Mexico - U.S. Relations
1819-1900
Adam-Onis Treaty 1819
Texas Revolt 1836
U.S.-Mexico War 1846-48
U.S. Mexicans 1849-1900
SOC 335
The Latino Experience in the United States
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Stages of U.S. Encroachment
of Mexican Lands
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Early U.S.-"New Spain" relations culminate in
the 1819 Adams-Onis Treaty: Florida for
Tejas & agreement on a "final"
transcontinental border
The U.S. North/South dual scramble west =>
Texas outcome: 1823 - 1836
The Mexican American War (1846-48) =>
U.S. annexation of northern 1/2 of Mexico
(today's U.S. Southwest)
Dr. Santos
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Early U.S. - New Spain relations:
1776 - 1819
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Early U.S. explorations of the trans-Mississippi
west => trickle of Anglo fur trappers, trade routes,
intelligence
Spanish late colonization beyond Rio Grande via
missions: a defensive & weak strategy of
“containment” vs U.S., British, French, Russian
Louisiana Purchase on 1803: geopolitical coup!
The Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819: Florida ceded to
U.S. in exchange for “permanent” transcontinental
border between the U.S. & New Spain - honored by
Mexico in 1824
Dr. Santos
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Early U.S. - Mexican relations:
1822-1836
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Both North/South sought expansion
westward for different & competing reasons
The Santa Fe - Trail: U.S. land penetration
into New Mexico via trade with St. Louis
Pacific whaling & China trade: U.S.
maritime penetration of Spanish California
& its early projection to Asia
Dr. Santos
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Early U.S. - Mexican relations:
1822-1836
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U.S. repeated attempts to "purchase Texas" from
Mexico after the Louisiana Purchase fail.
Mexico adopts generous immigrant laws for
Catholic Anglos in Tejas to avoid war and to settle
its northern province
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(1) open immigration to homesteaders (+ their slaves)
=> about 30,000 settled by 1836, mostly Southerners
(2) Mexican 1824 abolition of slavery => Tejas after
intense lobbying by Stephen Austin, gets a 10-year
waiver that satisfies no one.
Dr. Santos
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The 1836 Texas Revolt: An
alternative experiment
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“Republic of Texas:” a 10-year alliance of Southern
planters, U.S. President Andrew Jackson, & Anglo
Southern homesteaders in Texas
Texas independence immediately recognized by
Great Britain & the U.S., but not by Mexico: ten
years of 3-way diplomacy ensue.
Texas early expansionism encouraged by Great
Britain to “contain” the U.S. westward expansion:
==> Failed 1841 military expedition to New Mexico
(Alta California saved from getting annexed to the
R.o.T.!)
Dr. Santos
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The Mexican American War:
1846 - 1848
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1845-46: Oregon question settled with Great
Britain and U.S. annexes Texas => Newly elected
U.S. President Polk orders U.S. troop to cross
disputed border zone between the Nueces & Rio
Grande rivers, provoking bloodshed.
White House propaganda: “American blood spilled
in American soil” => U.S. Congress declares war
expecting a quick war, which drags on to 1848
U.S. troops take possession of U.S. Southwest &
have to march into Mexico City to finally negotiate
the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty of 1848.
Dr. Santos
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Dilemmas of Mexican
occupation, 1846 - 1848
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Anglo-Saxon Manifest Destiny vs. the westward
extension of the Mason-Dixie Line (accepting
the expansion of Southern slavery?) => Wilmot
Proviso said no! (except for Texas) and was
imposed by the North on the South in Congress
Monoracial (White only) vs. multiracial nation
(Mexicans too) => U.S. withdrawal from Mexico
in 1848 & the abandoned the strategy of
territorial expansion altogether.
Dr. Santos
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Polk's Covert War Objectives
1. Possess San Francisco Bay as a
strategic gateway to Asia
2. Control of Rio Grande Basin => control
of Mexico’s northern economy and
develop a potential new Mississippi!
3. Annex only northern Mexico into U.S as
“free” U.S. territory except for Texas
(annexed as a slave state already)
Dr. Santos
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1848 Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo
U.S. forces occupied Mexico City for
months but no one would negotiate an
end to the war. Treaty finally arrived at:
 $15 Million for U.S. annexation of the
Southwest
 Full property, civil & social rights
extended to Mexican Americans, later
amended down by the U.S. Senate
Dr. Santos
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U.S. “Firsts” in the Mexican
American War
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First U.S. “Presidential War”, basically preempting Congressional war powers
First U.S. “Media War”: full-throttled
newspapers' hysteria ==> the racial
demonization of the Mexican people
First U.S. talk of “Civil War” : Southern
response for being denied spoils of war
U.S. finally becomes a continental power
Dr. Santos
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Stages of Mexican Ethnic
Subordination in the U.S.
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1830s -1880s: De-population, land
dispossession, racialization & ethnic
subordination of 75,000 Mexicans in the
U.S. Southwest
Texas Independent Decade (1836-1846)
=> massive violent explusion (ethnic
cleansing) of Mexicans to Rio Nueces-Rio
Grande area(contested area)
Dr. Santos
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The depopulation/dispossession of
Mexicans: 1830s - 1880s
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CA Gold Rush => Californios & Native
Americans quickly marginalized in a sea of
European and Chinese immigrants, and
increasingly U.S.-born Anglo American
Midwestern transplants
New Mexico => Elite Hispano-Anglo
alliance formed + land dispossession of the
pobres in the highlands Hispano
communities
Dr. Santos
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Mexican Americans
1880-1900
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1880s-1900s: With the advent of the railroads
and massive irrigation works, and the
exclusion of Chinese after 1883, there’s a
slow demographic resurgence of Mexican
Americans concentrated in segregated &
marginalized rural communities
==> Mexican Americans become socially
reconstructed as mere “temporary” and
"foreign" agricultural & railroad laborers -- and
“racially inferior” on top!
Dr. Santos
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The End
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The End
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