On September 16, 1810, a progressive priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla became the father of Mexican independence with a historic proclamation urging his fellow Mexicans to take up arms against the Spanish government. Known as the “Grito de Dolores,” Hidalgo’s declaration launched a decade-long struggle that ended 300 years of colonial rule, established an independent Mexico and helped cultivate a unique Mexican identity. Its anniversary is now celebrated as the country’s birthday. Show Background to Mexican IndependenceThe land that is now Mexico fell into Spanish hands in August 1521 when Hernán Cortés and his army of conquistadors toppled the Aztec empire, ushering in three centuries of colonial rule and importing new diseases that decimated once-flourishing native populations. Under orders from the Spanish king, Charles V, Cortés founded a capital city—Ciudad de Mexico—on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, and a series of viceroys took command of the territory, which was dubbed New Spain. Scroll to Continue The earliest revolt against the Spanish colonial government was led by Martín Cortés, the illegitimate son of Hernán Cortés and his translator, a Mayan-born woman known as La Malinche. In the years leading up to the Mexican War of Independence, most plots to end Spanish rule were devised by Mexican-born Spaniards, or criollos, who ranked below native Europeans within Mexico’s highly stratified caste system. The criollos’ approach largely excluded Indigenous Mexicans and mestizos—people of mixed ancestry like Martín Cortés—who were often deprived of the most basic political and civil rights. Napoleon’s invasion and occupation of Spain from 1808 to 1813 heightened the revolutionary fervor in Mexico and other Spanish colonies. On September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a respected Catholic priest (and an unconventional one, given his rejection of celibacy and love of gambling) issued a passionate rallying cry known as the “Grito de Dolores” (“Cry of Dolores”) that amounted to a declaration of war against the colonial government. So named because it was publicly read in the town of Dolores, the Grito called for the end of Spanish rule in Mexico, the redistribution of land and a concept that the criollos’ earlier plans had deliberately omitted: racial equality. Though a criollo himself, Hidalgo extended his call to arms to mestizos and people of Indigenous descent; their significant contribution of manpower changed the tenor of the revolt. Hidalgo led his growing militia from village to village en route to Mexico City, leaving in their wake a bloodbath that he later came to deeply regret. Defeated at Calderón in January 1811, Hidalgo fled north but was captured and executed by firing squad in Chihuahua. Others took the helm of the rebellion, including José María Morelos y Pavón, Mariano Matamoros and Vicente Guerrero, who all led armies of Indigenous and racially mixed revolutionaries against the Spanish royalists. Known as the Mexican War Of Independence, the conflict dragged on until 1821, when the Treaty of Córdoba established Mexico as an independent constitutional monarchy under Agustín de Iturbide. Just 18 months later, the republican insurgents Antonio López de Santa Anna and Guadalupe Victoria ousted the emperor and established the first Mexican Republic. Celebrating Mexican IndependenceAlthough September 16, 1810, marked the beginning of Mexico’s struggle for independence rather than its ultimate achievement, the anniversary of the Grito de Dolores has been a day of celebration across Mexico since the late 19th century. The holiday begins on the evening of September 15 with a symbolic reenactment of Hidalgo’s historic proclamation by the president of the republic and the governor of each state. The next day, typical activities include parades, bullfights, rodeos and traditional dancing. In 2010, the festivities included a special—if somewhat macabre—feature: In honor of the country’s bicentennial, the remains of 12 men who fought for Mexican independence—including Hidalgo, Morelos, Matamoros and Guerrero—were exhumed in a military ceremony led by President Felipe Calderón. Many non-Mexicans, particularly in the United States, often mistake the Cinco de Mayo holiday for a celebration of Mexican independence; instead, it commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the French-Mexican War. The Mexican American War and Effect on Mexicans in US Territory Theresa Seavello, December 2016 The United States is a representation of long standing freedom. A ‘Shining Nation on a Hill’, and ‘what a Democracy should look like’. Although, history sometimes tells about another side to America, and how it became the nation it is today. Slavery, imperialism, and prejudice haunts the history
of this country, and like any type of nightmare—wishes to be forgotten. The United States government has acknowledged many of its wrongdoings, such as the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and for slavery and the prejudice of the Jim Crow laws. Although the United States apologizes from time to time, many of the shady events in its history have still been ignored or covered up by false pretenses. One of these events is the conquest of the Mexican-American war. This war in
1845-1848 was a purely territorial war where the United States, under President James K. Polk, fought to take land and resources from Mexico. I want to explore just why the war was fought, and I want to investigate what happened to the Mexicans living in the United States’ newly acquired territory when the border jumped them. As before mentioned, the Mexican-American war was a purely territorial war. President Taylor wanted to annex Texas after the territory won a war of independence from Mexico. Mexico threatened the United States with war if they annexed Texas, but Taylor still tried and failed to annex twice before finally succeeding in 1845 with the backing of Polk. Polk became president on the platform of the expansion of the United States, and quickly went to work on upholding his promise. Why did the United States want to expand? Many historians agree that one of the root causes of the war with Mexico was due to greed. On encyclopedia.com, the article written on the Mexican-American war reads, “The Nation that trumpeted the ideals of freedom, democracy, and justice for all had invaded and conquered a much weaker country. For no more noble reason than greed, the United States had taken Mexican lives and stolen Mexican land.”[1] The United States was under the impression of the Manifest Destiny, which began in Colonial times. Protestants believed it was their divine right and duty to spread the protestant religion across the North American continent.[2] According to Dennis R. Hidalgo, a historian from Virginia, “In 1845 John O’Sullivan coined the term ‘manifest destiny’ in reference to a growing conviction that the United States was preordained by God to expand throughout North America and exercise hegemony over its neighbors… He argued for ‘the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions’”[3] Hidalgo called the idea of manifest destiny an “obvious defense of what is now called Imperialism”.[4] It is clear to see that the United States was hungry for land and colonies, and in the race of Imperialism, the Manifest Destiny was a great cover for the United States to use for claiming the Mexican-American war noble and prophecy-fulfilling. Another historian Alejandro Lugo also agrees with the concept of the United States covering up Imperialism and says, “Imperial impulses do travel by many other names, more often than we dare to want to know. [the terms] ‘dispersed ruination’ associated with ‘imperial debris’ show there may be remnants that slip from immediate vision, detritus that is harder to grasp–intimate injuries that appear as only faint traces, or deep deformations and differentiations of social geography which go by other names.”[5] Again, this explains that this way of covering Imperialism under the name of something else still results in the same consequences only under a different guise. After the annexation of Texas, President Polk drove United States military forces into Mexico, effectively beginning the fighting of the war against an under resourced Mexico. After the capture of Mexico City, Polk drafted the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico ratified the treaty, and the United States gained almost half of Mexico’s territory, including much of modern day Utah, California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.[6] This new land also came with new inhabitants— the natives on the land and the new population of Mexican Americans. What happened to this new group of people after the border they knew was thrown over them? They were suddenly faced with a forced situation of citizenship and had to make a decision based on these new circumstances. According the Article VII of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States government outlined three different options of the Mexican Americans to choose from in regards to their new situation.
The first clause of the article explains that the Mexicans who were living in the land that became part of the United States because of the treaty, will be allowed to remain there or go back to Mexico, and they can bring/ keep everything that belongs to them without being charged a fee or a tax. But, the Mexicans living in the territory must make the decision to claim United States citizenship, or claim to retain their Mexican ‘character’. Those who did not make the decision to officially claim will automatically become citizens, as stated in the next paragraph.
The treaty uses the word “character” to refer to retaining Mexican culture, and that hints towards the attitudes of the United States about assimilation and the Mexicans living in the new United States territories. The notion of Mexican character is brought up again in Article IX.
The United States with this treaty is making a clear distinction between the Mexicans and the Americans. As we see in the above article, yes—Mexicans can elect to become citizens. But, the government is going to decide how much of a citizen they can become and when. This is contradictory and again, shows the opinions the United States has towards the Mexicans They can choose to deny their Mexican heritage and culture, and become citizens of the US, BUT there is no guarantee as to when they can get full rights of citizens—such as voting. They do have access to their unalienable rights, but the Mexicans were being treated as if they were visitors to the United States, not forced on the other side of a boundary between two countries. In the article The Border Jumped the; a map of Mexicans, the Mexican American war was described as “the great gringo land-grab of 1848. Some [Mexicans] are recent arrivals; others trace their roots to long before the map was redrawn. They didn’t jump the border-it jumped them.” [10] Since the United States Government fought an unnecessary war for Imperialism under the guise of the Manifest Destiny, the least they could have done was guarantee immediate citizenship. The land grab presented a new population in the United States and the new population should have had an immediate say in what was going to happen in the new government that was forced upon them. The United States has a shadowed side of history that many overlook, including the government itself. The effects of the Mexican American war are prevalent today not only in the size of the United States but also in the population. We see news reports on border control, immigration policies, humanitarian disasters, and all of these are hot topics of the current presidential campaign. Although the past in the United States isn’t squeaky clean, these types of issues need to be addressed and fixed before becoming an out of control issue. The stereotypes and the prejudice against Mexicans and Mexican Americans should have been fixed when the United States was so desperate for their land and resources, but indifferent to the people. Just remember that especially today during current political discussions regarding Mexicans, they did not jump the border, the border truly in fact jumped them. Notes [1]
“Peace, But at What Cost.” Mexican-American War. Encyclopedia.com. (October 27, 2016). Further Reading Bauer, K. Jack. ”The Mexican War, 1846-1848.” New York: Macmillan, 1974. Greenberg, Amy S. A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico. New York: Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, 2013. McClellan, George B. and Thomas Cutrer. The Mexican War diary and correspondence of George B. McClellan. Baton Rouge. 2016. Callahan, J. M. “Mexican-American War.” In Dictionary of American History, 3rd ed., edited by Stanley I. Kutler, 339-342. Vol. 5. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003. U.S. History in Context (accessed October 24, 2016). Hoganson, Kristin. “A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico by Amy S. Greenberg.” The Journal of the Civil War Era 4, no. 1 (2014): 111-13. doi:10.1353/cwe.2014.0008. O’Rourke, David K. “Our war with Mexico: rereading Guadalupe Hidalgo.” Commonweal 125, no. 5 (1998): 8+. U.S. History in Context (accessed October 27, 2016). http://libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/AcademicJournalsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=true&displayGroupName=Journals&currPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId=UHIC&search_within_results=&p=UHIC%3AWHIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CA20485534&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=true&source=Bookmark&u=mlin_c_worstate&jsid=4292d2b0c62976b92d92301ca2708f24 What are 3 results of the MexicanThe United States received the disputed Texan territory, as well as New Mexico territory and California. The Mexican government was paid $15 million — the same sum issued to France for the Louisiana Territory. The United States Army won a grand victory.
What were effects of the MexicanThe treaty effectively halved the size of Mexico and doubled the territory of the United States. This territorial exchange had long-term effects on both nations. The war and treaty extended the United States to the Pacific Ocean, and provided a bounty of ports, minerals, and natural resources for a growing country.
What were 3 results of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?Other provisions included the protection of property and civil rights of Mexican nationals living within the new boundaries of the United States, the promise of the United States to police its boundaries, and compulsory arbitration of future disputes between the two countries.
What were the effects of the Mexican Revolution?The Mexican Revolution sparked the Constitution of 1917 which provided for separation of Church and state, government ownership of the subsoil, holding of land by communal groups, the right of labor to organize and strike and many other aspirations.
|
What are 3 effects of the Mexican
Postagens relacionadas
direito autoral © 2024 cemle Inc.
