The Plan Of San Diego And The War Crisis Between United States And Mexico (1915-1916)

Plan of San Diego was an anti-American declaration, which expressed the outrage of theMexican—Americans who suffered from white men’s racial discrimination and the claim ofMexico to regain the lost ground. The historical background of its emergence should dateback to the origin of the contradictions between U.S. and Mexico in history. As a closeneighbor of Mexico, U.S. grabbed more than half of Mexico’s territory. So the local Mexicansspontaneously became American Citizens. But the acquisition of American citizenship didn’tbring the real racial equality for Mexicans. With the intensifying of South Texas’ racialproblems, the situation became precarious. The outbreak of Mexican Revolution in1910provided for Mexican-Americans the breakthrough to express anger, directly led to theemergence of Plan of San Diego.Plan of San Diego had two copies. The first one was designed by followers of Mexico’sousted dictator General Huerta. They attempted to use the Anglo’s racial discrimination toMexican-Americans in South Texas to provoke Mexican—American to rebel. By creating theopportunity for Huerta to comeback they attempted to make trouble in America. However, the first Plan of San Diego had not yet implement because it was uncovered on January24th,1915.On February20th,1915, the second Plan of San Diego appeared. Its aim was to makedisturbances in the U.S.—Mexican border region. Its manipulator was Carranza. Plan of SanDiego became his tool to obtain diplomatic recognition from U.S. Germany was also involvedduring this period. It attempted to disturb security of American backyard to achieve the goalof preventing U.S. to participate the First World War.Considering of its national security, U.S. authority changed its gratitude towardsCarranza’s government and recognized it. Villa’s attacking Columbus and the pursuing ofGeneral Pershing’s punitive expedition into Mexico triggered the War Crisis between the twocountries. This is the famous War Crisis of1916.Eventually the crisis was settled peacefully,Plan of San Diego was also ended. Plan of San Diego caused great impact to the residents inSouth Texas. It deteriorated the racial relationship between Anglos and Mexican—Americans,making the severe racial relationship even worse in this area. The extremism reflected in Planof San Diego left us a lot of space to think. It made the government of U.S. to realize thatracial problem was a threat to the national security of U.S.