THE UNITED STATES and MEXICO 1924-1928 by Harold L. Durian A
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The United States and Mexico, 1924-1928 Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Durian, Harold Lee, 1935- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 01/10/2021 14:34:15 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/566298 THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO 1924-1928 by Harold L. Durian A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1969 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfill ment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowl edgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the inter ests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: r> i. w(. j', 1 R. C. EWING*" Date Professor of Hilstory ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Professor Russell C. Ewing has earned my esteem and appreciation for his guidance and consideration in the preparation of this thesis. I should like to extend my appreciation to Professor George W. Brubaker for his criticism of the manuscript. While this writer has bene fited from the patience, consideration, and counsel of the history faculty, none of these is responsible for the quality of this thesis. For that I bear full responsi bility. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT................................... .. V CHAPTER I. RESIDUE OF REVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF C A L L E S ......................... .. 1 II. L A N D .............................. 13 III. PETROLEUM PROBLEMS......... ............ 44 IV. RELIGIOUS DISORDERS............ 69 V. CHAMIZAL, GUNS, AND THE BORDER . ........... 99 VI. CONCLUSIONS ............. ......... 109 LIST OF REFERENCES............................. .. 120 iv ABSTRACT The period of this study saw the stabilization of the violent revolution in Mexico and a continuation of the pursuit of revolutionary aims by more peaceful means. The United States, by 1924, was a wealthy and powerful nation whose citizens had financial, cultural, and religious interests in Mexico. The attempts of the Calles administration to achieve Mexican control over alien land, subsoil resources, and the Roman Catholic Church resulted in diplomatic conflict with both the United States Government and the Roman Catholic Church. The solution of these deep-seated problems was not achieved in the four-year period of the Calles Administra tion, but a modus vivendi was agreed upon which was to be one of the bases for the present good relations between the two countries. President Calles thus obtained stability and extended Mexican nationalism while instituting the self- perpetuating oligarchy which, with but little modification, continues to dominate Mexico today. CHAPTER I RESIDUE OF REVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF CALLES After the resignation and later assassination of the idealistic revolutionary Francisco Madero in February, 1913, the period of active revolution^ came to be dominated by Venustiano Carranza whose armed struggles with Villa and whose diplomatic debates with the Woodrow Wilson Adminis tration mark him as a strong, stubborn Mexican nationalist. Carranza, his personality and his achievements, cast a long shadow over the decade of the 19201s even after his own flight from the capital and assassination in May, 1920. The 1917 Mexican Constitution promulgated by Carranza was one of the vital, concrete achievements of the Revolution. It embodied the hopes and aspirations of the landless masses in its limitations placed upon foreign and domestic economic exploitation. In social and political fields, the new Mexican Constitution promised progress toward equality and toward democracy. Most important, the Constitution was to 1. The period of the Mexican Revolution by official statement of the Mexican government in agreement with the United States was November 20, 1910 to May 31, 1920. James M. Callahan, American Foreign Policy in Mexican Relations (New York: Macmillan Co., 1932), p. 595. 1 2 be used to actively reduce foreign domination of the Mexi can economy. One writer suggests that only a nationalistic constitution could make the Mexican Revolution a really new departure. If the Revolution was not once again to prove a vain and useless effort, something was needed that would reestablish a balance in Mexican Society. The inde pendence from Spain in the early part of the nine teenth century had so weakened the State that it could not contend against the other entrenched institutions within the Mexican body politic. These institutions were defined by the members of the Constitutional Convention [of 1917] as the Church, the large plantations, and foreign interests. It was therefore only by attacking these entrenched forces and bridling or destroying them that the 1 radicals1 within the convention hoped to balance the social structure and to strengthen the State.2 This Constitution of 1917 was to be almost sacro sanct after Carranza himself had, like Madero, died at the hands of assassins. For any Mexican political figure to yield to foreign pressure in weakening the measures of this Constitution would be to risk revolt from the Mexican people. The Article of the 1917 Constitution which most affected the relations with the United States was the famous Article 27, relating to landholding: Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican companies have the right to acquire ownership in lands, to develop mines, waters, or mineral fuels in the Republic of Mexico. The nation may grant the 2 2. Frank Tannenbaum, Mexico: The Struggle for Peace and Bread (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950), p. 60. 3 same right to foreigners, provided they agree before the Department of Foreign Affairs to be considered Mexicans in respect to such property, and according ly not to invoke the protection of their governments in respect to the same, under penalty, in case of breach, of forfeiture to the nation of property so acquired.3 4 The effects of Article 27 would appear to be minor if considered in conjunction with the preamble which sets forth the broad guarantee: "No law shall be given retroac tive effect to the prejudice of any person whatsoever."4 The vagueness of Article 27, its frequent differing inter pretations, and the various organic laws. and court deci sions bearing on constitutional definition, combine in this period to create the substance and the basis for diplomatic disagreement. Behind the legal discussion and the diplomatic exchanges two conflicting claims could be seen clearly. Mexico sought to assert her sovereignty as a nation and to regain, however gradually, the title to mineral and petrole um and agricultural lands and rights granted to foreigners during the period of the hated Porfirio Diaz. The government of the United States sympathized with the aims of the Mexican Revolution, but felt bound to pro tect the property rights of United States citizens in Mexico. 3. H. N. Branch, ed. and trans., Mexican Constitu tion of 1917 Compared with the Constitution of 1857 (Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1917), p. 18. 4. Ibid., p. 7. 4 Expropriation for public purposes would be acceptable to Washington as long as fair market value were paid in cash, not bonds. Confiscatory legislation to achieve revolutionary aims such as land reform would be strongly opposed by the United States government. As the decade of the 1920's began and the ten-year Mexican Revolution ended, a residue of bitterness remained between Mexico and her northern neighbor. At the outset of the Revolution desire for removal of foreigners (largely Americans) and their large control of the Mexican economy was acknowledged to be one of the causes of the revolt of. the masses in 1910 and afterward. A nation in rebellion is often difficult to deal with, and the various governments of revolutionary Mexico particularly frustrated the Taft and Wilson Administrations. Taft several times sent troops to the border as a show of strength, and Wilson twice intervened militarily in Mexico in defense of American interests and/or honor, once at Vera Cruz in 1914 and again in 1916-1917 when a punitive expedi tion was sent deep into Mexico in pursuit of the revolu tionary bandit, Pancho Villa. Mutual designs on the other nation's territory seemed to be the order of the day, much to the resentment of people of both nations. The Plan de San Diego of February, 1915, the general aims of which Carranza supported, had as its aim the seizure of Texas and other Western states of the 5 American Union once owned by Mexico. The Zimmermann Tele gram, which Mexico either did not receive or which she ignored, also aroused feelings of resentment within the United States once it became known, for this message ap peared to threaten Mexican alliance with Germany and possi bly Japan in time of war which then appeared ready to expand to the Western hemisphere from the trenches of Europe. The Zimmermann Telegram, like the Plan de San Diego, aroused suspicions of revanchism within many North American observ ers. United States leadership also harbored territorial ambitions toward Mexico.