Mexico: Background/Major Issues (by John)

Mexico in 1848 is a nation that has been constantly wrecked by internal divisions, and external attacks. Its economy is suffocating under huge amounts of internal debt and it has little in the way of international interaction at least on a financial level since the Pastry War with France. Politically it is a whirlwind of competing factions where the most powerful player is an on again off again president/dictator/military strong man, Santa Anna.

Mexico had no guiding political philosophy after its independence or long standing native traditions of democracy. So in the years between 1821 and 1850 there constant political upheavals as competing factions sought to define Mexican society. They can chiefly be grouped into liberals who wanted to create some kind of democracy and conservatives who wanted a much stronger central government preferably even a monarch that would protect the land holding classes and the Catholic Church. These were the competing factions on a national level. After the initial revolution the series of armed turning over of powers created a since of panic and fear of reform in any ruling party, particularly the Conservative upper class which manipulated the military as its tool for self-protection and promotion. But these where just the national struggles the federation itself had a hard time holding together, with aside from the rebellion in Texas a rebellion in states in Central Mexico, and a earlier rebellion in what is considered modern Central America which resulted in its independence. 1847 saw the start of one of the longest lasting rebellions called the Caste War of Yucatan.

This political instability, tradition of disparity between the classes, international hostility and even aggression combined to create and perpetuate a weak economy in Mexico for much of the 19th century (the same reasons could explain much of 20th century economic in Mexico). The originally colonial empire had an economy centered around the Catholic Church this slowly transitioned into an economy more focused on the agricultural upper class, with this transition helping to lead to the out cry for Mexican Independence. With out stability there was no room for economic growth. The majority of Mexico’s territories were under populated and its people were generally poor and uneducated. The difference between Mexico and other countries at the time was a lack of capital to expand. The instability of the government which had continually defaulted on many international loans, and gave no confidence to international lenders with a seeming revolving door to the presidency, further exasperated the problem. One attempt to solve it was the opening up of the fringe territories that Mexico held in the North to US citizens. The hope was to better populate these areas and stimulate the economy but the US citizens took it as a chance to expand and colonize.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the defining moment piece of Mexico’s relation with the US up to 1848. The Mexican-American War resulted in the lose of a 55% of Mexican Territory to that date. It is still a lasting point of contention in US- Mexican relations. It built off of the humiliating defeat of Texas’s Independence, and then added more humiliation. It took away some of the most agriculturally viable and mineral rich land Mexico had. In return in gave 15 million dollars in war damages and nominal protection of rights of Mexican citizens living in what became the US. Though it has often been contested that these rights were infringed upon.

The original conflict with Texas for independence revolved a lot around slavery, which had been abolished in Mexico after the war for independence with Spain. Texas had been granted a special slave holding privilege as a Mexican state out of economic necessity but it was a huge point of contention between the Mexican government and the American settlers. The refusal to “sanction slavery” was one of the key points in the refusal of Mexico to acknowledge Texas as an independent entity. One interesting point is after Texas had received independence Santa Anna had been “exiled” to the US and was accepted as an Anti-Slavery hero, because Northerners viewed the inclusion of Texas as a way to tip the balance towards slave states. To carry this analogy further the land that Mexico lost and the US gained in the Mexican-American War could be seen as the point of contention that lead to the Civil War because so much land integrated all at once didn’t fit in with the hard compromises that had to be made to keep a political balance. Slaves would continue to seek and gain refugee in Mexico long after Texas’s independence and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.


Suggested Sources:
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history.html
http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/index_flash.html
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/Hispanic/history_heritage/pns_mexico_slaves0716.asp
http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/ghtreaty/