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Chronology of U.S.-Mexican Relations Conquistadors Vs. Settlers

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Chronology of U.S.-Mexican Relations Conquistadors Vs. Settlers Chronology of U.S.-Mexican Relations Conquistadors vs. settlers 1775 – The U.S. and Mexico were both colonies of European powers – Britain and Spain. The United States was principally a country settled by Europeans of British ancestry and was mostly Protestant. While native American inhabitants were on the frontiers, the majority of its population was white men married to white women. Mexico, by contrast was mostly indigenous – i.e. Indian tribes. Overlaying this was a minority of Spaniards, who controlled everything – the land, political power, and the Catholic church, whose power was great. The Spaniards in many cases, married Indian women or had Indian concubines – creating a new mixed race. 1776 – The U.S. revolted against Great Britain; Spain had little involvement in the U.S. struggle for independence. 1798- Napoleon seizes power in France and began his conquest of Europe, 1803 – Facing revolt in Haiti, Napoleon decided to sell Louisiana Purchase to the United States. This greatly expanded U.S. territory. 1810- With Spain occupied by French forces, Mexico began its War for Independence under Miguel Hidalgo. U.S. took little interest in Mexican War of Independence, as it had to fight another war vs. Great Britain in 1812-1815. 1821- The Mexican War of Independence ended, with Mexico devastated but free. 1836 – Texas fought for and gained its independence from Mexico. Many of those who fought against Mexico had emigrated from the southern United States. 1846-’48 – The Mexican American War was precipitated by the United States under Pres. Polk, a believer in “Manifest Destiny,” who sent U.S. troops into contested territory between Texas and Mexico and followed up with an invasion of Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, resulted in the loss of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and part of Colorado - about half of Mexico’s national domain. It shattered Mexico’s belief in itself. Congressman Abraham Lincoln opposed the war. 1857 – With the U.S. edging toward Civil War, Benito Juarez, a Mexican of indigenous Indian background, became President of Mexico and promised land distribution to millions of impoverished peasants. 1861-1865 – The U.S. Civil War. Before the outbreak of the war, many in the South viewed Mexico as a fertile territory for the expansion of slavery and had designs on it. During the war, the U.S. Congress passed the Homestead Act, to give American citizens the right to claim 160 acres of public land provided that they would work it for 5 years. By contrast, in Mexico, a small oligopoly of families of European origin held nearly all of the valuable land. During our Civil War, France took advantage of U.S. fighting to invade Mexico in 1862 and conquer it. We were too involved in our own battles to intervene. By 1867, the Mexicans defeated the French, executed Emperor Maximilian, and regained their independence. 1876-1910 – was the Era of Porfirio Diaz, Mexico’s greatest strongman. A dictator, he curbed the power of the Catholic church, welcomed foreign investment, especially in railroads and mining, and protected the large landholders. He was overthrown in 1910, unleashing a 10-year Civil War. 1912 – Woodrow Wilson was elected as President of the U.S. He did not oppose the Mexican Civil War’s aims of land redistribution and greater participation of the Mexican people in self-government, but he did have favorites. In 1916, Pancho Villa attacked the U.S. town of Columbus, N.M., killing U.S. civilians. Wilson sent General Black Jack Pershing to hunt him down. Pershing never caught him. 1933- FDR was President of the U.S. The U.S. and Mexico both were in the throes of the Great Depression. The U.S. had gotten a bad reputation in Latin America for its numerous armed interventions over the past decades. FDR decreed that henceforth the U.S. would pursue a “Good Neighbor Policy”– which meant non-intervention. 1938 – This was tested when Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas, a leftist, and head of the PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, nationalized Mexico’s oilfields and oil distribution, creating PEMEX, the Mexican National Oil Company. Americans and British owned much of Mexico’s oil. But FDR refused to intervene. Mexico appreciated it. 1941- Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. declared war on Japan and Germany. Mexico pledged to help the United States. It speeded up production of vital materials and furnished hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers to work in U.S. agriculture. About 250,000 Mexicans living in the U.S. enlisted in the American armed services. 1950’s – This was the height of the Cold War, with the U.S. and the Soviet Union competing for allies around the world. The U.S. was suspicious of leftists everywhere and the CIA staged a coup against Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. Mexico, perhaps fearing that Its fate could be the same, kept quiet. 1959 – The Cuban Revolution upended relations between the U.S. and Cuba, but Mexico basically supported the goals of the Cuban revolution and kept open diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba, which remain to this day. 1960’s – Relations between Mexico and the U.S. improved somewhat during the 1960’s under both JFK and Lyndon Johnson, a Texan with strong ties to Mexico, who developed what has been described as a “brotherly relationship” with Mexican Pres. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. Despite this, the Bracero program was ended by Congress in 1964, leading to economic dislocation in Mexico. 1970’s and ‘80’s – Mexico accelerated in industrial development, especially along its northern border with the U.S., establishing factories, called maquiladoras, to produce a wide variety of products. Many of these factories were owned by Americans. They were an economic engine for Mexico, accounting for nearly half of the country’s exports. 1982 – Mexico underwent a sovereign debt crisis, when its banks crashed, and it was unable to pay its bills. The U.S., under Fed Chairman, Paul Volker, came to Mexico’s aid and loaned it billions of dollars, in order to prevent a default. For Mexico and most of Latin America, the 1980’s were what is described as the “Lost Decade,” – with little or no economic growth. Natural disasters, such as the Mexico City earthquake of 1985, only underlined the fragility of Mexico, which saw mass emigration to the United States as an escape- hatch for grinding poverty and lack of opportunity and growth in Mexico itself. 1986 - Pres. Reagan signed a bipartisan immigration law that increased penalties for U.S. companies that hired illegal imigrants and regularized the status of over 3M immigrants who were in the U.S., most of whom were of Mexican origin. 1989-94 – Pres. George H.W. Bush, another Texan, although a transplant, was the father of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Association, a pact between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, which cut tariffs between these 3 countries and created the second largest trading bloc in the world after the European Union. Despite NAFTA, Mexico experienced another economic near-collapse in 1995, when the Clinton Administration stepped in to provide a rescue package. Immigration from Mexico surged, both as a result of economic hard times and fear of murders brought on by drug wars. NAFTA: So how has NAFTA fared for Mexico and the U.S.? Currently nearly $1.7B in goods and services cross the border daily. American industry and agriculture rely on Mexico for trade. In 2018, the U.S. imported $350B from Mexico and exported $265B. Many American imports are products made in U.S.-owned plants or use components shipped from the U.S. and then assembled in Mexico for re-export to the U.S. market. U.S. consumers depend on Mexican farmers for fresh fruits and vegetables, including strawberries and avocados. Mexicans rely heavily on American soybeans, corn, dairy products, chickens, beef, and other goods. Drugs: Not long ago, President Trump declared : “We’re going to give them [Mexico] a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’re going to put tariffs, and if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.” In truth, both nations have utterly failed to stop the trade in the half-century since Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. For more than a decade, the Mexican government has waged a military-led crackdown on the major cartels. But this has not reduced trafficking, merely led to a proliferation of smaller cartels and more than 200,000 murders over the past decade. Having established their drug distribution networks in the U.S., the Mexican kingpins simply switch their supply to whatever is most in demand and most profitable – meth, fentanyl, opium. The new President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, has pledged to create a new national guard to fight the cartels, but it has yet to make a meaningful impact. The U.S. continues to provide both a market for drugs and an ample supply of weapons heading south across the border to the cartels and gangs. Drug profits made in the U.S. fuel violence and corruption across the border. While AMLO has not made much of a dent in the drug wars, he has worked closely with the U.S. to control immigration from Central America, agreeing to allow these migrants to get visas and work permits to stay in Mexico and to be processed by U.S. immigration there. Mexican authorities have also blocked groups of migrants at its southern border – quietly helping President Trump.
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