition lasted only a short half of a year.
In the process, the US modernized its army, engaging in aerial warfare and mechanized
cavalry movements, even nationalizing the militias into the National Guard.
The expedition failed to capture Villa, nor did it stop the raiding of smaller rebel forces.
They had to retreat in disgrace.
WWI had been raging for quite some time now, but had not come to America's shores.
In, 1917 that changed with a decrypted telegram.
The Germans had been actively supporting some factions in the revolution, and they promised
that if these rebels crippled America from ever coming into the WWI, they would receive
California through Texas as a reward.
This understandably pissed off America as a whole, enough for us to enter WWI.
Suddenly the border war took a backseat to WWI.
There were still some conflicts, but it pretty much petered out from there.
There was even one battle led by a German commander with Mexicans trying to invade America
again, and the German was killed during it.
Otherwise there were just a few battles in 1919, and nothing after that.
The US eventually stepped its border security down, and immigrants (legal or not) could
pass between the country again with army scrutiny.
There are many takeaways from this war, but I think the most interesting thing to learn
is about the border itself.
We tend to see border security as a new problem, but it is a very old one.
It is fairly interesting to see how things took place in the 19-teens considering the
situation in Mexico today, with its drug war, or that we have an intense problem with illegal
immigration.
What do you think of this war?
Should we do the same now?
Leave a comment.
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