Page 85 - All About History - Issue 186-19

WHAT IF MEXICO WON THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR?
The captured Santa
Anna greets General
Sam Houston in 1836
Would the American Civil War have
been less likely to happen?
Yes, in the short term. The acquisition
of all that territory and the political
controversy over whether that territory
would be slave or free was a direct cause
of the Civil War. The other thing was,
militarily, a lot of the men who served as
officers in the Mexican War went on to
be officers and generals in the American
Civil War on both sides. And if their
experience was different, maybe the
country would have been less willing to
go to war. If they’d suffered a humiliating
defeat, maybe in 1861 both sides would
have been less willing to go to war. The
lesson that many Americans drew from
the Mexican War, which is incorrect in
my view, is that war is pretty quick and
easy and you can win decisively, and
then the rewards follow.
What would it have meant for the
Native American population in
the western US?
Between 1865 and 1895, there was a
series of Indian wars in the far west
that were pretty brutal and pretty one-
sided in their outcome. That probably
wouldn’t have happened if Mexico had
controlled that territory, at least probably
not in the same way. There’s a slight
tendency where [people] assume Mexico
is somehow benign when it comes to
Native American relations. That’s not true,
but they were slightly less efficient at
displacing native people from the United
States. It’s a sad tale of displacement
MANIFEST DESTINY
Prior to the annexation of Texas and the outbreak of the
Mexican-American War, the concept of Manifest Destiny
had begun to take hold across the United States, particularly
within the Democratic Party of that time. The idea, originally
proposed in the 1830s, was that the US had a duty to
spread its way of life across the North American continent,
establishing the supremacy of its ideals over those of the Old
World its founders had previously defeated. Manifest Destiny
was not without opponents, however, with many believing
that it was merely a self-aggrandising cover for imperialism,
which they rejected as an Old-World concept. Prominent
figures in later years, such as Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses
S Grant, were among those who rejected Manifest Destiny,
with Grant (who fought in the Mexican-American War) calling
the Mexican War “one of the most unjust ever waged by a
stronger against a weaker nation”.
© Getty Images John Gast’s 1872 painting
entitled “Spirit of the
Frontier” shows Columbia
and resistance, and it’s certainly hard to watching over settlers
imagine it being worse if Mexico won the heading west
Mexican War, that’s for sure.
Would Mexico have had a Gold Rush?
The addition of capital as a result of
the Gold Rush was kind of a steroid
shot to the American economy. So if
that had gone to Mexico, then Mexican
development might have been different.
One thing I would say is, one can
imagine that if the United States had Image source: wiki/United States Library of Congress
lost the Mexican War and then gold
was discovered in California, maybe it
would’ve gone to war with Mexico again
in California.
What impact would there have been
on US-Mexico relations?
A Mexican victory in this war might’ve
changed the tone of US-Mexican relations CALLS TO HALT AMERICAN
which are, as we know, complicated to
this very day, to some extent because of IMMIGRATION
the legacy of this war. A huge proportion
of the population of the western United Mexican officials on the northern border are sounding the
States today are of Mexican descent and alarm to those in the capital that immigration from the
many of them feel a cultural affinity with United States is threatening the cultural cohesion of
Mexico. Many of them of course feel an their state. The massive population boom in
affinity to the United States. Millions of the United States is creating a massive
them are citizens of the United States. drain on its natural resources, which
But the war and the legacy of this war is forcing many to seek new homes
is a complicated one for both Mexico as in order to raise
a nation and for Mexican-Americans. If their families.
Mexico had won the war, then it’s hard
not to think that maybe at least some
Americans would not have quite such
a kind of paternalistic and patronizing
view of Mexico.
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