Diplomacy and Technology

Wheeler would desperately search for an answer to his problems. He would do so in a typical Confederate way. It had been a tradition in the Confederate Navy, from it’s very birth, to look to technology to offset the numerical superiority of the US. Wheeler insisted the army do so as well. He would also turn to his allies. That had been the second biggest ingredient, of pre-war Confederate policy, aimed at keeping the US at bay. Strangely enough, both of these policies would merge south of the Confederate border in the Empire of Mexico.

Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico had been installed by the French Government during the time of the American 61. Confederate victory, in that war, had assured his continued sovereignty as the US found itself unable to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. At first, a staunch French Ally, Maximilian proved to be a more capable leader than he had been given credit for. The rise of Boulanger, in Paris, saw Mexico City firmly switch it’s allegiance more in the direction of London and Richmond. The reasons for this were not quite as obvious as it first appears. The reasons seemed to lay more in economics than the politics of the French President for life.

Maximilian had many faults and is often portrayed as a wicked and heartless despot. Much of this had more to do with the propaganda of his enemies (much of that post war) than of his actual deeds. An objective review of his time on the throne shows a much different picture. It is true that there were atrocities during his reign but, if you compare them to others who have ruled Mexico, there were no more than had always been the case. Compared to some former rulers, such as Santa Anna, there were considerably less. Maximilian spent a great deal of time involved in a series of reforms that would lay the ground work for Mexico’s industrial revolution. It was something that continued long after his death and one can easily trace the seeds of modern Mexico back to initiatives started by him. Sadly, Maximilian would not get credit for this until well into the modern era.

It can be argued that Maximilian’s choice to go to war on the side of the Confederacy and British had less to do with his dislike for Boulanger (and even his kinship with his soon to be ally Franz Joseph) but, more to do with his demonstration that he was resolutely independent of the Paris regime. Maximilian was also looking at his potential future markets and he saw more of that in London than in Paris. 

Maximilian had long since been looking to expand the markets for a commodity that Mexico had plenty of. That commodity was oil. When he first became the Emperor of Mexico, oil had very few uses in any modern economy. By the time of the war, this fact had been slowly changing and in no small part due to Maximilian. He eagerly sought out new uses for the otherwise annoying substance. He found his best bet lay with a technology that, at the start of the war, looked to be very shaky and unproven. This was called the internal combustion engine. 

Maximilian fell in love with the idea of the “horseless carriage” and spent a great deal of money on improving and expanding the automobile. These efforts were highly criticized in Mexico and by his political friends and enemies alike. Most of the money that Maximilian had spent on the research was not even going on in Mexico. A lot of the treasure was flowing back to Europe. Despite this, the patronage had showed some concrete benefits by the start of the war. A fledgling automobile industry was now seeded in Mexico City along with one of the planets first oil refineries that produced fuel grade petroleum.

On the political front, there had been pressure from both sides of the war to entice Mexico in on their side. Ultimately, as we’ve already seen, it would be the British alliance that lured Maximilian in. Of course, Mexico’s declaration of war on the United States was not without provocation. John Hay had taken an almost classic carrot and stick approach with Mexico. He was attempting to woo Maximilian in with offers of money and trade while, at the same time, funding rebels in northern Mexico. The onset of the war had only intensified rebel activity and by 1899, they were not only attacking Imperial Mexican targets but, Confederate targets inside of Texas as well. It would be the success of these raids, and the growing notoriety of the rebels emerging leader, that would be the final straw for Maximilian. This rebel leaders name was Pancho Villa.

Villa’s exact age is unknown, although, it is certain that at the start of the war he had not even turned 20 years old yet. His youth had not deterred him on his path by any means. It was rumored that he had killed his first man at age six, was a successful bandit leader before he was 13, and had drifted into the realm of the political sometime after that. According to US records, he was one of the first rebel leaders to accept aide from the United States. Apparently, he had formed a bond with several American officers who would later prove instrumental in the war effort. The two most noted of these Yankee gun runners were Captain Fred Funston and Lieutenant Jack Pershing.

In the January of 1899, Villa attempted his most ambitious raid. He slipped across the Rio Grande, with a sizable force, and attacked the small Confederate garrison at Fort Stockton. The raid amounted to a minor incident as the Confederate Infantry (some of whom belonged to the Missouri Legion under Jesse James) easily beat off the assault. Villa had made his point though. He retreated back into Mexico and now faced his usual opponent, Max Weygand, commander of the Mexican Lancers.

Weygand was the son of the Mexican Empress, Charlotte, but not the son of Maximilian. As a result, Weygand did not get along too well with his emperor. Weygand was still a professionally trained, European, soldier and accepted a colonelcy in the Imperial Army of Mexico. At the time, the ranks of that army’s officer corps was dominated by soldiers from Europe so Weygand was not such a novelty. At the time of the Fort Stockton raid, he had spent two years chasing Villa with little success. He was ordered to do so once again, when the word of the raid reached Mexico City. This time there would be two big differences from times past. The first difference was that several Officers of the Confederate and Texas militaries would be joining him. That was not so much of a big deal since foreign observers on battlefields were considered a part of the trade. The second order was that Weygand’s Lancers would be joined by a detachment of armored cars.

These curious looking things would prove to be useless and even a hindrance. Weygand’s dispatches would constantly complain of their mechanical unreliability and their complete inability to traverse most of the terrain he faced. A study of this campaign would show that Weygand was not far off in his assessment of the capabilities of this new weapon. The seeming failure of the armored cars would not hamper the enthusiasm of the Confederate Officers who had joined in on the hunt. One officer in particular, Captain Robert Hodges of the 3rd Georgia Cavalry, was very impressed with these new machines.

Hodges would later be wounded, a month after the Villa expedition, in a skirmish along the Kansas border. He would return home for a short convalescence and then find himself posted to the War offices in Richmond while his leg finished healing. In that time he had not forgotten his Mexican adventure, nor had he lost his enthusiasm for this new weapon. He put his time at the War Department to good use and wrote a proposal for a Confederate version of the armored car. It would be ignored until some months after Hodges rejoined his regiment. 

It would be Robert E Lee Jr who presented the idea to Wheeler. Captain Hodges would have his name lost to history for many years after that. Credit aside, Wheeler was impressed with the idea over many others that had crossed his desk. He quickly approved the project. The monumental task of building such a thing would then find it’s way to the steel mills of Alabama and, oddly enough, be placed in the hands of a Naval Officer. This man would later become famous for other reasons. His name was Aston Greene.

These types of events were not confined to North America. In Europe, the diplomatic activity to secure allies, from the host of nations that had not committed to either cause, was furious. Most of these efforts would come to nothing but, in one case, the French scored a success. This particular swing of the pendulum threatened to shift the momentum of the war and could possibly even lead to knocking Britain out of it. Turkey was being ruled by a revolutionary council that had a very precarious hold on power. Known as the “Young Turks,” their revolutionary council had deposed the Sultan, Abdul Hamid, a year earlier. Their continued slaughter of the Armenians had forced several European powers to blockade Turkey but, now that war was at hand, the Armenians had long since been forgotten.

The Young Turks were all too aware of their situation. As is natural for most revolutionaries, they sought to consolidate their hold on power through violent means. After much deliberation, enough of the factions decided to throw their lot in with France. Boulanger had spent a great deal of money to ensure this alliance. He promised them nearly anything they asked for and even if it was beyond his ability to provide it. The Turks quickly whipped up nationalist fervor against the British and built up what was nothing less than a holy crusade to re-conquer Egypt.

Despite many claims, this “crusade” seems to have had little support outside the Young Turk movement. Even most of the Ottoman Army was perfectly willing to sit it out. The Young Turks were not powerful enough to force the armies hand and as a result, their “holy warriors” consisted mostly of their core constituency. Most of these people had very little military training and those who did (one faction in the movement were military cadets) were largely inexperienced. What was amazing about this highly improvised army was that it managed to do anything at all. By September, 1899, an army of nearly five thousand Turks invaded the Sinai.  

Arrayed against them were a little over three thousand soldiers of Kitchener’s battle hardened Anglo-Egyptian Army. The Young Turks had made no attempts at keeping any operational security. If anything could be said, they advertised every last thing they were doing, and why they were doing it. Lord Kitchener was fully prepared for them, on ground of his choosing, and with the forces he deemed necessary for the operation. In truth, Kitchener had only deployed a fraction of his army for this. His opinion about how many men he would need to repel the invasion proved to be accurate enough.

The army of the Young Turks engaged the Anglo-Egyptian forces on September 13th and 14th at a pass that would come be known as Kitchener’s Waddi. It was mostly a slaughter that left a large core of Young Turk supporters dead. The lopsided defeat would be enough to shift politics in the Ottoman Empire. Within three months, Abdul Hamid would be back in power. As per his agreements with Germany and Britain, he would eventually go to war with the French and Russian coalition. His troops would accomplish little, meaning that the most significant result of all this would not be inside Turkey. It would be the fact that the Suez Canal was secure and Britain’s life line to India was as well. It would also make Lord Kitchener even more famous than before and allow his highly successful army to begin operations on other fronts.