Imposing our Sovereignty

Barack Obama, President of the Galaxy, apologized for the USA “imposing our sovereignty” on Mexico yesterday.  I’ve been looking at the news but so far have found nowhere are Americans trying to take over Chihuahua or Sonora.  So then is Barack the Magnificent doing a historical apology?  (Strange apologies.  He always apologizes for the rest of us but never himself.) La Raza, the radical Mexican party has always claimed we took the US Southwest from them.  And nowadays you hear this interpretation more often.  So is Obama thinking of giving back California?  If he does, their debt goes with it. 

            But because I like history and studied Mexican history before we took our Mex foster daughter, it struck me that Barack needs to consult his history books.  Here’s what I remember.

            In 1824, Mexico was trying to get Anglos to emigrate to Tejas.  Mexico’s economy was based on a Spanish medieval model, the plantation, or hacienda model.  In this economy, a big shot was given rights to thousands of acres and ownership rights to all the people who were native to that area, whether they agreed or not.  The Hacienda owner would then induce, with promise of a good beef steak, or convert by the sword, or just round up the natives and make serfs out of them.  This functions somewhat in a heavily populated area, like the Central Mexican Plateau.  But farther north, where the Indians were unsubdued, and the population scarce it didn’t work.  Beginning in the 1820’s Mexico begged US Anglos, Czechs, and Germans to settle in the Hill Country of Texas and thus provide a buffer against the fierce Commanches (some suckers to protect the coastal haciendas).  The new citizens got Santa Anna to sign a treaty in 1824 allowing Tejas to have constitutional government, but Santa Ana was a dictator and reneged on his promise.  Thus Texans rebelled and had claimed independence by 1836.  Everybody recognized the new Republic of Texas except Mexico. 

            The fact that Mexico City didn’t really care much about the northern desert, but still claimed it, is indicated by lack of supplies provided to the Santa Fe area and virtually no population in what is now US Southwest.  California originally had 150,000 Indians and late in the game, the 1700’s, the Spanish sent in missionaries, who, in cahoots with the big shot landclaimers, virtually massacred all of them.  By 1848 there were about 30,000 Europeans in Alta California, 40,000 in Texas, and 10,000 in Neuva Mexico in between.  Most of the new arrivals in Neuva Mexico were Mormons and Anglos who could trade over the Santa Fe Trail with Kansas City easier than with Mexico City.  The reason why the Norte Americanos had successfully flooded this vast and somewhat barren land was capitalism.  Capitalism succeeds because it allows people to make money by serving others and using free markets. Other systems succeed by enslaving people.

            In March 1845 President John Tyler, a Whig, signed a last-act-of-his-term deal to admit Texas as a state.  Mexico was ticked and wanted to go to war.  Then came Democrat Polk who offered to buy Texas and areas west for $5 million.  Britain and France both tried to soothe Mexico and encouraged them to accept the deal. Mexico said nuts and USA subsequently won the war.  In the Treaty of Gwaddaloopie Hidalgo, Mexico was given $15 million and another $3.25 million to settle US citizen debts.  Good deal for Mexico! Got more money even though they lost the war.  And any  person in the the Southwestern area could claim Mex or US citizenship--“Amnesty” if you will.  Though Mexico was humiliated, a lot of people in Mexico thought they had gotten a wonderful deal for this godforsaken land up north.  A few months later, however, gold was discovered east of San Francisco. Within 12 months, the population of California doubled to 60,000.  And ever since then, Mexico has had a change of heart and has been bitching about USA “intervening” and taking what was rightfully theirs.

            But to the Americans from USA, this looked like Mexico sitting on a plot of land without doing much to really occupy it, with a claim to it made by long-lost conquistadors.  Can you just plant a flag, claim something, and then leave?  My Mex daughter, proud American citizen, said the answer is not No, it is Hell No!