Does Mexico Really Own the Southwest?
By Allan Wall
Even some of the arguments used on our side are a little lame. Some try to prove the territory wasn't conquered. After all, we did pay
$15 million dollars for it. True, but that makes it sound like
a garden variety real estate deal. Mexico was soundly defeated, and as defeated nations throughout history, had to abide by the terms of defeat. It was a conquest.
And historically, there's nothing unique about that. Just about every country in the world was formed by some type of conquest, and just about all the real estate in the world has been conquered and re-conquered, some of it quite a few times.
That includes Mexico.
The contemporary conventional Mexican view is that the evil Spaniards conquered Mexico. But when
Hernan Cortes arrived in 1519, the present-day country of Mexico did not exist. The Aztec Empire (itself a product of conquest), only covered about a quarter of present-day Mexico. After the Spaniards conquered that empire, they went on conquering numerous other indigenous entities, including the Tarascan Empire, enemy of the Aztec Empire, thus assembling the enormous colony of
"Nueva España," which was renamed Mexico, after independence. Furthermore, throughout the history of independent Mexico, the government has repeatedly used force to subdue rebellious tribes and areas, and keep them in Mexico. So yes, Mexico was formed by conquest as well. Nor is invading a neighbor country at all rare. In fact, it's the most common form of international invasion there is.
And supposing the Mexican War hadn't started in 1846, it's quite probable
Mexico would have lost the territories anyway. The region in question was far from the heartland of Mexico, and sparsely settled. Neither the Spanish Empire nor the independent Mexico which succeeded it,
did much to develop the area, which was prone to frequent anti-government uprisings. In the 1840s, there was speculation that the
British, the French, or the Russians might take try to take it. But the most likely possibility would have been that growing communities of unassimilated American settlers would have revolted, seceded from Mexico, and joined the U.S.
Does Mexico Really Own the Southwest?