In April 1914, two months before Franz Ferdinand is shot and three months before the Great War begins, an incident in the port city of Tampico causes Woodrow Wilson to seriously consider “intervention” in Mexico. 

The Mexican Revolution had been underway since 1910, and the Wilson Administration has refused to recognize to its new leader - Victoriano Huerta. An American intervention could make Tampico safe for the Americans living and doing business in Mexico, and talk of war is all over the papers. 

Why is Tampico so important to the U.S.? Oil, of course. 

Music by Epidemic Sound.

Sources for today's episode:

• The Prize by Daniel Yergin
• The World Crisis by Winston Churchill
• Gangsters of Capitalism by Jonathan M. Katz
• Woodrow Wilson by John Milton Cooper Jr.
• Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn by Christopher Cox

On what day did the 20th century begin? Franz Ferdinand is shot in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 by South Slav nationalist Gavrilo Princip, and the world changes forever. Americans read the shocking details the following morning, June 29, and wonder if there will be another war in the Balkans. Could an even greater conflict erupt in Europe? 

When the Great War begins in August 1914, President Wilson declares the U.S. neutral, however, the Allied powers are soon granted credit from JP Morgan & Co. to buy American-made guns, munitions, and artillery. Can the U.S. really call itself neutral? 

Another story breaks on June 29, 1914. American businesses have been fomenting and financing the revolution in Mexico. 

The Great War and the Mexican Revolution happen concurrently, American businesses profit from both, and the first roots of The American Century take hold.

Music by Epidemic Sound.

Sources for today's episode:

• The National Archives
• The Papers of Woodrow Wilson
• The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America by Michael S. Neiberg
• The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
• Woodrow Wilson and the World War by Charles Seymour
• July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin
• American Midnight by Adam Hochschild