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US Mexico War Video Notes — Transcript

by Christie Blakley · 3,182 words · 581 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00hi scholars today we're going to talk
0:02about
0:03the u.s mexico war how it got started
0:07basic overview of how the united states
0:09won and most importantly the
0:11consequences that it had for the
0:12development of the united states
0:15so as always we're going to start with a
0:17quick reminder
0:18on how we're going to take notes
0:20remember that you're always going to put
0:22your title up at the top of your page
0:26with space underneath for the notes and
0:28a little space for questions or comments
0:31how do you know what to write well the
0:34main way you know what to write
0:35is by listening and putting the main
0:37ideas in your own words
0:39or if it can be difficult for you to
0:41pick out what's important
0:43focus on the parts that have a star next
0:45to them on the slides
0:47that's a clue that that's something that
0:48is particularly important that we're
0:50going to be coming back to or using
0:52later
0:53remember though that if you can put main
0:55ideas into your own words from what you
0:57see and what you hear
0:58you're practicing an important skill and
1:01that's going to help your brain process
1:02and retain the information more
1:05today's story is really interesting
1:08really dramatic
1:09let's get into it the us-mexico war
1:13from 1846 to 1848 is often called
1:17the mexican-american war i avoid using
1:20that term for a couple of reasons
1:22first of all it kind of sounds like
1:24you're talking about mexican-american
1:26people because that is a term that
1:28sometimes people use
1:30for americans whose families have
1:32origins in mexico
1:34uh the other reason though that i call
1:36it the u.s mexico war
1:37has to do with my own view of who is
1:40responsible for this war
1:41which is i think the united states so
1:44that's why i put
1:45the us at the start of the war
1:47descriptor
1:49here we have a painting depicting the
1:52mexican and american troops
1:55in this war in this particular image
1:59you can see people on both sides dying
2:03however as we're going to see as we go
2:07at the beginning they might have been
2:10evenly matched
2:11but the united states quickly took the
2:13advantage
2:14and pressed that advantage to get what
2:17they wanted
2:17out of that conflict but first we need
2:21to have a little
2:22background to know how this war even
2:23started and it starts
2:26with texas texas
2:29had been as much of what is now the
2:32western united states was
2:34texas had been a part of mexico but in
2:371835
2:38texas seceded which means it broke away
2:41from mexico it said
2:43we want to be our own country now we
2:45don't want to be a part of mexico
2:46anymore
2:48now why would it do that it actually has
2:50to do with the united states
2:53going back earlier mexico got its
2:55independence from spain in 1821
2:58and in the 1820s when mexico was a
3:01freshly independent country
3:03they were seeking immigrants from the
3:06united states to go
3:07into that texas territory that land
3:11in northern mexico to help settle that
3:14area
3:14particularly because there were native
3:16americans there the comanche
3:18who would often raid and
3:22attack mexican settlers and so by
3:26bringing in more people immigrants from
3:29the united states
3:30mexico hoped to kind of get that area
3:32more under control
3:34however that backfires because
3:37the u.s settlers in mexico don't want to
3:40obey mexican laws
3:42they're going into mexico into that
3:44texas area because there's good land for
3:46farming
3:47but if we look at a map
3:51we'll do that real quick texas
3:54is right next to the southern
3:57slave states so most of the immigrants
4:00coming from the united states
4:02into northern mexico into texas were
4:05from a slave holding part of the united
4:08states
4:09and many of them brought enslaved people
4:11with them to force them to work
4:12on the land that they claimed in texas
4:15mexico had outlawed slavery
4:18so in 1835 when mexico tries to
4:21strengthen its government and says we're
4:23going to actually start making
4:24making you follow our laws including no
4:26more slavery u.s
4:28settlers who have come to be a large
4:31number of the people in texas
4:33decide we don't want to follow mexico's
4:35laws in fact we don't even want to be
4:37part of mexico anymore we're going to
4:39rebel
4:40and they do and although their
4:44first kind of big battle is a loss for
4:47the texans
4:48that battle becomes a rallying cry that
4:51motivates other
4:53american immigrants in texas as well as
4:56mexicans in texas who didn't like the
4:58mexican government
4:59to rebel against mexico and mexico ends
5:02up losing control
5:03texas becomes its own country
5:06kind of for about 10 years they call
5:09themselves the lone star republic this
5:11is texas state flag
5:13which was briefly the flag of a country
5:16the reason i'm saying country with
5:18quotation marks though
5:19is that while texas was functionally
5:22independent
5:23and they saw themselves as their own
5:24country mexico refused to acknowledge
5:28texan independence they didn't control
5:29them anymore but they also refused to
5:32say that texas was no longer a part of
5:34mexico
5:35they probably hoped at some point once
5:37mexico's government got a little
5:38stronger
5:39and more stable to be able to reclaim
5:41that land
5:45part of the story and mythology around
5:48texas
5:48rebelling against mexico has to do with
5:50the battle of the alamo
5:52pictured here where american immigrants
5:55and settlers into texas
5:57fought back against mexican troops at
5:59this
6:00fort called the alamo and they made a
6:02last stand
6:03and most of them were killed this is a
6:05symbol that's often used to evoke
6:07freedom and resistance in american
6:10culture
6:11it's ironic to remember that many of
6:13these american settlers
6:15were partly angry at mexico because they
6:18wanted to keep slaves
6:21it's also interesting to see how when we
6:23remember
6:24an event that seems important we tend to
6:26make it look huge
6:27and epic in historical paintings
6:30i actually had the opportunity to visit
6:32the alamo the place depicted here when i
6:34was visiting a friend in texas
6:36and this is the actual building you can
6:37see the size of it there's
6:39me right there a little person with the
6:41backpack you can see it's not
6:43it's not actually that huge it's not a
6:45giant fortification
6:47but in memory and in rallying people to
6:50want to fight mexico they really
6:52hyped up the story in some ways
6:54exaggerated its importance
6:56to get people to resist mexico and give
6:58texas
7:00people ready to fight for its
7:01independence
7:04so in 1835 here's the situation
7:08the united states has everything up
7:10through the louisiana purchase
7:12is part of the united states this area
7:14up here oregon country
7:17both britain and the united states have
7:18claimed it after the louisiana purchase
7:21so there are american settlers going
7:22there it's still a little unclear
7:24but the piece that's really the issue
7:26here is
7:28the republic of texas now
7:33this is where mexico is today
7:36you can see all of this here used to be
7:39part of mexico
7:40so how did it go from being texas that
7:43broke away to the united states taking
7:45over all of that land this is where
7:50it's going to get more complicated
7:53remember
7:54that we talked before about manifest
7:56destiny
7:57that idea that many americans believed
8:00it was
8:00right and it was their fate for the
8:03united states to take over more land to
8:05take over
8:05all the land across to california and
8:07the pacific
8:09many of them saw it as god's plan for
8:11them
8:12and for the united states
8:15in keeping with this there were many
8:17people within the united states
8:19who actively promoted taking more land
8:22so in 1845 when those
8:25texans who had broke away from mexico
8:27said hey
8:28united states how about we join you
8:32the united states annexed texas
8:35annexation is when one country
8:38takes over another and incorporates it
8:42makes it a part of their country so 1845
8:46texas voluntarily agreed
8:49to having the united states take over
8:51and texas became a part of the u.s
8:55mexico doesn't like that they say
8:59texas should actually belong to them
9:02but there's not a war yet the war
9:05happens
9:06because of a disputed territory i'm
9:09gonna do a quick
9:10zoom in here to make it a little easier
9:12to see so
9:14everything in this light yellow
9:17was the land that was acknowledged by
9:20mexico to be part of texas
9:24according to mexico the border between
9:27texas and the rest of mexico was
9:29this river here the nueces river
9:32so although they didn't like texas
9:34becoming part of the united states
9:36they basically accepted that they would
9:39have the land
9:41up to the nueces river however
9:44the united states and texas said no no
9:47no texas goes all the way to this river
9:49the rio grande
9:51so there's a strip of land in between
9:55these two rivers that is disputed
9:57territory
9:58the united states says it's their land
10:00mexico says
10:01it's their land now they could have
10:05avoided war by just not crossing over
10:07the nueces river but the united states
10:09isn't trying to avoid war in fact they
10:13want an excuse
10:14to invade mexico they tried already to
10:17buy california from mexico
10:19and mexico had said no so
10:22in 1846 u.s troops entered entered that
10:26disputed territory that little strip of
10:28land between the two rivers
10:30and started trying to establish their
10:33presence there to say look we
10:34have this larger border mexican troops
10:37saw this as an invasion of
10:39mexico they claimed that land for
10:40themselves and they attacked the
10:42american troops
10:44american politicians used that as an
10:46example
10:47of mexico attacking the united states
10:50and said
10:51american blood on american soil that
10:54they had
10:55made it sound like mexico had invaded
10:57the us
10:58and they retaliated fought back and
11:01pretty quickly
11:02got congress to approve a war on
11:05mexico however there was one group of
11:08people
11:09that strongly opposed the war with
11:11mexico
11:12and this ties back to our topic from the
11:14other day those were the abolitionists
11:18remember abolitionists were people who
11:20wanted to get rid of slavery
11:22and it makes sense that they would be
11:24against a war with mexico
11:26because if the united states went to war
11:29with mexico and
11:30claimed more land in the south around
11:33texas well more land in the south means
11:36more land where people can be forced to
11:39work as
11:40slaves because remember the southern
11:42states were
11:43keeping slavery while the northern
11:45states had
11:46gradually abolished it major people who
11:49spoke out against the war
11:50include my favorite frederick douglass
11:53and
11:54also here someone who's going to become
11:57very famous but this is not usually how
11:59we picture him
12:00abraham lincoln who was an abolitionist
12:04senator from illinois at that point
12:07here we have a painting showing people
12:10gathered around to hear the news about
12:12the war with mexico from a newspaper
12:14remember that back then
12:16most information would spread by
12:18newspaper which took a while
12:20and by word of mouth because right
12:23there's no tv there's no social media
12:25there's no telephones yet
12:27all right so they have a war we've seen
12:30this picture before
12:34the us wins the war and
12:38why what makes it so that the us wins
12:40the war nowadays we tend to think of the
12:42united states as more powerful than
12:43mexico
12:45but territorially in terms of land
12:48before this war the u.s and mexico had
12:50about the same amount of land
12:52but mexico had just
12:56gotten their independence much more
12:58recently than the united states
13:00and they had had to fight for 10 years
13:02against spain to get their independence
13:04so mexico was still weak and had an
13:07unstable government they were still
13:09figuring out
13:10how to run their country in the year
13:13that the u.s mexico war began
13:15mexico had four different presidents so
13:17that gives you a sense
13:19of the internal problems mexico was
13:21dealing with
13:22that made it hard to defeat the us of
13:25course the united states because of
13:27manifest destiny
13:28sees the fact that mexico is having
13:30problems as proof
13:32that they are meant to take over
13:35but manifest destiny aside
13:38there are also other specific advantages
13:41the united states had in the war
13:43one is that it was more industrialized
13:46industrialized means they were making
13:48more products in factories using
13:51machines
13:52why would that be good for war well
13:55think about what supplies you need for a
13:57war
13:57that you could make with machines in a
13:59factory right
14:01guns ammunition uniforms and supplies
14:04for soldiers things like that
14:06you can produce more of them more
14:07quickly that gives you an advantage in
14:10the war because your soldiers will have
14:12the things they need to fight
14:15the other advantage the u.s had is that
14:18they were
14:18aggressive mexico was basically trying
14:22to defend what they considered their
14:24territory
14:25the united states quickly started
14:27invading mexico and mexico
14:28really wasn't prepared for that
14:32partly because it was a totally messed
14:34up thing to do
14:36so they invade
14:39mexico city which is way down in central
14:42mexico
14:43they don't just fight over that little
14:44strip of land that they claim they are
14:46trying to get but they invade way into
14:48mexico
14:50go to the capital of mexico it would be
14:52like if mexico took over washington d.c
14:54they forced mexico to surrender and
14:58because they've basically kind of beaten
14:59mexico up
15:01and threatened it they make them sign
15:04this treaty the treaty is called the
15:06treaty of guadalupe hidalgo
15:09signed in 1848 it was signed with
15:12mexico's president santa anna there
15:15and in this treaty the united states
15:18paid 15 million dollars
15:21for the territory all the way from texas
15:24through to california now mexico didn't
15:28actually want to sell that land they
15:29wanted to keep that land
15:31but this was basically a way for the
15:33united states to say oh look they sold
15:35it to
15:36us but at a very low price and they
15:40didn't really have a choice because they
15:42lost the war
15:43and the us had invaded their capital so
15:46technically the land was sold under the
15:48treaty but it was a forced
15:50sale on terms it benefited the united
15:52states and not mexico
15:54mexico lost a huge portion of its land
15:59after this war
16:02here we have a drawing
16:05of american soldiers in
16:08the central plaza of mexico city
16:12right outside the government palace so
16:15you can see right they're there they're
16:17a threat
16:18they're basically saying you gotta do
16:19what we want you have to give up that
16:21land
16:22so the treaty of guadalupe algo gives
16:24all the land
16:25going back to our map all the land from
16:28here
16:29through to california so what is today
16:32texas new mexico colorado utah nevada
16:38arizona california all of that comes
16:41to the united states under the terms of
16:43the treaty of guadalupe
16:46but there is a problem which you
16:48probably could guess
16:50this land has people in it native
16:53americans
16:54but also mexicans
16:58so what happens with them
17:02what happens with the mexicans who are
17:05suddenly
17:06now living in the united states based on
17:09this treaty
17:11this is the reason that sometimes you'll
17:12hear people say
17:14we didn't cross the border the border
17:16crossed us in reference to
17:18mexicans being entitled to be in
17:22california in the west etc well
17:25under the terms of the treaty of
17:27guadalupe algo
17:29mexicans in this now united states
17:33were supposed to become american
17:35citizens
17:36automatically under the terms of the
17:38treaty so for example
17:39if i were a mexican person who was
17:43living in the mexican city of los
17:46angeles or
17:47san francisco and then suddenly
17:50california is part of the united states
17:53and i live now in los angeles or san
17:55francisco
17:56i'm supposed to immediately become an
17:58american citizen and i'm supposed to get
18:00to keep my land
18:02however supposed to tells you something
18:06the rights of these now mexican
18:09americans were often ignored
18:12by biased and racist courts
18:15and law enforcement and also
18:20through linguistic discrimination
18:23which is to say if i was mexican
18:27i mostly would speak spanish because
18:29that was the main language of mexico
18:31and most of my contracts
18:35and deeds to land would be either
18:37hereditary and
18:38kept in mexico or would be in spanish
18:42the legal system in the united states
18:44was pretty much all run
18:45in english as was the banking system so
18:48often banks businessmen
18:51and law enforcement used the fact that
18:55they did not have contracts recognized
18:58by american law
18:59or in english to cheat
19:02mexican now americans mexican americans
19:05out of that land
19:06some held on to that land but many of
19:08them lost it
19:10in the next 50 years as americans
19:13found ways to manipulate the system to
19:16their advantage
19:19so with all that going on you might not
19:21want to stay in the united states you
19:23might want to go to mexico which you
19:25might identify as your country
19:26and some mexican americans do leave and
19:30choose to go into what remains of mexico
19:34right because that's their home however
19:37about 75
19:38000 stay and so
19:41texas the southwest all the way through
19:43california
19:44there is a substantial mexican-american
19:47population that has
19:48deep roots that pre-date that land
19:51becoming
19:52part of the united states and those
19:54people who stay have an
19:56influence on the development of the west
19:58especially influencing ranching
20:01and farming in the west because they had
20:04a lot of experience with the conditions
20:06there which tend to be very hot and dry
20:08and require a different type of farming
20:10and cattle ranching
20:12than american settlers coming from the
20:14east were used to
20:16another influence that they have is
20:18cultural most
20:20mexicans were catholic in fact
20:22catholicism was
20:23the official religion of mexico
20:27and so now there's a large catholic
20:30population
20:31in the united states in that conquered
20:33territory
20:36and you can see that in the fact that
20:38throughout california
20:39there are missions that had been built
20:42by the spanish and then maintained by
20:44mexico
20:45to promote catholicism and convert
20:47native
20:48americans in california to catholicism
20:52and here we see a painting of spanish
20:57well not spanish my bad they were
20:59spanish until 1821
21:01now mexican now mexican-american cowboys
21:04right a lot of the cowboy stereotypes
21:06and culture is actually rooted
21:08in the mexican-american cattle ranching
21:12in fact sometimes if you're watching
21:14like an old-timey
21:16um like cowboy movie and they'll call
21:19someone
21:20a buckaroo that's an americanized
21:24version of the word vaquero which is
21:26cowboy in spanish
21:29right so that was a lot take a moment
21:33write your three questions or comments
21:34if you haven't already be ready to talk
21:37about them in class tomorrow
21:38and as always if you have any questions
21:41or comments for me that you need
21:43answered more quickly or if you're
21:44confused on something you can always
21:46email me
21:47then take a photo of the notes once
21:49you're done and
21:50email it to me text it to me however you
21:53want to show me
21:54that you completed them have a wonderful
21:57day
21:58bye

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