For a• decade after the withdrawal of the French, Mexico was disturbed by domestic con tentions attended with serious border lawless ness which at times impaired good relations and gave rise to troublesome questions and diffi culties reaching an acute stage after November 1876, when the constitutional order of Mexico, which the United States had continually rec ognized for 17 years (since 1859), was over thrown by the successful military revolution of Gen. Porfirio Diaz. The cattle raids from Tamaulipas on the Lower Rio Grande, which had caused trouble since 1848 and had be come prominent in the remarkable incident known as the Cortina war in 1859-60, but had declined during the Civil War, were renewed at the close of the campaign against Maxi milian, and culminated in the Corpus Christi Raid of 1875 which attracted the attention of the American government to the precarious position of Americans along the border. These raids and depredations were intimately con nected with the collateral question of the condi tion of the free zone along the Mexican side of the Rio Grande and the subject of extradi tion. Meantime the American government con tinued a temporizing neglectful policy, but, in 1875, it sent additional troops to the border and finally on 1 June 1877, authorized Federal forces to cross the border in hot pursuit.
The dangerous breach in relations of amity was for a time widened by the delay of the American government under President Hayes to recognize the government of Diaz. Finally the American Minister (John W. Foster), who had advised against the withholding of recog nition, received authority by which he promptly placed himself in official relations with the Diaz government on 11 April 1878, nearly a year after it had been recognized by the other powers. Meanwhile, in December 1877, the House of Representatives adopted resolutions looking toward a consideration of the best means of removing the existing and impending causes of difference and of confirming and en larging commercial relations.
The friendly feeling manifested following recognition of Diaz was of brief duration. Negotiations, which encountered delays, were rendered more difficult by complications result ing from new revolutions and disorders. American forces again crossed the border in hot pursuit of marauders in the spring and summer of 1878. Diaz, induced by Mexican clamor, demanded the withdrawal of the Amer ican order for crossing the border. This the administration at Washington declined to do. By October 1878 the situation threatened to result in war. Finally, with the establishment of orderly conditions by co-operative action in 1879, the American government in 1880 with drew the order for crossing the border.
At the same time by the steady growth of centralized power in Mexico, relations had be come increasingly friendly. The danger from Mexican internal disorders had largely dis appeared in 1880, when Diaz retired and ac quiesced in the election of his lieutenant whom he succeeded by re-election four years later.
Border conditions rapidly improved. A reci procity treaty was signed in 1882 and trouble some questions of the "free zones and extradi tion were considered in a friendly spirit. A partial relief from the continuation of border lawlessness was sought in 1882 in the agree ment (later renewed yearly for several years) providing for crossing the border by armed forces of either country in pursuit of Indians, and by a convention for the establishment of the international boundary by suitable commis sions of survey.
Steady improvement in relations was also greatly aided by extension of railway communi cation to the frontier by 1881, and to the in terior of Mexico by 1883-84, by American capital and also by connecting the telegraph systems of the two countries through the com pletion of a submarine cable in March 1881. The establishment and multiplication of inter national railway communications, revolution izing commercial conditions, largely supplanted the need of reciprocity treaties which, although negotiated in 1882 and 1891, were defeated in the American Congress.
Relations continued to improve in mutual friendliness, although public opinion in Mexico was divided between a policy of isolation and a policy of closer intercourse and concessions for industrial enterprises. In pursuance of the latter policy, the Mexican government by 1889 modified the old Mexican land laws and gave to American citizens liberal railroad, mineral and other grants.
A better understanding followed the estab lishment of an international water boundary commission in 1889 and the remarking of the southwestern boundary westward from El Paso in 1891-96, as defined by the Treaty of 1848. An unsatisfactory effort was made in 1895 to remedy the abuse of the Mexican free zone by smugglers. In 1896 a copyright treaty was negotiated and in 1899 an extradition treaty (supplemented in 1902). In 1895, through the good offices of the United States, Mexico con cluded with Guatemala an arbitration conven tion for settlement of a long-standing bound ary dispute. In 1900 the Mexican Congress appropriated $30,000 for sufferers in the Gal veston disaster.
The better understanding was indicated by the reference of the famous Pious Fund con troversy to arbitration by The Hague Court (1902), the adjustment of boundary difficulties arising from the shifting of the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers, the negotiation of a con vention (of May 1906) for the equitable dis tribution of the waters of the Rio Grande for irrigation purposes and the negotiation of an arbitration treaty in 1908. It was especially illustrated by the Americo-Mexican co-opera tion in 1907 in plans tactfully initiated by the United States to maintain order in Central America.