Mexican Independence and Anglo Expansion, Essay Example

Mexican Independence

The year 1810 is associated for the Mexican people with the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence against the Spanish colonial rule which ended in 1821 with the independence of Mexico from Spain. But even though the Mexican managed to achieve their goal and to become independent they still had to go through a harsh period of time given by the reconstruction of the country and the necessity to stabilize it from a social and political perspective. That is why against someone’s belief, the end of the war brought independence but also a time of reconstruction from which didn’t miss the political struggles for power; which also brought instability for the whole country. Therefore, this essay will be focused on the evolution of the Mexican state and the socio-political problems that aroused from this after it becoming independent. There will also be taken into consideration the fact that the 300 years Spanish colonialism upon Mexico played a major role.

After 1810, which marked the beginning of the independence war, Mexico had to face difficulty in involving more people into the struggle for independence as it started as a rural rebellion of the Indian peasant villagers. This necessity was given by the fact that as to have credit and become a success there should participate also the elites; mostly since this would have been the only factor of stability of a revolution led by an angry mass that acted violently and sometimes forgetting the main purpose. Stability was finally obtained with the involvement into revolution of the priests who brought it to a different level by creating a more disciplined Insurgent army, a programme with their inquiries even though there was still some opposition coming from those that were fearing of losing their land. Finally, the independence was achieved in 1821 due to a favourable background. But, independence in Mexico was not equivalent with stability as it also triggered the fight for power into which the Church had an important role to play. Into this regard, it is also visible the great impact that the Spanish domination had upon Mexico; as even now, when it was independent it was still keeping some feature characteristics to that. Even though independent, with Church’s nomination as a leader of the officer from the Royalist army Iturbide, Mexico proved that it was still under Spanish influence as it kept unchanged all the social and political structures of the colonial system; they just changed the name of the country from “New Spain” to “Mexico”, the rulers and their nationality from Spanish to Mexican, as in fact, there was still a repression and a dominant class, even though a Mexican one. In fact, now Mexico’s independence was based on what Spain created at the political and social level during the years that it ruled it; the state was indeed independent but the people that had important positions and functions in it were thinking as Spanish ones. So, from this point now Mexico had to not only deal with the creation of stability but also with the reminiscent political and social structure left by the 300 years Spanish domination; it had to build its own identity but first of all it had to rediscover it and make people to acknowledge it. For this,William Dirk Raat, says into his book Mexico, from Independence to Revolution, 1810-1910, thatthere was necessary that the entire state to go through a reformation process and not just its political system(57-58).

Furthermore, the existence of a free Mexico was not entirely complete as there was still kept the Spanish structure of the political system. Because of this people that had to be leading the state were not knowing what to do from a political point of view inside the state and most of the times they were acting accordingly to their own will and this caused the change of presidency for 77 times in 55 years; as a result, there was no social stability as the political system is the one that contributes to the evolution of the rest of the structures of the state.

Also, even though Mexico has become independent, the fact that it was under the Spanish domination put a very important mark upon its future evolution as it continue to look for models and was not able to build its own identity. This is the case with Mexico adopting the Spanish model by becoming an empire through Iturbide and also with it becoming in 1824 once Iturbide was sent into exile a republic by adopting a new constitution partly modelled constitution of the United States and also the name “Unites States of Mexico”. Being ruled by a foreign power, now even though independent, Mexico is in a high need for models as after 300 years it lost most of its own political identity; that is why it inspired itself from the United States’ political model.

Moreover, as Martha Menchaca explains into her book, Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans,the Spanish rule based on the military strategy “divide and conquer” created disunity among the Mexican people and opened path to a new social order into which centre were situated the Spanish people which meant also a control over the Indigene people from Mexico especially upon nobility (49); by making them belief that they are in control, the Spanish succeeded through their help to avoid any regional revolt and to benefit from all the power that power gave them. The result was that once the Spanish gained the Indigene trust during the years they manage to depose them and to benefit themselves from their fortune(51-52). Spanish also created a social difference based on a racist belief and distinguished among white represented by them and the black represented by the Indian people from Mexico. The repercussions of this system remained still present even after Mexico obtained its independence as we have seen above; and that is one of the reasons’ for which even though independent Mexico was an unity of states and not a single one. This also caused the political instability as people had different interests and they were not sufficiently united as to thing as a nation.

In addition, it is difficult to talk about a free Mexico even though it gained its independence as the political and social instability that exist inside the state make it dependent upon other systems even though we talk about Spanish’s or the United States ‘models and aggravate its transformation as a country that is no more under foreign rule. Mexico now confronts itself with its own people ignorance on how to execrate their power into people’s benefit and without taking into account other power’s opinions. Because of this, the necessity to form its own identity is crucial for Mexico but for the moment difficult to obtain; there have to firstly be eliminated the influences of the 300 years Spanish domination that can still be felt. And if we talk about the loss of the four Mexican: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California by the United States in the middle of 1800, then freedom becomes just a concept and independence is coming to be understood as also the time when great losses appear.

In conclusion, when we talk about Mexico’s independence we have to talk as well about the social and political issues that aroused along with it especially in the context of the 300 years of it being under the Spanish domination. Therefore, this state even though is independent politically speaking, ideologically and cultural speaking it is still under the Spanish rule as it has still maintained the old political and social structures and because its identity as a state has been linked for such a long period of time with that of Spain; it needs to reactivate its own state structures and to rebuild its identity.

References

Acuña, Rodolfo, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, Harper & Row, 1988;

Menchaca, Martha, Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans, University of Texas Press, 2001;

Raat, William Dirk, Mexico, from Independence to Revolution, 1810-1910, U of Nebraska Press, 1982

Anglo Expansion

Along history, Texas has faced a lot of changes transforming itself into a pyon used as a trade good by powers such as Spain, United States and even Mexico. For this reason, this essay will talk about the transformation that Texas suffered while being passed from a power to another but it also identify those elements that brought to the appearance of all these changes. It will be shown that there was basically just one key event that favoured Texas’ transformation which consisted into its ability to profit of different situations; but at the same time we can also identify a combination of forces that brought to this; forces which can be seen into the countries that had power of decision upon Texas.

Texas, from a historical point view in a short period of time, namely thirty-years has faced a lot of administrative changes. It was under Mexican domination from 1821-1836; there was created the Republic of Texas from 1836-1845; and Texas became a state within United States, a statehood, from 1845-1860 (Menchaca, 1991). All of this only shows how the history of a country can be entirely changed by the decisions that other countries and powers make upon it. Being a powerful country also gives you the possibility to decide upon other countries destinies even without taking into account their opinion.

In 1821, Mexico gained its independence and included Texas;but with the outcome of the war with United States in 1845-1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo it lost Texas showing how fragile it still and fact being independent doesn’t necessary mean that you also have power (Menchaca 201). Therefore, this essay will present not only the way into which this event happened but also what were the events that brought to it and what were the factors that made possible its appearance.

Into his book Occupied America; a history of Chicanos, Rodolfo Acuña talks No matter how harsh the Mexicans fought as to preserve Texas from being taken, they didn’t have the necessary force as to resist the Texans who just wanted to take their land back. In fact, they just ended to be called „outlaws” and „inferior race” even though the only thing that they wanted was to fight for and keep what believed was their even though they didn’t have the necessary arguments as to demonstrate this (230). This shows us that the lack of power of the Mexican people is also a contributor to them losing Texas as in order to fight a power as United States you have to possess a wide range of forces; which for a country that was just recovering from a foreign ruler after gaining its independence less than 25 years ago is difficult; mostly since there is also no internal stability and the political and social instead of collaborating are just fighting for power.

Though, Texas has its own moment of imposing itself and taking its faith into its own hands with the year 1835 which marked the beginning of the actions that Texas done as to become independent from Mexico. In 1836, all its effort was rewarded and it became independent. Texas’s independence was possible not only due to the Texan people fighting but also as a result of those of Mexican people’s. By bringing in Texas Americans, the Mexicans have contributed to the region’s desire to become independent mainly because these people have maintained their own language, habits and mostly identified themselves with the United States and not with Mexico even though they were under its domination. Another fact that contributed to this was the American settlers in Mexico of losing their slaves as even though slavery was prohibited in Mexico, they somehow managed to convince people to serve them. The abolition of the 1824 constitution also contributed to Texas’ road toward independence as it retrieved their freedom and replaced it with a higher control coming from the federal government. At the same time, Mexico was a young nation which just regained its independence and therefore from a political and administrative point of view it was not strong and it was also confronting with understanding what its identity is, mainly since there was neither stability as governments changed too often nor a precise policy concerning the state. All of this gave the impossibility to the Texans to solve their problems with the central government mostly since each administration reversed the decisions made by the previous one (Canales 50-55). All of these prove once again that a state’s inability to build strong administration and to impose itself especially when we talk about newly formed states or those that just regained their independence as it the case with Mexico. That is why for Texas knowing how to take advantage of Mexico situation was synonymous with it obtaining its independence. As a result, Texas profited of the tense diplomatic relations between Mexico and United States, but also of the inability of Mexico to quickly react to what was happening in Texas and also of its inability of consolidating control upon Texas due to the vast territory that it had to administrate; as Texas was already unsatisfied with all the measures that the Mexican state took against it (the abolishing of slavery in 1829, which for Texan people was inconvenient as they counted on slaves; the Mexican government prohibition for further immigration from the United States in 1830; the changing governments that were bringing instability).

Furthermore, it is not enough to take advantage of a favourable situation as Texas done concerning Mexico as to become independent but also to know how to transform this newly state in a strong one. Into this regard, Texas profiting of Mexico’s weakness given by the fact it was a newly formed state, managed to become a separate and independent state. Into her book, Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans, Martha Menchacaalso outlines the fact that Texas’ independence also brought it “the right to nullify Mexico’s property laws” (201) which meant at the same time the fact that Texas wanted to have taken all the necessary measures as to prevent becoming again a Mexican territory.

But just benefiting from a favourable situation as it is the case with Texans and Mexicans is not enough; there is also required determination and belief that by putting all the necessary effort you will achieve your goal (which for Texas was that of being independent). That is why Texan people played an important role into the evolution of events as they were the ones that made possible the independence through their strong involvement into what regards the country’s future.

Whereas the annexation of Texas to United States and it becoming the 28 state of it, the factors that led to this can be seen into Texas’ own inability of covering its debt toward U.S.; but also into the fact that once the U.S. pronounce themselves through the voice of president James K. Polk, in 1844, in favour of the annexation of Texas then there was nothing to do especially since the country was not as strong as U.S. Therefore, the Texan people (predominantly Anglo-Americans that become a majority under the Mexican rule)approved not only the annexation but also the new constitution, being in this way formally integrated in 1845. The result was that from 1845 until 1860 Texas had the status of the 28 U.S. state, a status for which he resented by being in favour of annexation and not fighting against it.

In conclusion, Texas’ transformation along the time is the result of the involvement of United States, Spain and Mexico and each of them desire to impose themselves and to obtain as much as possible. It became a theatre for each of the three to display its power and it felt the most the wrong decisions one of the states would take when talking about foreign policy. But a very important role into all these changes has the Texan state as a whole as it knew how to take advantage of all of weaknesses of the three powers from above and used them into its own benefit as to become an independent state or at least to provide itself with the possibility to have to decide even though it dependent administratively speaking of another state.

References

Acuña, Rodolfo, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, Harper & Row, 1988;

Canales, José T., Bits of Texas History in the Melting Pot of America, Brownsville, 1957;

Menchaca, Martha, Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans, University of Texas Press, 2001;