
Background
- Foreign powers played a decisive role in both the outbreak and evolution of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1940).
- By the early 20th century, Mexico’s economy was deeply dependent on foreign capital: American, British, and French investors controlled vast portions of its oil, mining, and rail industries.
- This foreign dominance contributed to internal inequality and resentment against the Porfirio Díaz regime, while later interventions by the U.S. alternately supported and undermined different revolutionary factions.
- The revolution thus unfolded not only as a domestic struggle for justice but also as a contest over sovereignty, nationalism, and foreign economic influence.
Foreign Motivations for Intervention
- Economic Interests
- The U.S. sought to protect its investments, which by 1910 accounted for over 40% of Mexico’s capital, including oil (Tampico), mining (Sonora), and railways.
- Britain aimed to secure its oil interests through companies like El Aguila, while Germany courted revolutionary factions to challenge U.S. influence during World War I.
- Strategic and Security Concerns
- The U.S. viewed instability in Mexico as a threat to border security and American property.
- Presidents Taft, Wilson, and later Roosevelt justified interventions as efforts to restore “order” and “democracy.”
- Ideological Motivations
- The U.S. perceived Mexico through the lens of Manifest Destiny and paternalistic interventionism, seeing its role as a stabilizing and “civilizing” force.
- After 1917, fears of Bolshevik and anti-capitalist influences in Mexico intensified U.S. concern over radical land and labor reforms.
Manifest Destiny
19th-century U.S. belief that it was destined to expand its influence across North America, often used to justify interventions in Latin America.
Methods of Intervention
- Diplomatic Pressure
- The U.S. frequently used recognition or non-recognition of governments as leverage to influence revolutionary outcomes (e.g., refusing to recognize Huerta’s dictatorship).
- Economic Measures
- Control over customs revenues, loans, and trade routes allowed the U.S. to pressure revolutionary leaders into favorable policies.
- Military Actions
- U.S. Marines and naval forces conducted direct interventions, occupying ports, patrolling borders, and launching punitive expeditions.
- Covert Support
- Provided financial and logistical backing to preferred factions, including arms shipments and intelligence coordination.


