Welcome to World War Wednesday, a weekly dive into the continuous, thirty-year epoch of global conflict from 1914 to 1945. Here, I strip away popular myths to analyze the dynamics of industrial warfare, institutional behaviors, and the ideologies that shaped the world we inherited.
Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos had a rough start to the 20th century. It was in some ways the continuation of systemic Mexican political divisions that dated back to independence from Spain when the commander of the independence army, Agustín de Iturbide, declared himself to be Emperador de México.
He did not follow George Washington’s example.
After Emperador Agustín I was overthrown, Mexico was divided between those who favored a decentralized government in the provinces or states, and those who wanted a highly centralized state with power concentrated in Mexico City.
The Federalists, who favored regional autonomy and a constitutional republic modeled loosely on the United States, clashed with the Centralist Conservatives, who wanted to preserve a more European style traditional social order based on class and religion through a top-down constitutional system. Because the two sides were irreconcilable for much of the 19th century, Mexico was vulnerable to outside attacks like the two French invasions and the Texas Revolution, the latter of which was provoked in part by renewed attempts at centralization. In addition, Mexico suffered around half a dozen major rebellions and secession movements—depending on how you count them—from 1835 to 1900.
These rivalries, contradictions, and disappointments came to a head with the Porfiriato era, during which former general Porfirio Díaz established an authoritarian, technocratic regime that ruled uninterrupted from 1884 to 1911.
Americans use the terms War of Independence and American Revolution almost interchangeably. In Mexico, however, the Mexican Revolution is not the war against Spain, but the great civil war of 1910 to 1920, which killed around ten percent of the population, making its comparative death toll three times the rate of the American Civil War. As the Americans and the European powers settled the end of the First World War, Mexico was a wreck, as an additional 2-4 percent of the population emigrated to the United States to escape.
How did the conflict spiral so far and remain a largely internal Mexican dispute?
The Great War distracted those who might have taken advantage of Mexico. The British, French, and Germans all had economic interests in Mexico, but direct intervention to turn the tide toward one side or the other was impossible while fighting to the death at the Somme or Verdun, and no one was foolish enough to provoke the Americans by getting involved in Mexico until the Germans made that mistake. We recall how that turned out for the Kaiser.
The Americans did intervene, and even that was at first a limited show of American might due to a domestic tradition of non-interventionism. However, after America invaded in response to an attack by Pancho Villa, one of the regional revolutionary leaders, it remained concerned about getting tied down in a guerrilla war after the American experience in the Philippines. And finally, American leaders were wary of being unable to exit Mexico if the Great War in Europe became a direct threat to the USA.
Nevertheless, the preoccupation of the great powers created the conditions whereby Mexicans alone would determine the future of their country as no fewer than five factions battled it out across the diverse regions of the land. By 1917, the Constitutionalist coalition of northern ranchers and their urban allies among middle-class professionals and workers, led by “Primer Jefe” Venustiano Carranza, was strong enough to enact a new constitution, but the fighting continued until 1920.
However, World War I made Mexican oil vital to the Allied war effort, which meant whoever could actually secure Mexico would have eager customers waiting to pay top dollar to fuel their fleets.
Just as it seemed the conflict was over, Carranza fell out with his military supporters over the presidential succession, and then was assassinated by a general who claimed adherence to the agenda of the men who became the new rulers of Mexico, the Sonoran Triumvirate of Adolfo de la Huerta, Álvaro Obregón, and Plutarco Elías Calles.
Their task would be to lead Mexico through the aftermath of both its own Revolution and the economic downturn caused by peace in Europe, which drastically lowered demand for Mexican exports. In doing so, they would provoke another unnecessary civil war against forces that marched under the banner of Cristo Rey.
Christ the King.
Interesting, I know very little about the history of Mexico in the 1800's and early 1900's.