Preface
With a land area of 1,964,400 square kilometers, Mexico ranks 14th in the world.
However, Mexico once had a land area of 4.4 million square kilometers, but later for various reasons, six countries successfully became independent, and a considerable part of the land was occupied by the United States.
So, how did these countries become independent, and what kind of means did the United States use to occupy the land that originally belonged to Mexico?
Resources
How did Mexico come about?
This part of the Americas has always been the home of the Indians, but after Columbus discovered the New World, the land was hit by a major disaster.
Several countries began to establish their own colonies on this continent, and Spain, as the first country to start the Age of Navigation, was the first to enter the American continent.
Spain first entered South America, and like many later colonial powers, Spain began to conquer the land.
And Spain's strength is indeed much stronger than its local power, so the Spanish colonizers continued to penetrate into this land, and after South America was almost occupied, Spain began to advance to North America.
However, at that time, the British also began to enter the North American continent, and under the encroachment of both sides, the two sides were able to maintain almost no power in the middle of North America.
Although the Indians live on the North American continent and have their own civilization, they have little power to resist under the suppression of civilizations that are more developed than them.
They could only be used as labor to create value for those colonists, but under Spanish rule, it was stronger than the rule of other countries at that time, because at the same time, other colonists really did not take the lives of the Indians seriously.
Although the Spanish colonists also drove the Indians to work for them, their situation was much better, and under such circumstances, the Indians began to develop their own power.
They resisted Spanish rule as best they could, once but twice, and although they were always ruthlessly suppressed when they resisted, their efforts were effective.
The wealth plundered by Spain was not used in the primitive accumulation of its country, but in pleasure, so the outflow of wealth from Spain was still quite serious, which is also the more important reason for his later decline.
At the time of the decline of Spain, the opportunity to belong to the Indians came, and finally, they succeeded, and after that, they established their own country, which was Mexico.
However, the Spanish colonization time is still too long, and there are a lot of mixed races in Mexico, but it is a good thing to establish your own regime.
Mexico, however, suffers from two problems, the first being that its internal affairs are too chaotic, and the second is that it is too far from heaven and too close to the United States.
Internal affairs were chaotic, and six places became independent
When Mexico succeeded in establishing its own country, they began to think about how to establish its own national system, and after thinking about it, they wanted to learn from the West to establish a monarchy.
After a long time of choosing, they elected a person, this person is called Iturved, if this emperor is very capable, can control the situation of the whole country, and develop the country in a good direction, it is not bad.
Or maybe it would be nice for the other forces in the country to check on the king's power, and then work together to lead the country in the right direction, but none of this happened.
However, Iturved wanted to establish a dictatorial government, and he did a lot of things that caused a lot of resentment among the people about the country.
Since the emperor can't do it, then get the emperor down, so Mexico began to implement another system, which is the "republic".
In the midst of Mexico's internal turmoil, five regions declared independence: Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Honduras.
In fact, these regions joined Mexico when they rebelled against Spain, but after Mexico became independent, it did not have a relatively stable regime, which made those countries a little hopeless, so they decided to become independent.
Probably because they felt that their strength was not strong enough, these five countries decided to huddle together to warm up and established the Central American Federation, as for the origin of the sixth country, it was only after the dissolution of this federation.
This country is Belize, because it was later occupied by the British, so it was not until 1981 that Belize became independent.
Too far from heaven, too close to the United States
In the decades after independence, Mexico did not have a strong government to maintain Mexico, and frequent regime changes made the military conflict in Mexico very serious.
If Mexico as a whole was very strong and could suppress the United States, then he would not have lost so much land, but Mexico could not do it, and the United States at that time urgently needed to expand its territory.
So the United States began to move, and they began to immigrate to Mexico, which became a state in the United States, Texas.
When the time came, the United States let the slave owners in this area directly start to become independent, but under the operation of the United States, this place has American power, and Mexico has injured the American power when it suppressed the rebellion.
So the United States had an excuse, and after some fighting, Texas gained independence, and then Texas was incorporated into the United States, and the United States, after agreeing, took over the place.
Speaking of which, we have to mention that the United States has a deep plan, and the United States has directly occupied some disputed areas, which has obviously touched Mexico's backlash.
So the two countries fought again, and the United States naturally won again, and Mexico gave California and New Mexico to the United States.
It may be that the United States said that it would give Mexico some money, which is equivalent to the United States buying these places, but this money is really not much, only more than 18 million, but with this money, it won 2.3 million square kilometers of land.
However, it is true that Mexico can no longer fight with the United States, one is that it cannot be defeated, and the other is that if it continues to fight, they may have to pay some price, so they can only swallow this breath......
Resources:
[1] "President of Mexico: The U.S. "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" Infringe on the Sovereignty and Independence of Other Countries", Xinhuanet, April 26, 2024
[2] Mexican-American War: The Charm of the Land and the Temptation of the Sea K712.5