1
00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,519
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of Hayden's History Hour. I'm

2
00:00:21,559 --> 00:00:24,879
your host, Hayden Daniel. As always, you can email the

3
00:00:24,879 --> 00:00:27,440
show at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us

4
00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:29,879
on x at the Federalists and make sure to subscribe

5
00:00:29,879 --> 00:00:32,000
where you download your podcast, and of course of the

6
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,759
premium version of our website as well. I'm not joined

7
00:00:34,759 --> 00:00:37,159
by any guests today, but we are going up a

8
00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:40,759
very interesting topic that has a lot of implications for

9
00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:46,200
today's politics, the Mexican Session, meaning the land gained by

10
00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:49,719
the United States after the Mexican American War of eighteen

11
00:00:49,759 --> 00:00:55,159
forty six to eighteen forty eight. So the issue of

12
00:00:56,159 --> 00:00:59,840
the ownership of the American Southwest and the West generally

13
00:01:00,079 --> 00:01:04,599
has become quite a bit of a hot button topic

14
00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,599
during the last year or so of Trump's administration. If

15
00:01:10,599 --> 00:01:15,599
you remember the protests in Los Angeles last year, many

16
00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:23,079
protesters were waiving Mexican flags and claiming that they belonged there,

17
00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,239
that they were not in fact illegal, and that no

18
00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:29,519
one was illegal because Mexico used to own California and

19
00:01:29,879 --> 00:01:33,040
the rest of the American Southwest. And more recently, we

20
00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,719
saw at the Super Bowl halftime show with bad Bunny,

21
00:01:37,079 --> 00:01:40,560
bringing out not just the Mexican flag, but dozens of

22
00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:45,280
other flags from Central and South America and proclaiming together

23
00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:53,319
we are America, pretty blatantly, making the point that they're

24
00:01:53,319 --> 00:01:56,200
also supposed to be here and have a claim to

25
00:01:56,400 --> 00:02:01,680
American land. But that's not really how how America saw

26
00:02:01,719 --> 00:02:05,280
it when it was gaining that land from Mexico after

27
00:02:05,319 --> 00:02:08,800
the Mexican American War, and the land that we took

28
00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:13,599
from Mexico which is today South Texas, parts of Oklahoma,

29
00:02:13,719 --> 00:02:20,240
parts of Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

30
00:02:22,159 --> 00:02:27,439
They chose to annex those specific portions of land for

31
00:02:27,479 --> 00:02:29,560
a very specific reason, and one of the main reasons

32
00:02:29,599 --> 00:02:36,479
for that is because they had so few people in it.

33
00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:39,759
And it was actually a very big hot button issue

34
00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:42,400
in the United States how much land to take for

35
00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:46,120
Mexico after the war was over, because the war really

36
00:02:46,159 --> 00:02:48,759
wasn't much of a much of a contest, really, the

37
00:02:48,759 --> 00:02:52,280
Mexican army did not put much not put up that

38
00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:56,639
much of a fight against the Americans, so even halfway

39
00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:59,479
through the war there were just fierce debates in Congress

40
00:02:59,479 --> 00:03:03,240
over how much land to exactly take from the Mexicans,

41
00:03:03,759 --> 00:03:07,080
and some wanted to take the entire country of Mexico,

42
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:10,039
which includes the land that we actually did take, which

43
00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:15,199
would have vastly increased the United States's population and land area.

44
00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,280
But the vast majority of people only wanted to have

45
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:23,400
a limited expansion and not take in so many people.

46
00:03:23,879 --> 00:03:28,240
In fact, Mexico had about eight or nine million citizens

47
00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,240
in eighteen forty eight, and we took a fraction of

48
00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,280
a fraction of those citizens along with the land that

49
00:03:36,319 --> 00:03:39,719
we took. And we did that for a very specific

50
00:03:39,759 --> 00:03:42,199
reason that we're going to get into later into the episode.

51
00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:46,199
But first, let's kind of go over some background about

52
00:03:46,719 --> 00:03:50,759
Mexico and the Southwest in the early nineteenth century. So

53
00:03:50,879 --> 00:03:53,240
we have to go back kind of a long way,

54
00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:55,599
and it might seem a little tangential, but it's all

55
00:03:55,639 --> 00:04:00,879
going to make sense and come around eventually. So during

56
00:04:00,919 --> 00:04:06,240
the Napoleonic Wars, Spain, which controlled Mexico from the type

57
00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:12,719
of Cortes to the eighteen twenties, was most of it

58
00:04:12,759 --> 00:04:15,360
was occupied by French troops and was ruled by a

59
00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:22,319
French puppet king, in fact, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, and

60
00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,360
during the war to liberate Spain from Napoleon. Most of

61
00:04:26,399 --> 00:04:32,199
the country was devastated and there were practically two governments

62
00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,079
at play in Spain. There was a loyalist government under

63
00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:39,560
the previous king, the Bourbon Monarchy of Spain, and then

64
00:04:39,639 --> 00:04:47,160
a government headed by Napoleon's brother, and the colonial administrations

65
00:04:47,199 --> 00:04:50,600
of Spain's colonies, mostly in South America and Central America.

66
00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:56,639
The Caribbean and the Philippines mostly stayed loyal to the monarchy,

67
00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:00,600
but they also had a lot of independence during that

68
00:05:00,639 --> 00:05:05,519
time because the legitimate government back in Spain was busy

69
00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:08,839
fighting for his life, back busy fighting for the home country,

70
00:05:08,879 --> 00:05:11,639
and really couldn't spare the resources or the time to

71
00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:16,879
really govern those colonial possessions very closely. So these nations

72
00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,959
got their first sort of taste of independence during the

73
00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:24,199
Napoleonic Wars, and almost all of them chose to make

74
00:05:24,199 --> 00:05:26,360
an actual bit for independence once the war was over.

75
00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:33,120
Within about ten years ten to fifteen years of the

76
00:05:33,199 --> 00:05:36,839
end of the Napoleonic Wars at eighteen fifteen, almost all

77
00:05:36,879 --> 00:05:40,560
of Central and South America is free of Spanish domination,

78
00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:48,439
and Mexico becomes independent in eighteen twenty one, and the

79
00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:55,399
first iteration of its government is actually an empire. They

80
00:05:55,439 --> 00:05:57,800
had a transitional government that's sort of looking for an

81
00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:05,439
emperor to make this imperial regime, and they eventually choose

82
00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:09,480
Emperor Augustine the First, and he lasts a grand total

83
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:13,439
of two years before they decide that the emperor's being

84
00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:16,000
a little tyrannical, so let's get rid of him and

85
00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:19,480
go for a republic. So in eighteen twenty three, the

86
00:06:19,879 --> 00:06:26,240
empire falls and it's complete instability from there on out

87
00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:31,600
for Mexico in the nineteenth century, they have two major

88
00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,920
changes in government. Before eighteen thirty six, they have a

89
00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:39,319
transition government between the empire and a republic, and then

90
00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:45,639
they had the first Mexican Republic, which is largely based

91
00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:49,720
on Spanish law and a little bit on the United States.

92
00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:54,319
But closer to eighteen thirty six, they start to become

93
00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:58,800
more centralized and more federal, a little bit along lines

94
00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,680
of the United States. They become the centralist Republic of Mexico,

95
00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,920
which is a completely new government. And during this sort

96
00:07:06,959 --> 00:07:12,560
of unstable period from eighteen twenty three to eighteen thirty six,

97
00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:17,720
one particular figure emerges as sort of the strong man

98
00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:21,839
of the country. His name is Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana,

99
00:07:22,319 --> 00:07:26,240
and by eighteen thirty six he emerges as the de

100
00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:31,079
facto dictator of the country. And just to illustrate how

101
00:07:31,199 --> 00:07:34,560
unstable Mexico was before the Mexican American War in eighteen

102
00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:39,600
forty six, of the sixteen different presidents of Mexico who

103
00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:43,120
ruled from eighteen twenty four eighteen forty six, that's only

104
00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:47,480
twenty two years. It took us from seventeen eighty nine

105
00:07:47,519 --> 00:07:49,920
to eighteen sixty one to get sixteen presidents. To keep

106
00:07:49,959 --> 00:07:54,600
that in mind, sixteen different presidents in Mexico from eighteen

107
00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,519
twenty four to eighteen forty six, only one completed a

108
00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:00,959
full term in office, which was four years. Only one.

109
00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:05,240
The others were either horse to resign or kicked out

110
00:08:05,279 --> 00:08:10,720
because of a coup de'ta or Santa Ana was pulling

111
00:08:10,759 --> 00:08:13,879
the strings and he served as as president multiple times

112
00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:18,519
in very short terms. But he's the power behind the throne.

113
00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:21,800
I guess you could think of it that way. But

114
00:08:24,279 --> 00:08:26,759
for the time Mexico had a pretty liberal constitution, the

115
00:08:26,759 --> 00:08:31,560
Constitution of eighteen twenty four. Santa Ana wanted to centralize

116
00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,480
his power and make it more permanent. He didn't he

117
00:08:34,519 --> 00:08:38,720
got a little tired of playing the Republican game and

118
00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,919
trying to pay lip service to democracy that de facto

119
00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,879
did not exist in Mexico at the time, so he

120
00:08:44,919 --> 00:08:50,120
creates a new constitution that centralizes power immensely around the

121
00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:56,000
president around himself. Critical part of this constitution is called

122
00:08:56,039 --> 00:09:01,799
the Seven Laws, which included Requiringking Spanish to obtain citizenship.

123
00:09:02,759 --> 00:09:05,519
It allowed the president to adjourn Congress and suppress the

124
00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:10,639
Supreme Court at his discretion with no recourse from from

125
00:09:10,639 --> 00:09:16,519
either branch. It abolished the old federal system of somewhat

126
00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:19,919
United States ESQ states states that were pretty autonomous and

127
00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:23,759
could could act on their own pretty reliably, and replace

128
00:09:23,799 --> 00:09:28,159
them with a French style departments whose governors and even

129
00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:31,600
their legislators were chosen directly by the president. So it's

130
00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:39,720
basically eliminating democracy wholesale in Mexico with one of these laws.

131
00:09:41,759 --> 00:09:47,120
So that causes quite a bit of instability and resentment

132
00:09:47,159 --> 00:09:52,639
amongst not just famously amongst Texans, but also other regions

133
00:09:52,679 --> 00:09:58,120
in Mexico as well. The Mexican Republic had abolished slavery

134
00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:01,720
in eighteen twenty nine, but it granted an exemption to Texas,

135
00:10:01,919 --> 00:10:08,440
so the sort of sixteen nineteen esque talking point that

136
00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:13,360
the Texas Revolution was about slavery is mostly inaccurate because

137
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:19,360
they were actually exempted from the abolition of slavery. It

138
00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:21,679
was much more about these seven Laws and the new

139
00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:24,679
constitution that Santa Ana ushered in was sort of the

140
00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:28,000
catalyst for the Texas Revolution and all of that, and

141
00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:33,000
they American Texas show American Texans showed no interest in

142
00:10:33,039 --> 00:10:39,679
adopting Mexican customs, learning Spanish, or especially converting to Catholicism.

143
00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:48,240
As I said, other regions also rebelled eventually, and two

144
00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:52,080
other republics besides the Texas Republic declared their independence. The

145
00:10:52,159 --> 00:10:57,159
Rio Grande Republic, which was just south of what we

146
00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:00,840
today considered Texas, just south of the Rio grand Catan Peninsula,

147
00:11:00,879 --> 00:11:04,200
basically broke away entirely and would actually stayed independent for

148
00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:07,320
a relatively long time. But also a couple of other

149
00:11:07,399 --> 00:11:11,080
states revolted at the exact same time that Texas did.

150
00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:15,360
So it's another kind of misconception that Texas were just

151
00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:19,480
fighting it out alone against Mexico as a monolithic power,

152
00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:23,159
but actually Santa Anna was also juggling several other wars

153
00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:27,519
with other rebelling States at the same time. As we

154
00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:33,320
all know, the Texans came out victorious. The heroic sand

155
00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:37,919
at the Alamo was ingrained in Texas and thereafter American

156
00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,480
history is a great one of the great last stands.

157
00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,080
And Sam Houston triumphs over Santa Ana at the Battle

158
00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:48,440
of San Jacinto in the latter part of eighteen thirty six,

159
00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,879
and he captures Santa Anna and forces Santa Anna to

160
00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:59,919
recognize Texan independence. Now, Texas, almost immediately after winning its independence,

161
00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:04,840
wanted to join the United States. Almost as soon as

162
00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:06,759
it won the Ballast and Decento, it sent a letter

163
00:12:06,799 --> 00:12:08,720
over to the United States, please annexos. We want to

164
00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:15,039
become a state. But at the time, the debate over

165
00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:19,159
slavery was starting to rare up in American politics, and

166
00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:24,320
adding Texas, which would certainly be a slave state, rankled

167
00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:32,360
especially northern politicians, and the question of whether to annex

168
00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:38,120
Texas became a big political point from eighteen thirty six

169
00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:43,600
until Texas was eventually annexed. The Americans were also very

170
00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:47,480
concerned about starting a war with Mexico because the exact

171
00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:53,679
border between Texas and Mexico was not set. Mexico believed

172
00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:56,360
the border was much farther north than it is today.

173
00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:59,799
They believed that it was at the Nueisas River, while

174
00:13:00,039 --> 00:13:03,039
Texas believed that it was at the Rio Grande, and

175
00:13:03,279 --> 00:13:06,799
the western border of Texas, where almost no one but

176
00:13:06,879 --> 00:13:10,159
the Comanches lived, was just completely up in the air.

177
00:13:10,279 --> 00:13:13,840
Texas claimed a vast amount of land that also includes

178
00:13:13,879 --> 00:13:17,919
most of eastern New Mexico and parts of Oklahoma, even

179
00:13:17,919 --> 00:13:22,240
all the way up to Colorado, while Mexico of course

180
00:13:22,399 --> 00:13:25,039
kept its claim on that land. So that was a

181
00:13:26,039 --> 00:13:33,399
tensial powder keg for conflict, and the United States Congress

182
00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:35,919
knew that. So there's a very big debate about whether

183
00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:41,120
whether it's annex Texas at all and how much where

184
00:13:41,159 --> 00:13:46,919
the border of a new Texas would be. But eventually

185
00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:50,639
it wins out because of President John Tyler. One of

186
00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:56,559
his last acts as president is to get Texas annexation done,

187
00:13:57,519 --> 00:13:59,759
and it is annex by the United States as a

188
00:13:59,759 --> 00:14:05,639
state in eighteen forty five. Now, Tyler's successor, James K. Pole,

189
00:14:06,799 --> 00:14:12,679
was a disciple of manifest destin. He believed the United

190
00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:15,039
Stations stretch from the east coast to the West coast

191
00:14:15,159 --> 00:14:19,360
all the way to the Pacific, and he believed that

192
00:14:19,519 --> 00:14:23,480
the United States required that part of northern Mexico that

193
00:14:23,559 --> 00:14:25,559
is today part of the United States. In order to

194
00:14:25,559 --> 00:14:29,000
do that before the war broke it up, he offered

195
00:14:29,039 --> 00:14:32,039
to buy California and New Mexico, which at the time

196
00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:38,679
the territory of New Mexico encompass Arizona, Nevada, Utah, the

197
00:14:38,879 --> 00:14:41,080
entire American Southwest. He offered to buy it for thirty

198
00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:44,519
million dollars, which are good a princely sum for eighteen

199
00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:52,000
forty five, but Mexico refused. So, just as the politicians

200
00:14:52,279 --> 00:14:57,840
before tane Texas annexation took place, predicted conflict eventually resulted

201
00:14:57,879 --> 00:15:02,440
over a border dispute. Mexican troops and American troops were

202
00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:06,840
stationed in the little border zone between the Nueces River

203
00:15:06,919 --> 00:15:10,840
and the Rio Grande, and eventually, as is often the

204
00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:14,679
case when there are disputed borders, eventually there is conflict

205
00:15:14,759 --> 00:15:18,440
and that is what begins the Mexican American War in

206
00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:23,279
eighteen forty six. Now, the war goes very well for

207
00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:26,679
the United States, and here's where the rub comes in.

208
00:15:26,759 --> 00:15:32,960
It might go a little too well. Santa Anna and

209
00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:36,720
Mexican troops are easily pushed out of Texas and easily

210
00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:41,879
pushed out of the Southwest. As you might know, American

211
00:15:41,879 --> 00:15:48,000
settlers in California create the California Republic and declare their independence,

212
00:15:48,039 --> 00:15:52,519
and then they are helped by American troops to capture California.

213
00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:56,399
So those places the places that the Americans actually want.

214
00:15:56,559 --> 00:15:59,200
Polk really just wants the area north of the Rio

215
00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:02,000
Grande and the way to California. He doesn't really want

216
00:16:02,039 --> 00:16:07,519
anything else. Those areas are conquered pretty easily, but Santa

217
00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:12,759
Ana refuses to surrender. He believes that he can lure

218
00:16:12,799 --> 00:16:17,679
the American armies into Mexico proper, into the hinter lands

219
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:26,679
of Mexico where unfamiliar terrain and logistical difficulties will allow

220
00:16:26,759 --> 00:16:31,799
him to deliver a defeat to the American Army and

221
00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:40,080
reverse his misfortunes. That doesn't happen. General Taylor in the

222
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:46,159
north and then Winfield Scott and around Vera Cruz continue

223
00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:51,440
to defeat Mexican forces pretty decisively, I said. Winfield Scott

224
00:16:51,519 --> 00:16:55,120
lands in Vera Cruz, takes it and begins his advance

225
00:16:55,320 --> 00:17:02,120
on Mexico City. Now it's during Winfield Scott's campaign towards

226
00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:05,720
Mexico City and then his eventual capture of Mexico City

227
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:08,960
in September eighteen forty seven. That really begins the whole

228
00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:13,440
debate over exactly how much land we should take from Mexico.

229
00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:19,559
Because we've become so successful and we're investing more and

230
00:17:19,599 --> 00:17:23,279
more money into the conflict, more men, more lives, more

231
00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,000
resources into it, people start thinking, well, maybe we should

232
00:17:27,039 --> 00:17:31,839
get more in the peace deal. You know, we deserve

233
00:17:31,839 --> 00:17:33,759
a little bit more than that. We're already here, We're

234
00:17:33,759 --> 00:17:36,000
already deep in Mexican territory. Why don't we just take

235
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,279
it for ourselves. And that's sort of the genesis of

236
00:17:39,319 --> 00:17:42,519
the All of Mexico movement, that's what it's termed all

237
00:17:42,559 --> 00:17:47,240
of Mexico. And these are people who believe that all

238
00:17:47,279 --> 00:17:49,559
of Mexico should be annexed in the United States.

239
00:17:53,799 --> 00:17:57,119
Speaker 2: Does New York City officially have their first free grocery

240
00:17:57,119 --> 00:17:59,839
store under mam Donnie? Watched out on Wall Street podcast

241
00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,279
Chris Markowski. Every Day Chris helps unpack the connection between

242
00:18:03,319 --> 00:18:05,720
politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet.

243
00:18:05,839 --> 00:18:10,000
Gambling website Polymarket opens a free grocery store to enamor

244
00:18:10,039 --> 00:18:13,039
itself with the Mom Donnie administration. So who's really paying

245
00:18:13,079 --> 00:18:15,880
for this free grocery store. Whether it's happening in DC

246
00:18:16,039 --> 00:18:18,039
or down on Wall Street, it's affecting you financially.

247
00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:18,640
Speaker 1: Be informed.

248
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:20,880
Speaker 2: Check out the Watchdot on Wall Street podcast with Chris

249
00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:23,799
Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast.

250
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:30,480
Speaker 1: There are two distinct factions within the All of Mexico

251
00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:34,480
movement who had the same goal but for different reasons.

252
00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:38,599
Some of the supporters include Senator John Dix of New

253
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:43,279
York and Senator Henry Foot of Mississippi, and those seem

254
00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:46,599
like strange bedfellows. A senator from New York, which is

255
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:51,440
pretty it's the heart of the Northeast and sort of

256
00:18:51,519 --> 00:18:55,799
northern industrialism, and then Henry Foot of Mississippi, and Mississippi

257
00:18:55,960 --> 00:19:00,440
is like the quintessential sort. There's southern plantations state, maybe

258
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:08,720
other than South Carolina, but along with other sort of

259
00:19:08,839 --> 00:19:16,799
West Southern politicians, politicans from Mississippi, West Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama,

260
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:21,519
those sort of region of the country wanted to take

261
00:19:21,559 --> 00:19:26,759
all of Mexico because they wanted to expand slavery into

262
00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:33,759
Mexico's rich agricultural lands. Cotton is a particularly intensive crop,

263
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:39,920
and states like Kentucky and Missouri and even Virginia as

264
00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:42,559
early as the late eighteen forties were starting to get

265
00:19:42,559 --> 00:19:46,799
exhausted from cotton, so they would then sell slaves south,

266
00:19:47,079 --> 00:19:50,440
which would sort of blood the market with slaves. So

267
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:54,519
slaves or slavers in the Deep South wanted somewhere to

268
00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:59,359
send those slaves, those surplus slaves, and annexing Mexico and

269
00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:03,880
creating plant slave states or at least slave territories there

270
00:20:04,359 --> 00:20:09,680
would help them sort of will gain more money and

271
00:20:09,839 --> 00:20:14,160
also ease the sort of over the perceived over population

272
00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:16,319
of slaves in the in the Deep South that that

273
00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:22,400
they believed was developing. And then the northern proponents of

274
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:29,359
all of Mexico believed in a sort of mix of

275
00:20:29,759 --> 00:20:35,079
paternalistic advancement. They believe that they could educate the Mexican

276
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:40,160
people to become good Republican citizens. But also they really

277
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:47,160
wanted they really wanted navy ports like Vera Cruz or

278
00:20:48,039 --> 00:20:50,079
on the west coast of Mexico. There are also very

279
00:20:50,079 --> 00:20:55,599
good ports that could be used to ship across across

280
00:20:55,599 --> 00:20:59,960
the Pacific. You have to think California has almost no

281
00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:01,519
people in it at this time, so there is no

282
00:21:01,559 --> 00:21:05,119
San Francisco, there is no Los Angeles, they're very tiny,

283
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:09,480
little non entity towns. They're not gigantic courts that we

284
00:21:09,599 --> 00:21:12,480
think of today. So if you want to send a

285
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:20,680
ship to China, to Japan, to the Far East in general,

286
00:21:21,039 --> 00:21:24,279
you have to go around Chile all the way around

287
00:21:24,319 --> 00:21:26,799
South America and into the South Pacific and then across

288
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:31,160
the entire Pacific. It's a very long journey. So but

289
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:35,519
that and there's no Panama Canal, so you can't cut

290
00:21:35,559 --> 00:21:41,880
across across Central America. So in their mind, if we

291
00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:44,519
can get Mexico that already has developed courts on the

292
00:21:44,519 --> 00:21:47,599
west coast, that we can ship goods down to Vera

293
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:50,119
Cruz and then transport it overland to the West coast

294
00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:53,079
to Mexico and send it to China or Japan or

295
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:55,559
wherever we want in the in the East, in the

296
00:21:55,559 --> 00:22:02,920
Western Pacific without having to build a transcontinent continental railroad

297
00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:06,839
across you know, thousands of miles of desert over mount

298
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:08,799
over the rocky mountains and all that stuff that we

299
00:22:08,839 --> 00:22:15,319
eventually did do. So their reasons are more economic and

300
00:22:15,519 --> 00:22:21,000
a bit social, while the the the southern proponents of

301
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:25,960
all of Mexico are more just straight up economic reasons,

302
00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:29,920
as I said, James K. Polk Is is pretty moderate

303
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:36,519
in this in this debate, he really just wants southern Texas, California,

304
00:22:36,599 --> 00:22:39,319
and then the area between the US and California. He

305
00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:46,599
pretty much wants what we what we got. Most Americans

306
00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:52,839
opposed too much Mexican land. That uh, Ultimately, the all

307
00:22:52,839 --> 00:22:56,319
of Mexico movement is a pretty small movement in American politics,

308
00:22:56,319 --> 00:23:00,759
and it doesn't last very very long. To most Americans.

309
00:23:00,799 --> 00:23:06,799
Mexicans are too Catholic. This is before Irish immigration really

310
00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:13,960
started started rolling, and before German immigration. This when Americans

311
00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:17,559
starts to get large amounts of Catholics. Before that, it

312
00:23:17,279 --> 00:23:23,119
is a Protestant super super majority. I'm talking eighty five

313
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:29,200
Protestant and they are pretty anti Catholic, and of course

314
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,519
will remain anti Catholic for decades and decades and decades.

315
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:39,519
They also thought Mexicans were unrepublican. They were not suited

316
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:43,240
for republican government, the American way of government. They had

317
00:23:44,519 --> 00:23:49,000
that They rightly pointed to Mexico's instability after its independence

318
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,480
as proof that they could not govern themselves and therefore

319
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,920
should not definitely not be states. They definitely did not

320
00:23:55,039 --> 00:23:58,200
want them to be to have representatives and senators going

321
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:04,839
to going to Washington, and just the cost of occupying

322
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,759
all of that land filled with millions and millions of

323
00:24:07,799 --> 00:24:12,599
people and educating them to make them good citizens, would

324
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,839
just cost an astronomical amount of money. So most Americans

325
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:19,960
didn't think it was worth it and just wanted something

326
00:24:21,039 --> 00:24:26,480
relatively modest along the lines of James K. Poltz annexation plans.

327
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:31,720
There was also the threat of a major guerrilla campaign.

328
00:24:33,599 --> 00:24:37,559
As always, the Mexicans probably would not take too kindly

329
00:24:37,599 --> 00:24:40,599
to their entire country suddenly not existing, and there was

330
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,359
a threat that many of them could go into the

331
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:50,559
hills and start bushwhacking American occupying soldiers in America, having

332
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,480
lost a couple thousand men in the war filled in

333
00:24:55,519 --> 00:24:58,960
combat and then several thousand war to disease, didn't want

334
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,039
the war to go on any longer than it really

335
00:25:01,079 --> 00:25:12,519
had to. In fact, opponents to Mexican annexation reiterated over

336
00:25:12,559 --> 00:25:13,799
and over and over again that this would be a

337
00:25:13,799 --> 00:25:17,359
massive burden to the United States. John C. Calhoun, Senator

338
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:23,680
from South Carolina, compared subjugated a subjugated Mexico under an

339
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:29,599
all of Mexico plan to Ireland which was of course

340
00:25:30,039 --> 00:25:33,680
controlled by the British at the time. Or he argued

341
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:36,240
that Ireland was a source of heavy expense and a

342
00:25:36,279 --> 00:25:40,880
burden to the British at the time, which he wasn't wrong.

343
00:25:42,319 --> 00:25:45,480
Senator James Pearson Maryland also made the same comparison, noting

344
00:25:45,519 --> 00:25:49,359
that Ireland was a perpetual source of bloodshed, embarrassment, annoyance,

345
00:25:49,759 --> 00:25:56,200
and endless disquietude to Britain, and given the number of

346
00:25:56,279 --> 00:26:01,640
Irish rebellions, especially in the late seventh late eighteenth century

347
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:09,400
and early nineteenth century, their comparison is actually pretty apt. Ireland,

348
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,839
until it became independent after World War One, was a

349
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:18,319
constant born in the side of the British authorities. The

350
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:21,759
other senator from South Carolina. South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler

351
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:25,799
argued that annexing all of Mexico would overextend the United

352
00:26:25,799 --> 00:26:28,440
States and result in tyranny within the United States. So

353
00:26:28,839 --> 00:26:32,799
he's arguing that it would diminish the United States to

354
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:40,079
take in all of Mexico. He said, when the fires

355
00:26:40,079 --> 00:26:42,839
of virtuous patriotism that are kindled on the altar of

356
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,000
our country by the founders of the Republic shall have

357
00:26:45,079 --> 00:26:49,240
burnt down, the ambitious lust of conquest, there will be

358
00:26:49,279 --> 00:26:53,319
no rebuking influence left to purify and restrain lawless ambition.

359
00:26:55,319 --> 00:26:59,200
So he thought that the military government that would have

360
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:04,160
been required to pacify Mexico proper if we annex it

361
00:27:04,559 --> 00:27:13,279
would pause the military, especially to sort of gravitate towards

362
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:18,319
a less republican form of government, and would claim ambition

363
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:23,559
within politicians and military officers to be less dedicated to

364
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:27,720
republican government. It might result in an American Caesar for

365
00:27:27,759 --> 00:27:33,400
all they knew. A newspaper editor and the man who

366
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:40,039
coined the term manifest destiny, John O'Sullivan, said that beyond

367
00:27:40,039 --> 00:27:43,319
a question, the entire Mexican vote would be substantially below

368
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,400
our national average both impurity and intelligence. The Mexican people

369
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:50,720
are unaccustomed to the duties of self government. Who enfranchise

370
00:27:50,759 --> 00:27:53,400
them therefore and give their representatives a voice in our

371
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:57,319
legislature would doubtless have the double effect of producing anarchy

372
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,640
within their own borders and embarrassing our own interests to

373
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:06,279
a disastrous extent. And then Calhoun makes a similar point

374
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:11,680
that the Mexicans are not able to govern themselves and

375
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,200
not able to take on republic and republican form of

376
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:20,240
government at that time in a speech to the Senate quote,

377
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:23,240
we make a great mistake, sir, when we suppose that

378
00:28:23,279 --> 00:28:26,200
all people are capable of self government. We are anxious

379
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:28,599
to force free government on all. And I see that

380
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:31,640
it has been urged in every respectable quarter that it

381
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,079
is the mission of this country to spread civil and

382
00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:37,720
religious liberty over all the world, and especially over this continent.

383
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:40,839
It is a great mistake none but people advance to

384
00:28:40,839 --> 00:28:43,480
a very high state of moral and intellectual improvement, are

385
00:28:43,519 --> 00:28:50,839
capable in a civilized state maintaining free government. Now that

386
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,039
echoes quite a few arguments that we've heard in recent

387
00:28:54,119 --> 00:28:58,079
decades against nation building. And this really, this really is

388
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:03,400
like the first campaign against the prospect of nation building

389
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:08,480
in US history, the prospect that we would occupy and

390
00:29:08,519 --> 00:29:11,200
perhaps even annex all of Mexico and build it up

391
00:29:11,279 --> 00:29:16,960
into its own functioning republic or integrate it within our republic.

392
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:21,519
There were people even in the nineteenth century warning against,

393
00:29:23,119 --> 00:29:26,759
you know, trying to raise people up who weren't ready

394
00:29:26,759 --> 00:29:30,720
for republican a republican form of government, and raising them

395
00:29:30,799 --> 00:29:32,960
up too quickly into that, and that it would have

396
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,720
disastrous results. I mean, we've seen in our own time

397
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,920
with our many adventures in the Middle East, how that

398
00:29:40,039 --> 00:29:45,559
usually doesn't work out very well for us. So the

399
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:52,519
opponents of the All for Mexico movement have some descendants

400
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:58,519
that are around today Conservatives and others who pose nation

401
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:04,839
building overseas. New York Rep. Washington Hunt, a Northerner who

402
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:11,400
opposes annexing Mexico, argued that taking into many Mexican citizens

403
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,480
into the United States through annexation would change the nature

404
00:30:14,519 --> 00:30:22,240
of the country. That these millions and millions of Mexican

405
00:30:22,359 --> 00:30:28,480
New Mexican eventually they would assumably be citizens, that they

406
00:30:28,519 --> 00:30:31,440
would change the character of the country, and that the

407
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:35,160
country would not be able to integrate such a sudden

408
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:41,400
influx of people. And that again that's echoed today where

409
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:46,160
we've had tens of millions of people from mostly Latin

410
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:49,720
America come into this country over only a few years,

411
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,680
and there's the debate of well, how well can we

412
00:30:53,759 --> 00:30:56,839
integrate those people into an American way of life? And

413
00:30:58,039 --> 00:31:02,160
of the news stories that we see today about Medicare fraud,

414
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:07,799
about the daycare center leadering daycare centers show that it

415
00:31:07,839 --> 00:31:13,440
is pretty difficult to integrate large influxes of people. But

416
00:31:15,039 --> 00:31:21,880
as almost every political issue does in this period. Slavery

417
00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:29,559
also has something to do with the annexation debate, and

418
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:36,960
Northerners do not want too much Mexican territory annex because

419
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,839
it is within the new marcation of the Misery Compromise

420
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:47,519
of eighteen twenty, in which those the potential states from

421
00:31:47,559 --> 00:31:50,559
an annexation of Mexico could become slave states, which would

422
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:56,480
tip the Senate and potentially the House into Southern favor.

423
00:31:57,839 --> 00:32:04,119
So Pennsylvania Democrat Dave Wilmont tries to sort of head

424
00:32:04,119 --> 00:32:07,640
off another crisis over slavery with the Wilmot Proviso in

425
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:11,640
eighteen forty six. This is the worst is starting that

426
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:14,960
would ban slavery in any territory annex for Mexico from

427
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:19,519
the war. It's blocked by Southern Democrats and Whigs in

428
00:32:19,559 --> 00:32:22,839
the Senate, so it doesn't pass, but it greatly influences

429
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:28,680
what would become the Republican Party, and which started off

430
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:32,279
as the Free Soil Party in which they wanted any

431
00:32:32,359 --> 00:32:35,240
future states out west to be free of slavery. So

432
00:32:35,279 --> 00:32:37,599
this is sort of where the seeds are planted for

433
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:42,279
the Republican Party here in the Wilmont Previso eighteen forty six.

434
00:32:48,599 --> 00:32:52,319
Towards the end of the war, the US finds itself

435
00:32:53,039 --> 00:32:57,720
in possession of a gigantic tract of land, and it

436
00:32:57,759 --> 00:32:59,279
has to figure out what it's going to do with it.

437
00:33:01,079 --> 00:33:06,480
For a little context, in the eighteen twenties, the non

438
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:15,440
Indian population of California California, which included Baja California as well,

439
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,640
was barely three thousand people, and only about seven thousand

440
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:25,920
people in eighteen forty five. Similarly, only about five thousand

441
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:29,839
Mexicans lived in Texas in eighteen thirty. By eighteen thirty five,

442
00:33:30,359 --> 00:33:33,279
there were an estimated ten times as many Americans in

443
00:33:33,359 --> 00:33:39,480
Texas as Mexicans, and for the entirety of Alta Alta California,

444
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:44,599
which was a catch all term for California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Mexico,

445
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,480
and part of Colorado, basically the entire territory that America

446
00:33:48,519 --> 00:33:51,119
took from Mexico in the Mexican American War. What twenty

447
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:55,519
nine thousand people who were not Indians in eighteen thirty six.

448
00:33:58,519 --> 00:34:03,640
Put that into context, In eighteen thirty Mexico had had

449
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:07,599
a total population of somewhere between six and eight million people.

450
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:15,280
Now that's between zero point three six and zero point

451
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,800
four eight percent, not even one percent of the entire

452
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:24,920
population of Mexico lived in an area as large as

453
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:29,760
the rest of the country. Because portion that we took

454
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,920
for Mexico, which only has at most half a percent

455
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:36,760
of the entire population of the country, was fifty a

456
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:39,639
little over fifty percent of the entire land area of

457
00:34:40,079 --> 00:34:48,039
Mexico itself. So a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of

458
00:34:48,079 --> 00:34:54,280
Mexico's population lived in the areas that we took in

459
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:58,880
eighteen forty eight. And that's a very very big week

460
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:08,559
to consider when we hear arguments about whether Hispanic people

461
00:35:08,599 --> 00:35:12,440
have a true claim to areas of the Southwest when

462
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:17,159
they had such a loose control of it to begin

463
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:20,760
with before we gained it in the Mexican American War,

464
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,920
and to speak to some of the some of the

465
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:34,119
arguments raised by opponents of Mexican annexation who believed that

466
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:39,119
the conquered people would not be up for Republican government.

467
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,400
I just wanted to make a note about literacy rates

468
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:47,440
in the United States and Mexico in eighteen forty about

469
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:51,960
over ninety percent of the Northern States and about eighty

470
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:58,119
percent of the southern states were literate. At the same time,

471
00:35:59,119 --> 00:36:04,760
Mexican literacy was extremely low and was basically only prevalent

472
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:09,599
amongst the elite of the elite in the cities. Most

473
00:36:09,679 --> 00:36:13,199
Mexican states had a literacy rate in the teens, and

474
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:16,199
some of the poorer areas have a literacy rate in

475
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:23,599
the single digits. So and the Founders and most major

476
00:36:23,639 --> 00:36:27,599
thinkers of the Enlightenment emphasized that a literate population is

477
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:34,280
basically required for responsible self government. So take that how

478
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:39,400
you will. So this debate over how much Mexico to

479
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:44,000
take is raging for a few months, especially after Winfield

480
00:36:44,039 --> 00:36:48,119
Scott takes Mexico City in September eighteen forty seven. Polk

481
00:36:48,159 --> 00:36:55,360
had already dispatched a diplomat to go and negotiate with

482
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,440
the Mexican government what was left of it pretty much

483
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:02,199
after the fall of Mexico City, and the main diplomat

484
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:05,239
behind the negotiation attempts to end the war was a

485
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:11,840
man named Nicholas Christ. Now. Christ had married Thomas Jefferson's

486
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:17,159
granddaughter and served as personal secretary to both Thomas Jefferson

487
00:37:17,199 --> 00:37:21,559
and Andrew Jackson, so he had a pretty good resume

488
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:25,199
going into the polk administration, and Polk named him as

489
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,599
head clerk to Secretary of State James Buchanan, who of

490
00:37:28,599 --> 00:37:31,920
course would become president in the election of eighteen fifty six.

491
00:37:32,639 --> 00:37:35,159
He was appointed in eighteen forty five and was almost

492
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:37,960
almost as soon as the war broke out. Trist is

493
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,199
assigned the duty to go and negotiate that peace treaty

494
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:47,519
with Mexico. So he goes down there and the Mexican

495
00:37:47,599 --> 00:37:50,480
government under Santa Ana basically just falls apart as soon

496
00:37:50,519 --> 00:37:55,280
as the US captures Mexico City, and trist really isn't

497
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:57,559
even sure who to really negotiate with. Who's you know,

498
00:37:57,639 --> 00:38:00,280
who's left, not really a whole lot of people are

499
00:38:00,679 --> 00:38:05,280
left and who can really speak with authority for the

500
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:10,239
Mexican state. So he gets bogged down in negotiations, and

501
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:15,079
Polk starts to come really really impatient because this war

502
00:38:15,639 --> 00:38:17,760
that was going really well for the Americans is really

503
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:20,440
really expensive and he does not want it to go

504
00:38:20,519 --> 00:38:25,719
on any longer than it really has to. Chris, for

505
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:29,960
his part, is almost a pacifist. He's really really against

506
00:38:30,039 --> 00:38:31,760
the war and saw it as an act of pure

507
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:38,159
aggression from America against Mexico, which would seem a little

508
00:38:38,159 --> 00:38:42,719
weird to send someone who fundamentally thinks the war is

509
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:46,719
unjust to go and negotiate for America to get America

510
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,559
the most stuff. And in fact, he wrote to his

511
00:38:50,599 --> 00:38:54,360
family that those Mexicans have seen into my heart at

512
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:58,079
that moment when he's negotiating with them, they would have

513
00:38:58,119 --> 00:39:00,840
known that my feelings of shame as an American was

514
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:04,360
far stronger than theirs could be as Mexicans for having

515
00:39:04,519 --> 00:39:11,000
lost the war. Eventually, trist drags his feet a little

516
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:13,760
too much, and Pulk decides to recall him and send

517
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:19,559
somebody else to do to more aggressively negotiate. But the delay,

518
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,400
the mail delay that has to go from Washington by

519
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:24,679
ship to Vera Cruz and then from Vera Cruz overland

520
00:39:24,679 --> 00:39:31,760
to Mexico City to recall him, the official order, Chris

521
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,320
just chooses to ignore it. You could you could kind

522
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:37,800
of do that back then before telephones and the internet.

523
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:43,159
So he ignores the recall order until he gets a proper,

524
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:49,519
you know, official dismissal. So he knows he has a

525
00:39:49,519 --> 00:39:52,800
few weeks to sort of iron out a deal before

526
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:59,880
he gets he gets fired, So he negotiates with the government.

527
00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,360
What's left of the government of Mexico and irons out

528
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:10,480
a deal. Pulk is furious, partly because he wanted Baja

529
00:40:10,519 --> 00:40:14,079
California to be part of the deal, but it was not,

530
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:20,480
and once trist did get back to Washington, he was dismissed.

531
00:40:20,639 --> 00:40:24,280
And then Pulk saw to it that his political career

532
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:28,559
was totally over after that, and he never in a

533
00:40:28,599 --> 00:40:32,079
meaningful way re enters the political scene. But he does

534
00:40:32,199 --> 00:40:36,039
have one gigantic legacy he leaves behind, and that's the

535
00:40:36,199 --> 00:40:43,480
Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. It's negotiated in February eighteen forty eight.

536
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:49,000
Mexico seeds California New Mexico, most of Arizona. The southern

537
00:40:49,039 --> 00:40:54,960
part that includes modern day Tucson was not added till later. Utah,

538
00:40:55,320 --> 00:41:01,360
Nevada and part of Colorado that mess controlled went to

539
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:03,719
the US and returned for a lump sum payment of

540
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:08,079
fifteen million dollars, So it's half of what Pulk initially

541
00:41:09,559 --> 00:41:13,239
offered in eighteen forty five, and the assumption of three

542
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:16,679
point two million dollars in debt Mexico owed to private

543
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:22,679
US citizens. The treaty means that Mexico loses roughly fifty

544
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:27,000
five percent of its pre land area, and you know,

545
00:41:27,079 --> 00:41:31,800
about thirty thousand people. Later, in eighteen fifty three, the

546
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:35,360
US signs the Gadsden Purchase, which grants it that portion

547
00:41:35,519 --> 00:41:40,440
of Arizona for ten million dollars. So in all, for

548
00:41:40,519 --> 00:41:44,519
what we today consider the American Southwest, Mexico got twenty

549
00:41:44,559 --> 00:41:49,119
five million dollars, and then the US assumed three over

550
00:41:49,159 --> 00:41:54,639
three million dollars in debt that Mexico o to US citizens.

551
00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:03,039
Perhaps the biggest irony of this is that just before

552
00:42:03,079 --> 00:42:07,760
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, gold is discovered

553
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:13,039
in California. A discovery that could have totally transformed the

554
00:42:13,079 --> 00:42:19,519
economic and social fabric of Mexico happens weeks before its

555
00:42:19,599 --> 00:42:23,519
signed away to America, and it transforms the demographics of

556
00:42:23,639 --> 00:42:31,400
the region. By eighteen fifty, almost one hundred thousand people

557
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:34,679
had come to California. That's California alone, and as I

558
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:39,320
noted earlier, thirty years prior to that, only about three

559
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:43,639
thousand people lived in California who were not Indian, So

560
00:42:44,519 --> 00:42:47,400
three thousand and eighteen twenty to one hundred thousand and

561
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,840
eighteen fifty, and that's basically in two years and two years,

562
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:54,480
ninety seven thousand people come to California. I mean, it's

563
00:42:54,559 --> 00:43:00,800
one of the biggest demographic influxes of the eighteenth century

564
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:05,320
and at that point in history in general. And that

565
00:43:06,039 --> 00:43:09,320
one hundred thousand people who come to California includes tens

566
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:12,079
of thousands of Mexicans. Mexicans who are right over the

567
00:43:12,079 --> 00:43:17,000
border in Baja California were Chihwaha or wherever, jump the

568
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:19,519
border and go and seek their fortune with gold. And

569
00:43:19,679 --> 00:43:27,079
that is really where the the legacy of a large

570
00:43:27,159 --> 00:43:33,320
Hispanic population in California starts. It's not when Mexico legally

571
00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:38,400
owned the land that it was barely populated before that.

572
00:43:39,039 --> 00:43:42,840
It's after the gold Rush that Mexicans really start to

573
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,360
move into California, after it's already been annexed by the

574
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:50,199
United States. Is when this large Hispanic population becomes prevalent

575
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:53,440
within California. And we sort of think of California's day

576
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:57,719
as a high Hispanic population state, and that's because of

577
00:43:57,719 --> 00:44:00,480
the gold Rush, it's not because of Mexico. In fact,

578
00:44:00,559 --> 00:44:04,039
Mexico had a terrible time trying to convince any settlers

579
00:44:04,039 --> 00:44:06,639
to go north of the Rio Grande or to California

580
00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:11,320
or Nevana. They couldn't. They were so desperate they were

581
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:16,519
trying to get They eventually sent convicts to those areas

582
00:44:16,599 --> 00:44:21,719
because just nobody else wanted to go. So this notion

583
00:44:22,079 --> 00:44:35,599
that this notion that Mexico has some kind of ancestral

584
00:44:35,679 --> 00:44:40,800
or legal claim to the Southwest, where the Mexican people

585
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:44,079
have some kind of ancestral claim to the Southwest that

586
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:49,960
trumps Americas isn't really true or it's flimsy at best.

587
00:44:50,079 --> 00:44:52,639
Barely any Mexican people lived there with it was part

588
00:44:52,679 --> 00:44:56,840
of Mexico, and when most of the Mexicans came, it

589
00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:02,599
was American territories that they came as immigrants, just like it,

590
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:06,119
as they claim, just like everybody else. You know, everybody

591
00:45:06,119 --> 00:45:09,239
else who lose in California are grants and they are

592
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:13,440
supposedly the indigenous population, when no, they weren't. They came

593
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:17,639
along with everybody else during the gold Rush. And this

594
00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:25,199
whole episode really hits home that the US strategically took

595
00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:31,519
territory from Mexico, and we took that territory partly because

596
00:45:31,559 --> 00:45:37,039
there were so few people in it and that we

597
00:45:37,119 --> 00:45:39,960
knew we didn't want to take on that many people

598
00:45:40,119 --> 00:45:42,440
at one time, because we knew we couldn't integrate them

599
00:45:43,039 --> 00:45:46,079
into the American experiment, in the American way of life,

600
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:55,960
and that we didn't really want them here for those reasons,

601
00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:02,920
and that really really sort of underminds the entire leftist

602
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:08,400
argument that Hispanics have some sort of special claim to

603
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:13,440
the south West. So thank you for joining me on

604
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:18,119
this little deep dive into the history of American Mexican

605
00:46:18,159 --> 00:46:21,159
relations in the early nineteenth century and the Mexican Session.

606
00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:25,199
You've been listening to another edition of Hayden's History Hour.

607
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:28,239
I'm your host, Hayden Daniel will be back soon with more.

608
00:46:28,639 --> 00:46:31,599
Until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious for the

609
00:46:31,639 --> 00:46:31,920
frame