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Editor says, what if the United States had annexed Mexico after the Battle of Monterey? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1847, on this day Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny was dispatched to the former western Mexico peninsula where he was ordered by US President George M. Dallas to prepare the combined territories of Baja and Alta California for statehood by creating a new seat of government in the city of La Paz.
Manifest DestinyThe United States was by now one of the largest nations of the globe. And yet the fulfilment of America's "Manifest Destiny" was due in part to the timing of the premature demise of President James K. Polk. He had stood against the "All Mexico" proponents within his Cabinet, but by the time Gen. Zachary Taylor's US troops forced their way into the Main Plaza of Monterrey, Mexico Polk's health had deteriorated to the extent that he worse forced to relinquish power to Dallas.
Veteran officers of the war such as Brig. Gen Franklin Pierce and L. Ulysses S. Grant founded the Aztec Club to celebrate the bravery of those troops who fought in Mexico. US Generals had never lost a battle and having landed at Velacruz marched with ease to Mexico City where the American Flag was raised atop Hispanic fortresses and palaces. And yet the military victory was to prove illusory.
A highly unstable situation awaited Kearny and even though the US government occupied the former Mexican heartland, control was limited to actively occupied urban areas. The indigenous population were hostile to the Protestant Anglo invaders. It would soon become clear that the Mexican-American war had effectively passed into a guerrilla phase, and Kearny would soon be writing to Dallas to advise the President that Baja California was essentially lawless.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Winter 2009 Edition of American Heritage MagazineStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Mexico, James Polk, George Dallas, Kearney, California.
~ Under the Manifest Destiny beliefs of the period the solution would have been simple but brutal, the territory would be fortified with roving US Army patrols. Control would have been maintained even if it meant a lot of the civilian population would have died in the cross fire, look at how the "Indian War's" were conducted for an example. The good news for the USA as a whole is most of the Fire Eater types would have been too distracted trying to suppress Mexico to try and break away into a Confederacy in the 1860's. All of the extra manpower not killed off in the Civil War would have been able to move west and integrate it even more quickly than happened OTL after 1867.
~ The anti-slavery types in the North would have had porcupines---breech birth, no less---at the thought of annexing all of Mexico. The central parts, the heartlands around Mexico City, were very densely populated and would have proven impossibly difficult to keep subdued. That said, I could see the northern tier of Mexican states and Baja going to the US.
~ That last might have been a powerful incentive for Southerners to support annexation, especially if it could be done in such a way as to keep the brown-skinned folks in second-class status (perhaps by making parts of Mexico other nthan Texas and California "commonwealths," as Puerto Rico is today, rather than states).
And it's entirely possible that over time, at least the "northern tier" of Mexican states would have acquired an Anglo majority, through settlement and the forced expulsion of those already living there. One doesn't have to look too hard in the modern world of OTL to see how that might be attempted.
~ If the General has any brains he rejects the idea as being too much territory with too few soldiers to take and hold it. Winfield Scott rejected the idea as did most American politicians, favoring the sparsly populated territory we took as spoils of war that we did. If we took all Mexico, we occupy territory with a very hostile very alien population whose politics and stuff makes the place politaclly unstable like it is now and has been since those times. The results of occupation and some attempt at absorption would be fiasco.
~ I personally doubt that Tiajuana existed at the time. It's a border town.
It exists because of San Diego. Among the others are Mexicali, Juarez,
Neuvo Loredo -- it is highly unlikely that Tiajauna existed in 1847.
The Spanish-speaking population of all of Alta California was about
7,000 at this time. The vast majority was rural and living on hacienda
or in villages once associated with Franciscan missions or estancias. Fixed - thanks. Ed
Comment from Margo Barotta on Facebook: in that time the united states was one of the largest country and the leaders want's to fulfill "manifest destiny" ,they won against the mexican and the american flag raise into hispanic castle .the battle of monterey was a point in american history.
14 hours ago
Comment from Ahmad Desai on Facebook: The US was much stronger, richer at the time and had a stable government. It would have been easy to annex Mexico but it would have been bound to create an insurgency like the type the US had faced in the Philippines. Maybe the US would have been able to turn Mexico into an a US state through mass immigration, investment and of course a ruthless ... See Moreanti-insurgency campaign or Mexico may have just as easily become a rallying point for all of Latin America against US imperialism with Mexican rebels launching attacks from neighbouring countries. Who knows?
~ One can see a Mexican Uprising during the American Civil War, aided by British guns in order to destabilize Washington's attempted hegemony of lower North America.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
