[Essay Help]: Discuss the reasons and the outcome of American intervention in Mexico.

Discuss the reasons and the outcome of American intervention in Mexico..

3. Discuss the reasons and the outcome of American intervention in Mexico.

LECTURE NOTES

The highly moralistic Woodrow Wilson brought a missionary zeal and sense of his own and America’s righteousness to foreign policy. He made William Jennings Bryan, an anti-imperialist, his secretary of state, and he repudiated Dollar Diplomacy and promised to respect Latin American independence and free it from economic domination. But Wilson believed the United States had a duty to instruct other nations in democracy and that American exports and investments spread American political ideals. For Wilson, American economic influence served a purpose higher than profit, and his “moral imperialism” made for more military interventions than any president before or since. He sent Marines to Haiti in 1915 and the Dominican Republic in 1916 to protect American financial interests; they stayed in the latter country until 1924, and in the former until 1934. Wilson’s foreign policy illustrates a lasting paradox of modern American history: presidents speaking most about freedom were likely to intervene the most in other nations’ affairs.

Wilson was most involved in Mexico, where a 1911 revolution led by Francisco Madero overthrew Porfirio Díaz’s long-standing dictatorship. In 1913, without Wilson’s knowledge but with the support of the U.S. ambassador and American companies controlling Mexico’s oil and mines, the military commander Victoriano Huerta assassinated Madero and seized power. Wilson was outraged, would not extend recognition, and vowed to “teach” Latin Americans “to elect good men.” When civil war erupted and Wilson sent troops to Vera Cruz to prevent arms shipments, they were met as invaders and attacked by Mexican troops. In 1916, after Mexican troops led by Pancho Villa killed Americans in a New Mexico town close to the border, Wilson ordered 10,000 American troops to invade northern Mexico to apprehend Villa. Revolutionary chaos continued during the next few years and Mexico provided a warning that it was potentially very difficult to use American power to control foreign policy.

Discuss the reasons and the outcome of American intervention in Mexico.