War Against MexicoInstructor Pacas

Racism

•The introduction of the mass enslavement of Africans in the American colonies had introduced the colonies to what would become the U.S. racist ideology that has plagued the history of the nation from 1630’s - present.

•This racism found fertile soil throughout the British colonies but particularly more so in the Southern Plantation system that was dependent on a racist system in order to maintain its stability as well as its wealth.

Territorial Expansion and Racism

• Domestic policy of U.S. expansion into Native American regions coupled with racism inherent in the slavery system of the plantations of the south further polarized the self-perception of Anglo-Americans as superior to other races.

Mexico

•The Louisiana Purchase had doubled the territory of the U.S.

•To the southwest was the newly independent nation of Mexico who had recently won their independence from Spain in 1821.

•The current U.S. states of Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California with some parts of Colorado were all part of the new independent Mexican Republic.

Tejanos/Texans• By late 1820’s and early 1830’s many Southerners had begun to move

into the Mexican territory of Texas.

• The Mexican government had allowed them entry under the following conditions:

• That they swore allegiance to Mexico, convert to the Catholic faith and perhaps most importantly not practice slavery within the territory.

Cont’d•From the start the Americans broke all these

stipulations.

•The Texas War 1835-1836 was a war over the right to extend slavery into the Texan territory.

•This fact is not discussed in traditional U.S. history courses.

•With U.S. support the Texans successfully broke away from Mexico and declared themselves an independent republic in 1836.

‘Democrats’

• The U.S. government in 1830’s was saturated and run by individuals who supported the system of slavery.

• The Texan War can be viewed as an attempt by the U.S. to push ‘free’ territory (Mexico) further from the southern states to safe-guard their ‘investments.’

Economic Crisis

• The events in Texas could not have come at a better time for the U.S. to usher a system of justification to engage in a military venture that could diffuse popular unrest brought about by unsafe economic practices.

U.S. in the 1830’s• The early 1830’s was a time of expansion and prosperity. Much of the

growth in these years had been fueled by the widespread construction of new railroads and canals.

• Million of acres of public lands were sold by the government, mostly to speculators who hoped to cash in once railroads brought settlers further west.

Cont’d• Government land sales along with tariffs to raise revenue brought huge

amounts of money into the national treasury.

• In 1835 the government was able to pay off the national debt.

• After paying the national debt the treasury began to accumulate a surplus. Due to pressure from the states Congress decided to distribute the surplus to the states.

Cont’d• Most states and their citizens decided to horde specie and preferred to

pay off debts with paper bank notes.

• President Jackson became alarmed by the growing influx of state bank notes (bank notes not standardized at the time) being issued to pay for public land purchases and in 1836 issued the Specie Circular.

Cont’d

•Specie Circular- commanded the Treasury not to accept paper bank notes as payment for land sales.

•A crisis ensued under the new president’s first year in office.

•Banks restricted credit and called in loans, depositors attempted to withdraw their funds, unemployment soon touched every part of the nation and food riots broke out in major cities throughout the land.

Panic of 1837

•The events discussed above became known as the Panic of 1837.

• Its effects jeopardized the stability of the entire nation.

• Its effects reverberated throughout the nation until the U.S. went to war with Mexico in 1845.

•War with Mexico was crucial to try to stabilize the situation as well as other economic reasons.

Cont’d• Northerners argued that a good way to stabilize the economy and put

the nation back on track was to try to gain access to the pacific ocean and tap into the Asian markets.

• The acquisition of land further west particularly California would be crucial in order to implement this plan.

China and the West

• Throughout most of their history the Chinese had decided to carry out minimal trade with ‘Western’ powers.

• Wishing to tap into the lucrative trade with China many European powers looked to supply the Chinese with goods that only Europeans could supply.

• Thereby attempting to force the Chinese to adopt more favorable trade agreements for the Europeans.

• In the 1830’s the British succeeded when they introduced Opium to China.

Cont’d

• The demand for opium by the Chinese turned the once unfavorable balance of trade between Westerners and China in favor of European nations.

• The Chinese were producing close to $45 million pounds sterling in profits but spending $100 million creating a huge debt owed to English.

Cont’d•When the Chinese government rebelled against the

‘Westerners’ the Brits went to war and succeeded in defeating the Manchu.

•After this victory the Brits opened China to Western trade.

•Western powers dumped their surplus goods into the lucrative Chinese markets.

•These European powers assisted in weakening the Chinese opposition to trade with the West.

System of Justification

• In yet another strange case of marriage of interests for different reasons northerners and southerners espoused more territorial expansion westward.

• In order to carry this venture out and wrest the coveted territory away from Mexico a pretext to go to war with Mexico was necessary to muster popular support.

•The incorporation of Texas as a state of the union and the border disputes that went along with this action served just that purpose.

Cont’d

• The borders shared by Mexico and Texas became the new bone of contention.

•When the Texans captured general Santa Anna they forced him to recognize the border between Texas and Mexico as the Rio Grande.

• Traditionally the border was 150 miles to the north at the Nueces River.

• The Mexican government claimed that Santa Anna was not authorized to make this kind of decision without the approval of the Mexican Congressional body- thus the border treaty was null and void.

Traditional Accounts

•Traditional Anglo-American accounts have always portrayed Mexico as the aggressor and instigator of the war.

•More recent scholarship has questioned the accuracy of this claim.

•President Polk appealed to the peoples’ nationalistic fervor and racist ideology to lend their support against Mexico and redress a wrong committed on the U.S.

Support and Opposition to the War

• Opposition and support for the war effort introduced diverse ideas used to formulate arguments for or against the war effort.

• In the U.S. side some intellectuals such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were opposed to the war.

• Thoreau being so vocal that the government threw him in jail.

Military Opposition• Some soldiers though once engaged in the war effort saw the treatment

and expansion of the U.S. for what it was and decided to switch sides in the struggle.

• Of particular repute was a battalion of Irish men that once having made the switch to the Mexican side of the struggle were dubbed El Batallon de San Patricio or St. Patrick’s Battalion.

•You had:

•Altruist who saw the war as a crime•Abolitionist who saw the war as crime that

perpetuated slavery•While others argued that conquest of Mexican

territory would taint Anglo-American supremacy by forcing superior Anglo blood to mix with the blood of a weaker race of ‘mongrels’ half European,half Indian or black and Catholic.

Cont’d

• Supporters also espoused racist ideology and saw it as the ‘manifest destiny’ of the U.S. to expand its borders into the territory currently in the possession of an ‘inferior’ race.

• The natural resources of these regions were by divine providence the right of the Anglo-American race and all must yield to the superiority of the white race.

• This idea of ‘Manifest Destiny’ was coined by John O’Sullivan editor of the Democratic Review in the summer of 1845.

• Direct quote, “It is our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted to us by Providence for the free development of our multiplying millions.”

War and Racism

• The racist ideology espoused by Anglo-Americans paved the way for all sorts of crimes committed against the Mexican population of the towns and cities conquered by the American hordes.

• Rape, murder, torture, and many more human rights violations.

Support Dwindles

•Many American soldiers became prey to corrupt merchants who sold tainted provisions to them.

•When recruitment was falling off sharply- 1847-Congress promised those who would serve 100 acres of land.

•These veterans fell prey to land speculators-forced to sell their land grants because of need for money many sold the deeds to land at a fraction of what they were worth.

End of the War

• The U.S. won the war but the victory would magnify the problems already apparent in a society that was composed of two competing different economic interests.

• The agrarian south and industrial/business north each had competing interests on how to ‘cultivate’ the newly acquired territory to ensure their interests.