Origins Of Anti-Mexican Sentiments And U.S-Mexican War

Origins of Anti-Mexican Sentiment

In the article, Raymundo Paredes (1977) analyses the origins of anti-Mexican sentiments, and the argumentation departs from the basic cultural theory of cultural Collison which occurred between the Americans and Mexicans in the aftermath of 1821 Treaty of Cordoba and broadly during the first half of the nineteenth century after Adams–Onís Treaty 1819 between New Spain and the United States. The new Mexican government, in the year 1824, passed the General Colonization Law that allowed land entitlement for foreigners. Interestingly, the roots of the conflict are in the European attitudes towards ‘Spaniards’ and ‘Catholicism’ during the times of colourization & expansion. Spanish Black Legend is the term often used to refer to the political propaganda content, prejudices, and techniques against the Spanish race in general, which was viewed as inhumane to all colonials. The ‘Catholicism’ in Europe received significant criticism from the powers in Western and Northern Europe, which accused the Church of complacency and corruption and eventually separated religion from the state. Haden Edwards’s revolt was the first rebellion of settlers (Anglo) to gain independence from Mexico, while in 1829, degree abolished slavery in Mexico. In order to restrict immigration to Texas from the United States, the 1830 decree was passed.

Issues Leading to U.S. Mexican War (1846-1848)

The power politics and structure of Mexico, immediately after its dependence in the early 1980s, was predominated by a coalition of Mexican military elite and Catholic Church practices. As Raymundo Paredes suggests, the early attitudes of European settlers towards Spaniards and the Catholic Church often reflected in the form of prejudices, such as Hispanophobia and Black Legend. The same factors that become the basis of prejudices are responsible for the consideration of Mexicans as a threat, which is also the case that the political fraction of American society presented to the public with long-term strategic socioeconomic and political objectives. In the early nineteenth century, the United States political objective was to emphasize the expansion of its territory, ‘Manifest Destiny,’ because the dominant narrative of colonialism remained mercantilism. Unable to protect its political and economic stake in the region of Texas and the Southwestern part of the United States, the country managed to regain the land with acquisitions through financial means, coupled with the military efforts of President James K. Polk. Additionally, the battle of the Alamo became the cornerstone of the Mexican struggle for independence. Treaties of Velasco, in the aftermath of the Battle of San Jacinto, is also known as a secret treaty between the Texas Republic and General Santa Anna.

References

Paredes, R. (1977). The Origins of Anti-Mexican Sentiment in the United States. New Scholar.