Relations between the US and Mexico from 1865 to 1945 - Term Paper Example

 Relations between the US and Mexico from 1865 to 1945 Introduction Several groups from the United States saw Mexico as a laboratory to analyze their capability to alter a country in need of direction. Many countries believed that Americans had the mission of transforming the world. However, the Americans became divided on political, religious, diplomatic, and economic issues. Despite various groups of the American coming up with divergent conclusions considering the distant strategy of the U.S, the Americans made efforts to reshape Mexico. In the nineteenth century, the Americans tried hard to define their role to the full world. Years after the United States Civil War, various groups of Americans including investors, missionaries, and working-class activists pointed out Mexico as a country in need of change through informal imperialism. The informal imperialism can be distinguished from the formal empire owing to the reality that it is not relying upon political control (McWilliams, Meier, & García, 2016). During the 1916-1917 Mexican Revolution, the U.S policymakers advocated for cooperative diplomacy, enticements, and trade linkages to achieve their goals of providing for the United States economic and security expansion in Mexico. The Americans were in disagreement on deciding whether the transformation of Mexico should occur based on political, religious, or social terms. Despite the differences, the Americans made an agreement that Mexico had to be reshaped into the United States image. Developed views provided a strong counter-narrative to importunate United States images of the Mexican citizens as irredeemable due to the alleged inherent inferiorities with consideration on culture, race, or religion. The Mexicans participated in resisting, attracting, and altering the United States informal imperialism in Mexico (Fleche, 2018). Some of the appeals helped to justify the United States involvement in Mexico and gave room for the Americans to assert that their actions were based on the requests for aid from the Mexican people. The Americans made the focus on the appeals from the Mexican actors supporting their involvement tending to discount the Mexican opposition and actions in Mexico. The Mexican Catholics opposed the effects of the Protestant missionaries and economy. The United States mission to Mexico Ideologies, race, and culture were among the significant considerations in determining the directions of the United States perceptions of its purpose to the Mexican people. Until the consolidation of the Diaz rule in the mid-1880s where the United States discussions of their assignment to Mexico was entwined with debates over the nature of the republican government, various groups viewed America has a God-chosen state that should be followed. This could lead to the elimination of monarchies and other types of institution of republican governments and forms of government worldwide. The Monroe management auxiliary supported the Latin Americans states to acclimatize the biased instance of the U.S (Otero, 2018). The United States destruction of the union meant the destruction of the hopes of the Republican states all over the world. The fears were revived during the contested United States election of 1876 which brought in fear of encountering political unrest that had been experienced during the civil war. By the 1880s, the United States entrepreneurs had become the core agents for the U.S efforts in transforming Mexico. The American capitalist had already begun to expand their investments to railroads in Mexico. The vision was to transform Mexico through internal improvements and railroads. The famous American Merchants and manufactures embraced the civilization mission via the selling of commodities that they believed could help Mexico progress like the United States. The Americans accepted the lack of republican norms in Mexico considering their cultural and racial nature. The other group that tried to transform Mexico were labor, socialist, and other leftist groups in the United States that challenged the outcomes of the U.S economic expansion. Model Republic and Fears of ‘Mexicanization’ In the 19th century, politicians and writers used Mexico's turbulent history to draw contrasts between the Mexican people and themselves in regards to the superiority of the American institutions, population, and religion. When the U.S encountered a severe political crisis in 1876, the political followers placed Mexico in the position of ‘other' and used it as a discursive prop that embodies domestic fears that were brought in by experiences of Reconstruction and Civil War. The fears led to a given context for the 1876 electoral crisis that drove Americans to fear of encountering another political unrest. Despite the crisis not leading to a dramatic military confrontation, a political division threatened to be part of the political life that led to the association of fear due to the Mexican experience of political instability. Mexico was used as an excuse with which every U.S supporter and politician could throw to opponents while confronting fears of coming political future. The issue changed slightly over a four-year period. However, there was a dispute over the removal of President Hayes as Mexico was consistently rhetorically linked with instability, disorder, and lack of respect for the rule of law and constitutional forms (McWilliams, Meier, & García, 2016). The meaning of Mexicanization became elastic in the late 19th and early 20th century due to revolutions, civil wars, economic fears, and election fraud. In the 1896 electioneering period, the issue of free silver became a chief lath in the proposal of Democratic candidate Bryan's campaign where the opponents used the word Mexicanization in the description of how free the silvers would degrade the U.S economy to the echelon of Mexico. The Start of the Economic Expansion Through the 1876 period, several of the discourses in the United States made a reflection of profound disillusionment with the Mexican people. In several instances, the American press and the United States press expressed optimism for the prospects of stability under a Republican state in Mexico, the increased trade, and economic prosperity which later disappointed with a reoccurrence of political instability. Besides, in the mid-1870s, the Protestant hopes for a wide-scale alteration of Mexico to Protestantism had dimmed. The United States negative views of Mexico were exacerbated by border instability, an issue that was much criticized by Americans. The disagreement in the border parts appears to be a dramatic confirmation of the inability of the Mexican government to provide security for life and property in the country. In 1876 and 1882, it served as a link between the antebellum discourses of the United States mission to the Mexican citizens. Commonly, it involved discussions of formal protectorates of Mexican territory, forma; annexation of the Mexican territory, and the congratulatory talks that lauded progress and modernization that was brought about by the transfer of the American methods. By mid-1870s, the American capitalist began to search globally for opportunities in investment and trade. The local history of revolutions and unrest left many United States investors, commentators and U.S diplomats unconvinced that the Mexican country could be the right place for the United States economic expansion. Diaz and the Mexican officials worked tirelessly to prove that Mexico was the best country for the U.S to invest. In 1882, the Mexican government and officials promoted the image of Mexico as modernizing state as compared to the past model of instability and revolution. Mexican Revolts and Border Raids The Cuban government portrayed Mexico as a location of a unique geographical position with sufficient natural resources (Shi & Tindall, 2016). The duty of Cubans and the rest were made hard due to the continuous issues of disorders and frequent revolutions in their quest to entice immigration and foreign capital. The United States ambassador in Baja California noted a presence of hopes through a review of reports from various consulates. Bracero Program The free version of the Bracero program was in 1921 with a formalized edition in 1942. The vital basic life necessities were provided by the employer as the cost was deducted from the worker's wage. The committee's objective was to work in togetherness to improve the experience of the Mexican migrant labors through the revision of the Bracero program. The temporary status indicated that the labor force had no political power and was at the employer’s mercy. Zimmermann Program The Zimmermann note was a telegram that was sent from Germany to Mexico, a situation that led to America to have the World War I. The telegram was requesting the ambassador to invite the Mexicans to help the Germans to attack America. The German government also promised the Mexican individuals of getting back the land that they lost to Americans. The Americans became angry over the sinking submarines and the telegram that made the Americans come to war. Mexicans Appeal for the U.S Capital In late 1865 to 1869, the Mexican economy had collapsed because of the decade of war that encompassed the wars of reform and the French intervention. The Mexican government was in debts considering that the European government had broken the diplomatic relations due to Mexican capitalist and Maximilian execution (Slack, Martinez, Lee, & Whiteford, 2016). After the end of the French intervention in Mexico, the liberal governments under Ledro and Juarez decided to reconstruct the Mexican economy. The opening of Mexico's first major railway became of great importance with connections to Mexico City and the port city of Veracruz. Diaz and several Mexican officials viewed the American capital as capable of creating a progressive and modern nation. The Mexican officials adapted and adopted the American and European liberal ideas of technology, wealth, and infusing the country with foreign immigrants. Despite the challenges, the Diaz government offered generous subsidies to foreign investors as the Mexican agents began active recruitment in promoting investment in the United States. The Mexican expedition for capital and its integration to the world economy occurred at a similar time that the United States actors looked overseas for opportunities to expand further. The effects of depression that began in 1873 continued to the 1870s with ideas of advising the business community to consider trade expansions. Several of the expansionists were frustrated by the foreign competition and economic cycles. Conclusion To conclude, the United States bankers, people in business, politicians, and other individuals considered Mexico to be the right place of trade and investment. Due to the interest in closer economic relations, the Mexican government worked harder to manipulate public opinion against the Mexican policy of the Hayes command. The American view of the mission had shifted from where they were primarily concerned with self-government, spreading the republican values, and the connections with democratic norms. Reference McWilliams, C., Meier, M. S., & García, A. M. (2016). North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States. ABC-CLIO. Fleche, A. M. (2018). American Civil Wars: The United States, Latin America, Europe, and the Crisis of the 1860s ed. by Don H. Doyle. The Journal of the Civil War Era, 8(1), 139-141. Shi, D. E., & Tindall, G. B. (2016). America: A narrative history. WW Norton & Company. Slack, J., Martinez, D. E., Lee, A. E., & Whiteford, S. (2016). The geography of border militarization: Violence, death, and health in Mexico and the United States. Journal of Latin American Geography, 15(1), 7-32. Otero, G. (2018). Neoliberal reform and politics in Mexico: An overview. In Neoliberalism Revisited (pp. 1-25). Routledge. Read More