German Military Penetration into Mexico During the Late Díaz Period
B Y 1900, AS THE cautious overseas policy of Chancellor Bismarck faded into the background, the government of Emperor William II was tempted to exploit the prestige of an efficient army to gain advantage for Germany by influencing Mexico to adopt German military methods and materials. German diplomats reported the activities of rival nations, notably the French, in Mexican military affairs, and the boldest among them, Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim, urged a daring program to infiltrate the Mexican Army. The Emperor found this advice congenial, and while the German Army took little initiative in the matter, it was ready to cooperate. On the other hand, Chancellor Prince Bernhard von Biilow and the German Ambassador to Washington Freiherr Hermann Speck von Sternburg, apparently aware that undue German military influence in Mexico would endanger relations with the United States, engaged in efforts to restrain the Emperor and his representative in Mexico. Meanwhile, Mexican partisans of Germany and France intrigued busily and the Diaz government, anxious to build a powerful Mexican Army and to restrain United States influence, was obviously only too glad to play one nation off against another and to gain what advantage it could in the process. The German drive to exert military influence in Mexico appears to have begun in 1900. At this time, Minister Edmund Freiherr von Heyking arrived at his post in the Mexican capital bearing special instructions from the German Emperor to strengthen President Porfirio Diaz, possibly with the help of German military instructors.'