CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE NORTHERN MEXICO THROUGH IMPERIAL EYES U.S. Travel Accounts to Northern Mexico, 1803-1854
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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE NORTHERN MEXICO THROUGH IMPERIAL EYES U.S. Travel Accounts to Northern Mexico, 1803-1854 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in History By Shoshanna Lande May 2013 The thesis of Shoshanna Lande is approved: __________________________________________ ________________ Dr. Patricia Juarez-Dappe Date __________________________________________ ________________ Dr. Josh Sides Date __________________________________________ ________________ Dr. Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens, Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank the CSUN History Department. I have learned so much from every professor with whom I have worked. In addition to the invaluable training as an historian, I have received encouragement from everyone. To Sue Mueller and Kelly Winkleblack-Shea: my graduate experience was better because of the interactions with the two of you. You made navigating grad school easier. I would especially like to thank Dr. Josh Sides, who was the first person to tell me that I could excel in a doctoral program. Without that initial conversation, I may never have pursued a career in academia. Dr. Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens, my gratitude to you goes beyond words. I have learned so much from your classes, and even more from the conversations in your office. Thank you for backing my admission to the program even though I did not have a background in history. Dr. Patricia Juarez-Dappe has been my professor, my advisor, and my mentor. I am truly grateful for everything you have done for me. One day I hope to be as good a professor as you are. I would like to thank the Los Angeles Lakers for losing in the first round of the playoffs. If they had played more than four games in the post-season, I may not have finished my thesis. To all of my fellow graduate students, thank you. The perspectives you brought to the classes we took together were some of the most valuable aspects of my education at CSUN. I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors. Special shout out to Isaí Garcia. iii Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank my friends and family. To my mom, who is the most awesome person ever: thank you for planting the seeds of curiosity in me, and thank you for all your support. To my sister, Deb: your friendship keeps me sane, in an insane kind of way. Thank you for admonishing me when you caught me slacking. Thanks for helping me slack when I needed it. This Thesis is dedicated to the memory of the smartest man I have ever known: my dad. Michael Lewis Lande, on to the next one! iv Table of Contents Signature Page ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: The Spanish Period 10 Chapter 3: The Early Mexican Period 21 Chapter 4: The 1830s and 1840s 33 Chapter 5: The U.S.-Mexico War and the Early American Period 51 Chapter 6: Conclusion 63 Notes 67 Works Cited 73 v ABSTRACT NORTHERN MEXICO THROUGH IMPERIAL EYES U.S. Travel Accounts to Northern Mexico, 1803-1854 By Shoshanna Lande Master of Arts in History This research paper examines the ways that European-Americans depicted Northern Mexicans in travel accounts between the time of the Louisiana Purchase and the years just following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Between these years, thousands of U.S. merchants, soldiers, topographers, trappers, and traders poured into Texas, New Mexico, California, and other points in Northern Mexico. Many of these Euro-Americans wrote about their experiences in this foreign land and among these foreign people; their travel accounts and narratives have become a part of the genre of American travel writing and reveal much about the interests that the United States held in the region. Between these years, both Euro-American and Mexican events helped shaped the discourse that these travel writers helped create. While Mexico was fighting for independence, the United States was looking for economic and expansion opportunities. At the same time that Mexico was experimenting with self-government, the United States was adopting a new foreign policy called the Monroe Doctrine, in which the United States asserted its hegemony over all of Latin America. While Mexico embraced the vi liberalization of its economy, Euro-American traders opened channels of exchange into Northern Mexico, and fur traders from Russia and the United States were competing in California for control of its resources. In 1836, when Texas, led largely by Euro-Americans, declared its independence from Mexico, the United States began to consider the opportunities for expansion into Northern Mexico. The annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845, the U.S.- Mexico War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill refocused both American and Mexican attention on Northern Mexico. This research paper will explore the ways that Euro-American travelers described the land and the people of Northern Mexico, and the ways that these perceptions changed over time with regard to the larger political projects. Euro-Americans relied on anti-Hispanic and anti-Catholic rhetoric to describe Northern Mexicans during this time period. In their travel accounts, they argued that Spanish and Mexican rule was corrupt, oppressive, and ineffectual. They described the people as indolent, uneducated, and naïve. They remarked that the Catholic Church was avaricious and insincere. They depicted a landscape that was undeveloped. In all, Euro- American travelers created a discourse about Northern Mexico and its population that delegitimized the latter’s claims to the land. Politicians and expansionists in the 1840s used the discourse created on the pages of these travel accounts to justify American expansion into Northern Mexico. vii CHAPTER ONE Introduction In many respects, Cubans are like children. Orville Platt, 1901 In 1901, Orville Platt introduced an amendment in the United States Senate that restricted Cuban economic autonomy and subordinated the island nation to the United States. The Senate justified the adoption of the so-called Platt Amendment because, it argued, Cubans were unable to adequately govern themselves. Platt put it most bluntly when he wrote: “In many respects, Cubans are like children.”1 This rhetoric regarding Latin Americans was not new in 1901. In fact, at the earliest point of contact between European-Americans and Latin Americans, the former found ways of describing the latter that delegitimized Latin American claims to the land. The Spanish borderlands (later known as the Northern Mexican frontier, now known as the American Southwest) were often the spaces where these early points of contact occurred. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, European-Americans began to create a discourse of Latin American dependency in Northern Mexico to justify U.S. expansion and imperialism into the region. In 1803, the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory from France. Suddenly, the young country shared a long and unmapped border with Spanish Mexico, a land that had largely been unvisited by Euro-Americans. Jefferson, an early proponent of westward expansion, promptly commissioned explorers and topographers to map out the new country and discover the nature of its resources. At the same time, Spain was losing its power in the Americas. Because of a continued war with Britain from 1796 to 1808, which impaired Spain’s abilities to carry out its transatlantic trade, other European 1 powers supplied Spanish-American ports with manufactured goods. As James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz have argued: “in a very real sense Spanish America had already acquired commercial independence from Spain in advance of any moves toward political separation.”2 The move for political independence began in earnest following the political turmoil in Spain caused by the Napoleonic Wars. In 1808, Napoleon defeated Spain and forced Ferdinand VII to abdicate the Spanish throne in favor of Napoleon’s brother, Joseph. Spanish resistance to French control took the form of a five-person regency (cortes), based in Cádiz. Spanish-Americans, both peninsulares (those born in Spain) and criollos (those born in New Spain of pure Spanish decent), strongly believed in the legitimacy of the king; however, they did not recognize the legitimacy of the cortes. Mexican criollos decided that the power vacuum in Spain was the perfect opportunity to challenge peninsulares in Mexico City for social and political control in New Spain. Traditionally, peninsulares received the favored ecclesiastical, governmental, and military positions. In defiance of this tradition, a criollo priest, Father Miguel Hidalgo, began the struggle for independence as a movement of Americans versus Europeans. While Hidalgo’s movement and that of his successor, Father José María Morelos, failed to recruit many criollos, they did spur the excitement of a large following of castas and natives. By the mid 1810s, “small bands of patriot guerrillas had been fighting for years in several regions of Mexico,… causing heavy military expenses, living off the land like bandits, and gradually gnawing away at the fabric of colonial rule.”3 Sustained guerrilla warfare, political chaos in Spain, and economic independence spelled the writing on the wall for Spain’s control of its American colonies. In Mexico, the death 2 knell came when army commander Agustín de Iturbide switched sides and began fighting for independence, instead of against the guerrilla forces. Iturbide proclaimed Mexico’s independence in the capital city on September 27, 1821. Iturbide had himself crowned emperor of the newly independent Mexico, though his reign lasted less than a year, because “years of patriot struggle had generated political convictions and animosities not easily soothed by a make-believe monarch.”4 In 1823, the United States of Mexico was formed and a republican constitution was adopted the following year.