We’ve talked about the roles that several neutral nations played in the First
World War, because even though you didn’t actually send an army to fight, you often
couldn’t help but be involved in some way or another. One such country was Mexico.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about Mexico during World
War One.
Well, the big thing that was going on in Mexico during the war was the Mexican Revolution.
Mexico had been ruled for decades by Porfirio Diaz, a General who had fought against the
French occupation and seized power in 1876. Now, as President he used brute force to secure
his regime and had a real iron grip on the country, so there was a lot of hatred for
him from revolutionary factions, though his rule was marked by economic growth, modernization,
and stability, so the business community was on his side. Eventually, though, his economic
policies allowed wealthy landowners to acquire so much land and wealth that the rural people
couldn’t make a living, wages fell, and when he imprisoned his elected rival for President,
the Revolution began. That’s the short nutshell version.
He was ousted from power by Francisco Madero with substantial US aid and abdicated in May
1911. It took 6 months for Madero to assume the Presidency, and in the interim he called
for the dissolution of revolutionary forces. Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata, who
fought for the rights of the rural population in the south, didn’t do this because Diaz’s
Federal Army was still intact and then the Congress sent troops under Victoriano Huerta
to try to put down Zapata’s forces.
Madero became President in November and was unable to pass his reforms because there were
still many Diaz supporters who were organized and blocked him. He was also murdered in the
press - the press that he had restored freedom to. Long story short, that guy Victoriano
Huerta mounted a coup in early 1913 with the aid of the US Ambassador, and Madero soon
found himself murdered in real life.
In August 1914, Huerta, in turn, was deposed by Venustiano Carranza, who wanted to restore
a constitutional government. Among his supporters was Pancho Villa. Villa was governor of Chihuahua,
the General of the North, and a militant leader that fought for a stronger regionalism and
self government. Carranza exiled Huerta, who sought international help to regain his place
and conspired with Germany, but was arrested in the US and charged with sedition. He soon
died in prison.
So Carranza was President and would lead Mexico until his assassination in 1920.
Although he had been head of the northern revolutionary movement, Carranza was much
more conservative than Zapata or Villa and they soon were his enemies and now there was
civil war in Mexico. Villa’s forces were defeated by Carranza’s and Zapata’s were
pretty much reduced to guerrilla warfare as Carranza consolidated his regime. It was actually
under Carranza, in 1917, that Mexico’s constitution was signed. This was one of the first modern
constitutions, and influenced, among others, the Weimar constitution in postwar Germany.
But how were relations with, say, the US.
During the Diaz period there had been a lot of foreign investment, and during the revolution
the US played a crucial part, supporting or opposing various factions. Thing is, the foreign
interests under Diaz were mining and oil companies and they had received a lot of concessions
from the Mexican government. Carranza wanted to return the oil and coal money to the people
of Mexico. All of this together raised tensions between the US and Mexico to the point where
international observers believed the US would even invade and try to annex part or all of
Mexico. There are a couple of incidents that just have to be mentioned in all this.
The Ypiranga incident.
The Ypiranga was a German registered cargo steamer and it was important twice. The first
time, it was the ship that Diaz left Mexico aboard for exile in 1911. Now, a couple years
later when Huerta was President, US President Woodrow Wilson refused to recognize him and
suspended the arms trade with Mexico. Huerta negotiated a deal with France and Great Britain,
but they didn’t want to alienate the US so they hired the Ypiranga to do the deal.
At the time the US navy had a small fleet off of the port of Tampico. While stationed
there, 9 US sailors went into the port to buy gas and landed in a military zone; they
were arrested. Now, when the Mexican authorities learned of what happened, they released the
men and issued an apology. The US government demanded that the US flag be flown over Tampico
with a 21-gun salute.
Mexico said “no way” and Wilson responded by seizing Veracruz, the largest port in Mexico,
in April 1914. This happened hours before the Ypiranga arrived. The US would control
the port until November. The Ypiranga was not allowed to unload, since the US said the
weapons would be used against the occupying force. Almost needless to say, this caused
huge anti-American sentiment throughout Latin America and almost led to war between Mexico
and the US. The ABC nations - Argentina, Brazil, and Chile - met to defuse the situation.
Mexico subsequently declared neutrality in the First World War, which meant that German
companies were perfectly welcome to operate in Mexico during the war.
There was also the Zimmerman Telegram.
Carranza had harbored a bit of resentment for the Germans for the support they’d given
Huerta, but when the Americans sent troops into Mexican territory to try and capture
Pancho Villa, which again nearly began a war between the US and Mexico, he renewed ties
with them. The German High Command, for its part, was planning on renewing unrestricted
submarine warfare, which would quite likely bring the US into the war on the Allied side,
and they figured that if the US was in a war on its own continent it would be either less
likely to join the war in Europe or less able to send soldiers.
In January 1917, Arthur Zimmermann, the German Foreign Secretary, sent a coded telegram to
the German Ambassador to Mexico stating just that; Germany would begin unrestricted sub
warfare February 1st and if the US did not remain neutral, Germany would give Mexico
“generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the
lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.” The telegram had to go through Britain since
the German transatlantic cables had been cut early in the war. After that, Wilson allowed
the Germans to use the American cable, which the Germans and Americans assumed was secure.
It wasn’t. The British intercepted and decoded the telegram, which if released would cause
big anti-German sentiment in the states, but would also let the Germans know their code
was cracked and the Americans know they were being listened to. The British managed to
bribe a Mexican official to do a ciphering subterfuge, which you can look up, it’s
a bit long for here, so they could eventually show the telegram to the Americans without
worry, and the text of it was released to American media on February 28, 1917, a month
after the new submarine campaign had begun. At first people believed it was a forgery,
but Zimmermann himself confirmed it. There was, as you may expect, a huge anti-German
public outcry and the US was now one big step closer to war.
Thing is, Carranza actually had a commission look into war with the US.
It concluded that the US was too strong for Mexico to hope to win against, German financial
support was unreliable since just in 1916 they’d failed to provide promised funds
to support a National Mexican Bank, and even if Mexico by some miracle won the war they’d
have serious troubles assimilating a huge, well-armed, English speaking population, so
Carranza wasn’t interested, but as a direct consequence of the Zimmermann Telegram, the
US officially recognized the Carranza government in August 1917. Mexico still wouldn’t join
the war, though, since Germany was still a friendly nation. On the other side, Mexico
provided as much as 75% of the fuel used by the British fleet
So there you have a brief rundown on the political turmoil in Mexico during the war and a couple
of major events that nearly brought Mexico and the US into war with each other at several
points. Think how differently the world might look today if that had happened. You can read
the full text of the Zimmermann Telegram in the comments below; it is highly inflammatory.
We will also look at the US expedition into Mexico more closely when we talk about “Black
Jack“ Pershing and George S. Patton because they both took part in it.
Thank you Santiago Molina Torres Arpi for his research on this episode. If you want
to know more about the USA before they entered the war, you can watch our special episode
right here.
Don’t forget to subscribe, see you next time.