So should a lot of Americans. I'll wager 90% of us haven't any real knowledge of the Mexican-American War, either. I certainly wasn't taught anything about it in my own schooling...
Bravery can be found everywhere and it's admirable. Though while our country touts itself as selfless and noble, when you read back through history and even see it repeating itself today is when you realize we're really a big pack of bullying assholes.
Military conquest is a pan-human trait, I'm afraid - it's not unique to America by any means. We've been killing our neighbors and taking what's theirs since we first descended from the trees, and that will never change, I fear. Despite our vaunted opinion of our species (which I don't share, by the way), we are still - at our core - murderously territorial tribal apes...
Urf. Perspective. I know good people in cali who have a comment or two about all the brown hordes coming over the border, we all do. Now I have to think... If the US had done the same to us which they were planning to do as late as the middle/end of the depression (and no doubt still have plans for now) I'd be rather pissed that Winnipeg was part of the US... My family is OLD... old enough to get pissed at battles that happened 500 years ago. Ok, fuck, call us Serbs still pissed at the battle of Dupicek (sp?) but that's the way it goes.
Ancient history and the rise of Rome... they attacked their neighbors ruthlessly with a paranoia of "If we don't attack them they'll attack us" mentality. People live in the present. For most, history is a gray fog of numbers and events recounted to pass tests and get along with it.
I don't get it. I wasn't brought up with the same sense of history as you were. For me, my familial historical line ends with my grandmother, and I don't know jack about her, so it defers to my mom. It was never impressed into me that "So-and-so did wrong to your great-great grandpappy a hunnert years ago, so now you must carry on the resentment and pass it on to your children".
I am too busy carrying grudges being made in the hear and now, why would I want to carry grudges for other people in the past?
A few months ago there was a two hour special on that war. Unfortunately my recorder lost the first half hour. It did talk about the Los Niños Héroes
That show portrayed a bleak view of US actions, and shows Polk to be a petty man. But it was fairly informative on the war itself.
Though as a counterpoint, the Texas annexation probably could not have happened without the war. Texas, along with several other Mexican states that seceded at the same time did have cause. Mexico was not the place to be back then with a civil war.
Once we annexed Texas with the current border, which was not the Mexican state's border, war was unavoidable. Mexico would not negotiate on any terms other than the return of all territory.
Though the US proved it was unwilling to lose territory 15 years later too.
Thanks to my college friend Paul, I got to see that particular documentary (I don't have cable, so he sends me tapes of programs he thinks would interest me). I liked that treatment, because it gave both the American and Mexican sides of the story. I had learned about the Niños Héroes a few years before that, however, from another of Paul's documentaries. That one spent a lot more time on the story of the boy heroes, though, and was much more eloquent and moving. I wish I could find that tape again, but it's buried in a box somewhere. Anyway, I did watch the former documentary again last night, just to make sure I got my historical facts and context straight.
President Polk was a complex man, and in a very real way, he was a Zeitgeist for his times. Had Polk not acted when he did, the dispute over California might have been astonishingly bloody, because gold was discovered there in 1849, and had that occurred while Alta California was still Mexican land, that literally would have meant war on a scale an order of magnitude worse than
( ... )
Nobody asked the Indians...scritchwuffSeptember 13 2007, 17:41:04 UTC
Every square inch of both North and South America was conquered and taken from the original inhabitants by Europeans. Shit, every square inch of _Europe_ has been conquered and reqconquered repeatedly by other Europeans ever since the Roman Empire and before that.
The U.S. and Mexico were just squabbling over stolen property.
.png)
Comments 27
I always thought Mexico sold California to the U.S.
Maybe it just gets no airtime.
Reply
Reply
I suppose I should read more.
Reply
So should a lot of Americans. I'll wager 90% of us haven't any real knowledge of the Mexican-American War, either. I certainly wasn't taught anything about it in my own schooling...
Reply
Reply
Reply
Ancient history and the rise of Rome... they attacked their neighbors ruthlessly with a paranoia of "If we don't attack them they'll attack us" mentality. People live in the present. For most, history is a gray fog of numbers and events recounted to pass tests and get along with it.
Reply
I am too busy carrying grudges being made in the hear and now, why would I want to carry grudges for other people in the past?
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
That show portrayed a bleak view of US actions, and shows Polk to be a petty man. But it was fairly informative on the war itself.
Though as a counterpoint, the Texas annexation probably could not have happened without the war. Texas, along with several other Mexican states that seceded at the same time did have cause. Mexico was not the place to be back then with a civil war.
Once we annexed Texas with the current border, which was not the Mexican state's border, war was unavoidable. Mexico would not negotiate on any terms other than the return of all territory.
Though the US proved it was unwilling to lose territory 15 years later too.
Reply
President Polk was a complex man, and in a very real way, he was a Zeitgeist for his times. Had Polk not acted when he did, the dispute over California might have been astonishingly bloody, because gold was discovered there in 1849, and had that occurred while Alta California was still Mexican land, that literally would have meant war on a scale an order of magnitude worse than ( ... )
Reply
The U.S. and Mexico were just squabbling over stolen property.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment