ion of
shrewdness and force could make it possible. But from the outset he
found an obstacle confronting him that he could not surmount. Though
acknowledged by European countries and by many of the Hispanic
republics, he could not win recognition from the United States, either
as provisional President or as a candidate for regular election to the
office. Whether personally responsible for the murder of Madero or
not, he was not regarded by the American Government as entitled to
recognition, on the ground that he was not the choice of the Mexican
people. In its refusal to recognize an administration set up merely by
brute force, the United States was upheld by Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
and Cuba. The elimination of Huerta became the chief feature for a while
of its Mexican policy.

Meanwhile the followers of Madero and the pronounced Radicals had found
a new northern leader in the person of Venustiano Carranza. They
called themselves Constitutionalists, as indicative of their purpose to
reestablish the constitution and to choose a successor to Madero in
a constitutional manner. What they really desired was those radical
changes along social, industrial, and political lines, which Madero had
championed in theory. They sought to introduce a species of socialistic
regime that would provide the Mexicans with an opportunity for
self-regeneration. While Diaz had believed in economic progress
supported by the great landed proprietors, the moral influence of the
Church, and the application of foreign capital, the Constitutionalists,
personified in Carranza, were convinced that these agencies, if left
free and undisturbed to work their will, would ruin Mexico. Though not
exactly antiforeign in their attitude, they wished to curb the power
of the foreigner; they would accept his aid whenever desirable for the
economic development of the country, but they would not submit to his
virtual control of public affairs. In any case they would tolerate no
interference by the United States. Compromise with the Huerta regime,
therefore, was impossible. Huerta, the "strong man" of the Diaz type,
must go. On this point, at least, the Constitutionalists were in
thorough agreement with the United States.

A variety of international complications ensued. Both Huertistas and
Carranzistas perpetrated outrages on foreigners, which evoked sharp
protests and threats from the United States and European powers.
While careful not to recognize his oppone