The Incident at Tampico | Ep 2

Mexico's Oil and the Incident at Tampico |

Two months before Franz Ferdinand is shot and three months before the Great War begins, an incident in the port city of Tampico causes Woodrow Wilson to seriously consider “intervention” in Mexico. 

The Mexican Revolution has been underway since 1910, and the Wilson Administration has refused to recognize to its new leader - Victoriano Huerta. An American intervention could make Tampico safe for the Americans living and doing business in Mexico, and talk of war is all over the papers. 

Why is Tampico so important to the U.S.? Oil, of course. 

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Prize by Daniel Yergin
• The World Crisis by Winston Churchill
• Gangsters of Capitalism by Jonathan M. Katz
• Woodrow Wilson by John Milton Cooper Jr.
• Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn by Christopher Cox

Transcript

Shannon 0:14

On March first, nineteen seventeen, roughly two and a half years into the Great War, American newspapers print a telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman to his ambassador in Mexico. The telegram says, on February 1st, we intend to begin submarine warfare without restriction. In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor to keep the United States neutral. If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico. That we shall make war together and together make peace. We shall give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer her lost territory of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. I'm Shannon. I'm Bobby. And this is the American Century. His campaign slogans were, He kept us out of war, and America First. When the Great War began, President Wilson's message to the American people was the United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name. But a lot has happened. The U.S. and the Allied powers have become economically tied together. The Allies have received loans from American investment banks and bought guns and munitions from the U.S. The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 by a German U-boat. German espionage and sabotage in the United States. And then the Zimmerman Telegram. The U.S. can no longer remain neutral. The Allied powers and the Central Powers are at a stalemate in the beginning of 1917. It has become a war of attrition. And Germany wants to keep the United States out of the fighting in Europe. So they come up with an idea. If the US were to be engaged in a war with Mexico, then America's men, munitions, artillery will be sent to America's southern border, and therefore men, munitions, and artillery cannot be sent to the Allies in Europe. So Germany will support Mexico in her endeavors to reconquer land lost in the Mexican-American War, which had happened over 60 years prior. Is it a good offer?

Bobby 3:59

I don't think it's a very good offer.

Shannon 4:01

Do you think that Mexico would be successful in reconquering the lost territory of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona?

Bobby 4:11

I don't think Germany is going to be able to support them in any meaningful way all the way across the Atlantic.

Shannon 4:17

Probably not.

Bobby 4:19

I don't think it's a very good plan.

Shannon 4:21

Not a good author.

Bobby 4:22

No.

Shannon 4:23

So when the letter is published in American papers, some doubt its legitimacy. Could this be a hoax? A ploy by the British to get the U.S. into the war? How do we know this letter is even real?

Bobby 4:38

Right. We have to authenticate it. Can we?

Shannon 4:41

We can't. Because just a few days after it's published in the U.S. papers, the telegram's authenticity is confirmed by Zimmermann himself. He says something to the effect of, look, the plot is conditional. Germany wants to remain friendly with the United States. But if the United States declares war on Germany, then collaborating with Mexico, it's just a means of defense. It's conditional. Regardless, America's relationship with Mexico had been fraught for many, many years. And the US and Mexico had been close to war in the very recent past. And Germany wants to take advantage of that. So let's go back a bit. April 1914. Nearly three years before the Zimmerman Telegram is sent. And a couple months before Franz Ferdinand's assassination. War with Mexico seems inevitable. The date is April eleventh, nineteen fourteen. Let's take a look at what's in the news. From the New York Times headline: for a quadruple alliance. London paper hears of a new plan to reduce armament. The Daily Citizen asserts that negotiations are proceeding at St. Petersburg on British initiative to convert the Entente between France, Russia, and Great Britain. The object in view is said to be force Germany to join. We know that this limitation of armaments will not come to fruition, and that Germany will not join a quadruple alliance, because in just three and a half months, France, Russia, Great Britain will be at war with Germany.

Bobby 7:12

Right.

Shannon 7:13

And they'll all be looking to increase their armaments. All of these leaders are related, as most royals are. George V of Great Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, they're both grandsons of Queen Victoria. George V of Great Britain and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, they're cousins. Their mothers are sisters. So they've all like holidayed together and they like to exclude Wilhelm. They don't like Wilhelm.

Bobby 7:52

Why not?

Shannon 7:53

I think he's a weirdo.

Bobby 7:54

He is, though. He is weird. Didn't he have like fantasies of a sexual nature about his mother?

Shannon 8:01

Yes.

Bobby 8:02

Pretty weird.

Shannon 8:03

Yes, yeah. Okay.

Bobby 8:04

I don't want to hang out with him either.

Shannon 8:05

No, I I'm I I wouldn't either. Here's a fun fact for you. In the last episode, we played a clip of Christopher Plummer as Franz Ferdinand, the archude Franz Ferdinand. And Christopher Plummer also played Kaiser Wilhelm II in a film called The Exception. And Kaiser Wilhelm II was really the only royal that liked Franz Ferdinand. They were they were buddies.

Bobby 8:53

She was a ladies' maid, right?

Shannon 8:55

Yes, she was the ladies' maid of the woman that he was kind of intended to marry. But he married for love and not for not love. What do you mean?

Bobby 9:08

Not for not love. Not for politics, I suppose. Not for everything. No, yeah.

Shannon 9:11

He married he married for love, not for politics. Right. From the Nevada State Journal headline California to deport insane. Starts crusade against being made dumping ground for lunatics. The County Lunacy Commission directed today that Mrs. J. Willard of Little Rock, Arkansas be sent back there in care of an attendant Monday. This is the first deportation in a crusade instituted by county officials to learn whether California is being used by eastern states as a dumping ground for patients released from hospitals for the insane. The authorities say they have evidence to show that California received many of the discharged insane from eastern states.

Bobby 10:12

That does explain a few things.

Shannon 10:58

Mrs. Wilson did not appear to be entirely recovered from her recent illness, showing the effects of long confinement by her pale complexion. Basically, they're saying, she looked terrible.

Bobby 11:13

Right, right. But he had a vigorous stride. And I just imagine, like, a vigorous stride in 1914 isn't really that vigorous of a stride now. Or is it or would it be more vigorous?

Shannon 11:28

Gosh, it's it's hard to how would we know that? The big story of the day though. The story that all the papers were carrying was about Mexico. From the Washington Post, Marines arrested at Tampico, paraded as prisoners, affront to U.S. Admiral Mayo demands apology and salute to Flag for detention of boat crew. American fleet expected to take offensive action to protect property of foreigners. This will become known as the Tampico Incident. So American soldiers have gone ashore to get supplies where they're arrested by federal troops. They're not held for long, but Admiral Mayo is enraged. He said you must apologize and you must give the American flag a 21-gun salute. And that is his demand.

Bobby 12:49

Does that happen?

Shannon 12:51

We're gonna find out. But first. Doheny travels 2,000 miles to look at these tar pits. He gets off the train, and an indigenous guide leads him to what the locals called a chapapote pit. He sees steam hovering above a bubbling black tarpool. Doheny kneels down, he sticks his finger in it, smells it, tastes it, then smiles. Doheny's Pan American Petroleum drilled the first oil well in Mexico in 1901. And that same year, Englishman Sir Wheatman Pearson begins his Mexican oil prospecting ventures. Pearson was a very successful engineer. He had built harbors and canals, railways in Mexico, and Porfirio Diaz, Mexico's dictator at the time, 1901. He doesn't want the Americans buying up all of Mexico's land. And he encourages Englishman Pearson to explore oil opportunities in the country. So as soon as oil is discovered, rival US and English businesses are trying to get a leg up on the other. Sure. So Englishman Pearson set up oil wells in an area that would become known as Mexico's Faja de Oro, Mexico's Golden Lane, which is the area on the Gulf Coast between Tampico and Veracruz. Veracruz, big port city, Tampico, also a huge port city. Ships from Galveston, ships from New Orleans, New York, Havana, ships from Europe, they all voyage to and from Tampico. And Tampico connects to the majority of the rail lines that travel through Mexico. But by 1913, when Wilson first takes office, Diaz as dictator has been ousted. And 90% of oil resources in Mexico are owned by foreign investors. And Pearson, our Englishman, his Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company is responsible for 60% of crude output. While American companies are responsible for only about 25%, British oil companies and the majority of American oil companies are fine with Wertab. He's a strong man. This is somebody that they can do business with. But President Wilson, he sees things differently. One month into his presidency, and a year before the incident at Tampico, in April 1913, Wilson brings the Mexican issue up at a cabinet meeting. Should they recognize Huerta? The country's new dictator, like the European countries have? Wilson's Secretary of War says, quote, It's doubtful whether the Mexicans could ever organize a government. But it might be well to recognize a brute like Huerta, so as to have some form of government which could be recognized and dealt with. He went on to add that lots of people on both sides of the border wanted America to intervene. The Secretary of the Interior counters. He says he doubted that there was anyone in Mexico who wished for American intervention. Wilson's Secretary of the Navy chimes in. He says, the chief cause of this whole situation is a contest between English and American oil companies to see which could control. After that April 1913 meeting, when Wilson receives a myriad of opinions on what is happening, on what he should do, he comes up with a strategy. He will watch and wait. It will take him a full year to take any type of action.

Bobby 18:14

That's my favorite strategy. Just gonna hold back and wait.

Shannon 18:17

When he takes office, he is primarily concerned with his domestic agenda. And he supposedly said, it would be an irony of fate if my administration has to deal chiefly with foreign affairs.

Bobby 18:34

Huh.

Shannon 18:36

Guess that's what happens.

Bobby 18:38

Exactly.

Shannon 18:40

Wilson is somewhat uncomfortable with the type of overt American imperialism that was the style of Taft, and Taft's predecessor, President Theodore, speak softly and carry a big stick, Roosevelt. Wilson believes in self-rule, but he also believes that self-rule should not be for, quote, undeveloped peoples still in the childhood of their political growth. He takes little to no issue with the US being in the Philippines, in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, etc. He wants these people to have self-rule, but only when they are ready. White men should be the ones to decide when they are ready.

Bobby 19:36

When they're ready, and maybe when sort of the business relationships have been set up in the way that are profitable to us, maybe.

Shannon 19:57

Wilson thinks that well-educated men should really be the only ones voting. Because they're the only ones truly capable of understanding the issues.

Bobby 20:06

Yeah, understanding issues and uh making decisions.

Shannon 20:10

He doesn't have a problem with the US annexation of foreign territories, but he does have a problem because he's an idealist of the overthrow of a legitimately elected leader, which is what happens in Mexico, and this is why he has a problem with Huerta. So the Mexican Revolution began in 1910, and in 1911, Francisco Madero is elected as president. Madero appoints Huerta as commander of government forces. But Huerta betrays him. And Madero is overthrown in a bloody coup, and then Huerta has him murdered. This was appalling to President Wilson, and he called the new Mexican leadership a government of butchers who lack constitutional legitimacy. The European nations, on the other hand, they are quick to recognize Qertas' government, as I mentioned, because they want to keep business going, especially Great Britain, because Mexico was quickly becoming the second largest oil producer in the world, second to the United States. British merchant ships were getting oil from Mexico, and the Royal Navy was starting to become a large customer of Mexican oil as well. In the beginning of the 20th century, Britain, as you know, has the largest Navy on the planet. But Germany's military might is growing, and England Is getting a little nervous and they are looking for an edge. And in 1912, they decide to build five battleships called the Fast Division that ran purely on oil. Not coal. Not coal. Even though they have so much coal, they build these ships that run purely on oil.

Bobby 22:29

So oil's a lot better uh is a lot better fuel, right? A lot uh can you go faster?

Shannon 22:35

You can go faster, you can accelerate more quickly, you can travel longer distances.

Bobby 22:40

It's safer.

Shannon 22:41

It's safer, it takes less time and requires less men to refuel so those men can be above deck manning guns.

Bobby 22:52

Yep, you don't need people shoveling the coal.

Shannon 22:54

Correct. And here is how the first lord of the Admiralty at that time summarized the issue. He said to build any large additional number of oil-burning ships meant basing our naval supremacy upon oil. But oil was not found in appreciable quantities in our islands. If we required it, we must carry it by sea in peace or war from distant countries. We had, on the other hand, the finest supply of the best steam coal in the world, safe in our minds under our own land. To commit the Navy irrevocably to oil was to take arms against a sea of troubles. Shakespeare.

Bobby 23:48

Yeah, that's Hamlet, right?

Shannon 23:49

Yes. If the difficulties and risks could be surmounted, we should be able to raise the whole power and efficiency of the Navy to a definitely higher level. Better ships, better crews, higher economies, more intense forms of war power. In a word, mastery itself was the prize of the venture. The first lord of the Admiralty who wrote this? Winston Churchill.

Bobby 24:23

Ooh, okay.

Shannon 24:26

The thinking for Churchill was oil mastery means naval mastery. And naval mastery means the Empire's survival.

Bobby 24:42

So this is like a risk. But then we can eventually get something. Get some land with some oil, right?

Shannon 24:54

Yeah, and this is this is the this is the quest. Get some concessions. And guess what? You're gonna get it. Wilson's watching and waiting ends in April 1914, after the Tampico incident, whereta refused to give the American flag the 21-gun salute.

Bobby 25:34

I didn't think he was gonna do it.

Shannon 25:35

Wilson is going to take it to the press. Wilson releases a statement. It says, In considering the present, somewhat delicate situation in Mexico, the unpleasant incident at Tampico must not be thought of alone. For some time, the de facto government of Mexico has seemed to think mere apologies sufficient when the rights of American citizens or the dignity of the government of the United States were involved. Repeated offenses against the rights and dignity of the United States. Offenses not duplicated with regard to the representatives of other governments have necessarily made the impression that the government of the United States was singled out for manifestations of ill will and contempt.

Bobby 26:38

Sounds pretty angry.

Shannon 27:02

The second affront is when a U.S. orderly from a ship stationed at Veracruz is sent ashore to collect the ship's mail. And even though he's in U.S. uniform, he's arrested and put in jail by local authorities. And then the third affront is when Washington finds out that telegrams they are sending to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico are being screened and with help from U.S. government personnel. So inciting Mexico's insults to America via the press, Wilson begins to make his case for invasion. Military force against Huerta's federal troops may be necessary, and it may indeed be imminent. All of this on the eve of the Great War. And we will meet an important character, an individual referred to as Woodrow Wilson's silent partner, and the man behind Woodrow Wilson's throne, his chief advisor, Colonel Edward House. All this and more. Next time on that American Century. Sources for today's episode include The Prize by Daniel Jurgen, The World Crisis by Winston Churchill, Gangsters of Capitalism by Jonathan M. Katz, Woodrow Wilson by John Milton Cooper Jr. Woodrow Wilson, The Light Withdrawn by Christopher Cox. For a list of all sources, please see the show notes for this episode.