ERA Reviews

Introduction:

The U.S. and Mexico at War

The year this book was published, 1998 marked the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, one of the most important events in the history of North America, and certainly the history of Mexico and the United States. This accord, signed by representatives of two nations who had been, for several decades, either on the brink of war or, from 1846-1848, actually at war, radically altered the course of U.S. and Mexican history. The Rio Grande became the demarcation between the industrializing, aggressive nation to the north and the struggling, strife torn republic to the south. The territory that changed hands--the Mexican Cession--would deliver to the United States additional land and resources to fuel its growing economy and provide opportunity for its swelling population. For Mexico, the loss of the territory was, in many ways, an abandonment of its future and national patrimony. For just one example, the gold discovered in California in 1848 would be stamped into coins bearing the eagle of the United States, not the eagle and snake of Mexico.

Mexico became an independent nation in 1821 and that year, U.S. settlers came to Texas, a remote territory on Mexico's northern periphery. Welcomed as the vanguard of a new strain of citizen that would bring all that was good about the American character--industry, thrift, and innovation. As events would show, these men and women would actually turn out to be the unwitting advanced agents of a spirit already gnawing at the soul of the United States, later identified as Manifest Destiny. When English Puritans came to the United Sates in 1630, they had carried with them an unshakable belief in their role as agents of God, and in their unmistakable mission to carry their civilization to the wilderness of North America. As generations passed, this vision became part of the national mythos. By the 19th Century, the apparent destiny of the United States, as revealed and supported by history, was to control the North American continent. This belief dwelt within every citizen of the United States, in weaker or stronger concentrations, and informed their worldview. By allowing U.S. citizens to settle in Texas, Mexico had unknowingly invited into their nation the contagion that would eventually lead to its dismemberment.

A stronger nation might have resisted such an insidious invasion. Mexico, however, was weak. Gutted by its war for independence from Spain; torn apart by political factions and recurring civil war, revolution, and foreign intervention; raided by Indians; straddled with debt; housing a stratified and mutually antagonistic society, and with no real sense of nationalism, Mexico had few immunities.

Within years, the Texans rebelled, or seceded depending on the viewer's perspective. Quickly, suspicion between the United States and Mexico turned to crisis, crisis turned to conflict, and by 1846, conflict led to war.

But what would this war be called? In the United Sates, it was simply The Mexican War, or The War with Mexico. South of the Rio Bravo Del Norte--the Rio Grande--the citizens of that republic knew it as The War between the United Sates and Mexico, the War of U.S. Aggression, or simply the Invasion of Forty-Seven. This last name is the most curious, since the war began in 1846, but revels the most about the state of affairs in Mexico at the time. To many of that nations leaders in mid-century, the invasion was not serious unless the capital was in peril.

This war, this episode in both nations' development, is often overlooked because of its chronological proximity to other events in both U.S. and Mexican history such as the U.S. Civil War, the War of the Reform, or the French Intervention. The U.S.-Mexican War and the era that spawned it dominated the course of the early nineteenth century in North America. In many ways, the struggled between the two nations caused their later internal catastrophes. Without Stephen F. Austin's arrival in Texas in 1821, there is no Alamo in 1836, there is no Annexation of Texas in 1845, and there is no war in 1846, no Mexican cession, and no territories to exacerbate the question of slavery. Similarly, the failure to defend itself from U.S. aggression led Mexico to examine its internal affairs, reorganize itself, and begin to set things to right.

Because of the importance of these events, Bruce Winders and I urged the publishers to create a reference work on the subject--including events from 1821-1854--as a concise, first source for generations of future scholars investigating this era. The late Charles E. Smith endorsed our vision, used his vast understanding of his craft and industry to be an advocate for the project, and showed us the way. Soon, associate editors Paul Lack, Pedro Santoni, and Sam Haynes joined the team and helped in a thousand different ways. Outside agencies and individuals, too, contributed to this project. Dr. William Schultz gave access to his treasure trove of unpublished daguerreotypes; W. Michael Mathes provided the cover art from his own collection. Josefina Vasquez of El Colegio de Mexico maintained a critical eye on this project's progress, and The Sam Taylor Foundation of the Methodist Board of Higher Education provided some financial support. The staff at Macmillan--especially Dorothy Kachouh, Sarah Cunningham, and Paul Bernabeo, proved invaluable. The contributors, from Mexico, the United Sates, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Canada, and Germany, however, have made this book, and their scholarship and insights are path breaking and profound. In fact, many articles they penned are the first real inquiries into their subjects. I wish I could thank them all personally for their hard work, diligence, and patience. Errors or weaknesses in concept, fact, or interpretation are mine, as General Editor.

Donald S. Frazier

Abilene, Texas

1998

This book interviews slaves who lived on plantations throughout the slave-holding states. Subjects discussed range from living conditions, to relationships, to emancipation. How did slaves see their owners? What was their reaction when Federal soldiers marched onto their plantations and announced they were free? Once the shackles of slavery were thrown off, what did the former slaves do?

Not in any other work will someone find a more compact and sweeping first-hand account of life as a slave in the years leading up to, into, and beyond the American Civil War.

Carl Nebel dedicated several years to illustrate the events of the Mexican American War and followed the traveling footsteps of Alexander Von Humboldt in Mexico. Nebel provides a magnificent illustration of one of the most important and hardbreaking moment of Mexican History: September 14, 1847 - the ocupation of The Zocalo.

A very important historical work that helps to understand with great detail and from a different perspective an all important moment in American History. An event that certainly changed the U.S. not only by adding vast new territories (California, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming), but also by taking the first steps on becoming a superpower.