In the 1820's, Northern Mexico included what are now the states of Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and California. However, New Mexico and California were the two areas with large settlements. Americans had settled in Texas from the 1820's onwards. Most were southerners and many had taken their slaves with them. In 1829, Mexico passed a law to free its slaves, and in the following year prohibited further American immigration into Texas. American Texans defied both of these laws, and for some years, the Mexican government was too weak to enforce its authority. By 1935, there were around 30,000 American migrants in Texas (plus 5000 of their slaves) and only about 5000 Mexicans.
The efforts of the Mexican President, General Santa Anna, to enforce Mexican authority were resented by the American Texans, and over the winter of 1835-36, they declared independence. Santa Anna marched North with a large army, and battles were fought over the territory. In April 1936, an American-Texan army defeated the Mexicans at the battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured and forced to recognise Texan independence.
Texas was now effectively independent. In 1837, most Texans, with the support of southerners, hoped to now join the USA. However, there were a number of issues with this. The primary stumbling block to Texas' annexation by the U.S. was that the act was almost certain to provoke war with Mexico, an eventuality which came to pass with the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846. However, there was another problem: slavery. Many northerners opposed Texas entering the Union, fearing that it could lead to the expansion of slavery. Texas was so large that the possibility of it entering as 5 new slave states was raised, meaning the balance between free and slave states would be heavily tilted in the south's favour, and the south would essentially have a political monopoly over the Senate. The issue of Texas was thus politically controversial, meaning that President Jackson shelved it, as did his successor Martin Van Buren. Therefore, between 1837 and 1845, Texas was an independent republic, unrecognised by Mexico and rejected by the US.
Texas became a major issue again in the Presidential election of 1844, fought between Whig Henry Clay and Democrat James Polk. Polk, a southern slaveholder, was elected president on a platform that promised the annexation of both Oregon - an area claimed by Britain - and Texas. Outgoing Whig President Zachary Taylor, anxious to leave his mark on the events, therefore secured a joint resolution of Congress in favour of the annexation of Texas, and thus Texas was entered into the union - as a single slave state - in 1845. Congress then forged an agreement with Britain to divide Oregon at the 49th Parallel, restoring the free/slave state balance in the senate.
Polk, who was a firm believer in Manifest Destiny, had another goal as President: to acquire California and New Mexico from Mexico, provinces where the Mexican population was small, americans were starting to settle in, and the Mexican government had little control.
Polk attempted to purchase the California territory from Mexico, but they rejected his offer; the USA's annexation of Texas angered Mexico, who still claimed sovereignty over the state, and the fact that there were boundary disputes between Texas and Mexico was a further issue that the US now inherited.
In 1845, President Polk sent troops into the disputed border area between Texas and Mexico, hoping to provoke an incident that would result in a war that would lead to US annexation of California and New Mexico. Fighting broke out between the two sides. Polk, in calling for a declaration of war, claimed that the Mexicans had "shed blood upon American soil" (although the soil in question was arguably not American).
A majority of Americans, especially southerners, supported the war, but many northerners viewed it as a southern war of aggression. The Mexican war was the first war fought by US troops primarily on foreign soil, as most of the fighting occurred in Mexico.
In September 1847, Winfield Scott captured Mexico City. A final peace treaty, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, was signed in February 1848, under which Mexico confirmed the annexation of Texas and further ceded California and New Mexico, as well as areas that today make up Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In return for this huge land mass, the US paid Mexico $15 million.
Polk was dissatisfied with the treaty, as he felt that the US could have gained even more territory from Mexico. However, he reluctantly agreed to the treaty, which was confirmed by the Senate in May 1848.
My next post is probably going to be on the impact of the Mexican War between 1846-50, and then I am going to go back to my revision notes from a few weeks ago and write a few posts on the issue of southern slavery, which will most probably be:
- Slavery and the US constitution
- The hierarchy of antebellum southern society
- Southern justifications for slavery
- The nature of American slavery
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