If a global selection of "the weakest neighbor" is to be held, Mexico humbles itself second, and I am afraid that no one will dare to claim the first place, not even Poland.
Rampant drugs and illegal immigration across the river are the most prominent national calling cards in Mexico today. Whether it is drugs or illegal immigrants, the final flow is the strong neighbor of the north- the United States, the world's first power.
Mexicans often laugh at themselves for "heaven is far away, America is close", which is sour and intriguing.
The strength of the United States was not built in a day, but Mexico's decline was due to the Mexican-American War in the mid-19th century. Since then, the United States has flourished, the Rivers of Mexico have declined, the strength and weakness have been transposed, and the rise and fall have been fixed.
Battle of Churuvusk
The war, which takes place between two emerging countries whose founding is based on European colonies, whose time is close and similar, and who are roughly on the same starting line, is more comparable and more likely to see the fundamental role of institutional factors in national competition.
Philosophy has three questions, namely "who am I?", "where do I come from", and "where to go". For the Countries of the Americas, "where it came from" is buried deep in the blood, and the War of Independence made clear "who I am", but it belongs to history, and only "where to go" is related to the future. Only by living better than before independence can the meaning of independence be revealed.
The United States, which took the lead in independence, launched a comprehensive debate on the choice of the fundamental and development path of the country at the beginning of the founding of the country, and formed two major factions, namely, the agricultural state-building faction and the industrial and commercial state-building faction.
The former support group is the vast number of self-employed farmers who account for the majority of the American population, representative figures Jefferson (one of the founding three masters), Madison, both plantation owners, advocate agriculture-oriented, local autonomy, maintain a loose confederation system, diplomatic hatred of Britain; the latter support group, are industrialists and businessmen (mainly in the north of New England) and some southern rich farmers, representative figure Hamilton as the first secretary of the treasury, advocate the establishment of a strong central government, diplomatic attention to relations with Britain.
Thomas Jefferson
Although neither faction formed a party, it was referred to by the media as the "Democratic Republican Party" and the "Federalist Party" according to their political views, and the later democratic and republican two-party system traced back to this.
The controversy does not distinguish between victory and defeat, but is diluted into a compromise of "workers and peasants grasp with both hands, and both hands must be hard."
Jefferson was elected president, the family knew that rice, oil and salt were expensive, and he felt the necessity of a strong central government, especially a strong central finance, and his policy was obviously more inclined to Hamilton's imitation of Britain's industrial and commercial priorities- expanding agriculture needed more arable land, and industrial production also needed more raw materials, which all needed more land - the so-called workers' and peasants' struggle is like two sides of the same coin, and there is no fundamental conflict.
In addition, as European Old-World immigrants continue to flock to the United States, more new land is urgently needed to accommodate the new population. The policy was set, and a vigorous westward expansion campaign aimed at opening up new lands began.
The westward movement is a basket, and factors such as industrialization, agricultural colonization, immigration, and scientific and technological revolution are all packed into it, thus providing a steady stream of powerful driving force for the movement.
As immigrants from the Old World continued to flock to the United States, more new land was needed to accommodate the new population, and the westward expansion movement began
It was really sleepy that someone handed a pillow, and just when the United States was committing "land hunger and thirst", France sent land. It is said that after Napoleon conquered Spain, he intended to force Spain to return Louisiana to rebuild the American colony. When Jefferson learned of this, he decided to buy land from France along the city of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River to ensure the smooth passage of the sea route.
The result of the negotiations was unexpectedly good - the French army suppressed the Haitian revolution and suffered a crushing defeat, it was difficult to draw troops to the west, coupled with the diplomatic considerations to resist the British and the financial dilemma of the shortage of military expenses, it was as strong as Napoleon's big move, and actually sold the whole of Louisiana as a "chicken rib".
At a price of $15 million in cabbage, the United States acquired new soil similar to the size of the territory at that time. This was like the good fortune of the opening and hanging, which inspired the United States and produced a sense of destiny, so that later generations put forward the "Manifest Destiny" theory (Manifest Destiny), providing a theoretical footnote to the westward expansion movement - the westward expansion was not an expansion, but a god-given mission, and the whole of North America was "destined to be American."
In 1803, the United States bordered the Spanish colonies, and the borders were blurred. The United States took advantage of the looting and signed the Treaty of Adams-Onnis with Spain, which was busy with civil strife, in 1819, and agreed on the boundary between the United States and the West. Spain painfully "ceded" Florida, which had become an enclave, in exchange for the tranquility of New Spain.
At this time, there was no Mexico.
When the new Mexican state emerged, the excitement of independence had not yet faded, and it was caught in a vicious circle because of the poor top-level design.
Although Mexico imitated the United States in establishing a federal republic, and there have been similar "national disputes" similar to the United States, the controversy has not turned into an outward expansion driving force like the United States, but has evolved into a court power struggle between the two factions.
The result of the internal friction is that Mexico's political situation is extremely unstable, with 50 presidents in 30 years, ranging from two years to as little as a week, and has led to the expansion of the military.
Father of Mexican independence Miguel Hidalgo I Costilla
The mexican economy has stagnated, the society is seriously fragmented, and the urgent tasks such as post-war reconstruction and financial crisis are imminent. Anxious Mexico, like the United States, has set its sights on the vast Northern Territory, hoping to boost a wave of GDP through large-scale development.
However, the Northern Territory is still a barbaric area, hard work, a careless may become a native Indian knife ghost, has always been regarded as a fear of the Mexicans, few people are willing to be pioneers of colonization.
The Mexican government eventually resorted to the cheap sale of land, one to make money to pay off debts, and the other to attract immigrants. As soon as this move came out, not only in the country, but also on the side of the United States, it was also a tide of responders. However, this move also brings the disaster of wolf invasion - around the land issue, American immigrants and Mexican immigrants in Texas friction.
In 1830, Mexican government policy changed dramatically, prohibiting American immigrants from re-entering Texas and bringing Texas under Mexican law, even directly interfering with what crops should be grown in the immigrant fields. Fearful American immigrants clashed with Mexican government troops who came to collect their weapons in 1835, and the following year formally established an independent state, defeating the Mexican army at San Jacinto and capturing the "Royal Conquest" of President Santa Ana.
President of St. Anna
Naturally, the Republic of Texas was not recognized by Mexico, and conflicts between the two sides continued. In order to ensure peace, Texas repeatedly petitioned to join the United States, and in 1845, the internal affairs of Mexico escalated into a diplomatic dispute between the United States and Mexico. The Republic of Texas' request for the demarcation of the western border is included as a remaining outstanding issue.
The United States did not immediately raise the Texas border issue, but used debt as a threat, hoping that Mexico would cede New Mexico and California so that the United States could obtain access to the Pacific coast. Naturally, Mexico refused, and american cavalry crossed the border to occupy the eastern bank of the Rio Grande, the western border that Texas demanded.
On April 24, 1846, the Mexican-American War broke out. The balance of victory has skewed in America from the start. The U.S. army divided into three routes, the western road was biased to take new Mexico and California, which the other side had no troops to defend; the east road navy crossed the Gulf of Mexico and landed on the Mexican mainland; the main force of the middle road rushed all the way to crush the effective forces of the Mexican army.
U.S. Army Commander-in-Chief Winfield Scott marches into Mexico City
The following year, the U.S. army joined Mexico and captured its capital, Mexico City. In 1848, the two sides concluded a peace treaty. Mexico ceded California and New Mexico, and the United States symbolically paid $15 million in compensation and $3.25 million in debt relief. The U.S.-Mexico border is basically finalized.
The impact of the war is extremely far-reaching, and it is not an exaggeration to call it a "war of national fortunes".
The United States has won the future not only by land, but also by abundant resources below the surface, as well as the outlet to the Pacific Ocean. Mexico has not only lost 55% of its land, but its industrialization process has also been disrupted, and the dangerous environment inhabited by lions and tigers on the banks of the bed has become a basic problem restricting subsequent development.
For the barbaric growth of the wild age, it does not make much sense to argue too much about the nature of war. In fact, the United States has also been quite critical of this war. The question is, with only 40 years of independence, and Mexico facing a more relaxed international environment than the United States, so why is the war situation one-sided? The roots are probably buried as early as the colonial era.
During the American Revolutionary War
The first is the merits of the system. It is worth playing that in the early days of the founding of the two countries, there was a dispute over the "founding of the country", but Mexico stuck to the theory of the old european continent, either one or the other, and fell into the quagmire of controversy, so that the years and years were running and the national strength was declining; while the United States was able to adapt to local conditions, jump out of the trap, innovate and reconcile, and put the results of the debate into action. This is also due to the two spiritual temperaments of Spanish Catholicism, which are good at talking, keen on ideological debate, and British Protestantism that attaches importance to reality and practices.
The level of governance of the British colonies was significantly stronger than that of the Spanish colonies. The United States and Mexico have inherited their own political, religious, and cultural heritage. It is all independence, and american independence is even more of a revolution, but Mexico is "independent and not revolutionary", so the system has been divided into advantages and disadvantages.
The second is the population factor. The Mexican-American War arose because of agricultural colonization, and the first element of colonization was population, and in terms of amplification, population also determined military mobilization.
The openness and inclusiveness of the American system has attracted wave after wave of European Old World immigrants. The first national census in 1790 showed a population of 3.9 million, and the sixth census in 1840 showed 17.06 million, mostly free whites. The unattractive Mexico, on the other hand, thrived on nature alone, with a population of just over 7 million before the war, of which no more than 2 million were Iberians and native whites, and the rest were mixed-race and Indian.
European immigrants to the United States in the 19th century
This may explain why Mexico is desperately trying to colonize only 10,000 people in the vast northern states, while the United States in Texas can grow to 30,000 immigrants in just a few years, and why Mexico has only 32,000 troops, while the United States can easily mobilize 100,000 people.
1917 U.S. Military Recruitment Poster by James Montgomery Flagg
The third is the economic gap. Although Spain has been operating in the Americas for a long time, its economic structure has always been dysfunctional, centered on the resource-predatory mining industry, and agriculture and animal husbandry are only auxiliary industries that exist to solve the problem of feeding the mining population, and in the final analysis, it is still a fragile single structure.
This was especially true of New Spain, the main producing region, where productivity levels had stagnated by the 19th century. The British colonial industry is obviously more diversified, the United States not only inherited in its entirety, but also took the British Industrial Revolution as a benchmark and the westward movement as the driver to comprehensively promote industrialization and technological revolution, and its economy, both in strength and vitality, was far superior to Mexico.
Finally, there is the question of geography. From the satellite map, the United States takes longitude as the yardstick, roughly as "two mountains on both sides of the river and a river" structure, from east to west for the east coast, appalachian mountains, Mississippi River, Rocky Mountains, west coast, the three states contested by the Us-Mexico War are located on both wings of the Rocky Mountains.
Get a bird's-eye view of the Colorado portion of the Rocky Mountains in summer
As the largest river in North America, the Mississippi River also brings together rivers such as the Missouri River, ohio River, Arkansas River and Tennessee River, and the vast plains of the basin are both livable places and granaries, providing strong support for western colonization.
In contrast, 83% of Mexico's land is plateaus and mountains, with the Mexican plateau where the capital is located in the center, flanked by the Sierra Madre Mountains in the east and west, and only the Yucatan Peninsula in the south as a block of plains.
Mexico and Italy are similar in terrain and are not conducive to centralization. No matter how strong Mexico's desire for control, the whiplash for the far northern desert areas is always out of reach, and it lacks strong sea power, and once the U.S. military crosses the sea and beheads, it can only raise its hand and surrender.
In the New World of North America, also known as the "new", New Spain is just the old world in the New World, and New England has created a new world in the true sense. Metabolism is not only a natural law, but also an iron law of social development.
Author | Zhao Boyuan
Edit | Xie Yiqiu [email protected]
Typography | Zhao Yue, Long Mingjia