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Virtual Session |
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The Mexican Revolution and Hemispheric Affairs |
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General Pancho Villa. Leader of one faction of the Constitutionalist forces, Villa, who operated in the northern Mexican states near Texas and New Mexico, initially enjoyed strong U.S. support, especially from President Woodrow Wilson. Relations soured, though, as the 1910s proceeded; and in 1916, after Villa launched a raid on Columbus, New Mexico, the United States send an "expedition force" deep into Mexican territory in a futile attempt to capture him. |
| It would not be until the Cuban Revolution nearly five decades later that a Latin American movement would so dramatically alter the international relations of the region. This is the first of two classes that will explore the effects of the Revolution. In both classes, our primary reading will be Friedrich Katz's international history of the revolution, a book that uses American, British, French, German, Mexican, Spanish, and Japanese sources to argue that the Revolution was an inherently international event. The first part of the Katz reading traces the Mexican background, the second part gives an introduction to the mindsets of the Great Powers that were active in the Revolution. |
COURSE PACKET:
Friedrich Katz, Secret War for Mexico, SB#1, pp. 172-207. Reading notes are available.
DOCUMENTS:
William Howard Taft on Dollar Diplomacy
Plan de Ayala (1911)
CAUCUS questions:
 | To what extent was the Plan of Ayala incompatible with Taft's vision of hemispheric affairs? And were other aspects of the Mexican Revolution less threatening to US interests? |
| To what extent was the Mexican Revolution--as Katz strongly implies--primarily an "international," rather than a domestic Mexican, event? |