As an unsuccessful attempt to capture and punish Francisco “Pancho” Villa, a leader of the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican Invasion proved to be a costly embarrassment to the U. S. government and to President Woodrow Wilson. From March 1916 to January 1917, 6,000 U. S. Army troops under the command of General John “Blackjack” Pershing searched for Villa to punish him for the killing of Americans by his forces. Ultimately, the expedition returned to the United States without ever finding Villa.
Pancho Villa was a leader in northern Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. He hoped to institute radical economic change that would benefit Mexico’s industrial workforce and its agricultural workers. He initially courted U. S. support during the revolution and did not protest in 1915 when the U. S. Navy occupied Veracruz in an effort to determine the outcome of the revolution. When Woodrow Wilson threw his support behind a competing revolutionist, Venustiano Carranza, Villa launched an effort to punish the United States and Wilson in retaliation for what he saw as betrayal.
Villa forces first struck in January 1916 in northern Mexico by pulling 15 U. S. mining engineers from their train and murdering them. In March 1916, he sent nearly 500 men to attack Columbus, New Mexico. Villa’s men terrorized the town for hours, killing 18 people, injuring scores more, and burning the town to the ground. The 13th Cavalry eventually drove Villa’s forces out of New Mexico.
Demands for U. S. intervention to punish Villa were immediate. Some called for all-out war and occupation of Mexico. President Wilson avoided talk of war. Instead, he sent an expedition under General Pershing to capture Villa. Unfortunately for the United States, the organization of the expedition took one week. By the time the troops entered Mexico, Villa and his troops had covered their tracks. The U. S. Army wandered around Mexico looking for Villa. As they did, they met opposition from rural Mexicans who were the base for Villa’s revolutionary movement. As they moved south, the Carranza government, which Wilson helped bring to power, began to see the American troops as a threat and ordered them to withdraw. In fact, the only confrontation during the invasion was between U. S. troops and the Carranza government’s troops.
Despite their inability to capture Villa, the U. S. Army had weakened his position in the struggle for power in Mexico. While Villa fled Pershing’s troops in northern Mexico, Carranza consolidated power in Mexico City. Preoccupied with Pershing’s troops, Villa was unable to challenge Carranza for control of the Mexican government. The Mexican Invasion therefore played a role in the outcome of the Mexican Revolution by helping the pro-U. S. Carranza government consolidate power.
Further reading: Michael C. Meyer and William L. Sherman, The Course of Mexican History, 3d ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
—Michael Hartman
World History
