Most Mexicans understand the history of The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo far more than most Americans do. After all, the Mexicans were basically forced to give up half their country to a more powerful neighbor, who where at the time were occupying Mexico City as well as California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and portions of Colorado and Wyoming, which were part of Mexico at the time.
Forcing another country to give up their lands at gunpoint is not what I'd call civilized or reasonable.
“The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in February 1848, was a triumph for U.S. expansionism under which Mexico ceded nearly half its land. The Mexican Cession, as the conquest of land west of the Rio Grande was called, included the current states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and portions of Colorado and Wyoming. Mexico also came to recognize the Rio Grande as the border with the United States. Mexican citizens in the ceded territory were promised U.S. citizenship in the future when the territories they were living in became states. In exchange, the United States agreed to assume $3.35 million worth of Mexican debts owed to U.S. citizens, paid Mexico $15 million for the loss of its land, and promised to guard the residents of the Mexican Cession from American Indian raids.”
Yes. The USA did that in 1848. At the same time Russia was invading and occupying parts or iran, China etc. They still hold a large amount of chinese land.
That was in the 19th century, nearly 200 years ago.
We do things differently now, 200 years later. You can’t use that as justification for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
It’s important to realize the war with Mexico was 1) really a war with Santa Anna ( the Napoleon of the west), and 2) a continuation of his ongoing hostility to his own nation in where he suspended the Mexican constitution and gave himself an upgrade to dictator for life. The Texas revolution was part of a general Mexican revolt against Santa Anna.
While the United States absolutely wanted that Mexican territory, Santa Anna pretty much guaranteed the US would have no choice but to go to war with him at some point.
Mexico did not own that land for more than 25 years. Even
then it was a shaky claim.
The Native Americans had owned that land for thousands of
years, perhaps ten thousand. Not Mexico! Not Spain! For
that matter, not the US either.
If anyone has a claim, it’s the Native Americans.
Hundreds of tribes had their land rights violated. Look,
back in those days these tribes didn’t have set boundaries.
They lived in planted locations, and some were nomadic. They
weren’t unified. It was easy for them to be picked off, or
simply ignored.
Mexico was a disjointed regional power when Spain came over
and claimed all that territory. Some of it was gifted to
Spain in those days by Britain, a former territorial
claimer.
What became Mexico later on was located around the area
that is now Mexico City, but it wasn’t a vast nation.
Mexico City finally got its name from a tribal area around
the West coast of what is now Mexico, West of what is now
Mexico City.
Mexico city wasn’t Mexico City back then. The idea that
Mexico owned all the land before Spain came, is pure folly.
It didn’t even exist as a full blown nation rivaling the
size of the Spanish land claims or even Mexico as it exists
today. Large regions were still under local control. Did
some of those people rove up into the U. S.? Sure. Did that
mean they owned it? No. The Native Americans in the western
and even mid-central United States did.
Spain came over and organized the territory northward. Yes
that land claim did go way up into Canada (disputed), if I
remember correctly, but they couldn’t enforce it. In time
Canada came away with that portion of the claimed Spanish
holdings.
The Indians there were not organized enough to force them
back, so the claim went uncontested until the United States
government demanded rights. They could enforce it.
Mexico got it’s name around 1810 to 1820. Spain left around
1820-25. The US contested Mexico’s claim to land. Then the
Alamo and the rest is history. (all of it is) The U. S.
came away with the land it has today, in 1848. (one
subsequent purchase of land from Mexico added to the
New Mexico border later.)
I once talked to a Native America, obviously a full blood
guy from one of the reservations. He and I talked for about
an hour about how the Native Americans had been treated.
I asked him how he felt about the situation. He had one
response that I found interesting. He said that he looked
at what the U.S. had done with the land it came away with,
and what Mexico did with the land that Mexico came away
with. He remarked, I think the US undoubtedly did more
impressive things with the land it came away with.
He was right. I couldn’t argue with him on that point.
I don’t think you could either.
Extrapolating now, so wouldn’t it be great today to have
Tijuana type towns from San Diego to the Canadian border,
and east through Texas and upward through Missouri, Kansas,
and the Colorado region?
The U. S. gained control of that territory in 1848. It
had fought a war to solidify its claim. It also paid
Mexico a considerable sum in those days.
Mexico had only had control of it for 25 years. Even then
it was a fantasy.
Think about it. In all of history, Mexico only had that
territory for 25 years. We’ve had it for 168. Still
some folks think Mexico has the better claim? Does that
make sense to you?
Native Americans 1,000s if not 10,000 years, Mexico 25,
and the U. S. 168. Who has the better claim?
If you wish to advocate for the Native Americans, I think
it would be rather farcical at this point in time, but it
would be a better more valid claim than that Mexico was
cheated.