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In 1910, Venustiano Carranza was a 51-year-old senator from the State of Coahuila. Born into the privileged hacendado class of land owning families, he received a classical education and entered politics in 1887. In 1909, he expressed his desire to run for Governor of his home state. Although he had wide support at home, President Porfirio Díaz, dictator of Mexico, did not support him and he lost the “election“. It was this demonstration of Díaz’s strangle-hold on Mexican politics that led Carranza to ally himself with Francisco I. Madero, and his 1910 revolution.
Francisco Villa was a 31-year-old “ex-bandit” and butcher in the city of Chihuahua. Born Doroteo Arango, into a campesino family on the Hacienda del Río Grande, San Juan del Río, Durango, he lacked formal education, but was completely familiar with the conditions in which most of Mexico’s poor existed. His career of outlawry began about 1894 in central and northern Durango. By 1900 he had assumed the name “Francisco Villa” and moved to southern Chihuahua in hope of eluding the law. From 1900 to 1910 he worked at a variety of jobs and “moonlighted” as a bandit and rustler. With the commencement of hostilities in the Madero revolution in November 1910, he was sought out by Governor Abraham Gonzáles of Chihuahua and convinced to join the revolution. |
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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND |
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Carranza and Villa first met at a conference called by Francisco I. Madero, Provisional President of the revolution, at Rancho Las Flores, Chihuahua, in late April, 1911. Carranza, who was Madero’s Minister of War, viewed Villa as an ignorant, arrogant and dangerous peasant trying to rise above his station in life. Villa, recently promoted to colonel and serving as second-in-command to General Pascual Orozco, saw Carranza as un chocolatero perfumado, a “perfumed chocolate drinker“. Relations between the two men went down hill from there.
The success of the Madero revolution in late May 1911, did not lead Mexico into a new era. Madero proved to be incredibly naïve politically, allowing the functionaries of the old regime to remain in office. His kindness to his enemies bred treachery rather than gratitude and on February 9, 1913, the army rebelled against him. Taken prisoner on February 19, he was forced to resign the presidency, which post was assumed by his “loyal” army commander, General Victoriano Huerta. Rather than arranging for the exile of Madero and his cabinet, Huerta determined to execute him. On the night of February 22, 1913, while being transferred from the National Palace to a nearby prison in Mexico City, President Francisco I. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez “attempted to escape from custody” and were shot and killed.
The murders of Madero and Pino Suárez, and the usurpation of the Presidency by General Victoriano Huerta, caused an immediate and wide-spread revolt throughout Mexico. In Coahuila, Governor Venustiano Carranza refused to recognize Huerta and established the Gobierno Constitucionalista de México (Constitutionalist Government of Mexico) to oppose him. Over the next several months, Carranza gathered to his new government various rebel factions throughout the northern Mexican states of Durango, Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. Appointing himself Primer Jefe (First Chief) of the revolution, Carranza attempted to lead both politically and militarily. Although his political efforts were largely successful, he was an unschooled amateur when it came to military operations. As a result, he was constantly at odds with his commanders in the field and antagonized most of them with his grandiose schemes and confusing orders. A professional politician, Carranza proved to be tenacious and treacherous in his quest for the leadership of the revolution.
One of Carranza’s primary aims was to control the finances of the revolution. He felt he could best do so by introducing a stable “national paper currency” for Mexico. When the revolution began, paper currency for national commerce was provided by federally chartered, privately-owned state banks. Any difficulty with the solvency of a state bank which issued paper currency impacted the whole economy of Mexico. A federal paper currency, Carranza felt, would stabilize the national economy to the benefit of all of Mexico. Carranza would hold to this idea tenaciously, trying time and time again to establish one paper currency for the entire nation.
His first attempt was the issue of the Gobierno Constitucionalista de México notes from his temporary capital at Monclova, Coahuila, in May 1913. Five million pesos was initially underwritten by the state legislature of Coahuila to back the issue. Five million pesos would prove to be woefully inadequate to meet the costs of the revolution, prompting additional fait, or un-backed emissions.
In June 1913, Francisco “Pancho” Villa was recruited into the Constitucionalist Army as a brigadier general commanding the Villa Brigade. Success in battle attracted other rebel leaders and their units, eager to serve under him. By September 1913, it had become apparent to the field commanders of the Constitutionalist Army that guerrilla raids would not defeat Huerta and the Federal Army. On their advice, Carranza determined to form “conventional” army corps and divisions to fight the federals on a “conventional” basis. He designated General Alvaro Obregón as commander of the Corps of the Northwest in Sonora, and attempted to designate General Manuel Chao as commander of the División del Norte (Division of the North), in Chihuahua. Villa agreed to accept Chao as the political leader for Chihuahua, but would not accept him as military commander. At a meeting of the commanders who would integrate their units into the new division, Carranza’s plan was overthrown, and General Francisco “Pancho” Villa was elected to lead the Division of the North. Villa’s selection over Carranza’s candidate led to further distrust and antagonism between the two men.
When Villa and his Division of the North captured of the city of Torreón on October 1, 1913, Villa had given strict orders that his men pay for anything they required of the civilians of the city. Short of funds, Villa asked for 300,000 pesos in the form of a “forced loan” from the banks of Torreón and Gómez Palacio. Although the bankers at first resisted, Villa, with an army at his back, convinced them that the “loan” should be effected.
The “loan” was made in the form of “checks” against other banks in the area which were payable only at Mexico City “after the railroad to the capital has been reopened”. |
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Venustiano Carranza |
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Francisco Villa |
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A villista “Bank on Bank” check (PS621) issued at Torreón, Coahuila, October 7, 1913. |
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Villa was pleasantly surprised that the citizens of Torreón, Gómez Palacio, and surroundings were more than happy to accept the new currency at face value. As a result, the Division of the North left a good impression on the civilian population, and the world press, for being well-disciplined and obedient to the orders of their generals. Villa learned an important lesson — if he treated the people fairly, he could print money and they would accept it.
From October through November Villa’s Division of the North went from success to success. Following the capture of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, on November 15, 1913, Villa asked Carranza for replacements and money Carranza was unwilling or unable to supply reinforcements, but he did send Villa 300,000 pesos in his Gobierno Constitucionalista de México notes. |
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A “Carranza” 50 pesos note (PS634) bearing the official validation stamp of the Division of the North. |
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On December 8, the Division of the North occupied Ciudad Chihuahua, capital city of that state. The funds represented by the Torreón “bank on bank” notes and Carranza’s money sent to Ciudad Juárez, were nearly depleted. Rightly or wrongly, Villa had begun to seriously distrust Carranza because of the First Chief’s refusal to send the reinforcements he had asked for at Juárez.
On being notified of the capture of Ciudad Chihuahua, Carranza, once again, attempted to impose his will on Villa by nominating General Manuel Chao as his choice for governor. Villa’s subordinates balked at this interference by the “First Chief” and elected Villa Provisional Governor. On December 10, 1913, Villa decreed that the treasury of the state issue paper money to support his division and revive the state’s damaged economy.
Carranza, furious at this attempt to take his control of the revolutionary money supply out of his hands, immediately sent two emissaries to Chihuahua to convince Villa to rescind his decree. Villa received them with great courtesy and listened attentively to their arguments, which stressed the importance of the “First Chief’s” controlling all financial and economic aspects of the revolution. When the two men had finished, Villa told them to tell Señor Carranza that he would print his own money and not beg for any more hand-outs from the “First Chief”. The issue of currency would be another one of the continuing major bones of contention between the two.
In September 1914, Carranza’s revolution succeeded and an uneasy peace descended over Mexico. As Primer Jefe, Carranza had run rough shod over many of his generals, including Villa, and the animosity he engendered appeared in the form of strenuous opposition to his rule. In an attempt to save the situation, and maintain control, Carranza called a convention of military leaders to meet in Mexico City in October. When Villa and General Emiliano Zapata were specifically excluded from the conference, the other generals balked. Another convention was scheduled to meet at the city of Aguascalientes in early November, a meeting which would include all of the military leaders.
The Convention of Aguascalientes resulted in the establishment of the Conventionist Government of Mexico. When Carranza refused to recognize its authority, civil war was assured. In mid-November 1914, Villa took command of the Conventionist Army. He would lead the war against Carranza and his Constitutionalists, who were characterized as “illegitimate usurpers” of the national government. Mexico would suffer through another year, and more, of bloody civil war.
In the end, both men would lose. Villa lost the military contest and was forced back into the mountains of Chihuahua as a guerrilla. Carranza managed a few tumultuous years in office, but was eventually assassinated by supporters of General Alvaro Obregón in 1920. In 1923, at Hidalgo del Parral, Villa was ambushed and murdered. President Obregón was suspected of having ordered Villa‘s execution, but was never directly implicated. Obregón’s turn would come in 1928. He, too, would be assassinated as he became president-elect of Mexico for a second time. |