This week
in class, we talked about Mexican independence and their fight against the
United States in the Mexican American War. Throughout this war, both the
Mexican and American forces fought strongly, but in the end, the fact that
Mexico was ill prepared for war and ran out of ammo caused the United States to
win. One thing that stood out to me during our discussion in Professor Stark’s
part of the class is that oftentimes the Mexican American War is an overlooked
or under exaggerated part of history. In my high school history classes, I
recall talking about the war, but the only thing that was emphasized was the
fact that the United States gained more territory in the southwest. The fact
that I knew so little about this war made me question why it was not more
focused on in high schools. Is it because it’s viewed as an insignificant part
in our history? Or perhaps that the outcome was not worth the struggle?
Another
thing I found interesting about our discussion was the fact that most Mexican
presidents were overthrown and that only a select few remained for their whole
term. I found this surprising because in the history of the United States there
are very few cases of presidents being impeached or resigning, so hearing that
it was so common in Mexico made me realize how different our political
institutions really are. This goes along with the idea of modernity that we
were talking about in Professor Serrata’s class, and the idea that although
Latin Americans were using the United States as an example of progress, they
were not able to completely mimic them because both nations had different pasts
and histories.
I thought about how overlooked the Mexican American War was in United States history as well. The only part that I remember being taught in high school was that the United States gained territory. In fact, I always thought that the United States gained its western territory from the Spanish American War. I was shocked to hear about this 2 year war in the United States’ history that I knew nothing about. I think the reason the Mexican American War had so little focus on in high school history classes was that, at the end of the war, the United States was not cast in a good light. In the Sanders reading, he explains how the United States acted in sort of a barbaric way towards the Mexicans by attacking an unprepared country and spreading destruction as they went. It brought up the question of whether or not the United States was as civilized and modern as it claimed to be.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting to learn more about the Spanish American war. It was not a topic that ever got covered much in school, the only parts that were talked about were the Alamo and the territory that the United States received. I believe that the reason for this is that the United States antagonized the situation at the beginning by sending the troops near the border and made it so that Mexico felt like they needed to stand up for themselves. This does not reflect well on the United States as it makes the United States appear to have started the war and then taken advantage of Mexico responding. That is not something the United States would want to talk about and have children learn about in schools within the country.
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