Díaz and Roosevelt: Diplomacy of convenience and necessity

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1972

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Abstract

The diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico during the critical first decade of the twentieth century have, with few exceptions, received scant and cursory study. Historians generally have concentrated their efforts on the more exciting events of the militant Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 and its effects on United States policy toward that troubled country. The period, however, deserves deeper study. Critical events occurred during those years, which adversely affected relations between Washington and Mexico City and had some influence on the subsequent outbreak of the revolution that Francisco Madero launched from San Antonio, Texas, with little impediment from neutrality laws of the United States. The last years of the Porfiriato found Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Porfirio Díaz straining to maintain a cordial relationship that seemed vital to both nations. Both presidents sensed that the conflicting aspirations of their countries threatened a deterioration of cooperative relations vital to both. Roosevelt's Big Stick Policy on the margins of the Caribbean, the ever-growing yanqui investments in Mexican enterprises, and the flight of Díaz' Mexican opponents to revolutionary refuge in the United States placed heavy strains on Díaz' friendship. Similarly the Roosevelt administration objected to rising anti-American sentiment in Mexico and to Díaz' growing friendship with Japan, which in turn fostered increasing Japanese immigration to that country, a problem highly disturbing to a Washington that faced the possibility of war with Japan. Other factors, such as the counterbalancing of American economic interests in Mexico with British and French capital and the consolidation of the primarily American-owned railways under Mexican control, added to the tensions between the countries. But being practical and realistic individuals who understood the tragic consequences that enmity could bring to their respective nations, Roosevelt and Díaz endeavored to placate one another and consistently followed a policy of mutual restraint and caution. The work of the two powerful executives succeeded in averting any sort of fatal confrontation during their presidencies. The dramatic and tragic era that followed developed in the hands of leaders less pragmatic than they.

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Keywords

History, United States, Mexico, Foreign relations, Díaz, Porfirio, 1830-1915, Mexico. President (1884-1911 : Díaz), United States. President (1901-1909 : Roosevelt), Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

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