The Border Wars, 1910-1919:

Unknown to many Americans, a hot/cold state of war existed between the US and Mexico in the early part of the 20th Century.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Welcome to Mexico Unexplained, where we will explore the magic,
the mysteries, and the miracles of Mexico. This series presents
information based partly on theory and conjecture. The podcaster's purpose
is to suggest some possible explanation, but not necessarily the
only ones to the subjects we will examine. Here is
your host, Robert Viitto.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Welcome and Moe Bian Beneath those two episode number one
hundred and one of them, Mexico Unexplained, where we examine
the magic, the mysteries, and the miracles of Mexico. I'm
your host, Robert Biddow. The date was June sixteenth, twenty fifteen,
and the place was New York City. Americans were glued
to their television sets and were captivated when they saw

(01:19):
a man familiar to everyone making an interesting proclamation quote,
I will build a great wall, and nobody builds walls
better than me, believe me, and I build them very inexpensively.
I will build a great, great wall on our southern border,
and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark

(01:41):
my words end quote. The person uttering those words was
billionaire Donald J. Trump, in his speech made to announce
his candidacy for the office of President of the United
States of America. The future president outlined the reasons for
this great, great wall, and almost immediately Americans were divided

(02:02):
about what they thought of Trump's proposition. Those living outside
the southwestern United States and those who have never crossed
the border into Mexico by land were unaware that a
wall had already existed on parts of America's southern border
for many years in one form or another, and that
construction of the first border wall began in nineteen eighteen

(02:26):
after a bloody battle involving American and Mexican troops in
what has been termed by historians as the Border Wars,
which lasted from nineteen ten to nineteen nineteen. Skirmishes and
small raids coming from both sides of the border date
back to the time the borders between the United States
and Mexico were first drawn after the Treaty of Guadalupe

(02:49):
Dalgo in eighteen forty eight, which ceded most of what
is now the American Southwest to the United States. With
the crumbling of the Porfirio Dias regime in Mexico in
the early part of the twentieth century, and revolutionary sentiments
stirring in that country. By nineteen ten, the US government

(03:10):
saw the need to send army troops to American border
towns to help protect lives and property and to make
sure fighting between Mexican government troops and rebel forces stayed
on the southern side of the line. In October of
nineteen ten, from his safe haven in San Antonio, Texas,
exiled political leader Francisco Mavero issued the Plan of San

(03:34):
Luis Potosi, declaring the nineteen ten reelection of Porfiriodillas null
and void and calling all Mexicans to rise up against
the DS government. In the Plan, Madeo declared himself the
legitimate president of Mexico. On November twentieth, nineteen ten, Mado
planned a raid across the Rio Grande to a Taxila

(03:57):
Porfiriodias in the Mexican state of car but because less
than a dozen men showed up to accompany him, Mado
retreated to New Orleans to formulate another plan of attack.
After the failed raid, Mexican President Porfiliodas pressured the US
government to extradite Mado, and by February of nineteen eleven,

(04:19):
he managed to elude American forces and slipped back into Mexico. Meanwhile,
the Magonistas, followers of the Anarco communist school of thought
proposed by Mexican dissident Ricardo Flores Magone, began campaigning in
the border areas of Baja California, even capturing Mexicali. On

(04:41):
February eleventh, nineteen eleven, the Magonistas marched to Tijuana, took
over the federal garrison there, and were eventually chased to
the American side of the border at Santa Cidro, California.
A few months later. In California, the Magonistas gathered arms
and prepared for future incursions to fight with federal troops.

(05:03):
While the Magonistas were in control of Tijuana, Francisco Marrero
led over one hundred and twenty men to attack Mexican
federal forces at Casas Grandes in northern Chihuahua. The Madeo
forces were defeated in the battle, but the Federales retreated south,
leaving Madero in control. Madeo's rebel army got frequent supplies

(05:28):
of arms from those sympathetic to their cause north of
the border. In their first engagement with American troops on
US soil. The Mado group attacked Douglas Arizona after defeating
the federal troops on the Mexican side at Agua Prieta, Sonora.
While the US forces pushed the rebels back across the border,

(05:49):
the rebels still had control over Agua Prieta. There were
also two major instances of fighting in and around Seolatuas
in the spring of nineteen on. The first instance involved
the sabotage of the military barracks in March and the
theft of the cannon from the middle of El Paso's

(06:10):
town square on the American side of the border. The
second Battle of Siola Huars happened from April seventh to
May tenth, nineteen eleven, and involved the American garrison at
El Paso, which exchanged fire with rebels led by MADO
supporter Poncho Villa in his first major battle. The Americans

(06:31):
suffered minor casualties. Later that year, Portfirio Dias went into
exile in Europe. Mado assumed the presidency of Mexico, and
warfare briefly ceased along the border, that is, until fighting
started among the rebel factions. Although president of Mexico in
nineteen twelve, Madero had a tenuous hold over the country.

(06:55):
His former military leaders who helped him rebel against the government,
notably Pancho Villa and Pascual Orosco, turned against him and
fomented unrest in the north. Mavero decided to establish Fort Tijuana,
on the border with the United States just south of
San Diego, to retake the area from the Anarco communist rebels.

(07:19):
By nineteen thirteen, the Mexican Revolution in the north began
ramping up. A rebel army of two thousand led by
General Obregon attacked Nogales, Sonora, a border town with a
sister city on the U s side in Arizona. They
defeated the federal forces in the town, with some of
the fighting spilling over into the American side. By mid

(07:42):
nineteen thirteen, the Americans began construction of twelve army forts
to help protect Americans from this spillover of fighting from
quarreling Mexican rebel groups and federales. By early nineteen fourteen,
Mexican relations with the United States had almost reached a
breaking point. In April of that year, a group of

(08:05):
US Navy sailors who were purchasing fuel in the Mexican
port city of Tampico, were detained by Mexican officials, and
the US government demanded an apology from the government of
Victoriano Huerta, the man who overthrew Mado the year before.
The Werta government refused to comply with certain elements of

(08:26):
the demanded apology, so President Woodrow Wilson asked for congressional
approval for an armed intervention in Mexico. The port city
of Vera Cruz was taken over by US troops as
a result, and the Americans left in November of nineteen
fourteen after a seven month occupation. While the Americans occupied Beacruz,

(08:48):
located on the Gulf of Mexico, the border wars intensified.
The longest battle of the Mexican Revolution was fought at
the border town of Naco, Sonora, a one hundred and
nineteen DAYCOI conflict between the forces of Ponchovilla and General
Obregon u S Army. Buffalo soldiers stationed at the newly
built Fort Naco on the American side came under fire

(09:11):
from rebels shooting at them from the Mexican side. The
Americans returned fire but didn't cross over into Mexico. By
nineteen fifteen, the border wars took an interesting twist. Benustiano
Carranza had assumed control over the Mexican government in the spring,
and some of his followers drafted what was called the

(09:33):
Plan of San Diego, which called for a race war
inside the United States and a return of the American
Southwest to Mexico. The followers of the Plan launched raids
into Texas, killing civilians and disrupting transportation and telecommunications, which
garnered a response from the Texas Rangers and Anglo American

(09:55):
vigilante groups. In a promise of recognition by the United
States of his new government, Caranza agreed to hunt down
and bring to justice the Mexican rebels who followed the
tenets of the Plan. President Wilson recognized Caranza as the
lawful president of Mexico, and the raids ceased. There was

(10:16):
a great deal of mistrust of Mexicans and Mexican Americans
among Anglo American communities in South Texas as a result
of the Plan of San Diego, and some historians estimate
that hundreds of Mexicans and people of Mexican descent were
lynched as a result of these raids, by nineteen sixteen,

(10:36):
the border wars intensified even further. In January of that year,
a group of supporters of Pancho Villa stopped to train
near the town of Santa Savel, Chihuahua, and shot eighteen
American passengers. VIA's forces were in desperation mode as they
raided towns and trains for supplies and valuables. In November

(10:58):
of the previous year, Villa had pillaged Atmosillo, Sonora, and
in March of nineteen sixteen, he decided to cross the
border and do the same to the town of Columbus,
New Mexico. Villa's five hundred man force was defeated by
three hundred Americans stationed at the fort outside of town.
Over a dozen American troops and civilians were killed in

(11:22):
the Columbus raid, along with sixty to eighty of Pancho
Villa's riders. Villa's forces would conduct two more cross border
raids in nineteen sixteen, one in Glen Springs, Texas and
one in Bocillas, Texas. Three US troops were killed in
these Texas raids, along with one civilian, a young American

(11:43):
boy who was caught in the crossfire, The Mexicans took
two hostages and retreated across the border after stealing much
needed supplies. In response to Pancho Villa's attacks, President Woodrow
Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing to lead an expedition
of five thousand men into Mexican territory to capture Poncho Villa.

(12:06):
The U s President also ordered one hundred and seventeen
thousand members of the National Guard to reinforce the newly
built army garrisons along the border. The US expeditionary force
went as far south as Pancho Villa's hometown of Parral, Chihuahua,
where they met with resistance from those loyal to the
Carranza government. The most famous battle of the Border Wars

(12:31):
occurred in June of nineteen sixteen, when the Buffalo soldiers
of the tenth Cavalry were defeated at the Battle of Carrizal.
As an interesting footnote to the hostilities. In nineteen sixteen,
future General George S. Patton of the eighth Cavalry conducted
the United States first military engagement using armoured vehicles outside

(12:55):
the town of San Miguelito in northern Sonora. By nineteen seven,
Woodrow Wilson had ordered the Pancho Villa Expeditionary Force out
of Mexico, citing the casualty suffered at the Battle of Carrezal.
Wilson's strategy was to beef up the border with the
returning troops to insure against further cross border raids. The

(13:17):
strife between Mexico and the US took a big international
turn in early nineteen seventeen when the Zimmermann Telegram was
intercepted by British intelligence and decoded. In that communication, the
German government officially asked Mexico to join World War One
on the side of the Central Powers and requested that

(13:37):
Mexico attack the southwestern United States. In return, Germany would
guarantee return of the American Southwest to Mexico after the war,
as the US had not yet entered the war. When
the telegram became public, it infuriated the Americans and pushed
the US closer to war with Germany. The telegram was

(13:59):
not the only instance of German meddling in the already
tense relationship between the US and Mexico. In nineteen eighteen,
Army intelligence stationed at Fort Wachuca Arizona discovered a German
military presence in northern Sonora. To the Americans surprise, the
Germans were scoping out routes for a possible land invasion

(14:22):
of the southwestern US through Mexico. Nineteen eighteen saw two
interesting developments in the Border Wars. A group of Yaqui
Indians who were sympathetic to the Mexican Revolution gathered arms
and established a small base in a place called Bear Valley,
located in southeastern Arizona. They intended to set up a

(14:44):
supply line to rebel forces in the northern part of
the Mexican state of Sonora. The tenth Cavalry found out
about the Yaki encampment and attacked it. The Yachi surrendered.
The other major development in the Border War war in nineteen
eighteen involved Imperial Germany once again. In August, u S

(15:06):
Army Lieutenant Colonel Frederick J. Hermann received intelligence from an
anonymous Mexican rebel fighter that Mexican federal troops and German
advisors were planning an attack on Nogalus, Arizona. A pursuit
of someone smuggling guns into Mexico from the Arizona side
of the border escalated into what was later called the

(15:28):
Battle of Ambos Nogales. When the dust settled, dozens of Mexicans,
two Germans, and seven Americans died in this battle, which
was considered the last major engagement of the Border Wars.
The very last skirmish, however, happened in June of the
next year, nineteen nineteen, when American troops joined the Mexican

(15:52):
army to hunt down the last remaining loyalists of Pancho Villa.
That skirmish was called the Last Battle of Ciola and
was one for the history books as the last American
military engagement on Mexican soil. Thank you once again for
listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained. Remember to like

(16:14):
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(16:35):
Mysteries and the Miracles of Mexico. We appreciate your kind attention.
Once again until next time. Thank you and Grassi US.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Thank you for listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained
with host Robert Bitto. For show summary, relevant links, and commentary,
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