Ebook: The Mexican Expedition, 1916–1917

A century ago, the United States joined what was then called the “Great War.” The conflict, and America’s involvement that helped bring it to an end, cast a long shadow across the twentieth century. In addition to massive destruction and loss of life, it shattered the European power system and brought economic turmoil, revolutions, collapse of empires, the birth of new nationstates, and the rise of totalitarian movements. The war’s outbreak in August 1914 shocked the United States. At this time, the Army was a constabulary force, barely adequate to police America’s new empire in the Caribbean and Pacific, although after the War with Spain in 1898, Secretary of War Elihu Root had led important reforms.

---