The Mexican Revolution: Part X-The Punitive Expedition AKA the Hunt for Pancho Villa

The Mexican Revolution lasted from 1910 to 1920. Although Francisco Madero managed to overthrow  the dictator Porfiro Diaz, he proved to be an ineffective president, who soon lost power. A succession of generals and rebel leaders struggled to gain the president's chair, but the fighting merely grew more destructive until Alvaro Obregon emerged as the victor in 1920. Part X explores the fallout from Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico, which led to an American army entering Mexico to hunt Villa, and nearly provoked war between the United States and Mexico.

Cast of Characters:
Francisco Villa-rebel leader in Chihuahua, his followers are called villistas
Emiliano Zapata-leader of an agrarian movement in Morelos, his followers are called zapatistas
Venustiano Carranza-president of Mexico, former governor of Coahuila, and leader of the Constitutional movement against Huerta
Alvaro Obregon-a leading general in Carranza's Constitutional army
Woodrow Wilson-President of the United States
Brigadier-general Jack Pershing-commander of the American force sent into Mexico to hunt Pancho Villa after his raid on Columbus

Sources:
Villa and Zapata: A Biography of the Mexican Revolution-Frank McLynn
The Mexican Revolution: Volumes I & II-Alan Knight
Mexico: Biography of Power, A History of Modern Mexico, 1810-1996-Enrique Krauze, translated by Hank Heifetz
Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico since the Civil War-John Mason Hart
Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa-Friedrich Katz
Centaur of the North: Francisco Villa, the Mexican Revolution, and Northern Mexico
The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa, A True Story of Revolution and Revenge-Eileen Welsome
Border Conflict: Villistas, Carrancistas and the Punitive Expedition 1915-1920-Joseph A. Stout, Jr.
Intervention! The United States and the Mexican Revolution 1913-1917-John S.D. Eisenhower
Emiliano Zapata: Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico-Samuel Brunk
Zapata and the Mexican Revolution-John Womack, Jr.
Ranchero Revolt: The Mexican Revolution in Guerrero-Ian Jacobs
Venustaino Carranza's Nationalist Struggle, 1893-1920-Douglas W. Richmond
Alvaro Obregon: Power and Revolution in Mexico, 1911-1920-Linda B. Hall
The Last Caudillo: Alvar Obregon and the Mexican Revolution-Jurgen Buchenau
The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States and the Mexican Revolution-Friedrich Katz

Image Credit:
Dec 6 1914 General Tomás Urbina, General Pancho Villa and General Emiliano Zapata, Creator: Casasola, Agustín Víctor, 1874-1938, Elmer and Diane Powell collection on Mexico and the Mexican Revolution, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Wikimedia Commons