Mexico - USA Border History
The Story of how the border changed between the two countries
Introduction
With almost all the borders in the world, there has always been issues that arise, mostly ending in some sort of political conflict that leads up to fatalities. This has been the cause back in the 1830s-1840s for the border between Mexico and The United States Of America. Mexico went from having a huge space of land that it could call it's own, to having it slowly stripped away bit by bit due to politcal issues between America and Mexico
Original Border(1828)
In 1821, Mexico won a war against Spain where it won Mexico their independence. Mexico had claimed a huge part of land, roughly around 5,000,000 kilometers squared. A lot of the land was lost due to a war that erupted further along the timeline.
Mexico - US Border
The area in the red line use to be the border Mexico use to have with America but that was short lived due to the Mexican government who allowed Stephen F. Austin to settle in northern Mexico to encourage economic development. During the early 1830's, over 20,000 Anglos settled in the state that we now know as "Texas".
Texas Revolution
As mention before, there were 20,000 Anglos who settled in Texas where they also brought along 2,000 of their slaves. This could have caused conflict due Mexico's recent abolishment of slavery in 1829, although Mexico had abolished slavery, they allowed the Anglos to brung theirs along until 1835. These numbers started to scare Mexico and raised the question on whether or not they were going to try and take some land away from them ,therefore, Mexico banned immigration to Texas for the time being.
Mexico - US Border
The President of Mexico at the time Santa Anna tried to centralize it's power in the northern states but mainly in Texas due to the possible risk of losing Texas. Mexico started off by applying Mexican laws throughout the country which ended up with Texas no longer being able to have slaves. This did not make too many people happy so Sam Houston led Texas and declared a rebellion against the Mexican government in order to try and change the law. Mexico did not like the rebellion that was started so the president declared a full out war against Texas which ended up in Texas winning and breaking apart and becoming the Republic Of Texas
Interrelationships
Mexico lost a large amount of land when they lost the war, the borders were changed due to different political views. It was a human - human type of interrelationship since a war errupted, different people had different views ,therefore, there was conflict between humans which the end result was Texas gaining independence and changing to the republic of Texas.
Mexican Cession(1848)
The Mexican Cession was the hardest hit on Mexico and is what really changed the borders dramatically. The Mexican Cession refers to the land that Mexico had to surrender to the United States Of America at the end of the Mexican War. This was a massive land grab by the United States Of America which was very significant because they could now expand slavery into the newly acquired land
Mexico - US Border
Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidago
The Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidago basically informed Mexico of the things that were going to happen to it's land and people living there. The following included;
- The United States Of America receive all of the land originally sought by John Slidell, states such as New Mexico, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Etc
- The Mexicans received $15 million for those lands and were relieved of responsibility for claims by American citizen
- The United States pledged to protect the rights of Mexicans living in the newly acquired areas
- Both nations agreed to submit future disputes to arbitration.
Present Day Border
Mexico's current land coverage is 1.973 million km² which is a lot smaller compared to the astonishing land coverage it use to have of 4,925,283 km². The current population sits at 127,575,529 which is a lot of people for the size that Mexico currently is. Till this day there are still a lot of conflict with the border between Mexico and the United States, from people illegally crossing on a day to day basis, to the drug trafficking that is mainly controlled by the Sinoloa Cartel. Drug trafficking is very destructive for both countries since it could cause retaliations on both sides if something goes bad, to America making it harder for Mexican citizens to enter the country since Americans have that idea that they're going to try and smuggle drugs in. As it's always been, this is a political boundary since there was a treaty which let America claim Northern States and left Mexico with the current border that it has now
Mexico - US Border
Spatial Significance
The spatial significance of the borders location is important since previous generations of families lived in the land that now belongs to the USA, Families are probably spread out and separated by the border but at the same time it's good since they aren't too far from relatives
Citations
Pike, J. (n.d.). Military. Retrieved from https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/mexico/foreign-relations-us-border.htm.
This is what the US-Mexico border looks like. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/12/politics/border-wall-cnnphotos/.
Little, B. (2018, April 9). The Violent History of the U.S.-Mexico Border. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/mexico-border-wall-military-facts.
Territorial evolution of Mexico. (2019, September 26). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_Mexico.
Who Secures the U.S. Border? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-mexico-border-woes.
Westera, R. (n.d.). Historical Atlas of North America (16 July 1882): Apache Wars. Retrieved from https://omniatlas.com/maps/north-america/18820716/.
-, E., By, -, & Editor. (2019, August 30). Conflicts Over Slavery Led to the Texas Revolution and Mexican-American War. Retrieved from https://imagine-mexico.com/conflicts-over-slavery-led-to-the-texas-revolution-and-mexican-american-war/.
Warner, V. (2017, August 2). Texas Independence October 2, 1835 – April 21, ppt video online download. Retrieved from https://slideplayer.com/slide/10105790/.
The Mexican Cession. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h245.html.