ship returned to Tsingtao in September for an overhaul that lasted into October. She thereafter cruised south and visited the Philippines. In May 1914, Leipzig received orders to replace the light cruiser . which was cruising off the Pacific coast of Mexico to protect German interests during the Mexican Revolution. She arrived off Mazatlán, Mexico, on 7 July, where she met Nürnberg and the cruiser ; the three German cruisers operated in concert with vessels from other navies to evacuate foreigners in the country. Because telegraph lines had been cut in Mexico, the German vessels did not learn of the July Crisis in Europe until 31 July, by which time World War I had broken out. Leipzig transferred forty civilians to the neutral US armored cruiser and then made preparations for wartime operations. World War I Leipzig anchored at Magdalena Bay in Mexico to await developments, and on 5 August, Haun learned of the state of war between Germany and the Triple Entente. The established mobilization plan called for the ships of the East Asia Squadron to unite, but Leipzig lacked collier support. She stopped in San Francisco to take on coal, but was unable to fully replenish her bunkers due to the United States' strict adherence to neutrality laws. Haun therefore decided to embark on a commerce raiding campaign against British merchant shipping. The lack of suitable targets led Haun to move south to the Gulf of California on 17 August to take on more coal. A week later, Leipzig sank a British freighter carrying sugar and then proceeded to the Peruvian coast by the 28th. She stopped in Guaymas in neutral Mexico to take on a fresh load of coal on 8 September. She got underway two days later, headed further south in accordance with instructions from the German naval command, and on 11 September she stopped and sank the British oil tanker . She called in the Galápagos Islands to take coal from a German merchant ship and put Elsinores crew ashore. Reports of a British squadron in the area forced Leipzig to leave. The ship thereafter stopped to allow the crew to clean her badly fouled boiler tubes, before resuming her voyage to Easter Island. There, on 14 October, she joined the rest of the East Asia Squadron, by which time the unit was under the command of VAdm Maximilian von Spee. By that time, Leipzig